| | |  | Software Engineering | Home » » » Inside Microsoft® SQL Server(TM) 2005: Query Tuning and Optimization | | | | | | | Description: | | Dig into the internals of tuning and optimization features in SQL Server 2005—with insights from leading SQL Server experts. This in-depth guide delivers best practices, pragmatic advice, and code samples to help you enable efficient, effective queries—and optimize database performance.
Discover how to:
Create a baseline and monitor workload by using System Monitor and DMVs Design, manipulate, and manage traces to isolate database performance issues Audit user activity by using built-in default, black box, and Common Criteria traces Analyze query execution using scans and seeks, joins, aggregations, unions, and parallelism Generate efficient and cost-effective queries using cached plans or new plans Detect and resolve locking, blocking, and deadlocking concurrency issues Use best practices to diagnose and troubleshoot response time, throughput, and scalability issues
PLUS—Includes Transact-SQL code samples and on the Web
| | | Product Details: | | | Author:
| Kalen Delaney | | Paperback:
| 448 pages | | Publisher:
| Microsoft Press | | Publication Date:
| September 26, 2007 | | Language:
| English | | ISBN:
| 0735621969 | | Product Length:
| 8.8 inches | | Product Width:
| 7.3 inches | | Product Height:
| 1.3 inches | | Product Weight:
| 1.8 pounds | | Package Length:
| 8.9 inches | | Package Width:
| 7.32 inches | | Package Height:
| 1.42 inches | | Package Weight:
| 1.72 pounds | | Average Customer Rating:
|  based on 10 reviews |
| | | | Customer Reviews: | |
Average Customer Review:
 ( 10 customer reviews )
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
42 of 46 found the following review helpful:
 Books Online gone prolixJan 14, 2008
By Pushin' Fifty
I was disappointed with this book, which I bought together with SQL Tuning by Dan Tow, hoping to get well-digested expert advice. SQL Tuning was all that I hoped for, and I highly recommend it.
This book, though, has that creepy quality so common to MSFT Press books, where very knowledgeable people, usually connected with the MSFT development teams, list feature after feature in long, passive-voice descriptions, failing to discriminate for the reader and advise as to what is useful and what is not. You have the sense that they spent lots of time at trade shows touting the latest horde of "features", and little time coding under the strain of deadlines and client expectations. To them, every SQL Server nuance is always useful and wonderful and should get fair mention :(
This is a simple example, but SQL Tuning tells me that table scans are normally fine when selecting above 20% of rows, and index seeks are good for row counts under a percent, the space between depending on circumstance (which gray space the book goes on to address). This book, meanwhile, provides no real guidance, and tells me that table scans can be good, and indexes are useful too, and that SQL Server handles both nicely, and that the optimizer selects one or the other, and that it uses iterators, and that they are important, and that you can see what the optimizer has selected, and that you can change that if you want, and that you can automate the change, and that you can document the change, and here are the 4 related undocumented stored procs, and that this is new for 2005, and that there are other related matters, and that SQL Server has all this. Thanks!
Seems they are always plugging the product and never can admit to having suffered with its complexity. The recommendations, if you get them, are always muted by a kool-aid soaked affinity for SQL Server, which does all things well and will never fail to offer just the feature you need to succeed.
The book runs very long and strikes me as a big core dump on 3,000 topics, none of which seem prioritized or emphasized in distinct categories. Sure, the book has distinct chapters into which related material is dumped, but this fails to serve as **guidance**, which is what you are buying the book for. Not written by people in the trenches. Not recommended unless you want to buy some additional MSFT documentation.
26 of 31 found the following review helpful:
 Kalen's Magnum opusOct 12, 2007
By Paul Nielsen
At first glance, Inside SQL Server Query Tuning and Optimization, appears to be a multiple-author ensemble book with only 1½ chapters written by Kalen, which might be disappointing. However, the reality is that this database dream team is hand-picked by Kalen, and following Kalen's plan the book meets the high standards Kalen is known for. The flow of the information is the right way to understand and then solve query performance issues.
