Author: Steve Stedman

Exclusive January Promotion: Get 12 Months of Managed Services for the Price of 10 Happy New Year! To give your databases the strongest possible start this year, we’re running our biggest offer of the year: Sign up for SQL Server Managed Services any time in January and receive 12 months of full-service support for the price of just 10.That’s an immediate 16% savings locked in for the entire year. Claim Your 12-for-10 Offer Before January 31 Why This Is the …

Kickstart The Year with Peak SQL Server Performance – 12 Months for the Price of 10 Read more »

When troubleshooting SQL Server Performance, it’s common to wonder why Database Health Monitor includes both the What Is Active report and the Open Transactions report. At first glance, they might seem to provide similar insights—but in reality, they highlight very different aspects of what’s happening inside your SQL Server. What Is Active — See What’s Running Right Now The What Is Active report is designed to give you a real-time look at what SQL Server is currently working on. It …

Understanding the Difference Between the What Is Active and Open Transactions Reports in Database Health Monitor Read more »

Indexes are one of the most powerful tools for improving query performance in SQL Server, but they can also become a major source of overhead if they are not managed. Database Health Monitor helps you understand index behaviour with three focused reports: Most Used, Unused, and Inefficient. These reports help you identify which indexes are helping, which are wasting space, and which are costing more than they return. Real-time vs Historic views Database Health Monitor gives you two complementary ways …

Unlock Index Insights with Database Health Monitor: Most Used, Unused, and Inefficient Reports Read more »

Database Health Monitor: A Lean DBA Tool for Speed and Efficiency When I think about Database Health Monitor, speed is one of the first things that comes to mind. From the start, I designed it as a performance improvement tool, and I often describe it as a lean-style solution. The timing was intentional—while studying lean principles, I began building Database Health Monitor. Those ideas of efficiency and eliminating waste naturally shaped its foundation. Built for Fast Multi-Server Management Every feature …

Database Health Monitor: A Lean DBA Tool for Speed and Efficiency Read more »

When you’re responsible for keeping SQL Server running smoothly, it’s not always easy to see how performance changes over time. The Performance History Instance Report in Database Health Monitor helps you do exactly that, it gives you a clear visual history of how your SQL Server instance has been performing, making it easier to spot trends, find bottlenecks, and understand what’s really happening under the hood. A Clear View of Instance-Level Activity The Performance History report tracks a range of …

Visualizing SQL Server Performance with the Performance History Instance Report Read more »

When SQL Server performance dips, TempDB is one of the first places to check. The TempDB Allocation report gives you clear, historical visibility into how TempDB space is used so you can spot issues before they affect users. See what’s happening inside TempDB TempDB can be considered SQL Server’s “scratch pad.” It is used by nearly every workload on your server, but until now understanding how that space was being used often required digging through DMV queries or relying on …

Introducing the TempDB Allocation Report in Database Health Monitor Read more »

SQL Agent Jobs are the backbone of many database maintenance and automation tasks, ensuring critical processes like backups, index maintenance, and data imports run smoothly. However, keeping track of job performance and identifying failures or bottlenecks can be a challenge, especially in environments with numerous jobs running on tight schedules. Without a clear, visual representation of job history, database administrators often find themselves sifting through logs or writing complex queries to uncover patterns or issues, which can be both time-consuming …

Visualizing SQL Agent Job History with Database Health Monitor Read more »

Improved Index Usage Tracking in Database Health Monitor Many SQL Servers reboot on a regular cadence, and most monitoring tools only show index usage since the last restart, which means that an index used heavily at the end of the month or once a quarter can appear unused for most of the year. This leads to dangerous assumptions and unnecessary index changes. In Database Health Monitor version three, we have introduced an important enhancement: index usage is now stored directly …

Why Accurate Index History Matters and How Database Health Monitor’s New Enhancements Help You See the Full Picture Read more »

When working with databases, the SQL LIKE operator is a powerful tool for pattern matching in queries. However, its performance can vary drastically depending on how it’s used, particularly when a wildcard character, such as the percent sign (%), is placed at the beginning of the search pattern. This seemingly small detail—known as a leading wildcard—can have a significant impact on query execution time and resource usage, often leading to full table scans instead of leveraging indexes. In this post, …

Leading Wildcards in LIKE Clauses Read more »

Database Health Monitor is a powerful tool for managing and optimizing SQL Server Performance, and one of its standout features is the dbAssistant. Available at the Server Overview panel, the Database Overview panel, and integrated into many reports, dbAssistant is designed to simplify database maintenance by proactively scanning for common issues and providing actionable solutions. What is dbAssistant? dbAssistant is an intelligent scanning tool that analyzes your SQL Server environment to identify potential problems that could impact performance or data …

Exploring the dbAssistant Feature in Database Health Monitor Read more »