Hello everyone, I’m Steve Stedman, and today, I’m excited to share with you a feature of the Database Health Monitor software that I’ve developed: The Blocking Query Monitor. Understanding and addressing performance bottlenecks in SQL Server is not always an easy task, and one of the biggest contributors to these bottlenecks is often blocking queries. That’s why I’ve built the Blocking Query Monitor. The Blocking Query Monitor is a powerful tool specifically designed to monitor, report, and help resolve blocking …

Blocking Query Monitor – Part of Database Health Read more »

Why are there so many backup messages in my sql server logs? SQL Server logs contain a wealth of information about the server’s operation, including details about backup operations. This data can be quite helpful for various administrative tasks like troubleshooting, audit, performance tuning, or recovery. The reason why you see many backup messages in your SQL Server logs is because every time a backup or restore operation occurs, an entry is made in the SQL Server error log and …

SQL Server Logs – flooded with backup messages Read more »

Shrinking a database can seem like a helpful way to save space and resources, particularly if a database has grown substantially over time. However, SQL Server’s default maintenance plans that include database shrinking can lead to several performance issues. Here’s why: Fragmentation: When a database is shrunk, the data pages are reorganized to create a contiguous block of free space at the end of the data file, which can cause severe fragmentation. This fragmentation can significantly degrade the performance of …

Database Health Quickscan – Default maintenance plans to shrink database – Ouch Read more »

Welcome to July – a month that signifies a shift in focus to the unseen heroes of our digital infrastructure – our databases. As the founder of Database Health and Stedman Solutions, it is with great pleasure that I announce this month as Database Health Monitor Month! This annual event allows us to appreciate our precious data, explore the intricacies of our systems, and focus on enhancing the health of our databases. This July, let’s not merely keep our databases …

Celebrating Database Health Monitor Month Read more »

July is here and that means it’s time for us to pivot our collective gaze to the pulse of our digital lifeblood – our databases! As the founder of Database Health and Stedman Solutions, I am excited to declare this month as Database Health Monitor Month! This is our annual opportunity to appreciate the often-unseen guardians of our valuable data, and to dive deeper into the heartbeat of our systems, replete with intricate data structures and complex relations. It’s time …

Sneak preview – July is Database Health Monitor Month Read more »

Over the years developing Database Health Monitor I have added a number of keyboard shortcuts to make life easier when working in the application. Some of these are listed here to share since they are not all completely obvious. Backspace Key – Jump to the last report viewed The Backspace key can be used to jump to the previous report that you were viewing. Not just that, but hit it multiple times and you can browse back through the history …

Keyboard Shortcuts for Database Health Monitor Read more »

Today I released the November 2019 update of Database Health Monitor. Thanks to everyone who contributed to the Indiegogo campaign to fund the November release of Database Health Monitor. Your support is much appreciated. Here are the release notes. Version 2.9.4 Release Notes Version 2.9.4 is the November release of Database Health Monitor. New Reports Added a new instance level connections report that shows client connections and counts of connections. Added a new instance level security report. New Features Added …

Database Health Monitor – November 2019 Read more »