Tools/Utilities

Have you ever called Microsoft Customer Support for help with a SQL Server performance issue? The engineer will typically send you a self-extracting exe file with instructions to unzip the file on the server and run the pssdiag.cmd file to collect data while you reproduce your issue. Afterwards, you’re supposed to zip up the contents of the output folder and send it back to the engineer. How did the engineer compile that collection code so quickly? The answer is PSSDiag Configuration Manager, or simply DiagManager. DiagManager is just a tool that you use to configure which performance items are to...

The year is 2015, and I’m still surprised by how many people have never heard of SQL Nexus; although it has been available since approximately 2008. SQL Nexus is a tool that that is designed to collect and analyze data to help you troubleshoot SQL Server performance issues. There are plenty of tools on the market that can easily do this, but this one is free and it can be used to monitor SQL Server 2005 through SQL Server 2014. The tool was originally created by the SQL Server product support team, and is still used today as the primary...

Management Studio is great tool with almost everything you need right at your fingertips.  Notice I said “almost”.  I like to customize the toolbars to meet my needs of doing work every day.  Because being a DBA means you’re busy all day long, and you don’t have time to hunt through all the menus or memorize a keystroke for a special function.    The very first customization I always make is to add the “Hide Results Pane” button to the SQL Editor toolbar.  This option is found under the Window menu and acts a toggle button to either show or...