Two DB-Staff MS SQL Server database administrators has recently successfully passed 70-453 exam. This means that DB-Staff now holds two out of approximately 100 mcitp:dba2008 in the world.

       70-453 exam consists of two parts. 25 questions in the first section with given time 65 minutes and 23 questions in the second part - 60 minutes. Time counts separetely for the parts which means if you have not used all the time from first section it does extend to the second part. Questions are mostly referred to the sql server itself, not only to 2008 version. The preparation guide below should be enough to pass the upgrade since a lot of questions apply to sql server 2005 where you are already mcitp:dba (if you did not use testkings/dumps to obtain this credential ). .

      As a database administration service provider DB-Staff is interested in recent DBMS technologies such as Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and to prove their capability to manage this technology to customer DB-Staff encourages its employees to earn certificates in this area. As you may see on MCITP: SQL Server 2008 paths the first exam to take is 70-432 TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Installation and Maintenance. But since all DB-Staff DBAs are already MCITP:DBAs for SQL Server 2005 we are more interested in upgrade exam 70-453 Upgrade: Transition your MCITP Database Administrator Skills to MCITP Database Administrator 2008. According to Preparation Guide for Exam 70-432 and 70-453 exam page skills measured lists are almost the same the only difference - upgrade exam contains another four strategy sections. So this article may be used as a preparation kit for both exams.

First of all I strongly recommend that you read Introducing SQL Server 2008 book (which is the only book available for sql server 2008 for now). This will be very useful for both 70-432 and 70-453 exams

Installing and Configuring SQL Server 2008

• Install SQL Server 2008 and related services.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: file locations; default paths; service accounts
• Configure SQL Server instances.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: sp_configure
• Configure SQL Server services.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: configuration manager; SQL browser

• Considerations for Installing the SQL Server Database Engine

Maintaining SQL Server Instances

• Manage SQL Server Agent jobs.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: create and schedule jobs; notification of job execution; disable/enable jobs; change job step order; logging
• Implement the declarative management framework (DMF).
  This objective may include but is not limited to: create a policy; verify a policy; schedule a policy compliance check; enforce a policy; create a condition
• Back up a SQL Server environment.
  
  This objective may include but is not limited to: operating system-level concepts
• Administering Servers by Using Policy-Based Management Entry page, includes tutorial.
• DMF or Policy-Based Management

Managing SQL Server Security

• Manage users and database roles.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: user mapping; user-defined roles; fixed roles; guest, public, dbo; creating and deleting user roles
• Manage SQL Server instance permissions.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: logon triggers; permissions vs. fixed role membership; cross-database ownership chaining; impersonation
• Manage schema permissions and object permissions.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: manage schema ownership
• Audit SQL Server instances.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: use DDL triggers and logon triggers; C2; common criteria; login failures; event notifications

Database Encryption in SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition

Maintaining a SQL Server Database

• Back up databases.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: full backups; differential backups; transaction log; compressed backups; file and filegroup backups; verifying backup
• Restore databases.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: online restores; full restores; differential restores; transaction log; file and filegroup restores; verifying restore; tail of the transaction log
• Manage and configure databases.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: files, file groups, and related options; database options; recovery model; attach/detach data

Backup Compression (SQL Server)

Performing Data Management Tasks

• Manage data partitions.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: switching data from one partition to another; add a filegroup; alter a partition function; alter a partition scheme
• Maintain indexes.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: create spatial indexes; create partitioned indexes; clustered and non-clustered indexes; XML indexes; disable and enable indexes; filtered index on sparse columns; indexes with included columns; rebuilding/reorganizing indexes; online/offline

• Using Sparse Columns
• Using Column Sets
• Working with Spatial Indexes (Database Engine) Entry Page
• Filtered Index Design Guidelines
• Using hierarchyid Data Types (Database Engine) includes Tutorial

Monitoring and Troubleshooting SQL Server

• Identify SQL Server service problems.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: DB Engine service; SQL Agent service; SQL Browser service
• Identify concurrency problems.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: blocks, locks, deadlocks, activity monitor; relevant Dynamic Management Views

Optimizing SQL Server Performance

• Collect trace data by using SQL Server Profiler
• Collect performance data by using Dynamic Management Views (DMVs)
• Use Performance Studio

• Managing SQL Server Workloads with Resource Governor Entry page, includes How-To

• Data Collection Entry page, includes How-To
• Performance studio is synonym of Data Collection, See also webcast by Bill Ramos (62 minutes).

Implementing High Availability

• Implement database mirroring.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: monitoring, configuring, failover
• Implement a SQL Server clustered instance.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: monitoring, configuring, failover

Designing a SQL Server Instance and a Database Solution

• Design for CPU, memory, and storage capacity requirements.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: RAID, calculating table size, IO throughput, transaction per second, data compression, non-uniform memory access (NUMA), tempdb capacity
• Design physical database and object placement.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: heap and index placement, filestream, data and log files, filegroups, partition placement, large object placement, full text catalog

Designing a Database Server Security Solution

• Design database, schema, and object security paramaters.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: users, roles, certificate and key management, Service broker, Common Language Runtime (CLR), ownership chains
• Design a security policy and an audit plan.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: Policy-Based Management Framework, security functions, sp_helprotect, catalog views, extended events, notifications

Designing a Database Solution for High Availability

• Select high-availability technologies based on business requirements.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: failover clustering, database mirroring, log shipping, replication
• Design a failover clustering solution.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: cluster resource group, cluster setup considerations, number of nodes, service accounts
• Design database mirroring.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: whether to use a witness server, Windows Server considerations, suspend vs. stop, automatic or manual failover, automatic page repair, database snapshots for reporting, managing instance-level objects

Designing a Backup and Recovery Solution

• Design a backup strategy.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: recovery model, compression, choosing backup types, scheduling, backup media, file and filegroups backup, verifying backups, key management, mirrored backups, cluster considerations
• Design a recovery strategy.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: page, file, filegroup, partial and online restores, orphan users, instance rebuild, encryption considerations, handling media failures, transaction logs, point in time and mark recovery, filestreams
• Design a recovery test plan.
  
  This objective may include but is not limited to: log shipping, replication, hardware considerations, scheduling a database restore test, handling high availability failures

Planning for Disaster Recovery

Designing a Monitoring Strategy

• Design a monitoring solution at the instance level.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: instance, database and object monitoring, data collection, event notifications, dynamic management objects, analyze results
  Note: data collection was called performance data warehouse in SQL Server 2005.
• Design a solution to monitor performance and concurrency.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: Dedicated Administrator Connection (DAC), locking, blocking, deadlocks, dynamic management objects, index utilization, tracing, analyze. See Using DAC article.

Designing a Strategy to Maintain and Manage Databases

• Design a maintenance strategy for database servers.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: rebuild for page-level compression, index and heap maintenance, partition management, statistics
• Design a management automation strategy.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: SQL Server PowerShell, Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI), SQL Server Agent, event notifications, DDL triggers

Designing a Strategy for Data Distribution

• Administer SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) packages.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: design security for accessing packages, troubleshoot and restart package, schedule package execution, deploy packages to same or different instances
• Design a replication strategy for data distribution.
  This objective may include but is not limited to: selecting replication types, conflict resolution, health monitoring, horizontal and vertical partitioning

After you successfully passed you 70-453 exam you will receive to certificates - one TS and one MCITP

MCITP DBA 2008 charter member certificate  

MCTS SQL Server 2008, Implementation and Maintenance, Charter member

Good luck!