SQL Monitor

External Article

SQL Monitor Custom Metric: WriteLog Wait Time

  • Article

During a transaction, data is written to the log cache so that it’s ready to be written to the log file on commit, or can be rolled back if necessary. When the log cache is being flushed to disk, the SQL Server session will wait on the WriteLog wait type. If this happens all the time, it may suggest disk bottlenecks where the transaction log is stored.

2014-07-25

9,844 reads

Technical Article

SQL Monitor Metric: Memory used by ad hoc queries running once

  • Article

This metric measures the amount of memory used by the total number of ad hoc queries in the plan cache that have only run one time. This value is only accurate for the instant the query is run, and the value can change radically from one capture time to the next.

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2014-07-14

9,595 reads

External Article

SQL Monitor Custom Metric: Table size (MB)

  • Article

This metric is useful if you want to know exactly how much physical space a particular table is taking up, including the size of its indexes. If a database is growing quickly within a short time and you suspect a certain table is responsible, you can monitor its actual size, or the rate at which it is increasing.

2014-04-15

2,050 reads

External Article

SQL Monitor Custom Metric: Performance-Related Database Settings

  • Article

If you manage a server where you are not in complete control of the creation of databases, or you’re unfamiliar with what settings to change, you may miss things out or set them incorrectly. This metric could pick up on issues that affect performance in obscure ways, and saves you having to search for them when a system suddenly stops performing as you would expect.

2014-03-11

1,279 reads

External Article

New SQL Monitor Custom Metric: Default User Service Account

  • Article

Using a default account for SQL Server services can be a security risk for two reasons. Firstly, it can give the service a higher level of permissions than it needs. Secondly, isolation is compromised by several services running under the same account. This metric checks whether SQL Server services are running under any of the default accounts, such as localsystem.

2014-01-14

2,028 reads

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The Empty Aggregate

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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]
GO
What 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