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Powershell

 

Understanding and Using Powershell Support in SQL Server 2008

 

In this article, Allen covers both an introduction to Powershell, and how we can use it to our advantage in administering SQL Server ... Source : Allen White - Technical Article - MSDN.com

 

 

Powershell and Process Ids

 

Another great powershell example from Allen. This one demonstrates how we can use it to identify SQL Server Instance names based on the Process Id, useful in situations such as this; In perfmon, under Process, % Processor Time, which instance name is sqlserver#2, sqlserver#3 etc ... ? ... Source : Allen White - Simple-talk.com 

 

Alerts
 

Error 825, a.k.a Impending Doom

 

A common (and recommended) practice is to setup SQL Server alerts for all high severity errors, typically level 16 . Amongst other things, this captures errors 823 and 824, both of which relate to I/O errors. Error 825 is raised when an I/O error occurs, but subsequent reads succeed. The problem here is that this error is raised as a level 10, and therefore not captured by a lot of monitoring systems. As Paul points out, creating an alert for this particular error is crucial in receiving an early warning of possible future I/O problems, or as he puts in, Impending Doom ... Source : Paul Randal - SQLSkills.com - Blog Post

 

 

Creating Alerts using T-SQL Script

 

In this post, Paul walks us through the process of creating an alert for a particular error message and also discusses the types of alerts we should create by default for all new SQL Server installations ... Source : Paul Randal - SQLSkills.com - Blog Post

Reporting

 

Standard Reports

 

One of the great things about SQL Server 2005 was the inclusion of a large range of Standard Reports, with SQL Server 2008 expanding on this further. In this post, Buck Woody lists, describes and categorizes all of them ... Source : Buck Woody - MSDN.com - Blog Post

 

 

Performance Dashboard Reports in SQL Server 2008

 

Despite the inclusion of the new Data Collector feature, the Performance Dashboard reports from 2005 are still requested by some. SQL Server 2008 doesn't support them out of the box, and in this post, Rob explains a workaround ... Source : Rob Carrol - Technet.com - Blog Post

 

Automation

 

The Importance of Automation

 

Kevin Kline joins a number of other experts in discussing the various benefits of Automating DBA tasks ... Source : TechEd Online - Video

 

 

Perl vs. Powershell vs. SSIS vs. Batch Files

 

What's the best/easiest way to execute multiple .sql script files in a given directory? What starts out as a simple perl script example from Linchi turns into a contest of sorts using various other script languages and tools to achieve the same result ... Source : Linchi Shea - SQLBlog.com

 

 

SQL 2005 Automation; Backup, Integrity Check and Index Optimization

 

A fantastic database maintenance solution from Ola. Takes care of "The Big 3" maintenance items in one hit. Backups, Indexes and DBCC Checks. Providing far more flexibility than Maintenance plans, the solution dynamically detects databases, has excellent error handling, is very robust and well documented. Best of all, has been used for over 6 months in a large production environment. Great Stuff Ola, and thanks to Kevin Kline for the heads up on the link ... Source : Ola Hallengren - Blog Post

 

 

Automate your Database Maintenance using SMO

 

A fantastic 3 part series from Allen White on using SMO to automate backups and integrity checks ... Source : Allen White - simple-talk.com - Article

 

 

Email Table as HTML

 

Tony Blogs about a proc he wrote to email the contents of a table in HTML format. Very nice ... Source : Tony Rogerson - sqlBlogCasts.com - Blog Post

 

 

xp_delete_file

 

Andy demonstrates the usage of the undocumented xp_delete_file extended stored procedure ... Source : Andy Leonard - SQLBlog.com 

Operations

 

SQL Server Operations Guide

 

Based on SQL Server 2000, but easily adapted to 2005. This guide covers the operations tasks and life cycle of SQL Server systems and, where appropriate, relates tasks to the Microsoft Operations Framework (MOF) ... Source : Microsoft.com - Technet Article

 

 

MOM 2005 / Dell Case Study

 

A case study of a Dell based SQL Server implementation using Microsoft Operations Manager (MOM) 2005 ... Source : Dell.com

 

 

Configuring Database Mail

 

A good walkthrough of the process to setup and configure Database Mail ... Source : Roman Rehak - SearchSQLServer.TechTarget.com - Article

Activity Monitoring

 

sys.dm_exec_requests

 

The sys.dm_exec_requests DMV comes in handy for troubleshooting a variety of performance problems, but as Aaron points out, the BOL entries on this DMV are limited. In this post, Aaron shows us a variety of ways it can be used in troubleshooting various issues ... Source : Aaron Bertrand - SQLBlog.com

 

 

SQL Server Blocked Process Monitor

 

Jonathan provides a tool via codeplex to track and capture the details of blocked processes, saving us the hassle of manually creating traces ... Source : Jonathan Kehayias - codeplex.com

 

 

Adam Machanic's Who is Active Script

 

