A good book for someone starting out with T-SQL is Murach's SQL for SQL Server. It's written from the point of what a developer needs to know about T-SQL.

OMG, please don't judge all of Florida by Jacksonville. You gotta check out Tampa, Clearwater, Sarasota, etc...

If you're interested in purchasing a book...

Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Performance Optimization and Tuning Handbook by Ken England does a good job of explaining the estimated execution plans, showplan text,...

Check out Pivot and Cross-tab reports in Books Online.

I really like ER/Studia from Embarcadero. ERWin is the industry standard, but does some odd things when reverse engineering, etc.

Here's a decent article to start with understanding the architecture of Windows-SQL Server clustering:

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2000/maintain/failclus.mspx

There's plenty more docs and whitepapers on Microsoft's site.

I have a friend that wants to do this (install the trial and when he is happy, upgrade to the full SQL Server 2005 version).

Any idea if this is...

I believe you can also right-click on the table in question and do an All Tasks => Generate SQL Script. It will include an ON [filegroup]. Just in case there's...

It very much depends on how many indexes are on the taqble, whether they are compound (more than one column) or not, what column data-types are indexed, what your disk...

I'm thinking of doing the same thing. I have a question about your response, Yelena.

re. 1. What features do named instances not support? I can't think of anything from...

I think it is on a table or index basis:

DBCC DBREINDEX

    (    'database.owner.table_name'    

            [ , index_name

                [ , fillfactor ]

            ]

    )    [ WITH NO_INFOMSGS ]

You might find a script in the...

I'd go with 80, and maybe specify fill factors for specific indexes (heavily hit tables get a lower number, Read Only ones get 100, etc...) individually. YMMV...

Definitely an arguement for setting the server-wide fill factor setting. Unless you are running a read-only database, the default doesn't make a lot of sense.

I think the idea is that if the DBA went in and "unconfigure" the rules, it would be logged to a secutiry log and the DBA would be required to explain.

I'd...

Sorry, was remembering what I usually use for clustered indexes.

Here's a good explanation:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/createdb/cm_8_des_05_9ak5.asp