Good article Jeff, and I did read Pauls blog on DBCC PAGE AND DBCC IND and Paul says the following about those undocumented commands:

"Before jumping into how things work, I'd like to go over two commands I'll be using a lot - DBCC PAGE and DBCC IND. These are both undocumented and unsupported commands, but are very safe to use as they're used extensively inside and outside Microsoft when troubleshooting. Nevertheless, use at your own risk. They're quite well known in the SQL community and I and others have publicized them before."

I have followed the genius of Paul S Randal for quite sometime and have rarely ever seen him to be off-base about anything in SQL Server. So, if the author of DBCC CHECKDB tells me that they are "very safe", then I pretty much take that to the bank. When it comes to SQL Server internals there is no one I trust more than Paul, maybe Kim Tripp. It's a toss up. Now, on the otherhand, he does say to use them at your own risk, but in reality you could say that about all undocumented commands in SQL Server. Microsoft tends to cover themselves there and I don't blame them. However, that does not necessarily mean that they are not useful or safe. 🙂 They are probably not commands for the "database cowboys" as I like to say sometimes, but in the hands of someone who relatively knows what they are doing, they are indispensible...Travis.