No comments about Pro Full-Text Search in SQL Server 2008 (Pro).

No comments about SQL, PL/SQL the Programming Language of Oracle.

2 comments about Microsoft SQL Server High Availability (Windows Server System).

1. In the early days of PC's no one thought much about trying to keep up a system 24x7x365. The hardware wouldn't do it, the software wouldn't do it, and for a system that was primarily something you used for personal use on your desktop it really didn't matter much. You probably turned it off each evening anyway.
   
   But those times have changed. The modern PC is a PC in name only. Put in a couple of high speed Pentium 4's or Opterons and you have a system more powerful than those running airline reservations systems a few years back. Add the web and e-commerce and you have systems that you really don't want to go down at all. Now you are into the realm of High Availability or since this is the computer industry - HA.
   
   Microsoft, in the past was not too concerned with HA. If you wanted HA you had to go Unix. But in recent years Microsoft has developed Cluster Services for both the operating system and SQL Server along with other technologies to enable HA.
   
   This book is divided into three main sections:
   
   Understanding High Availability
   Choosing the Right High Availability Approaches
   Implementing High Availability.
   
   In summary, this book is HA the Microsoft Way.



2. Microsoft is attempting to move its SQL Server deeper into large scale corporate usage. And this book is a good reflection of the strategy. Bertucci directs it at IT managers, CTOs or CIOs who are looking for a "high availability" solution. He defines this as an availability of 95-99.4%. Notice that the book shies away from "extreme availability", which is more than 99.4%. As he explains, there are nonlinearities in costs for the latter that make it prohibitive for most companies. Whereas high availability is affordable in far more circumstances.
   
   Implicitly, the book shows that Microsoft is staying away from the extreme case, for now. It cedes that ground to IBM and Oracle.
   
   Bertucci goes into a moderate level of technical detail about what SQL Server offers for high availability. Like hardware replication using RAID arrays and hot swappable components. Though he warns of the costs of the latter. There is considerable detail about data replication and clustering. These are separate issues that have been heavily built up here in functionality. Quite mature.
   
   As an aside, the capabilities described here also help preserve some operational distance between SQL Server and the low end open source rivals of MySQL and Postgres.

No comments about Oracle 10g Developing Web Applications with PL/SQL Server Pages.

3 comments about Database Application Development & Design w/ERD Drawing Tool.

1. I am currently working as DBA. When I was looking for a book to obtain a solid knowledge of Database and get familiar with Oracle DB, I finally the book I wanted. Of course this book is not Oracle book or Manual. I like extensive coverage of Oracle DB in this book. (Examples are also provided in Access DB.) If you want to learn Oracle DB and SQL, do not spent money in other Oracle books and SQL books. This book not only explain database principle clearly but also provide practical examples ,from which you can practice DDL and DML easily by constructing DB environment using scripts in CD. I want to recommand this book for all beginning DB applicaion developers and future DBAs.



2. If you are looking for a book to teach you SQL or Oracle I would recommend Oracle8i The Complete Reference or PL/SQL 101. These books go through Oracle and SQL step-by-step so you can clearly understand the examples. Michael Mannino's books combines tables without showing examples of the tables so it is difficult to understand. I would not recommend this book to any beginner.



3. Can be a bit wordy at times, but only because the subject matter is complex. Mostly, though, the book presents database concepts and theory in a concise, understandable manner.

No comments about DB2 for the COBOL Programmer: Part 2 : An Advanced Course.

No comments about Learn Database Programming Using SQL of MS Access 2007: Easy Transition to other SQL Platforms.

5 comments about Microsoft SQL Server(TM) 2000 High Availability.

1. I just got this one and I found that while it has some good points its not really all I had hoped. A much better book is Inside SQL 2000. It covers much more about SQL which you need to know for keeping a system up and running 24-by-7.



