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Fun times. A few thoughts: To make your job easier? Automate as much as possible. Learn PowerShell, learn how to write scripts to rollout stuff to multiple servers at once. Things you'll need to do sooner rather than later: * Basic server audit - how many servers have you got? What are they running? Are there good backups? Are the databases healthy? * Test the backups regularly - spend a little time here making sure you audit your backups, and you'll be more confident in using them when you actually need to use them. Make sure the backups are not kept on the same server. Or, if they are, make sure that they're also kept somewhere else, ideally in a different data center. * Monitoring - get some monitoring tools in place - something like [Red Gate's SQL Monitor][1]. Use this to keep an eye on things, and only alert you when something's wrong. * Make sure you know who else has access to your servers. Find out why they have it, do they really need it, what level of access they have - you don't want someone else doing something that undoes your hard work (or, worse, the company's hard work.) * Documentation! Server name, configuration, databases, which applications they support, who are the points of contact for those applications (in case something goes wrong), and a configuration change log for each server * Baseline performance of servers, so that you can identify when things are running slowly (or can slap the users down if they complain, and you can see everything's fine.) * Data growth - keep an eye on this, monitor, graph, chart, whatever - just make sure you don't run out of disk space! * Meet with your users (or the application owners identified in your documentation). Discuss with them their hopes, fears, dreams, and expectations, particularly when it comes to Disaster Recovery scenarios. And now for some longer-term stuff: * Get yourself some training. * Read a few books. Red Gate has a nice selection of freebies - look for Brad McGehee's book "Become an Exceptional DBA" in [their DBA collection][2] * Read a few blogs. * Ask questions. Don't hide yourself away, just because you're a team of one. I know that problem myself - I've been on my own in this for over three years. Just because there's only one of you there doesn't mean you don't have colleagues elsewhere. * Go to user groups, conferences, SQL Saturdays. Get out there. [1]: http://www.red-gate.com/products/dba/sql-monitor/ [2]: http://www.red-gate.com/community/books/#sqldba

I recognize that I work for a tool vendor, but... If you want to make your life "easier" as a DBA, in addition to all the excellent suggestions from @ThomasRushton, especially validating your backups, on gathering knowledge of your systems, automating everything you possibly can, and educating yourself as much as possible, you should consider tooling. The way I look at it is, why should I invent the wheel over and over again. Now, you may not have a budget. But, that doesn't mean you can't get some tools that will help you with your job. Here's a quick list of a few free tools that are extremely helpful: - [SQL Search][1]: From Red Gate, my company, handy way to find objects across a server - [Minion][2]: From the Midnight DBA team, it's index maintenance made very easy and very powerful at the same time - [sp_Blitz][3]: From Brent Ozar, it's a health check for your server - [SQL Cop][4]: From the Less Than Dot team, it's a different kind of health check, more focused on your database code - [RML Utilities][5]: From Microsoft, yeah, they have some additional tooling available too. This one is for reading the output of extended events or trace events There are tons of others. Some offered by various tool vendors, some offered by helpful individuals. [Here are some additional suggestions][6]. Then, there are paid vendor tools. For example, I've been using [Red Gate SQL Compare][7] for about 15 years and I've only worked with the company for three. It allows you to compare two databases and find the structural differences and then generate the appropriate scripts to ensure they'll be the same again. It's invaluable. They also offer a tool for code completion called [SQL Prompt][8] that I use when writing all my T-SQL. A must-have. But, there are excellent tools from other vendors. Check out SQL Sentry for monitoring, SIOS for replication, and there are more. Just remember, you don't have to invent and build wheels when there are wheels available. But also remember, a tool can't take the place of your own understanding and knowledge. They should be making your job easier, not doing your job for you. [1]: http://www.red-gate.com/products/sql-development/sql-search/ [2]: http://www.midnightsql.com/Minion/ [3]: http://www.brentozar.com/blitz/ [4]: http://sqlcop.lessthandot.com/ [5]: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=4511 [6]: http://www.johnsansom.com/top-10-free-sql-server-tools/ [7]: http://www.red-gate.com/products/sql-development/sql-compare/ [8]: http://www.red-gate.com/products/sql-development/sql-prompt/