Although I've never understood why people will wait in lines for free samples in grocery stores, I can't get enough free resources when it comes to things like development and database administration. As such, I wanted to share some great, free resources that developers who work with SQL Server will find helpful—that I've found in fairly non-conventional locations—assuming that you love free stuff, too.
TechNet's Script RepositoryThe old adage, "You get what you pay for" would seem to indicate that you don't get much when it comes to many free resources. However, one great thing about development and administration is that people who spend a lot of time crafting awesome solutions is that they frequently want to share what they've done and how they've done it. To that end, the internet is chock-full of lots of great, free, resources.
One resource that I bumped into a long while ago and bookmarked but somehow strangely never seem to set enough time to explore fully is
Microsoft's Script Repository, a vast repository of scripts provided by Microsoft and by its users/customers.
The Script Repository is actually part of
Microsoft's Script Center, out on TechNet. But what I love about the repository is that it's pretty easy to "slice and dice" through the available scripts, and if you poke around for a few minutes you can see that there are simply
gobs of different, free, scripts that can be used for a huge variety of SQL Server purposes.
Some of these scripts are really powerful offerings in and of themselves, while others might be a bit of data or superseded by better approaches that you can find in books or some blogs. But given just how many scripts there are, this site provides a great resource for learning about how to tackle various SQL Server tasks and operations—and is well worth a glance.
Free Goodies from Third-Party SQL Server VendorsAs I
opined about a year and a half ago, one of the great things that makes the SQL Server development and DBA community such a great place is the excellent support provided by many third-party SQL Server vendors. Make no mistake: These vendors do want to sell you their tools and services.
But to do that, these vendors all actively participate in the SQL Server community in order to establish themselves as being able to provide viable solutions and practical value. And one way that they showcase their ability to solve real-world problems is through the distribution of not only free tools and solutions in many cases, but also in the form of free resources, documentation, and even training that's
not specifically tied to their products.
As such, third-party SQL Server vendors actually provide a veritable cornucopia of free resources for developers and DBAs. Here's a quick list of some of the resources that I happen to know about.
Quest SoftwareIn addition to the
freeware version of
Toad for SQL Server, Quest Software also provides a host of different tools and solutions for SQL Server, including a number of free
knowledge and training resources. Among these resources are
SQLServerPedia.com, which itself contains all sorts of free tutorials, documentation, and other helpful resources—including links to past and current online training events. Quest's site also provides one of my all-time-favorite, free, resources available online: a .pdf containing detailed, aggregated, information on how to make heads or tails of SQL Server (and Windows)
performance counters that can be used to help troubleshoot SQL Server performance-tuning needs.