First Responder Kit

sp_BlitzIndex

When I first got started working with SQL Server, I assumed it was flawless because it came in a sealed box from a ginormous corporation. I figured they’d tested every edge case, and that there was no way things were gonna go sideways. These days, even though I read CU KB articles and giggle about…

Announcing a New Live Online Class: How I Use the First Responder Kit

November 12, 2019

Company News, First Responder Kit Updates

During the hands-on labs for my Mastering classes, when I’m answering an attendee question, this kind of thing happens a lot: Attendee: “How would I find the query causing that missing index recommendation?” Me: “Oh, good question – you can use the sp_BlitzCache @SlowlySearchPlansFor parameter. Here’s how it works.” (Does a quick demo) Attendees in…

Updated First Responder Kit and Consultant Toolkit for October 2019

October 25, 2019

This is a pretty doggone big release. There are a lot of improvements to sp_BlitzFirst, sp_BlitzCache, and sp_BlitzWho to prepare for a new release of the First Responder Kit Power BI Dashboard. If you’re using that today, I would strongly recommend updating to this new version of the FRK scripts – they fix a ton…

Updated First Responder Kit and Consultant Toolkit for September 2019

September 24, 2019

This month’s release has a lot of new feature goodness: the Consultant Toolkit can automatically upload the results to Amazon S3, plus sp_BlitzCache adds a new sort order to better catch unparameterized queries burning up CPU, a new warning for selects that are doing writes (other than >500MB spills, which we’ve been warning you about…

Updated First Responder Kit and Consultant Toolkit for August 2019

August 27, 2019

First Responder Kit, First Responder Kit Updates

sp_DatabaseRestore can now restore to Azure blobs and change the database owner after a restore, and everything else gets bug fixes. To get the new version: Download the updated FirstResponderKit.zip Azure Data Studio users with the First Responder Kit extension: ctrl/command+shift+p, First Responder Kit: Import. Download the updated Consultant Toolkit in your account EU customers:…

DBA Training Plan 12: What Query Plans Are In Cache?

August 15, 2019

DBA Training Plan, Execution Plans, sp_BlitzCache

In the last episode, while talking about the basics of executing queries, I said that SQL Server caches execution plans in memory, reusing them whenever the same query gets executed again. I’ve also talked about the dynamic management views (DMVs) that let you query what’s in SQL Server’s memory. Let’s put those two things together…

Updated First Responder Kit and Consultant Toolkit for July 2019

July 3, 2019

Nothing too dramatic, mostly bug fixes this month. Been pretty quiet on the development front the last couple of months. Some stability is nice around here, eh? To get the new version: Download the updated FirstResponderKit.zip Azure Data Studio users with the First Responder Kit extension: ctrl/command+shift+p, First Responder Kit: Import. Download the updated Consultant…

Updated First Responder Kit and Consultant Toolkit for April 2019

April 30, 2019

This month, lots of improvements and bug fixes, including checking for paused resumable index operations, Evaluation Edition expiration dates, sp_BlitzCache shows the number of duplicated plans for each query, sp_BlitzIndex will skip a list of databases for you, and more. To get the new version: Download the updated FirstResponderKit.zip Azure Data Studio users with the…

Which Database is Causing the Problem?

April 17, 2019

First Responder Kit

Pick a bottle, any bottle (Moet & Chandon) You’ve got one SQL Server hosting a bunch of databases, and performance is bad. Which database should you focus on first? Here are a few ways you can pick – but keep in mind they may produce different answers, especially when you’ve got several databases that suck,…

Updated First Responder Kit and Consultant Toolkit for March 2019

March 21, 2019

This month, just half a dozen bug fixes, plus a new parameter for sp_BlitzCache to search the plan cache for specific strings. To get the new version: Download the updated FirstResponderKit.zip Azure Data Studio users with the First Responder Kit extension: ctrl/command+shift+p, First Responder Kit: Import. Download the updated Consultant Toolkit in your account EU customers:…

Updated First Responder Kit and Consultant Toolkit for February 2019

February 20, 2019

I hereby christen this the Rich Benner Memorial Release. He’s still alive, it’s just that we’ll always remember him for the work he put into this month’s version. (I’m kidding, of course. We won’t remember him. (I’m kidding. Rich will appreciate the humor in that.)) You can download the updated FirstResponderKit.zip here, and Consultant Toolkit customers…

[Video] How to Capture Baselines with sp_BlitzFirst

February 15, 2019

Monitoring, sp_BlitzFirst, Videos

Everybody tells you to capture baselines – but what exactly are you supposed to capture? Which Perfmon counters matter? How do you track which data files are growing, and which ones are slow? How can you track which queries are using the most resources? All you have to do is install the free, open source…

Updated First Responder Kit with Your January Code Resolutions

January 28, 2019

I have a sneaking suspicion that a bunch of you made New Year’s Resolutions to contribute to open source, because y’all got started with a bang this year. We’ve even got improvements from Microsoft folks for Azure Managed Instances! You can download the updated FirstResponderKit.zip here. sp_Blitz Changes Improvements: skipping checks on Azure SQL DB Managed…

sp_BlitzIndex's new statistics histograms at the bottom

How Should We Show Statistics Histograms in sp_BlitzIndex?

January 10, 2019

Indexing, sp_BlitzIndex

If you’re a graduate of my free How to Think Like the SQL Server Engine course – and you’d better be, dear reader – then you’re vaguely familiar with DBCC SHOW_STATISTICS. It’s a command that shows you the contents of a statistics histogram. When I’m doing the first two parts of the D.E.A.T.H. Method – (D)eduplicating identical…

Updated First Responder Kit for January 2019: Extraneous Syllables

December 26, 2018

Does anyone know what the date really is? I usually don’t, and I often consider how doomed humanity would be if I were the smartest person on the planet during any given era. Anyway, you should go hug someone smarter than you. Unless they have sensory or boundary issues. Or a restraining order against you. Thank…

Updated First Responder Kit for November 2018: Get Into Sports Dummy

November 30, 2018

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COACH! I dunno, I just like this picture. You can download the updated FirstResponderKit.zip here. sp_Blitz Improvements #1786 – @dallyhorton made a good point: if we’re gonna warn you about Change Tracking, we should tell you which database it’s enabled for. #1791 – Who do DMV queries think they are, blocking each other? Get over yourselves. #1793 – CheckIds shouldn’t be…

How to Troubleshoot Blocking and Deadlocking with Scripts and Tools

November 28, 2018

Deadlocks, Monitoring, sp_BlitzLock

When you need to find which queries are blocking other queries, your decision comes down to when the blocking happened. Is it happening now, recently, or coming up soon? During a live emergency, start with sp_WhoIsActive. Adam Machanic’s excellent free sp_WhoIsActive replaces Activity Monitor, sp_who, and sp_who2, and it’s way more powerful. The documentation is extensive –…

First Responder Kit Release: Fingers Crossed!

October 2, 2018

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This is a small release just to make sure you don’t forget about us. We know you’re busy. You can download the updated FirstResponderKit.zip here. sp_Blitz Improvements #1755 – @MisterZeus added a new check for alerts that don’t send information out. I mean, is that even an alert? #1766 – @jadarnel27 added some code to help folks who have a standard (non-sa)…

First Responder Kit Release: What Does A Fish Know About Friday?

August 31, 2018