IT guys, Need a bit of help

I'm a blue collar guy from quite a while back, military training, (no college), many industry classes, years of experience, and very good at what I do. I've worked my way somehow into a DBA position. I know my way (somewhat) around a DB, but I know SQUAT about MSSQL. Does anyone know a local company that teaches SQL without needing to take college courses?

Now, I'm not some kind of newb to programming laguage or anything. I learned Turbo Pascal when I was like 12. I know Html, Xhtml, CSS, Basic (of course), my share of C++ and a bit of SQL. I also program in PLC logic (my bread and butter). I'm looking for a crash course on SQL, and I dont have the time to deal with newbs to database interaction.

Anyone out there a DBA for MSSQL admin that could teach me something or recommend a good class?

Your best bet might just be to go to Micro Center and get a book on how to program for it. Usually they come with bundled software, but if not I'm sure there is a freeware alternative to practice on somewhere on the web...

The sad thing is, I only understood about 10% of the acronyms he used and what he said. Man, I'm getting old. [Shake]

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Originally Posted by Ridge

Your best bet might just be to go to Micro Center and get a book on how to program for it. Usually they come with bundled software, but if not I'm sure there is a freeware alternative to practice on somewhere on the web...

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^This

There are also some places out there that will do a boot camp kinda thing for your Cert. Buyer beware though. Some teach you the answers to the questions on the cert exam and that is ALL.

Couple of free resources to get you started...

http://www.microsoft.com/Sqlserver/2...ess.aspx#learn
http://www.microsoft.com/express/Database/

SQLExpress is the free MSDE rev of MS SQL, regardless of what anyone may think of MS business practices, MS SQL is the place to start vs MYSQL or Oracle. The fundementals are the same but MS SQL is more marketable. Oracle pays better but requires higher level of experience to get in the door and has less market traction.

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Originally Posted by esaabye

regardless of what anyone may think of MS business practices, MS SQL is the place to start vs MYSQL or Oracle. The fundementals are the same but MS SQL is more marketable.

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That depends entirely on the area of industry you're working in. In the UNIX server arena (very popular for internet stuff) you'll find MySQL, Oracle, and PostgreSQL are in high demand, and MS SQL is non-existant in UNIX networks.

He's said he's specifically interested in MS-SQL though, and I'm certain you can get jobs with that knowledge set. The interesting bit is the desire to learn SQL outside of it's application through programming languages.

If you aren't writing programs that use SQL, then you're essentially looking at a DBA type job, and you'll want to focus as much (or more) on the administration tasks as the actual Structure Query Language itself. While "SQL" is a defined standard and each SQL server adheres to it to a reasonable degree, the administrative tasks vary wildly from server to server.

I'd suggest, in addition to books, that you download the software and get it running on a local machine. As someone else mentioned, I believe you can get the software for free in a non-commercial setting (e.g. teaching yourself how to use it). Once you have it up and running, you'll want to do things like create extremely large tables (You can download sample data from the internet) and then practice doing things like backing up databases, restoring databases, all maintenance tasks. Try corrupting the database intentionally and seeing if you can use the recovery tools. Nothing beats hands on experience in the sticky bits that aren't done frequently, but when needed are crucial to know.

Sorry for switching pronounces from "He" to "You" here, makes it a bit confusing who I'm talking to.

Good luck!

H.

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Originally Posted by Hoosier

That depends entirely on the area of industry you're working in. In the UNIX server arena (very popular for internet stuff) you'll find MySQL, Oracle, and PostgreSQL are in high demand, and MS SQL is non-existant in UNIX networks.

He's said he's specifically interested in MS-SQL though, and I'm certain you can get jobs with that knowledge set. The interesting bit is the desire to learn SQL outside of it's application through programming languages.

If you aren't writing programs that use SQL, then you're essentially looking at a DBA type job, and you'll want to focus as much (or more) on the administration tasks as the actual Structure Query Language itself. While "SQL" is a defined standard and each SQL server adheres to it to a reasonable degree, the administrative tasks vary wildly from server to server.

I'd suggest, in addition to books, that you download the software and get it running on a local machine. As someone else mentioned, I believe you can get the software for free in a non-commercial setting (e.g. teaching yourself how to use it). Once you have it up and running, you'll want to do things like create extremely large tables (You can download sample data from the internet) and then practice doing things like backing up databases, restoring databases, all maintenance tasks. Try corrupting the database intentionally and seeing if you can use the recovery tools. Nothing beats hands on experience in the sticky bits that aren't done frequently, but when needed are crucial to know.

Sorry for switching pronounces from "He" to "You" here, makes it a bit confusing who I'm talking to.

Good luck!

H.

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This. Get an instance of linux / unix up and running and install mysql on it.
There are more books out there than you can shake a stick at. One of your best resources will be SQL and MYSQL user forums and groups.

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Originally Posted by Molon_Labe-1775

This. Get an instance of linux / unix up and running and install mysql on it.
There are more books out there than you can shake a stick at. One of your best resources will be SQL and MYSQL user forums and groups.

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OP said he's looking specifically to learn MS-SQL. MySQL would give him hands on experience with the guts of SQL itself, the SELECT UPDATE DELETE CREATE that is really the meat and potatoes.

However he said he doesn't want to learn it in conjunction with programming, so I'm guessing that part is less important than the noodly bits around administration, and in that regard MySQL won't help much with MSSQL

H.

In the UNIX world, Oracle is very big. Their SQL wasn't at all SQL compliant but more recent versions are getting closer. I don't know if this is true anymore but they used to have a free download for personal use on Linux systems. I installed on on my home machine with Red Hat years ago. Oracle DBA's make good money but their certification courses take awhile and cost big $'s.

You do have to check out any of those private places. They tend to cost a lot and you want to make sure you are getting your money's worth.

Steve

Check out the book "Database Design for Mere Mortals."