SQL Server DBA Course + Certification

Course Description (for the course page)

Complete Microsoft SQL Server Database Administration (DBA) Course is free to take from start to finish—students get full access to every lesson, lab, and hands‑on exercise at no cost.

To earn the credential, students complete the curriculum and pass the Certification Exam
. After passing, they can purchase the Professional SQL DBA School Certificate for $49
—an official, resume‑ready certificate they can use on Linked In, job applications, and their professional portfolio.

Recommended structure: 16 sections, ~130–160 lessons, 25–40 labs, downloadable scripts/runbooks/templates, and a final certification exam.

Below is a complete, buildable Learn Press outline (each section includes what to teach + sessions/lessons).

Goal: Teach students how DBAs work in the real world (evidence‑first, change control, risk management).
Lessons

What a SQL Server DBA actually does (daily/weekly/monthly responsibilities)

Environments:
Dev/Test/Stage/Prod and why they matter

Your lab roadmap (what you will build in this course)

Required tools: SSMS, Azure Data Studio, Power Shell, Git basics (for scripts)

The “Top mistakes new DBAs make” (and how to avoid them)

Lab:
Create your DBA notebook + folder structure (scripts, backups, logs, notes)

Goal: Make students understand databases, not just click buttons.
Lessons

Data vs information: how databases support applications

Tables, rows, columns, constraints (what DBAs must enforce)

Keys: PK/FK/Unique/Check constraints (why they prevent data disasters)

Relationships and referential integrity

Transactions and ACID in practice (and what breaks it)

Normalization (what to normalize, what to denormalize—and when)

Index concept introduction (why indexes are “data structures,” not magic)

Lab:
Design a small schema and enforce constraints properly

Goal: Students become fluent in reading/writing SQL needed for DBA work.
Lessons

SELECT fundamentals (projection, filtering, sorting)

WHERE, ORDER BY, TOP, DISTINCT, NULL handling

GROUP BY, HAVING, aggregate functions

Joins (INNER/LEFT/RIGHT/FULL) and common join mistakes

Subqueries vs joins (when each is appropriate)

INSERT/UPDATE/DELETE and safe patterns

Goal: Prepare students for troubleshooting and tuning tasks.
Lessons

Common table expressions (CTEs)

Window functions (, RANK, SUM OVER)

CASE expressions and robust business logic

Error handling: TRY/CATCH and defensive scripts

Transactions in T‑SQL (BEGIN/COMMIT/ROLLBACK patterns)

Stored procedures: parameters, output, return codes

Lab:
Build a stored procedure with validation + error handling

Goal: Students can install SQL Server correctly and repeatably.
Lessons

Hardware and sizing basics (CPU, memory, storage tiers)

Virtualization options (VMware/Virtual Box/Hyper‑V) — choose one

Install Windows Server (or Windows 11 Pro lab) and harden basics

Service accounts strategy (what to do in lab vs production)

Install SQL Server (edition guidance + components)

Install SSMS and essential tooling

Configure file locations: data/log/tempdb separation (best practice)

Lab:
Build a “clean install checklist” students can reuse

Goal: Teach internals that drive performance and troubleshooting.
Lessons

SQL Server process model and services overview

Databases vs instances (what lives where)

Pages/extents and why they matter to I/O

Buffer pool and memory grants (why queries “spill”)

tempdb purpose and common bottlenecks

System databases: master/model/msdb/tempdb (dos and don’ts)

Lab:
Inspect internal metadata (DMVs introduction safely)

Goal: Students learn safe, standard instance configuration.
Lessons

MAXDOP and Cost Threshold for Parallelism (how to set correctly)

Memory configuration (min/max server memory; OS reserved)

File growth strategy (autogrowth sizing,…