Book Review: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Administration Cookbook

Recently I was contacted by Packt publishing regarding their book, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Administration Cookbook. I didn’t know that the book even existed! They were happy to provide me with a copy of the book in exchange for a review and I accepted their gracious offer. So, here we go!

I really enjoyed this book. Of course I knew I would since the forward was written by Brad McGehee (blog | @bradmcgehee), a man whose judgement I trust when it comes to database administration (among other things). I do not know the author (“Satya Shyam K Jayanty”), at least not yet, but his experience as a DBA shines throughout the book.

I especially like how the book is laid out. For example, there is a chapter named “Administering the Core Database Engine”, and in there you will find a “recipe” for “Administering SQL Server Replication processes”. In that section you are given some background information on replication, a section for “Getting Ready”, followed by a section named “How to do it…”, and then a section named “How it works…”. At the end of each section there is a “See Also” section that provides additional information for the reader should they want to take a deeper dive into the topic.

And that’s just section! You will find other sections such as “Preparing new Failover Cluster features”, and “Designing change tracking methodology”, and each section is written in the same clear manner. No matter what your skill level, this is a book any DBA would want to keep handy, for all occasions.

About the only thing I felt was missing from this cookbook was a few bacon recipes. I can only hope they make their way into a revision at some point.

You can also find the book listed over at Packt by clicking here.