general

Residing between the covers on this book lies all the expertise you will ever need. I've found the answers to all my questions and solutions to all my problems. The authors have also opened up new ideas (some of which I've already put into practice, the others I plan to try) to improve the performance, scalability and reliability of my systems. Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Unleashed is a must have.

I've spent quite a bit of time reading various SQL Server 2000 books at my local bookstore trying to evaluate which book I need. I'm a web application developer of content management systems, and custom web based tools and my primary systems are based on SQL2K. I wanted a book that covered as many of the topics that I needed information on, but at the same time went into enough detail to be useful. I mean you could get SQL 2000 High Availability which is like a 700 page book from Microsoft Press that talks nothing but high availability and nothing else. However I can't really justify spending on 4 or so books, and my job is not that of a DBA anyways.

I'm very pleased with SQL Server 2000 Unleashed. It gives enough detail that I as a developer can take advantage of advanced features of MSSQL, understand more how the internals of MSSQL work which allows me to optimize my queries... and since I'm a one man team and have to take care of my database server, it provides best practices on maintenance, backup, indexing strategies, etc... I was also interested in learning more about high availability, what the options are, so that I can propose a solution and the options to my manager. My I.T dept was telling me to use Log Shipping for various reasons, a DBA from a sister company was recommending Fail Over Clustering for various reasons... I was bouncing back and forth on what to do, but after reading up on the high availability section in this book my questions were answered.

Definitely an important read for those developing applications that use MSSQL for a DB, and an excellent reference for database administrators. Plus the wording isn't too dry.

Hope that helps in your decision making. BTW the Microsoft Press book SQL SERVER 2000 HIGH AVAILABILITY is also an excellent book if you're a DBA and have to implement H.A in a large high transaction critical environment...

I would be surprised if you could find more than, say, 20% of this book that is not also in the online product documentation. It is far too general and shallow to be useful in the real world where most of us live.