The Guru's Guide to SQL Server Architecture and Internals

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 1072 pages
• Published by: Addison-Wesley Professional November 1, 2003
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0201700476
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0201700473
• Book Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.9 x 2 inches
• Weighs: 3.4 pounds

Back Cover Copy


"I can pretty much guarantee that anyone who uses SQL Server on a regular basis (even those located in Redmond working on SQL Server) can learn something new from reading this book."
--David Campbell, Product Unit Manager,
Relational Server Team, Microsoft Corporation

The latest book from the highly regarded and best-selling author Ken Henderson, The Guru's Guide to SQL Server Architecture and Internals is the consummate reference to Microsoft SQL Server. Picking up where documentation and white papers leave off, this book takes an all-inclusive approach to provide the most depth and breadth of coverage of any book on SQL Server architecture, internals, and tuning.

Blending in-depth discussion with practical application, the guide begins with several chapters on the fundamental Windows technologies behind SQL Server, including processes and threads, memory management, Windows I/O, and networking. The focus then moves on to the architectural details of SQL Server and how to practically apply them.

The entire SQL Server product is covered--not just the functionality that resides within the core executable or product features that have been in place for years. SQL Server has matured and broadened substantially with each release, and the author explores the "fringe" technologies that have yet to be covered elsewhere, including Notification Services, Full Text Search, SQLXML, replication, DTS, and a host of others.

Throughout the book, the author uses WinDbg, Microsoft's free downloadable symbolic debugger, to look under the hood of SQL Server. Armed with new debugging and coding skills, readers will be ready to master SQL Server on their own.

The accompanying CD-ROM is packed with additional material, including full source code for the book's 900+ examples, as well as three invaluable tools: DTSDIAG, the VBODSOLE Library, and DTS Package Guru. DTSDIAG allows developers and administrators to simultaneously collect Profiler traces, perform logs, blocking script output, system event logs, and SQLDIAG reports from a specified SQL Server. The VBODSOLE Library features more than twenty new COM-based functions for Transact-SQL, including T-SQL enhancements such as array-manipulation routines, financial functions, string-manipulation functions, and system functions. DTS Package Guru is a .NET-based package editor for SQL Server's Data Transformation Services that allows editing of any modifiable package and supports the automation of mass package changes.

The Guru's Guide to SQL Server Architecture and Internals is the essential guide for database developers and admin- istrators alike, regardless of skill level.

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About The Author


Ken Henderson, a nationally recognized consultant and leading DBMS practitioner, consults on high-end client/server projects for such customers as the U.S. Air Force, the U.S. Navy, H&R Block, Travelers Insurance, J.P. Morgan, the CIA, Owens-Corning, and CNA Insurance. He is the author of five previous books on client/server and DBMS development, a frequent magazine contributor to such publications as Software Development Magazine and DBMS Magazine, and a speaker at technical conferences.

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Reader Reviews
This book is getting rave reviews, but I'm not as sold on it as everyone else. There are four parts to the book, and the first part, the fundamentals, is over 400 pages of a 1000 page book. Four hundred pages dedicated to teaching programming basics like memory management, file I/O, network I/O, and other basics. These basics are taught outside of SQL server altogether. The author argues that they are required for an understanding of the internals, but I wonder if they could have been moved to the back, or explained in the context of digging into the internals. In addition there is some repeat coverage with Hendersons other two books. The coverage is still excellent, but one wonders why it needs to be there when people are buying all three books as a set. For a book on internals there are some chapters that are written still at a very high level. For example the chapter on XML, which while it is a solid chapter, doesn't drill down the way you would expect from a book with this title. There is some very valuable unique content in this volume. This is why I recommend it. Examples include the sections on the chapter on Data Transformation Services. But then there are some points, like the brief 'Pseudo techie tactics 101' which are funny, but add nothing and just as easily could have been on a website. Overall, a little unfocused, but still very valuable for those that make a living on SQL Server.