Rating: 
Summary: Best book on SQL Server available
Review: This is the one book I take with me everywhere I go. Every project I work on, every client I see, I have this book in my briefcase. Why? The book covers every knook and cranny of SQL Server and does so in astonishing detail. This is the first book I have seen that teaches the foundational things you need to know to understand a complex Windows application like SQL Server. I learned things about Windows that I never knew were there, and this helped me in my quest to master SQL Server immeasurably. Every subject in this book is covered extensively and exhaustively. There's no shallowness here. For example, the SQLXML chapter covers all eight of the SQLXML technologies, each with copious code examples. The DTS chapter covers everything from garden-variety package creation to building custom tasks and solving long-standing problems with DTS and DTS packages. The Notification Services chapter actually walks you through building an entire Notification Services application. I could go on and on. There's no stone left unturned here. The book provides over 1000 sample code files, many of them quite useful apart from this book. For example, in one chapter, I found code that adds arrays to t-sql. What a godsend! In another, I found code to add Regular Expression searches to t-sql. How useful! In another, I found a utility to help people stress test servers. Elegant in its simplicity but extremely powerful, I've been using this utility ever since. Bottom line: your money could not be better spent on a SQL Server book than this one.
Rating:
Summary: Impressively detailed
Review: When Amazon sent me the email about this one, I didn't know if I needed it. Even Amazon's discount price is pretty steep. I already have the first two Gurus Guide books so I wondered if I might already have everything I need from this author. Boy was I wrong. I found the sheer amount of data in this book simply mind boggling. I believe it has more Sql Server info that any other book I have read. It goes beyond the first two Gurus Guide books and beyond every other Sql Server book I have by plumbing the depths of the internal design of Sql Server rather than being mainly focused on the practical use of it. I also find Henderson a good read. I read through this the first time in about two weeks. The book flows well and keeps you interested. I went back a second time and worked through all the exercises (there are many) and tried to answer the knowledge measure questions. These knowledge measure questions should be good preparation for the Microsoft certification exams. One of my favorite chapters is the Server Federations chapter. This one taught me to read textual query plans and helped me correct a couple of misconceptions I had about them. It is a short chapter, but it is definitely a good one.
Rating:
Summary: My new SQL Server Bible
Review: This book takes a new approach to teaching SQL Server architectural details. It looks at SQL Server as a complex Windows application and explores it as such. As a veteran Windows coder, this was just what I needed to really get my arms around it. It was as though another experienced developer who also knew a great deal about SQL Server was sitting beside me and teaching me. I continue to be impressed with both the nitpickingly detailed explainations and instruction as well as the number of topics broached. I have a shelf full of SQL Server books. None of them have so much great info. The Windows internals section alone is worth the cost of the book. Add to this the other 3/4 of the book on SQL Server and you have one for the ages.
Rating:
Summary: If you buy one book this is it but you shouldnt buy just one
Review: I want to begin by saying that I do not agree with the review below saying that this book is better than Inside Sql Server. I would say instead that it compliments that book nicely. They do overlap in a few areas, but they mostly cover different topics. If you have read that book and liked it, you will probably like this one. On the other hand, if you are going to buy just one MS Sql book, this should probably be the one. It covers far more of Sql Server the product than does the other book and does so in much more detail. I also think the text is simply more readable. The author of this book is definitely the more lucid writer of the two. Inside Sql Server has its place. It covers much more of Transact-Sql than this book does, for example. It has a great section on the internal storage algorithms. I think you should get both books if you possibly can. If I could add one thing to this book it would be clustering. It seems like no one wants to cover Sql Server clustering. Having said that, there is over 1000 pages of discussion of the rest of Sql Server, much of it of excellent quality.
