Resources for advancing your SQL Server career
Mastering SQL Server can seem like a daunting task, even for people who have experience working with other databases. Because ANSI has defined standard requirements for SQL, after you have SQL Server running, learning to use it is a relatively straightforward process. Mastery of the total environment, however, is difficult because of the interdependencies between SQL Server, the Windows OS, and the network services on which SQL Server depends. This article offers some recommendations for books, training, online resources, and other tools that will help you become the office guru.
People who use SQL Server have many types of jobs. Your job will determine what skills and resources you need most. All SQL Server developers and administrators should have similar basic skills, but a wide disparity exists among specific skill sets that different SQL Server professionals need. (For more information about determining your skill set, see Brian Moran, "The Future of the DBA," page 18.) Creating a universal set of recommendations is impossible, so let's examine some resources that every SQL Server developer and administrator should have, then look at resources that are useful for two specific groups: DBAs and desktop and Web application developers. The sidebar "Bibliography of Resources," page 30, contains bibliographic information for each resource that I mention.
Resources That Everyone Needs
Working on SQL Serverspecific skills is easy because SQL Server is isolated from the overall server environment, and you can practice without risking your whole server setup. If you're just getting started with SQL, I recommend The Practical SQL Handbook: Using Structured Query Language. This book not only teaches basic SQL syntax but also shows how to use intermediate-level SELECT statements (e.g., subqueries and correlated subqueries) and introduces aggregating information by groups. After you've mastered basic queries, Joe Celko's SQL for Smarties: Advanced SQL Programming, 2nd edition, is a great way to open your mind to the possibilities that more advanced queries and query combinations can offer. Pay special attention to queries that you can use to replace solutions that use server- or client-side cursors.
Next, everyone should read Inside Microsoft SQL Server 2000, Inside Microsoft SQL Server 7.0, or Inside Microsoft SQL Server 6.5. Frequently, familiarity with another database system leads you to expect SQL Server to operate the same way. But Microsoft's SQL Server architecture is completely different from all other database management systems (DBMSs), including the Sybase version of SQL Server. These books contain detailed information about how Microsoft's DBMS implements its core functionality. The chapters about hardware performance planning will help those of you who need to make decisions about server hardware, and the chapters about query performance tuning will help developers write more efficient applications. These books should be the foundation on which you build the rest of your SQL Server skills.
One key to efficient SQL Server performance is knowing how SQL Server works with Windows. Many of SQL Server's perfor-mance enhancements in the past 5 years have come from using existing functionality in Windows more efficiently. The tighter integration with Windows, however, creates additional work for SQL Server administrators and developers. Because SQL Server 2000 and 7.0 are now using COM interfaces and native Windows APIs, developers and administrators need to understand how Windows implements those services. For example, SQL Server 2000 running on Windows 2000 can use a user's Win2K logon credentials to log in to another server on behalf of the user. This feature is called delegation: All queries on the remote server run in the security context of the user, not the account that SQL Server is using. For administrators, tighter integration with Windows makes it easier to integrate SQL Server into the overall network infrastructure.
The more you know about Windows, the more you can achieve with SQL Server. So, look for books and training that will help you learn more about the capabilities of Win2K and Windows NT. (Note that Win2K offers some powerful options that you won't find in NT.) You can find information about Microsoft Official Curriculum (MOC) courses at the Microsoft Training & Certification Web site. MOC courses 2152, 2153, and 2154 will give you a good, broad-based foundation in Win2K features and capabilities. Designed for network administrators, these courses might include information that developers don't need. But knowing the basics of network operation is useful, especially if you want to use network services such as SQL Server. Similar courses exist for NT 4.0, but few training centers teach them now. The print versions of those courses are rare, too, so you might have to do some research to find them.
Inside Microsoft Windows 2000 and Inside Windows NT, 2nd edition, explain what happens behind the scenes at the OS level. Although these books and the other Inside titles are part of the Microsoft Programming Series, network and database administrators need to read these books as well. SQL Server is a Windows application, and in many cases, improving Windows performance translates into improved performance for SQL Server. In particular, the chapters about virtual memory and the file system are worth the price of the book.
Next, database and network administrators who want to understand how Kerberos security and Active Directory (AD) affect SQL Server running on Win2K need to read Understanding Windows 2000 Distributed Services. The chapter that explains how Kerberos works is especially easy to understand. The rest of the book also offers excellent explanations of everything from AD to OLE DB to Data Transformation Services (DTS) to Microsoft IIS. I recommend this book for developers, administrators, and managers.
Finally, the books in the Notes from the Field series from Microsoft Press contain descriptions of deployments of Microsoft products by Microsoft Consulting Services (MCS). Deploying Microsoft SQL Server 7.0: Notes from the Field contains insights about everything from deploying OLAP Services (including how to choose the right hardware) to implementing replication to upgrading from SQL Server 6.5, 6.0, or 4.21a to SQL Server 7.0. Although you might stray from the MCS method, the information in this book will make your deployment go more smoothly.
In general, knowledge about Windows pays just as many dividends as knowledge about SQL Server. For example, most problems with SQL Server connections happen because the user can't authenticate properly. Administrators who know a lot about Windows networks can resolve problems faster, and developers who are well versed in Windows internals can avoid mistakes that cause problems after the application goes into production. Now let's turn our attention to resources that will help each of two general categories of SQL Server users: administrators and developers.