On an otherwise uneventful, other than the normal busy,
plate full, heading towards the US holiday weekend, middle-of-the-week, over
the hump day, a personal achievement has been officiated this day, Wednesday the 20th
of May, 2015. Definitely not on the
scale of the day of infamy, maybe not even the day of the week, but absolutely
a professional milestone achievement for me, and one that is something I
always wondered about, gave all others
that came before me credit, and never thought that I’d actually be able to pull
off. Until about last summer.
Last summer I was approached by an editor at Apress,
referred to by a mutual friend and already published author, seeking IT
professionals to write on specific topics. That is when I pitched the idea for
a book on performing SQL Server Health Checks.
I convinced him that this was a topic often spoken about, but never
before in a book, at least at the great length that I was proposing. This was not to be just another “typical”
tech book on SQL Server Performance Tuning.
I was able to make the case that this is something that ALL DBA’s could
benefit from, and use and refer to in their database profession.
The idea was more of a how-to-guide on maintaining and
managing a healthy SQL Server infrastructure, from the perspective of a DBA, -
that’s me. The organization of the book
was a little different in that it covered a broad range of interconnecting
topics on SQL Server, the DBA, the profession, and the organization of the DBA
day. In addition to some antics that I
share along the way, I offer the specifics on how, what, why, when and where to
conduct a SQL Server health check, and always keeping in mind the goal, to
achieve a certifiably health SQL Server environment, and keep it there!
This includes detailed discussions on performance tuning methodologies,
scripts, code, tools, reports, monitoring, and demonstrations on leveraging
existing features in the SQL Server toolset out of the box.
As you in the SQL Server Community and family may know for
the last couple of years, I’ve been talking about, blogging , presenting,
indeed building awareness for the need to perform regular SQL Server
performance health checks, and coined the phrase HealthySQL™. If you’re a DBA,
or someone who is managing a SQL Server environment, then you’ll definitely
care about HealthySQL.
I have several people personally and professionally to thank
and acknowledge, and I do that in the book. I will be talking more about and blogging on various elements in the coming weeks, months and hopefully
years, about HealthySQL. I will let the
folks who have offered testimonials in the book’s front matter – the section
preceding the beginning of the actual books contents – give insight into my
knowledge and experience of the product which I love, evangelize and promote,
(and has kept me employed) Microsoft SQL Server.
Balancing work, SQLCommunity and the home front is indeed a
monumental task. Ultimately, the balance is a myth, something has to take a
back seat at some time, but I certainly did the best I can. To borrow the line
from an old REM song, “That’s me in the corner”, was the majority venue where I
sat for endless hours into the night to bring this book to fruition.
I hope you will benefit from the time I have taken to collect,
research and share my experiences in this book, with all of you, the reader!
In the meantime, today is the day that Apress tells me the
book went to print! The e-book will
follow shortly. If you are a DBA, then
hopefully this is the right book for you! So, please at least take a look at
the TOC, and it would be great if you would consider buying the book. Check out
the book and order HealthySQL today! Thank you!
Are you servers healthy? Up to date with its latest
optimizations?
