SQL Server DBA Roadmap Checklist & Learning Sources
Core SQL Server DBA Skills
- Install & configure SQL Server
- Create & manage databases
- Backups & restores
- User security & permissions
- Monitoring & basic performance tuning
- T-SQL basics
- Learn: Microsoft Learn SQL Server Fundamentals, Books Online docs
Advanced DBA Skills
- High availability (AlwaysOn, clustering, log shipping)
- Disaster recovery planning
- Advanced query tuning
- Understanding SQL Server internals
- Automation with PowerShell / SQL Agent jobs
- Learn: Microsoft Docs SQL Server High Availability, Brent Ozar SQL Performance Tuning Tutorials
Database Testing
- Functional testing (tSQLt, Redgate SQL Test)
- Performance & load testing (JMeter, Locust)
- Backup & restore verification
- Security testing (SQL injection, permissions)
- Learn: tSQLt official docs
Cross-Platform Database Knowledge
- Basics of MySQL / MariaDB
- Basics of PostgreSQL
- Basics of NoSQL (MongoDB, Redis)
- Learn: MySQL official docs, PostgreSQL tutorialspoint, MongoDB university courses
OS & Infrastructure
- Windows Server basics
- Linux basics (Ubuntu/CentOS)
- Networking fundamentals
- Virtualization & cloud infrastructure
- Learn: Windows Server Fundamentals, Linux Foundation Introduction to Linux
Cloud & DevOps
- Azure SQL Database & Managed Instances
- AWS RDS for SQL Server
- Infrastructure as Code (Terraform/ARM)
- CI/CD for databases
- Learn: Azure SQL Microsoft Learn, AWS RDS AWS docs
Data Engineering & BI
- ETL tools: SSIS, Azure Data Factory
- Data warehousing (star/snowflake schema)
- Reporting tools: Power BI, SSRS
- Basics of Big Data (Spark/Hadoop overview)
- Learn: Azure Data Factory docs, Power BI official docs
Security & Compliance
- Encryption: TDE, Always Encrypted
- Auditing & vulnerability assessments
- Compliance basics: GDPR, ISO, HIPAA
- Learn: SQL Server Security docs
Soft Skills & Scripting
- PowerShell scripting
- Python basics for automation
- Documentation & communication skills
- Learn: PowerShell Basics docs
Testing & Change Management
- Disaster recovery drills & documentation
- Capacity planning & forecasting
- Change management & version control
- Regular audit & compliance reports
- Database migrations (in-place, upgrades, cloud moves)
