Training Kit (Exam 70-462) Administering Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Databases (MCSA) (Microsoft Press Training Kit)

This book is a great start to preparing for exam 70-462. You get a DVD with practice questions and practice exams, and you also get a voucher that take 15% off the price of the exam registration fee. The book is not big and not too small. It has good detail about each topic, and also has good walkthroughs that you can (and should) practice on a test machine. However, it is VERY important that you also review the MSDN links that are provided in every section of every chapter. If you rely solely on the book for your preparation, you will not have the full details about the subject matter. Microsoft exams are notorious for having questions on obscure little details that you might not encounter in your everyday work with the tested software. In addition, as the book points out, the exams will be updated as service packs and hot fixes are released. The only way to get the updated information is to go out on the web and review MSDN and other sites.My only criticism of this book, and it's a criticism of many exam guides, is that the review questions aren't detailed enough. If Microsoft is going to test us on obscure details, then their review questions should be detailed as well. I've found I have to write my own review questions to be assured of having a sufficient level of knowledge to pass the exam. I shouldn't have to do that, since that's the whole point of buying an exam guide.Other than that, it's a good book and worth the price of purchase.

I recently used the 70-461 version of this book along with the Transcender practice test to study for the 70-461 test. I passed it the first time with an 876 and I was pretty excited to begin studying for the 70-462 test.I planned on studying the same way, with the 70-462 training kit book and the Transcender practice test. Since I don't have very much experience on the Admin side of SQL Servers I was excited to learn about it.I am barely through the introduction and first chapter of the 70-462 training kit and I'm amazed at how many problems there are. Since I am only on the first chapter I've given this book 3 stars. If it gets better I will stay 3 stars but if it gets worse I'll probably drop the rating.Since I spent the last 2 days getting the test environment set up I wanted to share what I found and used while it was still fresh on my mind. That way my experience might help someone else or help me if I have to set this up again.Let's start at the beginning. Since I don't have 6 spare servers sitting around I planned on setting up 6 Windows Server 2008 R2 or 2012 virtual machines using Hyper-V. There are no instructions in the book for this and it's barely mentioned in 1 paragraph on xix in the introduction section. Thankfully someone took the time to type up instructions for this! It's on sqlserver.com and if you don't have a free account set up there yet you'll want one since they have a LOT of helpful information for SQL servers. The article can be found at:http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/MCSA+70-462/103881/Once the servers were set up I began following the instructions in the book to set up the network. In my version of the book the domain name on the domain controller is shown as Contso.com. A few pages later it's called Contoso.com. I finally found on the errata page that the Contso is incorrect and it should have been Contoso.com. Since I wanted to follow the rest of the book I started over and named the domain name Contoso.com. The errata page can be found at:http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/errata.csp?isbn=0790145345134A few pages later, when setting up the SQL-Core machine, they list an instruction to set up its IP address as: 10.10.10.40. Since that address was just used for SQL-C, I knew that couldn't be right. Again the errata page was used to find that it should have been 10.10.10.60 for SQL-Core.I had a lot of problems installing SQL Server 2008 on the SQL-Core machine. This is because it's all done by command line and the error logging is pretty cryptic to read. The error message I kept seeing was something like: "Object reference not set to an instance of an object". It turns out the problem was because the SQL Server 2008 r2 Core installation is missing a registry key. Once I found that and added it the installation completed without problem. You need to verify and possibly add a new key named "Uninstall" at the following location: "HKey_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion". If you need to read the log files you'll find those in the Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\Setup Bootstrap\Log\[DATETIMEINSTALLED]\Detail_ComponentUpdate.txt file.Lastly, when testing and verifying connectivity, more than likely it won't work. This is because the book never said you needed to add a SQL server exception to the firewall. Once you do that it should work correctly. This is done by running: "netsh advfirewall firewall add rule name="SQL Server 1433" dir=in action=allow protocol=TCP localport=1433" on each of the SQL machines. This hint was found at:https://www.mssqltips.com/sqlservertip/2725/installing-sql-server-2012-on-windows-server-core-part-3/The rest of the problems I had were setting up Hyper-V and the Windows Server machines so I could access them using Remote Desktop. This was mostly so the clipboard would work and I could use the full screen. First you want to be sure the network type you are using is internal. External or private didn't seem to work. Then in each of the non-core VM's you need to be sure that the network discover is on, but it won't stay on until you enable the following services: DNS Client (automatic probably already enabled), Function Discovery Resource Publication (manual, probably not enabled), SSDP Discovery (automatic, probably not enabled) and UPnP Device Host (automatic, probably not enabled). These were the sites where I found helpful information for this: http://geekswithblogs.net/bjackett/archive/2010/06/06/how-to-configure-remote-desktop-to-hyper-v-guest-virtual-machines.aspx and https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee256061(v=ws.10).aspxHopefully this will reduce someone else's frustration.Good luck on the test!

