SQL Server monitoring with built-in features
Do you think you need to use commercial tools like SQL Diagnostic Manager, SQL Sentry, Spotlight etc.. ? Or do you think...
2018-10-07
479 reads
Mission: SQL Homeostasis
Check if any database has auditing configured
Here is a DMV script to check whether a or any database has the auditing configured and running, along with...
2018-09-18
776 reads
Find Orphaned databases in SQL Server
Do you ever wonder if there are any databases in your environment that may just be there but not being...
2018-09-18
187 reads
DMV To List Foreign Keys With No Index
I was entrusted with a new database for a critical application that was having general performance issue and the CPU...
2018-05-10
1,577 reads
How To Audit Data Changes In SQL Server?
Scenario:
I was at a new client, with their previous and only DBA / DEVELOPER/ MASTER OF ALL of 8 years all...
2018-05-10
10,489 reads
How to get alerted anytime SQL Service is restarted?
You may and should have monitoring in place to monitor state of your servers, services, jobs, critical and not critical...
2018-04-27
809 reads
How to find out whether your database is transactional, analytical or hybrid?
If you are a DBA, especially Infrastructure DBA, Production DBA or Operations DBA then you don't necessarily always know what...
2018-04-26
414 reads
Gather Always On Configuration using a DMV query
If you were like me, you would know your AG configuration by heart. However, what if you get busy with...
2018-04-26
379 reads
Check health and status of Availability Group using DMVs
-- Health and status of WSFC cluster. These two queries work only if the WSFC has quorumSELECT*FROMsys.dm_hadr_clusterSELECT*FROMsys.dm_hadr_cluster_members
-- Health of the AGsSELECT...
2018-04-26
17,447 reads
Get SQL server database size, location and volume info using DMVs
SELECT * FROM sys.master_files AS f
CROSS APPLY sys.dm_os_volume_stats(f.database_id, f.file_id) v;
2018-04-23
339 reads
Blogs
The flight recorder: Replaying what an AI agent did on my SQL Server
By Arun Sirpal
“What exactly did it do on my server?” is the first question a DBA...
Announcements from the Microsoft Fabric Community Conference — Barcelona 2026
By James Serra
Microsoft shared a broad set of Fabric, Power BI, and SQL updates at FabCon...
Au Revoir for now
By Steve Jones
No, I’m not quitting or retiring. Just going on vacation, but I leave tonight...
Forums
Let's Talk Certifications
Comments posted to this topic are about the item Let's Talk Certifications, which is...
The Hidden Security Risks of Role Combination in SSAS Tabular
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Hidden Security Risks of...
The Empty Aggregate
Comments posted to this topic are about the item The Empty Aggregate
Question of the Day
The Empty Aggregate
I have this table in a SQL Server 2025 database:
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[CustomerOrder] ( [OrderID] [int] NULL, [CustomerID] [int] NULL, [total] [money] NULL ) ON [PRIMARY] GOWhat is returned from this code? (answers are for the sum and then the count)
SELECT SUM(total) AS sum,
COUNT(total) AS count
FROM dbo.CustomerOrder;
See possible answers