MS SQL Server 2008 Courses ?

[Richard_Finnigan]

Hi

 

Does any one know of any good training providers for MS SQL Server 2008? I'm familiar with SQL 2000 and I want to get to grips with 2008.

 

Ideally I'm looking for a two or three day off site course, I have googled this and there are a large number of companies that offer this sort of training and I'm looking for some recommendations about these companies.

 

I'm mainly interested in database administration.

 

Regards

 

Richard

Edited March 15, 2011 by Richard_Finnigan

[irsprint84]

All you need is for 2010 to come out! do you mean 2008 r2? What do you want traning in exactly with it? programming? support?

[Richard_Finnigan]

All you need is for 2010 to come out! do you mean 2008 r2? What do you want traning in exactly with it? programming? support?

 

Errr yes pardon me 2008 r2 I currently use MS SQL 2000 in quite a basic way and I do most of the data processing in the Access apps that are clients of this server, so I'm mainly interested in support though I want to begin to get a handle on Transact SQL that is used in SQL 2008.

 

I'm after the names of good training providers that people have used before so I can have a look at what they have got to offer.

[SkywOrca]

I was recently on an SQL 2008 Core Skills course run by Neos IT, and I have to say, I found it very useful. It covers the basics of database administration in SQL 2008, and covered some aspects of Transact-SQL and Reporting Services. It's more of a Jack-of-all-trades course, however, I believe the company can offer other courses that delve deeper into specific aspects of managing an SQL 2008 environment, you'd probably need to check this with them, and also whether they offer training across the country.

 

The guy that ran the course I was on was an extremely knowledgeable and experienced DBA, and was even able to teach me a few new tricks, in spite of my being pretty clued up to start with in SQL. You can check them out here.

 

And just to clarify, no I don't work for them or gain in any way by recommending them, I just had a very good experience of them within the last month or so!

 

Edit:

SQL 2008 / SQL 2008 R2 are, to all intents and purposes, the same product, R2 is more of a revision tweak on the base system. R2 is mostly concerned with improvements to the datacentre aspects of SQL, so for most customers wouldn't strictly be needed over and above the non-R2 version. The next version of SQL, possibly due out as SQL 2011 (it's currently still doing the rounds as the succinctly titled 'SQL Server code-named "Denali" ') will probably be a much more distinct product to SQL 2005/SQL 2008, since Microsoft tend to release their SQL products in "Pairs" in as much as SQL 6 and SQL 2000 were similar products, SQL 2005 and SQL 2008 and also similar products.

Edited March 16, 2011 by SkywOrca

[Richard_Finnigan]

Thanks for that.... I'll look them up, I guess I'll just learn some SQL 2008 and then maybe catch up with the latest version if it's very different and if those differences are worth having

 

Richard

[vikpaw]

I believe one of our new sponsors run IT courses. Check out Joskos. Not sure which forum they are sponsoring.

 

EDIT: sorry my bad, the sponsor only does solutions, but i think another division / sister company does training : http://www.joskos.com/

 

As for sql 2005 and 2008 being similar, i think 22,000+ schools would argue they weren't similar enough as the need for migration was a royal PITA!

Edited March 16, 2011 by vikpaw
correction.

[SkywOrca]

Did we ever get a full explanation from Capita on why we needed to migrate to 2008? I thought I'd heard that it was originally to leverage some improvements to the Reporting Services side of things, but that could have just been the rumour. Maybe they wanted to use the newer version of .Net framework that links to SQL 2008..?

 

Either way, structurally, and from a look-and-feel point of view, the two products are "similar" but not identical. It's kind of like they took the Skoda bodywork off and replaced it with a VW, it looks a bit nicer and people might be willing to pay for the upgrade, but underneath it's the same car!

[jinnantonnixx]

Did we ever get a full explanation from Capita on why we needed to migrate to 2008? I thought I'd heard that it was originally to leverage some improvements to the Reporting Services side of things, but that could have just been the rumour. Maybe they wanted to use the newer version of .Net framework that links to SQL 2008..?

 

Either way, structurally, and from a look-and-feel point of view, the two products are "similar" but not identical. It's kind of like they took the Skoda bodywork off and replaced it with a VW, it looks a bit nicer and people might be willing to pay for the upgrade, but underneath it's the same car!

 

Here's a run down of the differences in the SQL levels.

ALTER DATABASE Compatibility Level (Transact-SQL)

SQL 2005 is level 90, SQL 2008 is level 100. Most of the differences are likely to be 'gotchas' where you app behaves weirdly if you made assumptions about the way the joins and unions are coded. It's an interesting read in any case.

[GREED]

Richard

 

Are you looking to become certified, or do you just want the knowledge and training? I know a couple of good facilities (along the south coast though) that can offer this to you.

 

Graham

[Richard_Finnigan]

Just the knowledge and training...

[jinnantonnixx]

This is for DB2 rather than MS SQL, but it's a free course and it covers the fundamentals of relational databases.

You need to enrol, but you're able to download the instructional videos and diagrams for off-line viewing.

 

DB2 University

 

Register for 'SQL Fundamentals'.

Edited March 21, 2011 by jinnantonnixx

[jinnantonnixx]

Also, the Petri SQL section is worth its weight in gold*.

Petri Microsoft SQL Server Center - MS SQL Tutorials & Help

 

 

* it doesn't weigh anything, but you know what I mean.

[jinnantonnixx]

Apologies, Richard. I've just reread the thread and see that you're familiar with SQL 2000, so the above may not be of any relevance. I'll leave the links there, as they are quite interesting anyway.

[Richard_Finnigan]

Yes I've gone beyond the basics but it looks interesting from a teaching point of view so I'll check it out. Thanks Richard