This book is not perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but it will get you through the exam.I have have worked on SQL Server for close to 4 years now, doing mostly BI/DW work. I have little to no DBA experience since the company I worked for had in-house DBA's. I recently took a position with a consulting firm and they encouraged me to get the MSCA/MSCE certifications. In preparing for the 70-462 exam, I purchased this book. I passed the exam on my first try, scoring an 860 (700 needed to pass). The majority of the credit for that score goes to this book.I recommend spending as much time as needed for the required setup before starting to work through the chapters. I do not have access to a Hyper-V environment, like the book suggests. I used VMWare Player, as well as Windows Server 2008 R2 evaluation version, and SQL Server 2012 evaluation version (all of which are free) for all of the exercises in the book and was able to complete the entire book with little to no trouble in that regard.I think the biggest shortcoming of the book is that some of the instructions are too brief and assume that you have prior knowledge on how to set certain things up, e.g. Domain Controllers, Group Policy Objects, Firewall Rules, etc. I think in future versions it would help if they could lengthen the instructions for these requirements. When reading through the book, you have to be willing to accompany the instructions by doing some online research as well.Again, the book isn't perfect, but it allowed me to pass the exam on my first try so I could move forward with my certification process. That's why I bought it, so I give it 5 stars.

I've recently bought this book and I'm currently wading through it.I've worked with various versions of SQL server for about 7 years as a by-product of the job I do, so I thought it was time to get certified. I don't class myself as a beginner, but I'm not a pro either. Put it this way, I don't often come unstuck with regard to implementation or maintenance of a SQL server; certainly nothing that I can't solve by going online for 10 mins.Firstly, this book seems quite dry. I find myself losing focus every couple of pages. Now, I don't like the style of certain have-fun-learning textbooks e.g. 'Head First' guides, but there has to be a happy medium between those and this in terms of delivering content. This book doesn't strike the balance for me.Secondly, I've noticed a few mistakes. It's knocking my confidence in the material - if I can see some mistakes with my level of knowledge, what haven't I spotted which a pro might?Next, the author is open about the fact that you won't find all of the material needed to pass the test within the pages of this book, resulting in frequent links to the Microsoft website. I find this a bit annoying as I can't just sit and read the material, I've got to off and do some alternative research. For £27 I expected a bit more.The testing environment requires you to implement 6 or 7 virtual machines, or a test lab full of machines to enable you to set up a DC and various member servers. I obviously understand the reasons why but unless you've got access to these resources, you might struggle. They don't all need to be running at once so you might get away with running a few VMs on a server or a powerful PC. I point this out because it isn't obvious until you start reading the book.This book assumes that you possess knowledge that you mightn't have - such as configuring a domain with a domain controller and various other member servers (including Sever Core!). You'll get the briefest of guides on how to do so, but you'll have to figure the rest out for yourself. I understand that Microsoft Certifications aren't for people who are brand new to the material, but come on! My skill set is software oriented - I manage a product which uses SQL server as its database platform. As such, I'm expected to 'know about SQL' but I'm not expected to know about server o/s configuration and implementation.You'll probably need more than one book to learn everything you need for the exam. I'm already shopping around for additional material.I really like SQL Server (ok, I'm a geek, I know) but this book seems to suck all of the fun out of it. I find it really dry and it has made the subject boring.Aside from all of the above, most of the content is quite good. I am learning from it, slowly, and I've already picked up on things that I can use in my day to day role.Consider this book to be more of a lengthy syllabus with a few exercises and some practice tests thrown in for good measure and you won't be disappointed.You will be disappointed if you think you're going to enjoy this book, that it is a 'bible' type textbook containing everything you need to know or that it will make learning the material straight-forward. In short, it doesn't.If you're an absolute beginner, think twice before buying this book. You'll probably think the learning curve is very steep, and the book itself might put you off unless you're determined to learn the content.This isn't the first MS Press book which I've found to be like this. I wonder if it is a deliberate ploy by Microsoft to encourage you to go on the official course.