Rating:
Summary: Better than INSIDE SQL SERVER 2000
Review: One of the things I have against INSIDE SQL SERVER 2000 is that there is too much repetition from INSIDE SQL SERVER 7.0. At least 75% of the 2000 book is a repeat of the 7.0 book. When I first read through the table of contents for this book here online I thought I might be in for more of the same, but I bought the book anyway knowing that I could return it if I didn't like it. I am really glad I got the book. It is hands down the best SQL SERVER book on the market. I have the previous GURU'S GUIDE book and the author does a great job of bringing everything up-to-date. He does the ethical thing and always says when he is updating something from a previous book then proceeds to do it in a way that brings up-to-date what he said before and adds to it lots of new material and details not discussed before. The balance between the two is just right. What is really nice about this book though is the extremely readable prose. The author has a way of explaining complex topics in ways almost anyone could understand. I found the book hard to put down at times, particularly the parts where he relates a personal story and then follows it up with teaching that is second to none. The combination of these two things was done just right. For me, the best chapter in the book is the memory architecture chapter. I absolutely loved it. This, combined with the chapter early in the book on Windows memory architecture, taught me more about the internal design of SQL SERVER than I knew before I read the book. One word of caution about this book: as with the other GURU'S GUIDE book, it is for people who know what they're doing, not beginners. I have about 20 years in the IT business and about half of that with SQL SERVER, so I was fine with it, but if you are just starting out with SQL SERVER other books would probably be more appropriate. In fact I think INSIDE SQL SERVER 2000 might be a good one to start with. After you have read that one come back to this one. It will help you go from being an intermediate SQL SERVER DBA or developer to an expert.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't ask for more
Review: This book has everything but the kitchen sink. Look at the range of topics: windows interntals
com
xml
ums
memory
odsole
full-text search
query optimizer
sqlxml
cursors
federated servers
data transformation services
snapshot replication
transactional replication
merge replication
notification services With this kind of breadth, you might think that the book would be shallow, but you would be wrong. It pulls off a rare feat for a technical book: it is broader AND deeper than any other book like it. Many of the chapters could be books unto themselves. If you buy one book on Sql Server, this should be it.
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Summary: For advanced users
Review: The only caveat about this book is that it is really advanced. It is exactly what it claims to be: a guru's guide to Sql Server. I have found that the book requires and repays careful rereading. Many of the concepts covered here are covered no where else. For example I have not seen anyone else talk about Sql Server's user mode scheduler component. That was an eye-opener for me. I could say the same for half the book. This book opened a whole new world for me. My favorite aspect of this book is the use of WINDBG, Microsoft's debugger, in looking at Sql Server under the microscope. I have never seen a book that does this before - for any product - and its use here is innovative to say the least.
Rating:
Summary: The best yet
Review: I have Inside SQL Server and while I know Henderson says he does not intend to compete with that book the comparisons are inescapable. This is easily the better book of the two and sets a new standard for database books. I have never seen anyone show SQL Server internals in the context of Windows and Windows internals. That alone is ingenious. This is also Henderson's best book so far. Not only is this the best database book I have ever seen it even surpasses Henderson's previous works which is saying something. The constant exploration of architectural details along side practical considerations is again ingenious. Nobody else does this. I learned more from this book than I have from all the other SQL Server books I have combined.
Rating:
Summary: Exactly what I wanted
Review: Got this one via the new Amz promo. Ive been reading this guy back through Sql 6.5 and this is the best book yet. My favorite parts - > Windows internals. Like one of the other reviews said this is worth its own book - better than any other win32 internal book out there.
> Sql internals. There is more here than in any other book. By far.
> Update of sqlxml stuff. The author's first sqlxml book only talked about the features in the original Sql 2000. This one covers all of them and gets into a lot of architect stuff.
> Automation functions, esp. the array stuff. The last guru's guide book used ext. procs for this. I like the VB and CoM objects approach.
> Essays, esp. the fish one. Funny but true.
Rating:
Summary: Blew me away
Review: This book literally blew me away. I have never found such depth and breadth in one book. This book could literally be several books. First you have the breadth - performance, networking, Notification Svcs, Replication, Full Text Svcs, Data Transformation Svcs, scheduling, memory, Sql-Xml, etc. No other SQL Server book has anything approaching this breadth. Second you have the depth. How many books break out a debugger and show you how to attach to SQL Server and look under the hood? How many show you the actual function calls being made by the server? How many talk about the difference between a language event and a remote procedure call? How many show code that is thread safe vs. code that isn't? How many talk about virtual memory vs. heaps? How many cover async I/O and scatter-gather I/O? None that I know of. This book has it all. Another great thing about the book is the great example code. Much of it has commercial value apart from the book. I use its DTSDiag tool every day. I used the arrays demonstrated in the OLE chapter quite often as well as many of the string manipulation functions. The regular expression function for T-SQL is a real gem. It literally saved us weeks of development time. And the DTS Package Guru is a brilliant piece of work. Henderson solved a problem that everyone else says is impossible to solve. To sum up: there's no better book on the planet for SQL Server than this book. If you want the be-all, end-all of SQL Server books, look no further.
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