New to SQL -- Any good reads?

With my recent employment at my internship, I've been given the task to start
learning as much about SQL servers and querying(sp?) as possible.
I was wondering if there is anybody out there knows of some good
articles/books that would send me on my way?
I'm not looking for "super" basic stuff but as I've been exposed to
databases in the past but would like to get into more deeper topics. I guess
something along the lines of not a novice but no where near being able to
administer a DB myself.
Thanks,
Ben
Some good ones.
Microsoft SQL Server Books
http://vyaskn.tripod.com/sqlbooks.htm
AMB
"Ben" wrote:

> With my recent employment at my internship, I've been given the task to start
> learning as much about SQL servers and querying(sp?) as possible.
> I was wondering if there is anybody out there knows of some good
> articles/books that would send me on my way?
> I'm not looking for "super" basic stuff but as I've been exposed to
> databases in the past but would like to get into more deeper topics. I guess
> something along the lines of not a novice but no where near being able to
> administer a DB myself.
> Thanks,
> Ben
|||Kalen Delaney's Inside SQL Server is my desktop bible, offers enough info on
almost all facets in depth enough to make it invaluable.
"Ben" wrote:

> With my recent employment at my internship, I've been given the task to start
> learning as much about SQL servers and querying(sp?) as possible.
> I was wondering if there is anybody out there knows of some good
> articles/books that would send me on my way?
> I'm not looking for "super" basic stuff but as I've been exposed to
> databases in the past but would like to get into more deeper topics. I guess
> something along the lines of not a novice but no where near being able to
> administer a DB myself.
> Thanks,
> Ben
|||Hi,
SQL Server Books online will be a very good option.
Thanks
Hari
SQL Server MVP
"Ben" <Ben@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:BEA56BB4-BE39-4C1B-89EB-24B2AEE2BC81@.microsoft.com...
> With my recent employment at my internship, I've been given the task to
> start
> learning as much about SQL servers and querying(sp?) as possible.
> I was wondering if there is anybody out there knows of some good
> articles/books that would send me on my way?
> I'm not looking for "super" basic stuff but as I've been exposed to
> databases in the past but would like to get into more deeper topics. I
> guess
> something along the lines of not a novice but no where near being able to
> administer a DB myself.
> Thanks,
> Ben
sql

New Question Regarding LOG SHIPPING & MASTERDB

I got log shipping to partially work *lol* any how what my new issue is,
the masterdb, any good documentation? Ive tried searching google and find
very little on that matter.

Thank youI guess I forgot to mention this is SQL 2000 Enterprise.

Sorry :) and thank you in advance|||You don't need to log ship your master database. It should be small
enough that you can back it up when you need to. Back it up once a day
and whenever you make changes to your other databases ie add or drop a
database, change size etc. In most cases your master might go days or
even weeks without any changes.

smyers1972 wrote:
> I guess I forgot to mention this is SQL 2000 Enterprise.
> Sorry :) and thank you in advance|||Thank you I will try it out and see if I can restore it... I tried to
restore it before but had drive location issues i.e. logs were on drive L
but on the log ship to server they are drive D, i reworked the scheme and
made them identical to the original box... will see how it goes...
Thanks!

New Instance on Existing Cluster

Greetings,
I've inherited a cluster configuration and I'm new to administration of
clusters.
2 node 64 bit SQL running on 64 bit Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition.
I'd like to install a new instance to the cluster but do not know the
method. My searches have turned up only installing from scratch with custom
Instance name.
Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.
Chris
You pretty much can find all the info you need in SQL Server 2005 Books
Online under
ms-help://MS.SQLCC.v9/MS.SQLSVR.v9.en/instsql9/html/d92134fe-8b36-496e-bc20-bda96973f3ac.htm
Basically, you just need to run SQL Server Setup after you have placed one
or more disk resources in a new resource group. But you do need to do some
preparation work with IP addresses, network names, AD group(s) and
privileges, etc.
Linchi
"Sammi" wrote:

> Greetings,
> I've inherited a cluster configuration and I'm new to administration of
> clusters.
> 2 node 64 bit SQL running on 64 bit Windows 2003 Enterprise Edition.
> I'd like to install a new instance to the cluster but do not know the
> method. My searches have turned up only installing from scratch with custom
> Instance name.
> Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.
> Chris
>

