Troubleshooting SQL Server - A Guide for the Accidental DBA Paperback – September 26, 2011

If I were a DBA stuck on a dessert island and could have only one book, I think this is it.As the subtitle suggests ("accidental" dba) - this is especially helpful to those of us who really do know what we're doing most of the time, but may be fuzzy around the edges.For example, I do understand how SQL Server manages memory; but over the years I've had to guess at times on machines that had been overconsolidated with multiple instances and hundreds of databases. That's covered concisely on pages 160 and 161.Jonathan and Ted also understand well that one can't always get just what is wanted or needed for the servers, and that sometimes we need to do the best we can with what we've got.A word of warning: when you get this book, you may have an impulse to push it in a manager's or SAN administrator's face saying "See! I didn't make this stuff up!".That's of course a poor idea. Use this to educate and to explain the impact of choices made.

I have followed Jonathan's blog for some time before purchasing this book. This book is a great collection of information centrally located and easy to get to without having to navigate Jonathan's blog or other articles he may have published around the web.The book features a wealth of information for any of us that were born a DBA, but rather had it add as a job feature along with everything else we are currently maintaining! It is nice to be able to go through the book and have access to the code from the book to add to some of the SSIS jobs I had created.This is a great book that is well worth the price!!

For background, I'm the definition of an accidental DBA. I've worked on many databases (oracle, Postgres, sql server) but was the only person who knew SQL when I started at my company. Now I have to teach and manage a bunch of millennial analysts who despite their confidence level know everything. I do everything.. buy hardware on eBay because my company is too cheap to understanding how I deliver things without paying tens of thousands.I hoped this book would fill in the gaps. It has not. Everything they explain I've already read in some blog trying to figure out how to do something. Some times I know what they're going to say before they say it and I'm *not* a DBA. It's all super basic and I read each section and get mad that it actually didn't add any type of information I couldn't get from the third result on google.I wanted to understand things better and went with this book first based on the reviews. I wish I started somewhere else. The reviews that say "I'm a seasoned DBA and it's a desert island book" have no idea what they are talking about. Every section they actually do cover is only 5-10 pages so how could that possibly answer anything other than the super basic?It's not that it's terrible or inaccurate. I actually appreciate the simplicity and writing. That said, as a non-expert they provided me with very little additional insight that isn't already free online.

This useful and practical book met my requirements perfectly; it has everything I needed, nothing I didn't need. I know enough about databases in general, I don't need any theory; and I know enough about SQL Server in particular to know the basics. I'm not a full time DBA, so I needed a guide to the occassional in-depth problem - troubleshooting memory issues, using Data Management Views, etc. SQL Server Management Studio is a nice front end which lets you do all the regular administration. But once you get off the beaten path, a guide is handy. After owning the paperback for a few months I bought the Kindle version as well, so I could refer to this book any time. Recommended.

Note: this is not a review of the book contents, as I haven't finished reading it yet.I just purchased this book after having looked at the freely available PDF version on Red Gate's web site [...]. I figured $3 would be worth it to get a Kindle-formatted version. Unfortunately, this is not what I would expect from a Kindle version! It looks like what you might get if you took the PDF version and ran it through Amazon's converter: no Kindle-friendly TOC, no hyperlinks, poor page layout, etc. Save your money and just get the PDF.

Easy to read technical book that avoids a lot of jargon. Great book for Junior DBAs and a good review for Srs!

One of the best troubleshooting books I have read. Cant say its entirely for the beginner. But those already working on SQL Server will definitely appreciate it

This is a very nice book. Many questions in SQL server are in this book. This book solve these questions step by step.