Adam has released the latest version of his excellent DMV based current activity script Who Is Active - version 9.57 ... Source : Adam Machanic - SQLBlog.com

 

 

Activity Status via DAC Connection

 

In this article, Rudy provides the code for a stored procedure that can be executed using a DAC connection to display status information during periods of poor response ... Source : Rudy Panigas - SQLServerCentral.com

 

 

OS Wait Tasks

 

Various scripts to display the Operating System resources that tasks are currently waiting on ... Source : Slava Osk - Blog Post

 

 

Statements with the highest average CPU time

 

Lists the top 50 statements by average CPU time ... Source : Microsoft.com - Technet Article

 

 

Determine the space used by objects in TempDB

 

Script from Aaron Bertrand to display the breakdown of object usage within TempDB ... Source : Kevin Kline - SQLBlog.com - Blog Post

 

 

Compare Single-Use and Re-Used Plans

 

Displays the number of single use plans compared to multiple use plans. The number of single use plans should be a low percentage of the total. This script also displays the cache size of single use plans ... Source : Microsoft.com - Technet Article

 

 

Controlling Lock Granularity

 

In this post, Kalen talks about the new options in SQL Server 2008 for controlling lock granularity ... Source : Kalen Delaney - SQLBlog.com

 

 

Compare Signal Waits and Resource Waits

 

Sample script that compares signal waits and resource waits. Signal waits are the time spent in the runnable queue waiting for the CPU, while resource waits are the time spent waiting for the resource ... Source : Microsoft.com - Technet Article

 

 

ping.fm = SQL Server Twitter

 

An interesting suggestion from Jason regarding harnessing the power of social networking services such as Twitter as part of a SQL Server monitoring solution ... Source : Jason Massie - StatisticsIO.com

 

 

Sample DMV Queries

 

A good collection of DMV Scripts covering Blocking, Disk IO, Memory, Indexes and more …. ... Source : SQL Server Premier Field Engineers - SQLBlogcasts.com - Blog Post

 

 

33 New Dynamic Management Views In SQL Server 2008

 

Denis lists the 33 new DMV's in SQL Server 2008. The trackback comment from Aaron Bertrand links to his blog post that lists column differences in DMVs that exist in both 2005 and 2008 ... Source : Denis Gobo - SQLblog.com - Blog Post

 

 

sys.dm_exec_query_stats

 

The sys.dm_exec_query_stats DMV can be used to identify long running queries. In this article, Greg Larsen covers this DMV and a few other techniques for identifying slow running queries ... Source : sql-server-performance.com - Article

Profiler & SQLTrace

 

Mastering SQL Server Profiler

 

Written by Brad McGehee, this 283 page pdf covers just about everything there is to know about Profiler. Includes coverage of trace templates, deadlocks, blocks, slow running queries, statistics operations, auditing & perfmon integration. Thanks to Tom Gniadek for the heads up on the link ... Source : Brad McGehee - Red-Gate.com

 

 

Troubleshooting with Profiler and Perfmon

 

A great video from Brent that walks through 4 performance tuning scenarios using Profiler and Performance Monitor ... Source : Brent Ozar - SQLServerPedia.com - Video

 

 

The Limitations of sys.dm_exec_query_stats

 

The introduction of sys.dm_exec_query_stats in SQL Server 2005 opened up a whole new method for identifying poorly performing queries, however, as Elizabeth points out in this post, there are some important limitations to be aware of. She also points out how SQL Profiler (and related tools) can be used in supplementing sys.dm_exec_query_stats for a more indepth analysis ... Source : Elisabeth Redei - SQLBlog.com

 

 

An Alternative to Performance Monitor

 

The SQL Server specific performance monitor counters, for example, Page Life Expentancy, are exposed to Performance Monitor via the sys.dm_os_performance_counters DMV. As such, we can use it as an alternative to Performance Monitor. As Scott points out, one such use for this technique is to capture counter data to a table for subsequent use in custom Reporting Services reports ... Source : Scott Herbert - SQLServerPedia.com

 

 

 

Extended Events

 

System Health XEvent

 

SQL Server 2008 introduces a new event handling system called Extended Events, or Xevents. In this post, Bob Ward talks about an "always on" event called System Health that, among other things, enables details of events such as deadlocks, non yielding problems and severity 20 errors to be captured. Best of all, recent events it captures can be inspected at any later time using a new DMV. This is yet another example of how XEvents will make troubleshooting prickly problems so much easier ... Source : Bob Ward - PSS SQL Server Engineers - Blog Post

 

 

Retrospective Deadlock Analysis using Extended Events

 

There are several methods for tracing/obtaining deadlock information, but little in the way of retrospective analysis without pre-existing trace flags or profiler traces. In this article, Jonathan shows us another alternative, this one using the new Extended Events feature introduced in SQL Server 2008 ... Source : Jonathan Kehayias - SQLServerCentral.com

 

 


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