The Guru's Guide to SQL Server Architecture and Internals | Ken Henderson

The Guru's Guide to SQL Server Architecture and Internals | Ken Henderson | A great book but not for everyone.

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The Guru's Guide t...

	The Guru's Guide to SQL Server Architecture and Internals Ken Henderson Addison-Wesley Professional, 2003 - 1072 pages average customer review:based on 27 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Ken Henderson's first two Guru's Guides for Addison-Wesley have been widely praised by reviewers, and have sold extremely well. He has now written a key reference to SQL Server which is much broader in scope than either of the first two, which will appeal to an even larger audience. The Guru's Guide to SQL Server Architecture is all about the internal pieces of SQL Server, the architecture of how they fit together, and the effect those have on performance and tuning issues. Not only will the book cover issues such as the new Notification Services which have not been covered in any other book, but it will also go into more detail than any other book on the core SQL Server technologies. This new book will take its place next to his two previous books on the shelves of SQL Server developers and administrators everywhere.

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If I had to pick just one Sql book this would be it

This is by far the best book available on Microsoft's Sql Server. I found it much far more informative and much deeper than Kalen Delaney's book - the only other one that comes close. It is a book unlike any other that I have read on Sql Server in that it is extremely deep - deeper than just about any technical book I think I have ever read - and extremely broad. Most books are one or the other, but this one really is both. Every chapter is a treasure chest of useful info. Several could be books unto themselves. The discussion of DTS for example is actually better than whole books on the subject. The User Mode Scheduler chapter is so deep I had to read it twice. The list could go on and on.

One thing I really appreciate about the book is that the author includes a good section (Approximately the first 300 pages) on Windows insides and fundamental concepts. His reasoning for including this type of info in a Sql Server book is sound: because most Dba's do not have the grasp of Windows fundamentals they will need to understand the indepth writing on Sql Server that he offers in the subsequent chapters and because he doesn't want readers to have to read multiple other books just to understand his. The author writes about Sql Server from the perspective of a professional developer and wants to first make sure his readers understand Windows and networking and COM and etc. at that level so that they can follow the rest of the book. It would have been easier for him to have said, "Read XML 101 chapter 8 before you read this chapter of mine," but he doesn't take the easy way out. Instead he covers everything you need to know to understand Sql insides in a single book.

The author's writing on Windows insides goes beyond merely providing info. He seems to be trying to teach basic debugging and exploring skills. He claims to want to teach Dba's and readers how to explore Sql insides on their own - the assumption being that no one book could fully cover Sql's insides given how complex it is and things continue to change. That is an admirable goal though I do not know if the average Dba is up to the task. Irregardless if you really want to understand Sql and gain the tools to continue to explore it for years to come you could not ask for a better book to launch from.

I regularly read Windows fundamentals books and can also report that the author's writing on Windows insides is more thorough than that by any other author. It is also done from the perspective of Sql Server. The exercises often feature the Sql Server.exe process for example. When an application is investigated from a Windows insides standpoint that application is Sql Server. This Windows insides part of the book is an indispensable piece and a real gem. It could (and should) be a book itself.

Another thing I really like is that the author avoids repeating what you can find in other Sql insides books and whitepapers. Somewhere at the beginning, I think in the preface, he says that he avoided covering the storage engine because it was already covered well enough elsewhere. Delaney's book has full writing on the storage engine and this book doesn't try to replace that. For that reason I think they make a nice set. The author's book gets into query processor insides, memory insides, threading insides, and many, many others, but leaves the storage engine and some other pieces to the books and whitepapers that preceded it. I see the most indepth and expansive Sql insides coverage in this book that I have seen in any Sql book, but I also see where he avoided needlessly repeating what other people have already well covered.

Like the other two Guru Guide books this book is extremely well written. I was often impressed with the author's knack for making rather complex topics easy to understand. Nowhere is this more evident than in the User Mode Scheduling chapter wherein he takes a subject that is obviously rather complex yet critical to understanding how Sql Server works and that AFAIK is not covered in any other book (certainly not in Delaney's) and reduces it down to something anyone can understand. He builds on the Windows insides discussion earlier in the book to explain very succinctly how Sql Server schedules work to be done and carries it out. For me this was worth the cost of admission alone.

If I had to pick just one book to buy on Sql Server, this would be the one. I'd follow it up with Delaney's book and the author's other Guru Guide books.

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A great book but not for everyone.

People who aspire to be real experts in Sql Server 2000 should read this book cover-to-cover (skipping the pompous Essay in the back and the "quotes" at the beginning of each chapter). There is a lot here and it will help remind you how you should be coding your sql and why.

A new Edition is Needed

The book is good but is becoming quite dated. For those using SQL Server 2005 it is a little disappointing because SQL Server architecture has changed so much. Its overall value is reduced by this.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

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