SQL Server 2019 Administrator’s Guide – Second Edition

Master SQL Server 2019 Administration with Confidence

Database administrators carry a heavy responsibility: they must keep enterprise data available, secure, and fast. SQL Server 2019 Administrator’s Guide – Second Edition gives you the practical knowledge to handle those demands. Written by Marek Chmel and Vladimír Mužný, both Microsoft Data Platform MVPs, this updated guide takes you from initial deployment to ongoing performance tuning.

What You’ll Find Inside

This book is organized around the real work of a DBA. It starts by walking you through SQL Server 2019 installation on Windows and Linux, including container-based deployments. From there, you’ll learn how to keep the server healthy through patching, configuration, and performance baselines.

The middle chapters focus on data protection. You’ll build solid backup and recovery strategies, explore recovery models, and practice restore scenarios. Security gets equal attention, with detailed coverage of authentication, authorization, Transparent Data Encryption, Always Encrypted, and data discovery and classification.

Plan for Continuity and Speed

Disaster recovery planning is essential for any production system. The guide explains high availability options such as Always On Failover Clusters, Availability Groups, database mirroring, log shipping, and replication. You’ll understand how to configure each approach and choose the right one for your environment.

Finally, the book dives into indexing and performance. You’ll learn how SQL Server processes queries, how to use monitoring tools like Activity Monitor and Extended Events, and how to identify and fix common performance bottlenecks. Query Store and dynamic management views help you keep workloads running smoothly over time.

Who Benefits from This Edition

This book is aimed at database administrators, database developers, and IT professionals who manage SQL Server systems. Whether you are upgrading from an earlier version or expanding your skills to SQL Server 2019, the second edition provides a clear, example-driven path. Beginners will appreciate the step-by-step explanations, while experienced DBAs can use the book as a reference for new features and best practices.

With real-world scenarios and a focus on enterprise needs, this guide supports your daily work and helps you build more reliable, secure, and performant SQL Server environments.