What SQL Server Performance And Management Tools Do I Use

Monica Rathbun
Feb 09, 2021

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Several times I’ve been asked what tools are in my performance tuning and SQL Server management arsenal, so I decided to just create this blog to list them out for you. Keep in mind, these are ones I personally use. There are many more out there that the community uses. Feel free to comment with any you may use that is not on my list.

Community Tools (Free)

Ola Hallengren’s Maintenance Scripts

Index Maintenance, Integrity and Backup Scripts https://ola.hallengren.com/sql-server-index-and-statistics-maintenance.html

Glenn Berry’s Diagnostic Scripts

Various scripts based on DMVs to extract SQL Performance statistics and information https://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/glenn/category/dmv-queries/

Adam Machanic sp_WhoIsActive

See what is currently going on in SQL Server similar to sp_who2 http://whoisactive.com/

Dbatools

PowerShell modules https://dbatools.io/

Tiger Team Toolbox

Various Tools for diving into SQL performance via Github https://github.com/microsoft/tigertoolbox

PSSDiag

is a general-purpose diagnostic collection utility that Microsoft Product Support Services uses to collect various logs and data files https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/830232/pssdiag-data-collection-utility

SQL Nexus

Used to analyze PSSDiag results https://github.com/Microsoft/SqlNexus/wiki/Installation

Xperf

Windows performance tool kit https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/test/wpt/

CPU-z

See the effect of CPU power saving and see the immediate relief that comes from changing your power saving mode https://www.cpuid.com/softwares/cpu-z.html

Denny Cherry and Associates Github

Misc. collection of scripts https://github.com/DC-AC

Grafana

Open Source tool to graphically showcase your SQL Server performance metrics no matter where they are stored https://grafana.com/grafana/dashboards