If the back-end you're working on is SQL 2008 R2, then that version of Management Studio is just fine. It will also work on the SQL 2012 back-end for...

Express will not work. In fact, if you install SQL Server Express 2012 on a workstation, you WILL NOT be able to properly install SQL Server Data Tools, which...

I seem to recall in previous exams having at least 100 minutes to answer 45 questions - well over two minutes per question.

Gail,

Here's what happened during the interview:

He asked me about maintained routines I had implemented in my most recent job, particularly on a mission critical 1TB database which was hosted on...

How can you tell if it creates a hidden snapshot - given that it's hidden?

Whether it did or not, it still runs in under 5 hours and there were no...

If your current position has you supporting data warehouses and gives you opportunity to develop SSIS jobs, do as many as you can, dotting the i's and crossing the t's...

Well, I have confirmed with someone still working at my former employer that a DBCC CHECKDB job I set up to run overnight on a 1TB+ production database shows recent...

If 8GB is the maximum your laptop can run, then I would create one VM and using Virtual Box or VMPlayer create a stand-alone Widnows Server 2008 VM and assign...

Of course if you're a good DBA, not only will put out the fires, you will put processes in place to prevent fires from occurring, and eventually the late night...

I recently took the same exam as well, and felt the time was too short. I have a methodical process for answering exam questions that has left me with several...

One of the challenges with the SQL DBA path is that not all jobs offer the opportunity and challenge to develop the skills the next job may want. If you...

I knew there was a function to return the owner name of a sid. If only that was mentioned in the BOL articles on principals and sids I would...

I'm not actually in this situation, but I did just reset an unknown password and when doing changes I tend think of "what can go wrong" scenarios ahead of time....

That's my experience as well. Whenever something doesn't work or seem quite right, go to the link above before wasting time on troubleshooting.

Another note:

The 70-458 exam contained several questions referencing SQL Azure, but Azure is not mentioned in the exam objectives listed here

I'm not sure if these questions required Azure specific knowledge...