sp_Blitz® – Free SQL Server Health Check Script

You’ve got a Microsoft SQL Server that somebody else built, or that other people have made changes to over the years, and you’re not exactly sure what kind of shape it’s in. Are there dangerous configuration settings that are causing slow performance or unreliability?

You want a fast, easy, free health check that flags common issues in seconds, and for each warning, gives you a link to a web page with more in-depth advice. That’s sp_Blitz, and here’s how it works:

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Common sp_Blitz parameters

@CheckUserDatabaseObjects = 0 – turns off database checks like heaps and triggers. This makes sp_Blitz run way faster on systems with hundreds of databases.

@OutputServerName, @OutputDatabaseName, @OutputSchemaName, @OutputTableName – you can write sp_Blitz’s results to a central server for easier reporting, or just to a DBA utilities database on the same server.

@IgnorePrioritiesAbove = 50 – excludes lower-priority alarms like informational alerts. (You can use any priority level here.)

@Help = 1 – explains the rest of sp_Blitz’s parameters, plus the output columns as well.

How to skip checks or databases

Sometimes, you’re the honey badger, and you just don’t care. If you’d like to skip specific checks or databases, create a table like this:

USE DBAtools;
GO
CREATE TABLE dbo.BlitzChecksToSkip (ServerName NVARCHAR(128), DatabaseName NVARCHAR(128), CheckID INT);

/* This example skips all checks on the server named Skippy: */
INSERT INTO dbo.BlitzChecksToSkip 
  (ServerName, DatabaseName, CheckID)
  VALUES('Skippy', NULL, NULL);
GO

/* This example skips all checks on the database named HorribleDB: */
INSERT INTO dbo.BlitzChecksToSkip 
  (ServerName, DatabaseName, CheckID)
  VALUES(NULL, 'HorribleDB', NULL);
GO


/* This example skips check #42 on all servers, all databases: */
INSERT INTO dbo.BlitzChecksToSkip 
  (ServerName, DatabaseName, CheckID)
  VALUES(NULL, NULL, 42);
GO

Then, you can run sp_Blitz and point it at that table to get the list of servers, databases, or checks to skip:

sp_Blitz 
  @SkipChecksDatabase = 'DBAtools', 
  @SkipChecksSchema = 'dbo', 
  @SkipChecksTable = 'BlitzChecksToSkip';

Here’s the full list of check IDs to pick which ones to skip.

Getting support for sp_Blitz

sp_Blitz works on SQL Server 2008 and newer. If Microsoft supports it, so do we – unfortunately, that means SQL 2000 and 2005 are out of luck. We use a lot of cool DMVs and techniques that only work in current versions of SQL Server.

If sp_Blitz doesn’t compile or if it throws an error when it runs, head on over to DBA.StackExchange.com and post a question. Include the version of sp_Blitz, your SQL Server version number (including the build #), and tag it with sp_Blitz.

If you’d like to suggest changes or contribute code, visit the Github repository for the First Responder Kit. You can get more instructions, file issues, and read how to contribute to the community.

Scared by the results? We can help.

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