SQL Server DBA Success Plan: A Practical 90-Day Guide to Starting Strong, Protecting Production, and Becoming a Trusted Database Administrator

Your first 90 days as a database administrator can define how your organization sees your judgment, reliability, and leadership.
SQL Server DBA Success Plan is a practical field guide for new and developing database administrators who want to start strong without putting production at unnecessary risk. It focuses not only on what a DBA should know, but also on how to assess an unfamiliar environment, choose the right priorities, communicate clearly, and build trust through reliable work.
Inside, you will learn how to: Understand a SQL Server environment before making changes Verify backups, restores, integrity checks, monitoring, security, and high availability Prioritize work using business risk and evidence Troubleshoot production incidents with a calm, repeatable process Work effectively with developers, managers, infrastructure teams, and business partners Use checklists, worksheets, validation records, and working tools to organize your first 90 days Across 36 focused chapters, Jean Maurrase turns real-world DBA responsibilities into a clear success plan. The goal is not to memorize every command. It is to develop the habits and judgment that protect production systems and make colleagues confident in your work.
This guide is written for aspiring and newly hired SQL Server DBAs, junior database engineers, developers or systems administrators moving into database administration, and production support professionals who want a practical roadmap for succeeding in the role.