Don't Build a Monitoring System

Should you buy or build a monitoring system for your SQL Server? Todays' guest editorial from Grant Fritchey talks about the resistance to recommendations that many people seem to have.

Collect SQL Server/Process Information - Quickly

Execute this script to get information on SQL server, databases, processes, memory, buffer, locks, etc.

The DBA as Detective: Troubleshooting Locking and Blocking

Rodney Landrum describes in his own unique style how he, as a working DBA, goes about troubleshooting problem queries, and investigating various types of locking and blocking problems. In the process, he passes on valuable tips learned from practical, and sometimes stressful, experience.

Retaining historical index usage statistics for SQL Server - Part 3

In this, the third of the four part series on persisting the rowset results from the indexing Dynamic Management Views cached in temporary internal SQL Server structures we will explore what is required to store the missing index-related metadata.

Automating Performance Monitor Statistics Collection for SQL Server and Windows

You have about 100 SQL Servers installed in your production environment. You have performance problems on few of the servers, but they happen during the time when you are not watching the servers. So, how can you automate performance statistics collection on all the servers around the clock so we have the statistics for 24/7/365.

Collecting performance counters and using SQL Server to analyze the data

Quite frequently I find myself in situation where I need to get detailed information on performance monitor counters. For example I need to determine which processes are consuming all CPU at certain times.

Monitoring Your Servers : Data Collection vs. Performance Advisor

An article sponsored by SQL Sentry that compares how the Data Collector in SQL Server 2008 and SQL Sentry's Performance Advisor can be used with your SQL Server. Written by MVP Aaron Bertrand.

Finding Execution Time of a SQL Statement

Capturing the execution time for rebuilding an index for set of tables.

What SQL Statements Are Currently Executing?

This article describes a utility that allows you to identify what SQL statements are currently executing.

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