My first month as DBA – The right tools for the job

Last month I started my first real DBA job. Until then I only had “accidental DBA” experience, and I’m glad I got the opportunity to prove myself as a real full time DBA.

As a SQL Server developer you and I both know that using the right tools can be a lifesaver. But my first weeks as DBA gave me the feeling this is more important than ever before. Having the right tools can save you a lot of time, and can actually help you make time for the important stuff. In this blog I’ll try to show you which tools I use nowadays, and the reason why you should use them as well.

 
SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) for SQL Server 2012
If you’re working with SQL Server, you’ll need a version of SSMS (3rd party tools excluded). My first experience was with SQL Server 2000, and back then the “Enterpise Manager” and “Query Analyzer” were a drama to work with. If you look at the last version of the SSMS that is shipped with SQL Server 2012, then you’ll see that SSMS has come a long way!

Because I’m administering SQL Server 2008R2, I can’t use SSMS 2012 for everything, but it’s still my main tool. Just because of the performance enhancements, and the Visual Studio look and feel.

You can download the studio as a separate installation from this location.

 
SSMSBoost
One of my favorite SSMS add-ins is SSMSBoost. This allows you to quickly create and use snippets in your SSMS, script data with a few clicks, and quickly find objects in your databases.

SSMSBoost won the Bronze Community award for “Best Database Development Product” 2012, so I’m not the only one who appreciates this add-in! You can download the tool from their website. After the installation, you can request a free community license on the website.

 
sp_Blitz
If you take over a server as DBA, there’s only one way to determine the health of that server: sp_Blitz! This script, build by Brent Ozar’s company “Brent Ozar Unlimited” (Website | @BrentOzarULTD ), gives you a full overview of the “health status” of your SQL Server.

This also gives you a list of items you might want to fix, in order to ensure a stable and maintainable environment. The items are sorted based on importance, so you know which items you need to fix first. An excellent start for every new environment!

You can download the sp_Blitz code from this location.

 
sp_WhoIsActive
If you start out as a DBA it’s hard to find a good point to start from. What do you want to fix first? Your users keep complaining that they’re queries are running slow, your manager wants more and more performance from the same hardware without any real hardware changes, etc. A good point to start from is finding our which slow running queries and stored procedures your users are executing.

sp_WhoIsActive, written by Adam Machanic (Blog | @AdamMachanic ), gives you the ability to quickly gather this information, without any hassle. Once you’ve deployed the stored procedure to your machine, you can start using it to pinpoint issues on your SQL Server.

You can download the sp_WhoIsActive code from this location.

 
SQLjobvis
The last hurdle I needed to take, is to find out which SQL Server Agent Jobs were running on our environment, and at which time. Because I didn’t want to document this manually, I tried to find a tool that did this for me. Then I came across SQLjobvis.

SQLjobvis, written by SQLsoft (Website), is a free tool that visualizes the jobs on your SQL Server. It shows you all jobs and the result of the execution. You can select the data you want to see by date, and with color codes it shows the result within the date range you set.

You can download SQLjobvis from this location.

 
SQL Sentry Plan Explorer
And last, but not least: SQL Sentry Plan Explorer. I’m glad Pieter Vanhove (Blog | @Pieter_Vanhove) reminded me I forgot an important tool!

SQL Sentry Plan Explorer, written by SQL Sentry Inc. (Website), is a lightweight standalone app that helps you analyse execution plans. By making it more graphical than the default execution plan viewer in SSMS, it’s easier to spot the bottleneck.

You can download the tool from this location. And don’t forget to install the SSMS add-in, so you can directly view your execution plan in the SQL Sentry Plan Explorer from SSMS, when you right-click your execution plan.

 
What tools do you use?
There are many more DBA’s out there, and every DBA has it’s own toolbelt. So I’d like to know which tools do YOU use to get the job done? Let me now by leaving a comment, or contact me by Twitter or mail, and I’ll add it to the list of must-haves!