new installation question

I've installed MSDE on a W2000 machine and want to set up an ODBC connection to it from an XP machine using an IP address and specifying a port. How do I determine the login and password I need to use to make the connection?
Thanks...
Hi,
First , you have to enable TCP/IP protocol from MDE server.
From command prompt of server execute (Server Network Utility) :-
svrnetcn.exe
Here, You can enable the TCPIP protocol
By default MSDE only support Windows authentication. So try creating an ODBC
using a Domain id. Ensure that domain user has got access to SQL Server.
By default users of local administrator group will have access. Have a look
into books online for the below procedures to give preevilages:-
1. sp_grantlogin
2. sp_grantdbaccess
Have a look into below link to identify for connectivity issues:-
http://support.microsoft.com/default...b;en-us;827422
Thanks
Hari
MCDBA
"Jeff" <jstemper@.wi.rr.com> wrote in message
news:9DFDAD9E-49E7-4A04-8A0F-56BD4821EC36@.microsoft.com...
> I've installed MSDE on a W2000 machine and want to set up an ODBC
connection to it from an XP machine using an IP address and specifying a
port. How do I determine the login and password I need to use to make the
connection?
> Thanks...
|||Jeff,
if you are using trusted security, then there won't be a requirement for a
login and password. If you are using SQL Server security, then you just need
to create a SQL Server login on MSDE and incorporate its details in the
connectionstring. I'm guessing here, but it may be that your question is
wider and you want to know generally about administering the MSDE
installation. SQL Server client tools from any other box could be used to
administer it. Just make sure that the box which is using the client tools
uses trusted security, and the windows login on this box is in the local
administrators group on the MSDE machine. To cheaply set this up, you could
use the Developer Edition to get the client tools. Some people talk about
using the Evaluation client tools although the legality of this is dubious -
you'd have to check this out with MS.
HTH,
Paul Ibison

New Folder link not doing anything

Ive just installed Reporting Services onto Window 2003. I have Visual studio
2003 installed and IIS 6
When I go to the report manager the 'New folder' link does not work nor can
i create a new data source or upload a file. I click on these and nothing
happens.
When I go to a different machine other than the one where the server is
installed and go to the Report manager URL these links work, however this is
problematic as the datasource and reports etc sit on the server.
Anyone have any similar problems?.. what i do notice is on the server i am
prompted for a username and password each time i start report manager and am
thinking this might have something to do with it, on a different machine i am
prompted once and then not again.
thanksAdd the URL to your report server to Local Intranet Sites in your browser.
That should take care of the username prompting, and might solve the
problems with the links not working.
Add http://myreportserver/ , not http://myreportserver/reports.
Kaisa M. Lindahl Lervik
"Charlie" <Charlie@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:5202B8BA-910D-4B66-A87F-7149FAC3CED3@.microsoft.com...
> Ive just installed Reporting Services onto Window 2003. I have Visual
> studio
> 2003 installed and IIS 6
> When I go to the report manager the 'New folder' link does not work nor
> can
> i create a new data source or upload a file. I click on these and nothing
> happens.
> When I go to a different machine other than the one where the server is
> installed and go to the Report manager URL these links work, however this
> is
> problematic as the datasource and reports etc sit on the server.
> Anyone have any similar problems?.. what i do notice is on the server i am
> prompted for a username and password each time i start report manager and
> am
> thinking this might have something to do with it, on a different machine i
> am
> prompted once and then not again.
> thanks|||If this is Reporting Services 1.1, then you may need to edit the config
files. I recall that something like http://machinename is stored in some
values by the isntallation routine. If you access SRS with a name other
than the machine name, the buttons stop working. Look in both config files
for Reports and ReportServer.
- Chris
"Charlie" <Charlie@.discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:5202B8BA-910D-4B66-A87F-7149FAC3CED3@.microsoft.com...
> Ive just installed Reporting Services onto Window 2003. I have Visual
> studio
> 2003 installed and IIS 6
> When I go to the report manager the 'New folder' link does not work nor
> can
> i create a new data source or upload a file. I click on these and nothing
> happens.
> When I go to a different machine other than the one where the server is
> installed and go to the Report manager URL these links work, however this
> is
> problematic as the datasource and reports etc sit on the server.
> Anyone have any similar problems?.. what i do notice is on the server i am
> prompted for a username and password each time i start report manager and
> am
> thinking this might have something to do with it, on a different machine i
> am
> prompted once and then not again.
> thanks

New Database Server Advice

We are looking to upgrade our database server to gain additional speed.
I've come up with an idea of what we should get but wanted to get advice
from some experts to make sure my assumptions are accurate. Basically I
don't want to spend a bunch of my boss's money and not see any results. :-)
We are using MS SQL 2K on Window Server 2003
Our current server is a Zeon 3Ghz with 4G RAM
We have two main databases each about 25Gigs
The OS runs on one partition and the entire database runs on a single
partition (part of a Serial ATA RAID)
From my research mostly using perfmon, the bottle neck is always the disk,
we commonly have items queued and when the queue increases performance is
noticeably down. CPU speed has never been an issue. Therefore in a new
server I believe we should:
1. Use the maximum amount of RAM the server supports
2. Partition the databases by putting larger more active tables on they're
own physical drive as well as a sperate drive for SQL logs.
If this seems reasonable, I have a couple questions:
1. Is there a large performance difference between a SCSI RAID and Serial
ATA raid?
2. To evaluate disk systems should I look at drive RPM's, seek time, and
transfer rates? Am I missing something with this?
3. In addition to using separate drives when partitioning the database,
should I try to have separate interfaces to the motherboard. i.e. would it
make more sense to have two SCSI interfaces each with two drives instead of
one SCSI interface with four drives (from a performance standpoint) (Does
this logic apply to SATA systems?)
As a side note: I use the profiler tool with the SQLProfilerTuning Template,
then the index tuning wizard with default settings to generate our indexes.
If there is more I should be doing here, please let me know.
Any advice on any part of this is appreciated!
1) Performace of disks has many factors, including the type of PCI bus the
card sits on, drive rpm, drive cache, I/O card cache, etc.
2) See 1 above. Get the maximum I/O card cache the card can have.
3) More interfaces is better up to the point where they exist on the same
PCI bus and saturate it.
4) More spindles is almost always better.
5) Go for at least 2 cores, preferably 4 or more. Do NOT enable
hyperthreading if you get CPUs that have it.
6) Avoid RAID 5 if possible for anything that has high writes, which always
includes tempdb and all transaction logs.
7) I avoid ITW. Have seen too many bad things come out of it.
Kevin G. Boles
TheSQLGuru
Indicium Resources, Inc.
"Bishop" <nospam@.nospam.com> wrote in message
news:Ogk%235o1NIHA.3516@.TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
> We are looking to upgrade our database server to gain additional speed.
> I've come up with an idea of what we should get but wanted to get advice
> from some experts to make sure my assumptions are accurate. Basically I
> don't want to spend a bunch of my boss's money and not see any results.
> :-)
> We are using MS SQL 2K on Window Server 2003
> Our current server is a Zeon 3Ghz with 4G RAM
> We have two main databases each about 25Gigs
> The OS runs on one partition and the entire database runs on a single
> partition (part of a Serial ATA RAID)
> From my research mostly using perfmon, the bottle neck is always the disk,
> we commonly have items queued and when the queue increases performance is
> noticeably down. CPU speed has never been an issue. Therefore in a new
> server I believe we should:
> 1. Use the maximum amount of RAM the server supports
> 2. Partition the databases by putting larger more active tables on they're
> own physical drive as well as a sperate drive for SQL logs.
> If this seems reasonable, I have a couple questions:
> 1. Is there a large performance difference between a SCSI RAID and Serial
> ATA raid?
> 2. To evaluate disk systems should I look at drive RPM's, seek time, and
> transfer rates? Am I missing something with this?
> 3. In addition to using separate drives when partitioning the database,
> should I try to have separate interfaces to the motherboard. i.e. would
> it make more sense to have two SCSI interfaces each with two drives
> instead of one SCSI interface with four drives (from a performance
> standpoint) (Does this logic apply to SATA systems?)
> As a side note: I use the profiler tool with the SQLProfilerTuning
> Template, then the index tuning wizard with default settings to generate
> our indexes. If there is more I should be doing here, please let me know.
> Any advice on any part of this is appreciated!
>
|||Thank You, this will give me plenty to look into!
Any thoughts on if ECC memory is really worth the money. I have several
servers that don't use ECC memory that get hit hard and never have problems?
"TheSQLGuru" <kgboles@.earthlink.net> wrote in message
news:13ldpj8nb3i5nf0@.corp.supernews.com...
> 1) Performace of disks has many factors, including the type of PCI bus the
> card sits on, drive rpm, drive cache, I/O card cache, etc.
> 2) See 1 above. Get the maximum I/O card cache the card can have.
> 3) More interfaces is better up to the point where they exist on the same
> PCI bus and saturate it.
> 4) More spindles is almost always better.
> 5) Go for at least 2 cores, preferably 4 or more. Do NOT enable
> hyperthreading if you get CPUs that have it.
> 6) Avoid RAID 5 if possible for anything that has high writes, which
> always includes tempdb and all transaction logs.
> 7) I avoid ITW. Have seen too many bad things come out of it.
> --
> Kevin G. Boles
> TheSQLGuru
> Indicium Resources, Inc.
>
> "Bishop" <nospam@.nospam.com> wrote in message
> news:Ogk%235o1NIHA.3516@.TK2MSFTNGP02.phx.gbl...
>
|||I think ECC memory is more about keeping your data integrity. If you
consider that important it is indeed worth the money. :-)
Kevin G. Boles
TheSQLGuru
Indicium Resources, Inc.
"Bishop" <nospam@.nospam.com> wrote in message
news:uWbQ%23H4NIHA.4656@.TK2MSFTNGP03.phx.gbl...
> Thank You, this will give me plenty to look into!
> Any thoughts on if ECC memory is really worth the money. I have several
> servers that don't use ECC memory that get hit hard and never have
> problems?
> "TheSQLGuru" <kgboles@.earthlink.net> wrote in message
> news:13ldpj8nb3i5nf0@.corp.supernews.com...
>