sqlskills-logo-2015-white.png

SQL Server Diagnostic Information Queries for January 2016

As I discussed yesterday,  I have done some fairly significant reorganization work for the SQL Server 2016, SQL Server 2014, and SQL Server 2012 versions of these queries this month. I have also made some very minor changes to the SQL Server 2008 R2 and older versions of these queries.

Rather than having a separate blog post for each version, I have just put the links for all six 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 that correspond to each query in the set. 

Here are links to the latest versions of these queries for SQL Server 2016, 2014 and 2012:

SQL Server 2016 Diagnostic Information Queries (January 2016)

SQL Server 2016 Blank Results

SQL Server 2014 Diagnostic Information Queries (January 2016)

SQL Server 2014 Blank Results

SQL Server 2012 Diagnostic Information Queries (January 2016)

SQL Server 2012 Blank Results

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

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.  I started this policy a while ago, and so far, I have not heard any complaints. I did update these queries this month though.

SQL Server 2008 R2 Diagnostic Information Queries (CY 2016)

SQL Server 2008 R2 Blank Results

SQL Server 2008 Diagnostic Information Queries (CY 2016)

SQL Server 2008 Blank Results

SQL Server 2005 Diagnostic Information Queries (CY 2016)

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

16 thoughts on “SQL Server Diagnostic Information Queries for January 2016

  1. Thanks Glen – Always waiting these updates – very much appreciate all your contributions.

    Best regards .. and Happy New Year.

  2. Glen,
    I’ve used these scripts frequently but never took the time to thank you for writing them, keeping them up to date, and improving them. So thank you for your time and effort!

    On another note, would it be possible to also include a link to a zip file that contains the files for all versions of SQL? We run multiple versions, and this would make it a one-click download for me which is good because I’m lazy. 🙂

    Thanks,
    Aaron

  3. Glenn, as always, greatly appreciate all of your posts!!!

    In your [https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/13748067/SQL%20Server%202008%20Diagnostic%20Information%20Queries%20%28CY%202016%29.sql] link for 2008, the query for Drive level latency information (Query 15) doesn’t work on SQL 2008, giving an error for “Invalid object name ‘sys.dm_os_volume_stats'” – which I believe isn’t available until 2008R2…am I missing something? Or did I snag the wrong version 🙁

  4. Thanks a lot Glenn! I was just poking around for top 10 expensive query type stuff, this pack is positively exhaustive in a good way. All I need and considerably more. Lots for me to learn in here, thanks for all the comments in the code too. I have just queued up all your videos on PluralSight and I am looking forward to them. PS I am posting here because I am looking to love a 2008R2 legacy system, that has not seen any for years. So keeping it updated is much appreciated by myself at the very least 🙂

  5. Hi,

    Is there any problem with download link. I tried IE, Firefox, Chrome but i could not download diagnositic script files. Can you please check this?

    Thanks

    1. That blog post is nearly three years old! Dropbox broke all of the old links. You should just Google “Glenn Berry DMV” to find the blog post with latest version.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Other articles

Imagine feeling confident enough to handle whatever your database throws at you.

With training and consulting from SQLskills, you’ll be able to solve big problems, elevate your team’s capacity, and take control of your data career.