Excellent Free Ebooks from RedGate

SQL Server eBook Selection
1. Protecting SQL Server Data by John Magnabosco
2. The Art of High Performance SQL by Grant Fritchey
3. The Art of XSD by Jacob Sebastian
4. Two Minute SQL Server Stumpers Vol. 5

DBA Ebooks Bundle
1. Mastering SQL Server Profiler
2. Brad’s Sure Guide to SQL Server 2008
3. Brad McGehee’s DBA Best Practices
4. How to Become an Exceptional DBA (2nd edition)
5. SQL Server Tacklebox

The Best of Simple Talk .NET
1. The Best of Simple Talk .NET – Jit N’ Run vol.2

You can download them from this link

If you have the slightest interest in PowerShell, and you’re keen on learning more about it, I strongly recommend you download this book:

Mastering PowerShell (from PowerShell.com and written by Dr. Tobias Weltner)

It is an awesome, well written 567 page book that covers PowerShell through and through. Here are the chapters:

1. The PowerShell Console
2. Interactive PowerShell
3. Variables
4. Arrays and Hashtables
5. The PowerShell Pipeline
6. Using Objects
7. Conditions
8. Loops
9. Functions
10. Scripts
11. Finding and Avoiding Errors
12. Command Discovery and Scriptblocks
13. Text and Regular Expressions
14. XML
15. The File System
16. The Registry
17. Processes, Services, Event Logs
18. Windows Management Instrumentation
19. User Management
20. Your Own Cmdlets and Extensions

Thanks PowerShell.com!

… written by one of our cool DevTeach speakers Peter de Betta?

Yup, it’s a free MS Press Ebook on SQL Server 2008. What else can we SQL Server junkies ask for? (Ok, fine I said that too soon, there’s probably still a fair bit of stuff we want out of SQL Server).

Anyway, this is the link to Peter‘s blog about the book :
http://sqlblog.com/blogs/peter_debetta/archive/2008/09/16/introducing-sql-server-2008-the-book.aspx

This is the excerpt:

To get your free copy, browse to http://www.microsoft.com/learning/sql/2008/default.mspx. From there, look in the Special Offers section for the “Free e-book offer“. Although the site states you can get excerpts, the whole book is available for reading.

Coolio?

Jacob Sebastian is a SQL Server XML Guru!

Check out his collection for XQUery Labs. This is the first 12 of his series, and right now he has 43 and counting:

XQuery Sample Scripts

* XQuery Lab 1 – Transforming rows to columns
* XQuery Lab 2 – An example using OUTER APPLY
* XQuery Lab 3 – Filtering specific nodes
* XQuery Lab 4 – Joining XML Nodes with a Relational Table
* XQuery Lab 5 – Working with Namespaces
* XQuery Lab 6 – Processing Header-Detail information
* XQuery Lab 7 – Extracting a comma separated list of values
* XQuery Lab 8 – How to update the attribute value of an XML variable?
* XQuery Lab 9 – How to delete an attribute from an XML variable?
* XQuery Lab 10 – How to insert an attribute to an XML variable
* XQuery Lab 11 – How to insert an element to an XML variable
* XQuery Lab 12 – Different ways of reading values from an XML variable

Jacob Sebastian has also released a free ebook via RedGate – The Art of XSD – SQL Server XML Schema Collections

Check it out, all 483 pages!

RedGate through PACKT Publishing has released yet another valuable free book.

Mastering SQL Server Profiler is Volume 2 of the High Performance SQL Series, and is authored by Brad McGehee.

Copy can be downloaded from here:

http://www.red-gate.com/products/SQL_Response/offers/Mastering%20Profiler%20eBook.pdf

RealTimePublishers has a whole bunch of free ebooks:

Database

The Definitive Guide to Scaling Out SQL Server 2005
The Definitive Guide to Scaling Out SQL Server 2000
The Essentials Series: Optimizing Database Connection Performance
The Shortcut Guide to SQL Server Infrastructure Optimization

Few other ones that might be of interest:

The Administrator Shortcut Guide to VB Scripting for Windows
The Definitive Guide to Building a Windows Server 2008 Infrastructure
The Definitive Guide to Windows Server 2003 Terminal Services Updated Edition
The Shortcut Guide to Selecting the Right Virtualization Solution
The Shortcut Guide to Virtualization and Service Automation

Enjoy!

Free ebooks Grab them while they’re free. (BTW, I purchased Grant Fritchey’s ebook, now RedGate is offering it for free)

SQL Server 2008 MS Press Free Ebook
http://csna01.libredigital.com/?urss1q2we6

How to Become an Exceptional DBA
http://www.red-gate.com/products/sql_backup/offers/brad_exceptional_dba_ebook.htm

Best of SQL Server Central
https://www.red-gate.com/Dynamic/Downloads/DownloadForm.aspx?download=ebook1

Brad’s Sure Guide to SQL Server 2008
http://www.red-gate.com/specials/ToolbeltBradsure.htm?utm_source=ssc&utm_medium=email&utm_content=Bradsure-080925&utm_campaign=sqltoolbelt

Brad’s Sure DBA Checklist
http://www.simple-talk.com/sql/database-administration/brads-sure-dba-checklist/

RedGate’s SQL Server DBA Best Practices
http://www.simple-talk.com/content/file.ashx?file=1208

Dissecting SQL Server Execution Plans
http://www.red-gate.com/specials/Grant.htm

Just a short compilation of SQL Server 2008 resources (white papers, ebooks, videos, blogs)

Blog Posts

Upgrading to SQL Server 2008
http://glennberrysqlperformance.spaces.live.com/Blog/cns!45041418ECCAA960!1019.entry

10 Reasons Why SQL Server 2008 Is Going to Rock
http://angryhacker.com/blog/archive/2008/06/20/10-reasons-why-sql-server-2008-is-going-to-rock.aspx

The SQL Server 2008 Status Bar Custom Colors (why it’s not trivial!)
http://blog.jemm.net/2008/08/12/sql-server-2008-management-studio-tip-status-bar-custom-colors/

Notification Services Support in SQL Server 2008
http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/joew/archive/2008/09/10/60708.aspx

Additional MS Training/Resources

SQL Server 2008 Jumpstart
http://sqlserver2008jumpstart.microsofttraining.com

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 – Learning Portal
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/sql/2008/default.mspx

Free SQL Server 2008 Ebook from MS Press
http://csna01.libredigital.com/?urss1q2we6

SQL Server 2008 Videos
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9333556

SQL Server 2008 Virtual Labs
http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/virtual-labs.aspx

Webcasts: 24 Hours of SQL Server 2008 for IT Professionals
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9333557

Webcasts: 24 Hours of SQL Server 2008 for Developers
http://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=9333558