Essential DBA Tools & Resources

Community Tools

• DBATools - sqlcollaborative
• MSSQL Performance Skills - Performance tuning resources
• sp_whoisactive - Adam Machanic
• SQL Server Maintenance - Ola Hallengren
• sp_blitz* - Brent Ozar Unlimited
• Dynamic Management Views - Glenn Berry
• sp_pressure_detector - Erik Darling
• sp_RestoreScriptGenie - Paul Brewer
• How's My Plan? - Daniel Janik
• Statistics Parser - Richie Rump
• sp_srvpermissions & sp_dbpermissions - Kenneth Fisher
• Blocking_Alert - Andy M Mallon

Microsoft Tools

• MissingMsi
• SqlNexus
• tigertoolbox
• SQLServerTiger Blog
• Reporting-Services
• DiagManager
• kerberos configuration manager
• sp_help_revlogin

Additional Tools

• CurrPorts
• SqlMax - SQL Max Memory Calculator
• NetSPI_PS - MSSQL Credentials
• dba-multitool
• WorkloadTools
• ThreadJob - PowerShell parallel processing (PS 5.1+)
• PoshRSJob - Runspace-based parallel jobs

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Performance Monitoring

Key SQL Server Performance Counters

Memory - Available MBytes
Physical Disk - Avg. Disk sec/Read
Physical Disk - Avg. Disk sec/Write
Physical Disk - Disk Reads/sec
Physical Disk - Disk Writes/sec
Processor - % Processor Time
SQLServer: General Statistics - User Connections
SQLServer: Memory Manager - Memory Grants Pending
SQLServer: SQL Statistics - Batch Requests/sec
SQLServer: SQL Statistics - Compilations/sec
SQLServer: SQL Statistics - Recompilations/sec
System - Processor Queue Length

Performance Data Collection Commands

# Create performance counter log
logman.exe create counter Perf-Log -o "C:\PerfLogs\Admin\Perf-Log" -f bincirc -v mmddhhmm -max 500 -c "\Memory\Available MBytes" "\PhysicalDisk(*)\Avg. Disk sec/Read" "\PhysicalDisk(*)\Avg. Disk sec/Write" "\PhysicalDisk(*)\Disk Reads/sec" "\PhysicalDisk(*)\Disk Writes/sec" "\Processor(_Total)\% Processor Time" "\SQLServer:General Statistics\User Connections" "\SQLServer:Memory Manager\Memory Grants Pending" "\SQLServer:SQL Statistics\Batch Requests/sec" "\SQLServer:SQL Statistics\SQL Compilations/sec" "\SQLServer:SQL Statistics\SQL Re-Compilations/sec" "\System\Processor Queue Length"  -si 00:00:01

# Start performance logging
logman start Perf-Log

# Stop performance logging
logman stop Perf-Log

# Convert binary log to CSV
relog C:\PerfLogs\Admin\Perf-Log_000001.blg /o C:\Perflogs\Admin\Reduced_Log_000001.csv /f csv