Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server 2008 Recommended Pre-Reading List for Attendees

Last Updated: November 1st, 2009

The Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server 2008 program covers the comprehensive SQL Server platform. It is a very demanding course and will challenge the limits of most candidates. In order to ensure that candidates are best prepared we provide this list of pre-reading material. It is not a conclusive set of reference material but rather it is intended as a list of pre-readings which provide a baseline for the topics covered during the training rotation. For many, items contained here within will be review. However, each applicant is encouraged to inspect the entire list to ensure they are up to date with the information represented, as it will be needed as a starting basis and referenced throughout the training.

Topic / Resource
Planning and Design
Infrastructure Planning and Design (SQL Server 2008)

Completed? (Y/N)

On-disk structures / New on-disk structures in SQL Server 2008

On-disk structures
FILESTREAM Spatial Indexes Sparse Columns Data Compression

Data Compression: Strategy, Capacity Planning and Best Practices

Data file maintenance, database snapshots, tempdb

Shrink

Database Snapshots
Database Maintenance Working with Tempdb in SQL Server 2005 Physical Database Storage Design

Logging, Recovery, log file maintenance

Transaction Logging

Index internals and fragmentation

Fragmentation Indexes from every angle Online Indexing Operations in SQL Server 2005

Performance Tuning and Optimization (PTO)

Query Tuning through effective indexing strategies 1|Page

Topic / Resource
Statistics Used by the Query Optimizer in Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Batch Compilation, Recompilation, and Plan Caching Issues in SQL Server 2005 Database Engine Tuning Advisor (DTA) in SQL Server 2005 SQL Server 2005 Row Versioning-Based Transaction Isolation Partitioned Tables and Indexes in SQL Server 2005 Troubleshooting Performance Problems in SQL Server 2008

Completed? (Y/N)

Backup and Restore

Restore internals and procedures CHECKDB from every angle Corruption IO Subsystems Backing Up and Restoring Databases in SQL Server

Benchmarking and Baselining Prerequisites

SQL Server Profiler Pre-deployment IO Best Practices

Waits and Queues Prerequisites

SQL Server 2005 Waits and Queues Troubleshooting performance problems in SQL Server 2005

SQL IO
Overview of FAT, HPFS, and NTFS File Systems SQL Server 7.0, SQL Server 2000, and SQL Server 2005 logging and data storage algorithms extend data reliability Description of using disk drive caches with SQL Server that every database administrator should know Files and Filegroups Architecture Flash Disk Opportunities for Server Applications RAID Levels and SQL Server Microsoft Support for iSCSI Disk Partition Alignment Best Practices for SQL Server

XML
XML Support in Microsoft SQL Server 2005 2|Page

Topic / Resource
XML Options in Microsoft SQL Server 2005 XML Best Practices for Microsoft SQL Server 2005

Completed? (Y/N)

SQL Client
C# Tutorial ADO.net Tutorial (Lessons 1-7)

SQL CLR
Using CLR Integration in SQL Server 2005 Database Administrators Guide to SQL Server Database Engine .NET CLR Environment

Spatial
Introduction to New T-SQL Programmability Features in SQL Server 2008 Introduction to Spatial Coordinate Systems: Flat Maps for a Round Planet

Resource Governor / Policy Based Management

Introducing Resource Governor Managing SQL Server Workloads with Resource Governor Resource Governor Concepts

Replication
Replication: SQL Server Replication Replication: Replication Publishing Model Overview Replication: Types of Replication Overview Replication: Replication Agents Overview

Service Broker
SQL Server Service Broker Overview (Service Broker) What Does Service Broker Do? Typical Uses of Service Broker Service Broker: Performance and Scalability Techniques

Security
Securing SQL Server Setting Up Windows Service Accounts Security Considerations for a SQL Server Installation 3|Page

Topic / Resource
Reaching Compliance: SQL Server 2008 Compliance Guide SQL Server 2005 Security Best Practices - Operational and Administrative Tasks

Completed? (Y/N)

High Availability
High Availability Solutions Overview Selecting a High Availability Solution Database Mirroring Overview Log Shipping Overview Using Replication for High Availability and Disaster Recovery High Availability and Disaster Recovery at ServiceU: A SQL Server 2008 Technical Case Study SQL Server 2008 Failover Clustering SQL Server Replication: Providing High Availability using Database Mirroring Database Mirroring Best Practices and Performance Considerations

TempDB
Optimizing tempdb Performance Capacity Planning for tempdb

SSIS
SQL Server Integration Services Security Overview (Integration Services) Integration Services Packages Creating Package Configurations

CDC, Change Tracking

Tuning the Performance of Change Data Capture in SQL Server 2008 Change Tracking

Virtualization
Running SQL Server 2008 in a Hyper-V Environment - Best Practices and Performance Recommendations

4|Page