Book Image

SQL Server 2019 Administrator's Guide - Second Edition

By : Marek Chmel, Vladimír Mužný
Book Image

SQL Server 2019 Administrator's Guide - Second Edition

By: Marek Chmel, Vladimír Mužný

Overview of this book

SQL Server is one of the most popular relational database management systems developed by Microsoft. This second edition of the SQL Server Administrator's Guide will not only teach you how to administer an enterprise database, but also help you become proficient at managing and keeping the database available, secure, and stable. You’ll start by learning how to set up your SQL Server and configure new and existing environments for optimal use. The book then takes you through designing aspects and delves into performance tuning by showing you how to use indexes effectively. You’ll understand certain choices that need to be made about backups, implement security policy, and discover how to keep your environment healthy. Tools available for monitoring and managing a SQL Server database, including automating health reviews, performance checks, and much more, will also be discussed in detail. As you advance, the book covers essential topics such as migration, upgrading, and consolidation, along with the techniques that will help you when things go wrong. Once you’ve got to grips with integration with Azure and streamlining big data pipelines, you’ll learn best practices from industry experts for maintaining a highly reliable database solution. Whether you are an administrator or are looking to get started with database administration, this SQL Server book will help you develop the skills you need to successfully create, design, and deploy database solutions.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
1
Section 1: Provisioning the SQL Server Environment
4
Section 2: Server and Database Maintenance
9
Section 3: High Availability and the Cloud with SQL Server 2019

Indexes and maintenance

Indexes are sometimes seen as some magic objects that resolve all performance problems in the world of relational databases. Nothing could be further from the truth. In this section, we will look at the index types offered by SQL Server, and then discuss how indexes work. Finally, we will summarize some guidelines for using indexes.

Types of indexes

Sorting in relational databases makes no sense. Even though this statement sounds strange, it comes from the set theory, which forms a theoretical base of relational databases. However, sorting is still needed when the database engine must find proper records from a table efficiently. When no sorting structure is present, the engine needs to scan all the records to recognize which of them are candidates for the result of a certain query. An index is a type of object that brings sorting and seeking possibilities over unsorted relational data.

SQL Server provides several types of indexes...