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SQL Server Diagnostic Information Queries for April 2015

I revised several of the queries this month in only the SQL Server 2012 and 2014 versions of the script.  As usual, the main enhancements are additional comments and documentation about the queries, including more information about how to interpret the results. 

Since SQL Server 2008 R2 and older are out of Mainstream support from Microsoft (and because fewer of my customers are using these old versions of SQL Server), I am not going to be updating the scripts for these older versions of SQL Server every single month going forward. 

Rather than having a separate blog post for each version, I have just put the links for all five major versions in this single post. There are two separate links for each version. The first one on the top left is the actual diagnostic query script, and the one below on the right is the matching blank results spreadsheet, with labeled tabs. 

Here are links to the latest version for SQL Server 2014 and 2012: 

SQL Server 2014 Diagnostic Information Queries (April 2015)

SQL Server 2014 Blank Results

 

SQL Server 2012 Diagnostic Information Queries (April 2015)

SQL Server 2012 Blank Results

 

Here are links to the most recent versions of these scripts for SQL Server 2008 R2 and older:

SQL Server 2008 R2 Diagnostic Information Queries

SQL Server 2008 R2 Blank Results

 

SQL Server 2008 Diagnostic Information Queries

SQL Server 2008 Blank Results

 

SQL Server 2005 Diagnostic Information Queries

SQL Server 2005 Blank Results

 

The basic instructions for using these queries is that you should run each query in the set, one at a time (after reading the directions for that query). It is not really a good idea to simply run the entire batch in one shot, especially the first time you run these queries on a particular server, since some of these queries can take some time to run, depending on your workload and hardware. I also think it is very helpful to run each query, look at the results (and my comments on how to interpret the results) and think about the emerging picture of what is happening on your server as you go through the complete set. I have some comments in the script on how to interpret the results after each query.

You need to click on the top left square of the results grid in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) to select all of the results, and then right-click and select “Copy with Headers” to copy all of the results, including the column headers to the Windows clipboard. Then you paste the results into the matching tab in the blank results spreadsheet.

About half of the queries are instance specific and about half are database specific, so you will want to make sure you are connected to a database that you are concerned about instead of the master system database. Running the database-specific queries while being connected to the master database is a very common mistake that I see people making when they run these queries.

Note: These queries are stored on Dropbox. I occasionally get reports that the links to the queries and blank results spreadsheets do not work, which is most likely because Dropbox is blocked wherever people are trying to connect.

I also occasionally get reports that some of the queries simply don’t work. This usually turns out to be an issue where people have some of their user databases in 80 compatibility mode, which breaks many DMV queries, or that someone is running an incorrect version of the script for their version of SQL Server.

It is very important that you are running the correct version of the script that matches the major version of SQL Server that you are running. There is an initial query in each script that tries to confirm that you are using the correct version of the script for your version of SQL Server. If you are not using the correct version of these queries for your version of SQL Server, some of the queries are not going to work correctly.

If you want to understand how to better run and interpret these queries, you should consider listening to my three latest Pluralsight courses, which are SQL Server 2014 DMV Diagnostic Queries – Part 1SQL Server 2014 DMV Diagnostic Queries – Part 2 and SQL Server 2014 DMV Diagnostic Queries – Part 3. All three of these courses are pretty short and to the point, at 67, 77, and 68 minutes respectively. Listening to these three courses is really the best way to thank me for maintaining and improving these scripts…

Please let me know what you think of these queries, and whether you have any suggestions for improvements. Thanks!

2 thoughts on “SQL Server Diagnostic Information Queries for April 2015

  1. Thanks for continuing these great DMVs. These are great scripts to have in your bag of tricks.

  2. Could I suggest that the first column in each resultset be the “Query Number”…?

    E.g., — Get fragmentation info for all indexes above a certain size in the current database (Query 61) (Index Fragmentation)
    — Note: This query could take some time on a very large database
    SELECT ‘Q61’ AS Q61, DB_NAME(ps.database_id) AS [Database Name], OBJECT_NAME(ps.OBJECT_ID) AS [Object Name],
    i.name AS [Index Name], ps.index_id, ps.index_type_desc, ps.avg_fragmentation_in_percent,
    ps.fragment_count, ps.page_count, i.fill_factor, i.has_filter, i.filter_definition
    FROM …

    And perhaps you could label each spreadsheet tab with the query number in parentheses…? E.g., “Index Fragmentation (Q61)

    My first time on a new-to-me server meant running everything and transposing results. That became a little confusing after the first 30 or so queries.

    REALLY appreciate these queries, Glenn, they’ve shed more light on a poorly performing server than the “professionals” engaged a few weeks back.

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