2. I liked some things about this book:

   cluster chapter
   hardware coverage
   Windows Server 2003 tidbits

   I didn't like other things:

   replication coverage - way to short to be useful. Doesn't tell much about high availability in relation to replicaton.

   bad advice - several things they recommend even I know better than to do. I got to the point where I started ingoring the recommendations and just hunted for facts to help me form my own conclusions.

   performance stuff -- its to weak and not discussed as much as it should be. I think you need to really go into performance issues when you talk about high availability because poor performance makes a system less available.

   I guess the final word is that this is a decent book that you might want to get if SQL SERVER high availability is something you need to know about. Just don't expect a great book.




3. I had to say something here. Everyone got so used to everything being easy in windows, they don't want to hear about also having to know what their doing. Do you think running big available db's is a step-by-step process that Bill left out of the books online? One book can't teach you a college degree worth of information.

   This book was right on track and the cluster and log ship info just isn't anywhere else. I agree replication was light, but who runs repl for availability anyway? The book put some humor into a grim subject, so it comes across not so serious, but at least it wasn't boring or a reprint of books online. The last chapter had monitoring info you can't get anywhere else, and it was worth the price of the book. Take a look at the cd, there's some kick-A stuff on it, like what looks like another chapter on performance issues effecting uptime.

   What some of you guys write here and in thse newsgroups just proves that Bill's worse problems are not in his software. If you're serious about software, you keep up with it. If Microsoft saw some use in trying to get the word out by printing a late book on sql and getting some big name writers to do it, then I'm reading it. Are you going to ignore it because of some guy off the internet? Remember we're talking availability here, so its not the million dollar question.

   I'm giving the book four stars. It skimmed over some things it should of covered (like performance, operations, qa testing, handling heterogenous systems, and some other stuff) and it should be a series of books, not just one huge one. It wouldn't hurt if they could referenced non-microsoft books for some subjects that aren't software. Plus it should have more on running high availability systems without clustering or fancy hardware. Only some databases that have to be up all the time run on Enterprise Edition. But everyone will blame Bill if their system is down. Don't they know that by now?




4. I got this one to help me with setting up a HA replication arch. To be nice about it the repl info in the book is anemic. Next to nothing about it. I'm not sure how I will use the book and Im pretty disappointed iwth it.



5. This book is great. It's loaded with recommendations that I have not seen in other SQL books and I've read at least a dozen of them. Even the backup modules cover more information than anything I've seen. Every DBA should read this and stop complaining about this or that not being covered. If you looking for replication than find a replication book. It's impossible to cover everything about availability in one shot and this one comes close.
   Great stuff!!!

1 comments about Learn Microsoft SQL Server 2000 (With CD-ROM).

1. This is a great book for people beginning to learn SQL Server. There are many step by step examples of how to use, maintain, manage and program SQL Server. However, I don't think this book or it's examples were edited. THERE ARE MANY ERRORS IN THIS BOOK, mainly in program syntax (which are easy to fix if you know SQL). If they could come out with a second (edited) edition, this book could get 5 stars.

4 comments about Sybase Dba Survival Guide/Book and Disk.

1. This is not a book about SQL or data modeling. You willnot find the syntax for queries or the rules of normalization in thisbook. This is solely a book on how to install, monitor, and configure Sybase SQL Server, but that gave the authors plenty of material to cover.
   The book is well written: easy to understand and remarkably friendly given the subject matter. There are plenty of hints and tips from guys who have learned the subject the hard way. If you are responsible for the operation of a Sybase server, you will want this book.




2. Excellent checklists that pullout for quick reference. Easy to read and find things for reference. However, it is version SQL Server 10 but version 11 is available - see Sybase 11 DBA Survial Guide



3. To the dba, this book joins the plethora of useless bound material available on the subject. Did you purchase Sybase? Well, use the vendor doc. This book is practically a verbatim copy of Sybase's own documentation.

   Nice cover though.




4. It is an excellent book i can say proudly.Because it isgiving screen by screen explanations.easy examples and exercises.how to take backups and restores the huge databases.