Passed the exam first time round using this as my main source.I have been working with SQL Server (mainly 2005) on back end development for several years but was unfamiliar with 2012 until purchasing this book.After installing the evaluation edition as directed by the book and working diligently through the lessons I was able to pass the exam.I would say that the tests included are not as hard as the exam ones and not as good as some others available. My secondary source of SQL 2012 info was a different set of tests I downloaded and paid for (also well worth it).Be aware that the format of the exam is different from the exam questions you get here or are likely to download from elsewhere. Some to the actual exam questions have dozens of answers to select from and others involve dragging and dropping the correct instructions or script segments in the correct order.You should be getting near 100% on these sort of tests provided with this kit before you consider taking the exam.SQL 2012 is represents a major upgrade of Microsoft SQL and although some of the features may seen daunting at first, they have the potential to make a developers job much easier once familiarity with them has been gained. I think that, for most SQL developers, especially those of us who have not received structured training, it is fair to say that this book, if worked through diligently, will make you a better SQL developer not only in regard to the new features of 2012 but in general.This book will remain a valuable reference source and aide memoire long after passing the exam and is a very good guide to getting the most out of some of the very impressive features available only in SQL 2012.

I'm writing this on the same day that I passed 70-463. Having previously used the other 2 ms training books to study and help to pass 70-461 and 70-462 I can now happily call myself a mcsa in sql server 2012. Without these books I would have never passed the exams but likewise I couldn't have passed by just using the books. The books help to give a grounding in the subject matter and I'm sure I'll now use them a reference as the exercises are very clear 'how to' guides . The measure-up questions help with drilling in key concepts but again these are not questions that really help in the exam.It took me 6 weeks to read each book and complete the exercises ( never bothered with the case studies). 1 week to ace the measure-up test questions. 2 weeks of studying MS TechNet .... So 9 weeks per book.Out if all the 3 training kits , 70-463 had the most errata but I'm not surprised given the bigger topics and concepts this book has to cover ( the o'reily website lists the errata so it's worth checking before starting each lesson). Out of the three, 70-463 was the most interesting, 70-461 the most straightforward and 70-462 the least interesting ( the pure DBA topics in 70-462 just didn't float my boat)

I am near the end of the book. I should admit that it is a good book! it gives you what you need to make the best of the information available. It cannot give everything ready made, and that perhaps makes the reader to think more; and there are good references to topics that you may need in details which it may make the book a reference book, too.Do not let the beginning of the book put you off. It will ask you to create 4 virtual servers, one of them core.They are not really needed, apart from core, which even core is not needed. Nevertheless it forced me to learn more about core OS setting up; e.g. static IP, powershell,, renaming,...which is not covered in the book.Nevertheless i found the book, after nearly finishing it, which i seldom do if am not intending to do exam, very informative; not only related to SQL server but also the server performance related monitoring tasks.....

This book will give you the basics, especially if you are new to DBA stuff. It is unfortunately not detailed enough to enable you to pass the exam. I am a BI developer, not a DBA & I don't have any & do not want to gain any DBA experience as I find this area of IT to be the most boring. However to gain the MCSA & BI certification you need this exam. Even with the approved MeasureUp exam prep, I still managed to fail the exam in 2017. I would still recommend this book to anyone who is new to DBA with the suggestion that further resources are needed to pass the exam.