A collection of 53 Microsoft MVPs (myself included) have wrapped up authoring one of the greatest SQL Server books yet to hit the shelves – SQL Server MVP Deep Dives.

This book brings together the experience from all corners of SQL Server: Design & Architecture, Development, Administration, Performance Tuning & Optimization, and Business Intelligence. Each section contains unique topics ranging from avoiding common query mistakes, running SQL Server on Hyper-V, to SSIS performance tuning.

The book is available to pre-order here: http://www.sqlservermvpdeepdives.com

(EDIT: Save 50% by purchasing the book from the above site by the end of September when you use the code, pop0928)

All author royalties – and this is what really makes this book stand out – are being donated to War Child International, a charity involved in bringing food, health, and happiness to kids across the world involved in war.

Many thanks to the editors for pushing this book through to completion: Paul Nielsen, Kalen Delaney, Greg Low, Adam Machanic, Paul S. Randal, and Kimberly L. Tripp

For more information on the book, continue reading:

Chapter list:

PART I – DATABASE DESIGN AND ARCHITECTURE
Paul Nielsen, Editor

1. Louis and Paul’s 10 relational database design rules by Paul Nielsen and Louis Davidson
2. SQL Server tools for maintaining data integrity by Louis Davidson
3. Finding functional dependencies by Hugo Kornelis

PART II – DATABASE DEVELOPMENT
Adam Machanic, Editor

4. Set-based iteration: the third alternative by Hugo Kornelis
5. Gaps and islands by Itzik Ben-Gan
6. Error handling in SQL Server and applications by Bill Graziano
7. Pulling apart the FROM clause by Rob Farley
8. What makes a bulk insert a minimally logged operation? by Denis Gobo
9. Avoiding three common query mistakes by Kathi Kellenberger
10. Introduction to XQuery on SQL Server by Michael Coles
11. SQL Server XML frequently asked questions by Michael Coles
12. Using XML to transport relational data by Matija Lah
13. Full text searching by Robert C. Cain
14. Simil: an algorithm to look for similar strings by Tom Van Stiphout
15. LINQ to SQL and the ADO.NET Entity Framework by Bob Beauchemin
16. Table-valued parameters by Don Kiely
17. Build your own index by Erland Sommarskog
18. Getting and staying connected—or not by William Vaughn
19. Extending your productivity in SSMS and Query Analyzer by Pawel Potasinski
20. Why every SQL developer needs to have a tools database by Denis Gobo
21. Deprecation feature by Cristian Lefter
22. Placing SQL Server in your pocket by Christopher Fairbairn
23. Mobile data strategies by John Baird

PART III – DATABASE ADMINISTRATION
Kimberly L. Tripp and Paul S. Randal, Editors

24. What does it mean to be a DBA? by Brad McGehee
25. Working with maintenance plans by Tibor Karaszi
26. PowerShell in SQL Server by Richard Siddaway
27. Automating SQL Server management using Server Management Objects by Allen White
28. Practical auditing in SQL Server 2008 by Jasper Smith
29. My favorite DMVs and why by Aaron Bertrand
30. Reusing space in a table by Joe Webb
31. Some practical issues in table partitioning by Ron Talmage
32. Partitioning for manageability (and maybe performance) by Dan Guzman
33. Faster, smaller, and more energy-efficient backups without indexes by Greg Linwood
34. Using database mirroring to become a superhero! by Glenn Berry
35. The poor man’s SQL Server log shipping by Edwin Sarmiento
36. Some understated changes found in SQL Server 2005 replication by Paul Ibison
37. High performance transactional replication by Hilary Cotter
38. Successfully implementing Kerberos delegation by Scott Stauffer
39. Running SQL Server on Hyper-V by John Paul Cook

PART IV – PERFORMANCE TUNING AND OPTIMIZATION
Kalen Delaney, Editor

40. When is an unused index not an unused index? by Rob Farley
41. Speeding up queries with index covering by Alex Kuznetsov
42. Tracing the deadlock by Gail Shaw
43. How to optimize tempdb performance by Brad McGehee
44. Does the order of columns in an index matter? by Joe Webb
45. Correlating SQL Profiler with Windows Performance Monitor by Kevin Kline
46. Using correlation to improve query performance by Gert-Jan Strik
47. Dr. DMV: how to use Dynamic Management Views by Glenn Berry
48. Query performance and disk I/O counters by Linchi Shea
49. XEVENT: the next event infrastructure for SQL Server by Cristian Lefter

PART V – BI DEVELOPMENT
Greg Low, Editor

50. BI for the relational guy by Erin Welker
51. Unlocking the secrets of SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services by William Vaughn
52. Reporting Services tips and tricks by Bruce Loehle-Conger
53. SQL Server Audit: change tracking or change data capture? by Aaron Bertrand
54. Introduction to SSAS data mining by Dejan Sarka
55. To aggregate or not to aggregate: is there really a question? by Erin Welker
56. Incorporating data profiling in the ETL process by John Welch
57. Expressions in SQL Server Integration Services by Matthew Roche
58. SSIS performance tips by Phil Brammer
59. Incremental loads using T-SQL and SSIS by Andy Leonard