Rodney Landrum, SQL Server MVP, is the author of the new book, The SQL Server Tacklebox: Essential Tools and Scripts for the Day-to-Day DBA. This 240 page book, and accompanying scripts, is chock full of advice for DBAs, from novice to experienced.
The book focuses on these topics:
- Installing SQL Server
- SQL Server Documentation
- How to Move Data Into and Out of SQL Server
- How to Manage Data Growth
- How to Use System Tables and DMVs to Investigate What SQL Server is Doing
- Monitoring and Notification
- Security Monitoring
- Finding and Fixing Data Corruption
The book, unlike most technical books, attempts to make dry technical content come to life. According to Rodney, “I wrote the book the way it is because I did not want to bore DBAs to tears with another 500+ page textbook-style tome with step-by-step instructions. I wanted this book to be a novel, a book of poetry, a murder mystery, a ghost story, an epic trilogy, a divine comedy. But realizing that this is, after all, a technical book, I compromised by imbuing it with some humor and personality. If you make it as far as the monster at the end of this book, my hope is that you will have been entertained and can use the code from the Tacklebox in some fashion that will make your lives as DBAs easier. Why “The Tacklebox,” you might ask, rather than “Zombie Queries,” “You Can’t Handle the Code” or “You had me at BEGIN?” I think, as I push halfway through my career as a DBA and author, this book is as close as I will ever get to “The Old Man and the Sea”…oh yes, and apparently the “Toolbox” had been copyrighted. Plus, come on! Look at the cover of the book. How can I live here and not go fishing once in a while?”
You can download the free eBook here.
Brad M McGehee 
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This has been a great book for me and I’ve really enjoyed it. Let me share the review I’ve posted elsewhere.
This is a book above my current experience level. That doesn’t mean it isn’t useful to me.
By the time I started chapter 3 I: learned new ways to install SQL Server. I have a better understanding of the importance of seperate drives for the data & logs. Most importantly I’ve learned the importance of DOCUMENTATION.
I’ve been able to compare what I got from Forta’s T-SQL in 10 to the scripts provided in the book and follow them. Do you remember when SQL, or any form of programming, was new to you and how great you felt when you were able to read somebody’s code and understand it? Yeah, that rocks.
I have liked being able to take the scripts from the book and run them against my install of SQL Server 2008 Express and see the results.
The author’s sense of humor helped make what could be dry material fun to read.
Thanks a lot.
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