Chapter 1 - A Performance Troubleshooting Methodology by Sunil Agarwal (Program Manager in the SQL Server Storage Engine Group at Microsoft.) The opening chapter introduces the many factors that influence query performance. Although it fails to connect every dot, the chapter is a comprehensive overview of SQL Server performance and a sound intro for readers without a solid background in SQL Server.
Chapter 2 - Tracing and Profiling by Adam Machanic (SQL Server MVP. Leader of the New England SQL Server User Group in Boston, and all around smart guy.) Even if you use Profiler daily, you'll pick up some useful info in this thorough converge of SQL Server Engine Trace and the Profiler UI.
Chapter 3 - Query Execution by Craig Freedman (Microsoft SQL Server Query Execution Team.) This chapter has more beef than a 16 oz filet in Kansas City. Wow. If you enjoy reading Query execution plans, then you'll read this chapter 3 or 4 times. There's deep knowledge in here you won't find anywhere else. I've lost sleep wondering about some of the questions answered by this chapter, and I've lost more sleep reading it.
Chapter 4 - Troubleshooting Query Performance by Kalen Delaney and Craig Freedman. This is the practical part two of Craig's amazing chapter 3. Here Kalen and Craig show exactly how to diagnose and solve difficult query performance issues.
Chapter 5 - Plan Caching and Recompilation by Kalen Delaney. This is the topic Kalen presented at the 2007 PASS Summit pre-con and her depth shows in this chapter. Since query plan caching is so important to executing queries, this chapter makes perfect sense in this book.
Chapter 6 - Concurrency Problems by Ron Talmage (SQL Server MVP, and true gentleman. Ron leads the Pacific Northwest SQL Server Users Group which meets in Building 35, the SQL Server team building on the MIcrosoft Redmond campus.) In any high transaction production system, diagnosing and tuning locking and blocking is the difference between "it runs on my notebook" and "it runs with thousands of users." Ron goes beyond the basic explanation of locks and isolation levels to explain how to resolve specific conncurency issues.
Book prerequisite: at least 2-3 years of writing SQL Server queries and a decent understanding of SQL Server.
Like Kalen's other books, Inside SQL Server Query Tuning and Optimization, is readable, authoritative, and a requirement on every serious database developer's desk. Buy this book! and read it at least twice.
2 of 2 found the following review helpful:
 Very good bookDec 07, 2007
By Learns Divine
To be a good DBA you need to understand at least a little bit about database internals. Kalen's (ok, so it is co-authored) book gets you up to speed quickly and gives the level of detail needed to improve your skill set as a DBA. I haven't completed reading this book yet but have read the 2000 version. A lot of similar material, but more detail this time hence the need to break up the content into more than 1 book. I personally find her writing style easy to read.
4 of 5 found the following review helpful:
A must-have for tuning SQL QueriesJan 20, 2008
By N. Mckechnie
"Neil"
I rarely review books, but for this one I feel compelled to do so. I knew that SQL Queries were creating major bottlenecks in my web application, but I did not know which ones they were and how to fix them. My app was already live with thousands of users, and since I am primarily a web developer (and not a database expert), I needed practical help, and fast.
Because of this book, within a matter of days I went from clueless to expert in reading query execution plans, creating effective indexes, and tuning my queries. By making my application much more responsive, I am sure I retained countless customers. Another big benefit: I am saving thousands of dollars per year on postponing or cancelling hardware upgrades (more processors, faster disk/raid systems, etc) that I thought were necessary to support my users. With my queries tuned and optimized, it looks like I can handle 4-5 times the load on my current infrastructure than I had previously thought.
This book really is a must read for anyone with a web application with even a modestly sized database, who is concerned with performance and scalability.
1 of 1 found the following review helpful:
Good coverageDec 13, 2007
By Regan H. Thacker
I am only half way through this book, but the information it has given me has been valuable. I am excited to further test out the information, as well as learn more.
I have had issues using the Profiler before and was looking for more help. This book has provided it.
It does go a bit long for the issues I'm looking at, but I have been impressed so far.
See all 10 customer reviews on Amazon.com
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