«CBT Nuggets Microsoft SQL Server 2008: Exam-Pack 70-450»

Exam Information:
This video series is mapped to Microsoft's 70-450 exam. Passing this exam moves you closer to being a fully-certified Database Administrator (DBA). When combined with MCTS SQL Server 2008, Implementation and Maintenance certification (exam 70-432), you earn prestigious MCITP Certification for SQL Server 2008. (Training for MCTS exam 70-432 will be available from CBT Nuggets later this year.)

Exam pack 70-450 contains the following videos:

* Introduction and Overview

* SQL Server 2008 Functional Concepts and Architecture

* SQL Server 2008 Physical Concepts and Architecture

* Planning a SQL Server 2008 Installation

* Installing SQL Server 2008

* Creating and Using a Database

* Migrating, Consolidating, and Upgrading

* SQL Server Instance Security

* SQL Server Database Security

* High Availability Overview

* Backing up SQL Server

* Restoring SQL Server

* Database Mirroring and Clustering (free video)

* Monitoring SQL Server

* SQL Server Performance Optimization

* Maintaining SQL Server

* Managing SQL Server

* Using SQL Server Agent

* Distributing Data with SQL Server Integration Services

* Linked Servers and Replication

Here's what you'll learn in each video of the Microsoft SQL Server 2008: Exam-Pack 70-450 Series:

Video 1 - "Introduction and Overview" - Review the table of contents for this series of nuggets, and introduction to the SQL Server 2008 tools.

Video 2 - "SQL Server 2008 Functional Concepts and Architecture" - Terminology, the purpose of SQL Server, the T-SQL language, Data Definition Language vs. Data Manipulation Language, and how databases work: How data is stored in pages, how filestreams and blobs work, other data types, the function of the transaction log, how database indexes work, and how database triggers work.

Video 3 - "SQL Server 2008 Physical Concepts and Architecture" - CPU, memory, and storage concerns; SQL Server services; database physical architecture, database file placement strategies.

Video 4 - "Planning a SQL Server 2008 Installation" - Planning for instances, planning for storage, planning for security, planning for availability.

Video 5 - "Installing SQL Server 2008" - Preparing for the installation, performing the installation, verifying the installation, and launching SQL Server management tools.

Video 6 - "Creating and Using a Database" - Creating a database, database options, creating a table, executing a query, managing the database file.

Video 7 - "Migrating, Consolidating, and Upgrading" - Generation migration and consolidation concerns, instance configuration options, database configuration options, SQL Server version upgrades.

Video 8 - "SQL Server Instance Security" - Instance-level authentication, instance-level security - including service accounts, endpoint security, TCP ports and SSL certificates, etc.

Video 9 - "SQL Server Database Security" - Database and object security, ownership chains, designing security policies and audit plans, SQL Server encryption options - including Transparent Data Encryption (TDE).

Video 10 - "High Availability Overview" - Goals of high availability, hardware, failover clustering, database mirroring, replication, and log shipping.

Video 11 - "Backing up SQL Server" - Selecting a recovery model, backup compression options, selecting a backup type, scheduling backups, file and filegroup backup schemes, verifying backups, mirrored backups.

Video 12 - "Restoring SQL Server" - Page, file, filegroup, and online restores; orphaned users; rebuilding a complete instance; encryption and recovery; recovery paths and forks; point-in-time and mark recovery; testing your recovery plan.

Video 13 - "Database Mirroring and Clustering" - Mirroring: High performance, high protection, high availability; differences between mirroring and clustering, setting up mirroring; how clustering works; setting up clustering (differences from regular setup).

Video 14 - "Monitoring SQL Server" - Monitoring options (system monitor, event logs, management views, WMI, remote monitoring, and triggers), data collectors, event notifications.

Video 15 - "SQL Server Performance Optimization" - Dedicated Administrator Connection (DAC), locking and blocking, deadlocks, index utilization, Database Tuning Advisor.

Video 16 - "Maintaining SQL Server" - Database maintenance plans, rebuilding and reorganizing indexes, how the Query Optimizer works, maintaining the Query Optimizer (statistics).

Video 17 - "Managing SQL Server" - Managing resource utilization (Resource Governor and Query Governor), policy-based management, data compression strategies, automating SQL Server management (PowerShell, Agent, DDL triggers, etc).

Video 18 - "Using SQL Server Agent" - Creating and managing jobs, proxies, multi-server administration, scheduling jobs.

Video 19 - "Distributing Data with SQL Server Integration Services" - Introducing SSIS, SSIS package security options, scheduling SSIS packages, deploying SSIS packages.

Video 20 - "Linked Servers and Replication" - Linked servers and connection strings, introducing replication, replication types, understanding replication conflicts, health monitoring for replication, horizontal and virtual partitioning in replication.