Testout 70-431 MCTS SQL 2005 "Review": Don't overlook the Fact Sheets!

For those who don't know what Testout is, check out their website: www.testout.com, this is a link for the actual 70-431 Suite. It's a fully integrated study solution including instructor led training, lab sims, and practice exams.

I'm only two chapters into using the Testout software (I've used their products for my MCSE 2003 studies), and I must say it's as excellent as the previous products I've used. The instructor is very knowledgeable and speaks clearly and confidently. The videos are also very "tight" in that he doesn't waste time, almost everything he says is relevant to learning about SQL 2005 and what's on the exam. Again, I must mention the book "Sam's Teach Yourself T-SQL in 10 Mins" was an invaluable prerequisite.

One thing that people overlook are the "fact sheets" that come in each lesson. I highly recommend printing them out and referring to them. They contain information not covered in the videos and are still VERY relevant to what's on the exam (according to the exam objectives anyway). So if you're going to take anything away from this blog post: DO NOT OVERLOOK THE FACT SHEETS.

The importance of SQL Server Performance Baseline Reports

As I've been reading up on how to be a 'good' DBA, I remembered the performance baselilne reports my boss and I used to create back when I was a systems administrator. All critical servers (including database servers) should have a baseline report created. It helps immensley when trying to identify the root cause of certain problems (ie - abonormalities in disk, processor, memory activity).

This site provides a great step by step procedure in creating a performance baseline report. It clearly lists the common processes to monitor, and even shows how to export the data into a nice clear excel spreadsheet (your boss will be impressed! well, atleast he/she will be thankful!).

http://www.brentozar.com/archive/2006/12/dba-101-using-perfmon-for-sql-performance-tuning/

Good luck!

MCTS: SQL 2005 Exam 70-431

I have recently acquired a new position at my current place of employment. My responsibilities now include managing and administering database servers running Microsoft SQL 2005.

Note, that my experience with SQL was limited at best. I decided to look into taking the 70-431 exam (along with two other exams, but lets just concentrate on one right now) to get certified as a SQL DBA.

I began my studying process by watching a few CBT nuggets videos. Now CBT is usually fantastic, and this video was no different, however I found that I just wasn't absorbing the information. You see Microsoft has apperantly changed the way admins handle SQL buy adding the SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) console. It's a fantastic graphical tool, but I just didn't feel like I understood how databases really work.

I realized that I needed a really good basic understanding of the SQL language before diving into using the fancy SSMS console. I picked up this book:


You won't become an expert by reading through it, but it gave me great insight on how TSQL (Transact SQL) works. It's helping me build a solid foundation going into the actual 70-431 study material, and I feel it will serve as a tremendous reference tool in the future.

Once I'm finished with this book, I will begin my certification studies using Testout's 70-431 material.