In SQL Server, how to quickly get a general idea of an instance?

Question

Hi guys,

If you are a new sql server dba and you just get an account of an instance. What would you do to know the instance and databases? How to quick get a general idea of this instance and databases?

Great thanks.

Answer 1

The quickest way to see what a SQL instance is doing is to fire up SQL Server Profiler - that will show you all of the client connections, where they're coming from, what user accounts they're using, and what queries they're running in what databases. While this isn't a complete picture of what a SQL server is doing, it's a good, quick overview of the traffic it's handling.

Answer 2

For SQL Server 2005, the SQL Server 2005 Performance Dashboard Reports give a high level view of Size and activity (and bottlenecks).

There is also Idera's SQL check v2.6.

Find out:

1. Backup regime
2. Disk space usage
3. Most active Databases and the Apps that are using them
4. Baseline Server hardware performance
5. Maintenance and scheduled jobs that are set up.