Rating: 
Summary: Decent administrative reference
Review: This book makes a good administrative tool, particularly for people for whom SQL admin is one of many responsibilities and who therefore can't spend the time for in-depth training. One main flaw in this book is that it pretty much ignores the design aspect of setting up a new database and/or server. For example, the book lacks any information on best practices for the physical layout (files, drives, RAID, etc) or security. It assumes someone (a consultant?) knew what they were doing and set up the server and databases. Personally, I see this as part of the administrator's role. Another major shortfall of this book is that it excludes clustering completely, and as databases are more and more critical to companies, clustering is gaining in popularity.This book is designed as a reference book and it does a decent job as that. The layout, contents, and index make finding what you need very easy. If, however, you want a book to read cover-to-cover in order to learn SQL administration, this is not it.
Rating:
Summary: Decent administrative reference
Review: This book makes a good administrative tool, particularly for people for whom SQL admin is one of many responsibilities and who therefore can't spend the time for in-depth training. One main flaw in this book is that it pretty much ignores the design aspect of setting up a new database and/or server. For example, the book lacks any information on best practices for the physical layout (files, drives, RAID, etc) or security. It assumes someone (a consultant?) knew what they were doing and set up the server and databases. Personally, I see this as part of the administrator's role. Another major shortfall of this book is that it excludes clustering completely, and as databases are more and more critical to companies, clustering is gaining in popularity. This book is designed as a reference book and it does a decent job as that. The layout, contents, and index make finding what you need very easy. If, however, you want a book to read cover-to-cover in order to learn SQL administration, this is not it.
Rating: 
Summary: Concise reference manual
Review: This good and concise sqlserver administration reference manual has a complete online version on microsoft.com/technet.
Rating:
Summary: Decent Reference, Index is Lacking
Review: This is a pretty good reference to keep nearby. It has great tips scattered throughout, and it doesn't waste words by orienting the user. A great index is important to reference books. This book, however, has a mediocre index. The index weighs in at a little bit less than 19 pages. I would have preferred to see many more words indexed, and all T-SQL keywords/reserved words. As an *Administrator's* reference, this book does not provide much assistance with SQL, except for administrative tasks via T-SQL (in addition to EM-GUI equivalents). That is not a weakness (it *is* focused on administration), but it should be made clear to potential buyers. I'd prefer to rate this a with less than four stars -- it's not a solid 4-star book, but better than three.
Rating: 
Summary: The best for day-to-day administration
Review: This is the top book for SQL 2000 administration. Mr. Stanek has put together a great book for day-to-day administration of SQL Server 2000. I can't recommend this book strongly enough. It goes beyond the basics and goes a long way answering those questions that you ask yourself everyday and instead of hunting on the Internet every time you need a solution, you should carry this book with you. It shows you the types of tips and real world info that you only get from years of experience. This is like having an expert by your side. The best part about this book is the style in which it is written. Its not too technical and very easy to read. I read this book cover to cover and I have also been using it to help me prep for the exams. This book belongs on every DBA's bookshelf.
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