SQL Multi Script can easily be persuaded to run queries at the server level rather than the database level. It is also able to combine results from many databases even if the results aren't identical but have some different columns. Phil Factor demonstrates how this works, when collecting a set of performance counters from all databases on a distribution list of servers. Read more
SQL Multi Script does one thing and does it well: it will run whatever script or scripts you select, on a list of databases, and collate all the results neatly. However, it has a surprising number of uses. Phil Factor explains how it works and then uses it to search 100 databases, for occurrences of a string, in about 7 seconds. Read more
A monitoring tool must provide us with an understanding of the often-complex performance patterns that databases exhibit when under load, so that we can predict how they will cope with expansion or increase in scale. It must also helps us spot the symptoms of stress and act before they become problems that affect the service, and understand better what was happening within a database when an intermittent problem started. Read more
Using a PowerShell script that collects log data from a web server, plus a SQL Monitor custom metric, Phil Factor offers a way to check for suspicious website errors and unusual patterns of activity, right alongside your database monitoring. Read more
Grant Fritchey explains the Azure-tailored metrics and alerts that SQL Monitor provides to diagnose any performance problems with your Azure SQL Databases, and let you know which resource (CPU, data IO or log IO) is the bottleneck. Read more
Rodney Landrum describes how a monitoring tool must help us monitor, analyze and predict resource usage, including costs, across a growing and diversifying estate, and also help the organization to connect server resource usage and error conditions directly to their impact on business processes. Read more
SQL Monitor tells us immediately when significant blocking occurs, and where, during busy periods, and provides the full blocking chain, in an easy-to-digest graphical format, so we can diagnose and resolve the blocking quickly. Read more
Sudden performance issues in SQL Server can have many causes, ranging all the way from malfunctioning hardware, through to simple misconfiguration, or perhaps just end users doing things they shouldn't. But one particularly common culprit is when deployments go wrong: I don't know a single DBA who hasn't been burned by a bad release. Read more
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