New book: Exam Ref 70-764 Administering a SQL Database Infrastructure
We’re happy to announce the availability of Exam Ref 70-764 Administering a SQL Database Infrastructure (ISBN 9781509303830), by Victor Isakov.
Purchase from these online retailers:
Microsoft Press Store Amazon Barnes & Noble Independent booksellers – Shop local
Overview
Prepare for Microsoft Exam 70-764—and help demonstrate your real-world mastery of skills for database administration. This exam is intended for database administrators charged with installation, maintenance, and configuration tasks. Their responsibilities also include setting up database systems, making sure those systems operate efficiently, and regularly storing, backing up, and securing data from unauthorized access.
Focus on the expertise measured by these objectives:
- Configure data access and auditing
- Manage backup and restore of databases
- Manage and monitor SQL Server instances
- Manage high availability and disaster recovery
This Microsoft Exam Ref:
- Organizes its coverage by exam objectives
- Features strategic, what-if scenarios to challenge you
- Assumes you have working knowledge of database installation, configuration, and maintenance tasks. You should also have experience with setting up database systems, ensuring those systems operate efficiently, regularly storing and backing up data, and securing data from unauthorized access.
Introduction
First and foremost, thank you for your purchase and all the best of luck in your endeavor to become certified and an expert in the SQL Server data platform. The 70-764 exam is intended for database professionals who perform installation, maintenance, and configuration tasks on the SQL Server platform. Other responsibilities include setting up database systems, making sure those systems operate efficiently, and regularly storing, backing up, and securing data from unauthorized access.
This book is geared toward database administrators who are looking to train in the administration of SQL Server 2016 infrastructure. To help you prepare for the exam you can use Microsoft Hyper-V to create SQL Server virtual machines (VMs) and follow the examples in this book. You can download an evaluation copy of Windows Server 2016 from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/evaluate-windows-server-2016/. SQL Server 2016 can be downloaded for free from https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server/sql-server-downloads. You can download the AdventureWorks databases from https://msftdbprodsamples.codeplex.com/. The Wide World Importers database can be downloaded from https://github.com/Microsoft/sql-server-samples/releases/tag/wide-world-importers-v1.0.
This book covers every major topic area found on the exam, but it does not cover every exam question. Only the Microsoft exam team has access to the exam questions, and Microsoft regularly adds new questions to the exam, making it impossible to cover specific questions. You should consider this book a supplement to your relevant real-world experience and other study materials. If you encounter a topic in this book that you do not feel completely comfortable with, use the “Need more review?” links you’ll find in the text to find more information and take the time to research and study the topic. Great information is available on MSDN, TechNet, and in blogs and forums.
Organization of this book
This book is organized by the “Skills measured” list published for the exam. The “Skills measured” list is available for each exam on the Microsoft Learning website: https://aka.ms/examlist. Each chapter in this book corresponds to a major topic area in the list, and the technical tasks in each topic area determine a chapter’s organization. If an exam covers six major topic areas, for example, the book will contain six chapters.
Important: How to use this book to study for the exam
Certification exams validate your on-the-job experience and product knowledge. To gauge your readiness to take an exam, use this Exam Ref to help you check your understanding of the skills tested by the exam. Determine the topics you know well and the areas in which you need more experience. To help you refresh your skills in specific areas, we have also provided “Need more review?” pointers, which direct you to more in-depth information outside the book.
The Exam Ref is not a substitute for hands-on experience. This book is not designed to teach you new skills.
We recommend that you round out your exam preparation by using a combination of available study materials and courses. Learn more about available classroom training at https://www.microsoft.com/learning. Microsoft Official Practice Tests are available for many exams at https://aka.ms/practicetests. You can also find free online courses and live events from Microsoft Virtual Academy at https://www.microsoftvirtualacademy.com.
This book is organized by the “Skills measured” list published for the exam. The “Skills measured” list for each exam is available on the Microsoft Learning website: https://aka.ms/examlist.
Note that this Exam Ref is based on publicly available information and the author’s experience. To safeguard the integrity of the exam, authors do not have access to the exam questions.
About the author
VICTOR ISAKOV is a Microsoft Certified Architect, Microsoft Certified Master, Microsoft Certified Trainer and Microsoft SQL Server MVP who has worked with SQL Server since 1994. Victor is the author of MCITP Developer: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Database Solutions Design (Exam 70-441) Study Guide (Sybex, 2006), co-author of MCITP Administrator: Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Optimization and Maintenance (Exam 70-444) Study Guide (Sybex, 2007) and co-author of the Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Administrator’s Companion (Microsoft Press, 2006).
He has worked for Microsoft Learning as an exam item writer, exam alpha reviewer, courseware designer, certification designer and courseware author. He is the author of Designing High Availability Database Solutions Using Microsoft SQL Server 2005 course and his Querying SQL Server using Transact-SQL course has been one of the most popular and profitable courses ever for Microsoft Learning.
In 2007 Microsoft invited Victor to attend and help quality assure the “SQL Ranger” program. Consequently, he became one of the first IT professionals to globally achieve the Microsoft Certified Master and Microsoft Certified Architect certifications. Victor is one of only three non-Microsoft Microsoft Certified Architects in the world. Victor regularly speaks at international conferences, including Microsoft TechEd, Microsoft Ignite, IT/Dev Connections and PASS Summit. Currently Victor is based in Sydney, Australia, and provides consulting and training services to organizations worldwide.