Luke Campbell — Production DBA & Educator
At a Glance
- 20+ years managing production SQL Server
- 68 free automation guides published
- Author, automatesql.mssql official Ansible collection
- Teaching stack: Ansible · PowerShell · Vagrant · VMware
- USA
About Luke Campbell
Enterprise database administration is hard enough.You shouldn't have to sacrifice your evenings clicking “Next-Next-Finish” or guessing what your team configured.
For over two decades in enterprise data centers, I've carried the pager, worked through 2 AM maintenance windows, and stared at out of date Word runbooks hoping I didn't miss a step.
I know the frustration of watching every engineer build servers slightly differently—one person formatting drives at 64KB, another leaving default 4KB; one storing scripts in a local folder, another in an undocumented share. And to make matters worse, modern DevOps culture often treats Windows and SQL Server like legacy dinosaurs, leaving DBAs isolated without modern tooling.
I realized early on that the DBAs who survive and thrive aren't the ones working 70-hour weeks—they're the ones who treat their database infrastructure as repeatable, version-controlled code.
I founded AutomateSQL to give DBAs and systems engineers the exact flight simulators, Ansible playbooks, and PowerShell frameworks I spent 20 years developing in enterprise trenches. Whether you're looking for battle-tested lab environments to test changes risk-free, or production playbooks that run identically every single time, my goal is simple: demystify enterprise automation, help you take command of your infrastructure, and protect your evenings.
“When multiple engineers build servers by hand, every machine ends up slightly different. Automation eliminates configuration drift so your team builds and patches every environment identically—every single time.”
What I Believe
Core engineering principles behind every playbook, lab blueprint, and guide on AutomateSQL.
Sandboxes First, Production Never First
Everything I teach is lab-tested in an isolated local lab before reaching live environments. Sandboxes build confidence; guessing leads to incidents.
Repeatable Frameworks Beat One-Off Scripts
Idempotent Ansible playbooks and structured automation eliminate configuration drift so your entire team builds and patches every server identically.
Protect Your Evenings
Automation gives you peace of mind. When your environment builds, patching, and tests are deterministic, you keep your life outside of work.
A Personal Note from Luke
While I'm passionate about database engineering, automation, and helping DBAs build resilient careers, none of these things are the ultimate foundation of my life.
Over 20 years of managing high-stakes enterprise systems taught me that career achievements, uptime, and technology can never provide lasting peace or security. That peace, for me, is found in a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.
If you've ever wondered about true hope and purpose, Scripture offers a clear promise:
“...that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
For the Scripture says, ‘Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.’ For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord over all is rich to all who call upon Him. For ‘whoever calls on the name of the LORD shall be saved.’”