How to perform a Database Health Check?

  • Hi All,

    I just wanted to make sure the my server and the databases on the server are consistent and in good condition.

    Will a DBCC check be enough? or is a complete health Check reqiured including all databases on server?

    If DBCC is Enough then what chekc am i looking at? and what are the best practices?

    If a complete Health Check is required then what do i do?

    Please advise.

    Thanks,

    Sathya.

  • DBCC CHECKDB will check the consistency of a database.

    There is no check for a server.

    Do you know what you're trying to do? A "healthy" server could mean any number of things. Can you tell us why you think you need this?

  • most servers have server diagnostic software installed, that'll look after the server hardware. There's no golden check which will guarantee a system. I think in 2000 they recommend to use newalloc in place of checkdb. There are some other dbcc commands which check other aspects of the database side - read through BOL under dbcc, checkcatalog is quite important. You might also want to check for sql server fragmentation and that of the ntfs system.

    [font="Comic Sans MS"]The GrumpyOldDBA[/font]
    www.grumpyolddba.co.uk
    http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/grumpyolddba/

  • Actually, CHECKDB should include CHECKCATALOG and CHECKALLOC.

    NEWALLOC is included for backwards compatability and is the same as CHECKALLOC.

    http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa258278(SQL.80).aspx

    http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa258809(SQL.80).aspx

  • I've got to admit I've forgotten which versions you should use with 2000, I thought we went checkdb in 7.0, newalloc in 2000 and back to checkdb in 2005. I usually like to issue the individual commands just to make sure I know what's happening - I never use maint plans.

    [font="Comic Sans MS"]The GrumpyOldDBA[/font]
    www.grumpyolddba.co.uk
    http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/grumpyolddba/

  • You'd think they'd make it easy. I had to double check, too 😉

  • Hmm I don't know what that says about us if we start checking which commands were used in older versions of sql server

    [font="Comic Sans MS"]The GrumpyOldDBA[/font]
    www.grumpyolddba.co.uk
    http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/grumpyolddba/

  • It's not that old! Heck, it's just one version back, still supported for

    select datediff(d, getdate(), '4/8/08') *

    * date subject to change based on the actual RTM date for Katmai AKA SQL Server 2008 AKA SQL Server 2009 AKA SQL Server 10

    😎

Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply