You're a DBA, sysadmin, or developer who manages Microsoft SQL Servers. It's your fault if they're down or slow. These tools help you understand what's going on in your server.
- When you want an overall health check, run sp_Blitz.
- To learn which queries have been using the most resources, run sp_BlitzCache.
- To analyze which indexes are missing or slowing you down, run sp_BlitzIndex.
- To find out why the server is slow right now, run sp_BlitzFirst.
To install, download the latest release ZIP, then run the SQL files in the master database. (You can use other databases if you prefer.)
Only Microsoft-supported versions of SQL Server are supported here - sorry, 2005 and 2000. Some of these may work some of the time on 2005, but no promises, and don't file a support issue when they fail. (For example, we know the output tables won't work on SQL 2005 because one of the output fields is a DATETIMEOFFSET datatype, which isn't available in 2005.)
Everyone here is expected to abide by the Contributor Covenant Code of Conduct.
Want to talk to the developers? Get an invite to SQLCommunity.slack.com, and we're in the #FirstResponderKit channel.
Got a question? Ask it on DBA.StackExchange.com. Tag your question with the script name, like sp_Blitz, sp_BlitzCache, sp_BlitzIndex, etc, and we’ll be alerted of it right away.
Want to contribute by writing, testing, or documenting code, or suggesting a new check? Read the contributing.md file.
Run sp_Blitz daily or weekly for an overall health check. Just run it from SQL Server Management Studio, and you'll get a prioritized list of issues on your server right now:
Output columns include:
- Priority - 1 is the most urgent, stuff that could get you fired. The warnings get progressively less urgent.
- FindingsGroup, Findings - describe the problem sp_Blitz found on the server.
- DatabaseName - the database having the problem. If it's null, it's a server-wide problem.
- URL - copy/paste this into a browser for more information.
- Details - not just bland text, but dynamically generated stuff with more info.
Commonly used parameters:
- @CheckUserDatabaseObjects = 0 - by default, we check inside user databases for things like triggers or heaps. Turn this off (0) to make checks go faster, or ignore stuff you can't fix if you're managing third party databases. If a server has 50+ databases, @CheckUserDatabaseObjects is automatically turned off unless...
- @BringThePain = 1 - required if you want to run @CheckUserDatabaseObjects = 1 with over 50 databases. It's gonna be slow.
- @CheckServerInfo = 1 - includes additional rows at priority 250 with server configuration details like service accounts.
- @IgnorePrioritiesAbove = 50 - if you want a daily bulletin of the most important warnings, set @IgnorePrioritiesAbove = 50 to only get the urgent stuff.
In addition to the parameters common to many of the stored procedures, here are the ones specific to sp_Blitz:
sp_Blitz @OutputDatabaseName = 'DBAtools', @OutputSchemaName = 'dbo', @OutputTableName = 'BlitzResults';Checks for the existence of a table DBAtools.dbo.BlitzResults, creates it if necessary, then adds the output of sp_Blitz into this table. This table is designed to support multiple outputs from multiple servers, so you can track your server's configuration history over time.
CREATE TABLE dbo.BlitzChecksToSkip (
ServerName NVARCHAR(128),
DatabaseName NVARCHAR(128),
CheckID INT
);
GO
INSERT INTO dbo.BlitzChecksToSkip (ServerName, DatabaseName, CheckID)
VALUES (NULL, 'SalesDB', 50)
sp_Blitz @SkipChecksDatabase = 'DBAtools', @SkipChecksSchema = 'dbo', @SkipChecksTable = 'BlitzChecksToSkip'Checks for the existence of a table named Fred - just kidding, named DBAtools.dbo.BlitzChecksToSkip. The table needs at least the columns shown above (ServerName, DatabaseName, and CheckID). For each row:
- If the DatabaseName is populated but CheckID is null, then all checks will be skipped for that database
- If both DatabaseName and CheckID are populated, then that check will be skipped for that database
- If CheckID is populated but DatabaseName is null, then that check will be skipped for all databases
sp_BlitzCache looks at your plan cache where SQL Server keeps track of which queries have run recently, and how much impact they've had on the server.
By default, it includes two result sets:
- The first result set shows your 10 most resource-intensive queries.
- The second result set explains the contents of the Warnings column - but it only shows the warnings that were produced in the first result set. (It's kinda like the most relevant glossary of execution plan terms.)
Output columns include:
- Database - the database context where the query ran. Keep in mind that if you fully qualify your object names, the same query might be run from multiple databases.
- Cost - the Estimated Subtree Cost of the query, what Kendra Little calls "Query Bucks."
- Query Text - don't copy/paste from here - it's only a quick reference. A better source for the query will show up later on.
- Warnings - problems we found.
- Created At - when the plan showed up in the cache.
- Last Execution - maybe the query only runs at night.
- Query Plan - click on this, and the graphical plan pops up.
The @SortOrder parameter lets you pick which top 10 queries you want to examine:
- reads - logical reads
- CPU - from total_worker_time in sys.dm_exec_query_stats
- executions - how many times the query ran since the CreationDate
- xpm - executions per minute, derived from the CreationDate and LastExecution
- recent compilations - if you're looking for things that are recompiling a lot
- memory grant - if you're troubleshooting a RESOURCE_SEMAPHORE issue and want to find queries getting a lot of memory
- writes - if you wanna find those pesky ETL processes
- You can also use average or avg for a lot of the sorts, like @SortOrder = 'avg reads'
Other common parameters include:
- @Top = 10 - by default, you get 10 plans, but you can ask for more. Just know that the more you get, the slower it goes.
- @ExportToExcel = 1 - turn this on, and it doesn't return XML fields that would hinder you from copy/pasting the data into Excel.
- @ExpertMode = 1 - turn this on, and you get more columns with more data. Doesn't take longer to run though.
- @IgnoreSystemDBs = 0 - if you want to show queries in master/model/msdb. By default we hide these.
- @MinimumExecutionCount = 0 - in servers like data warehouses where lots of queries only run a few times, you can set a floor number for examination.
In addition to the parameters common to many of the stored procedures, here are the ones specific to sp_BlitzCache:
- OnlyQueryHashes - if you want to examine specific query plans, you can pass in a comma-separated list of them in a string.
- IgnoreQueryHashes - if you know some queries suck and you don't want to see them, you can pass in a comma-separated list of them.
- OnlySqlHandles, @IgnoreSqlHandles - just like the above two params
- @DatabaseName - if you only want to analyze plans in a single database. However, keep in mind that this is only the database context. A single query that runs in Database1 can join across objects in Database2 and Database3, but we can only know that it ran in Database1.
SQL Server tracks your indexes: how big they are, how often they change, whether they're used to make queries go faster, and which indexes you should consider adding. The results columns are fairly self-explanatory.
By default, sp_BlitzIndex analyzes the indexes of the database you're in (your current context.)
Common parameters include:
- @DatabaseName - if you want to analyze a specific database
- @SchemaName, @TableName - if you pass in these, sp_BlitzIndex does a deeper-dive analysis of just one table. You get several result sets back describing more information about the table's current indexes, foreign key relationships, missing indexes, and fields in the table.
- @GetAllDatabases = 1 - slower, but lets you analyze all the databases at once, up to 50. If you want more than 50 databases, you also have to pass in @BringThePain = 1.
- @ThresholdMB = 250 - by default, we only analyze objects over 250MB because you're busy.
- @Mode = 0 (default) - get different data with 0=Diagnose, 1=Summarize, 2=Index Usage Detail, 3=Missing Index Detail, 4=Diagnose Details.
In addition to the parameters common to many of the stored procedures, here are the ones specific to sp_BlitzIndex:
- @SkipPartitions = 1 - add this if you want to analyze large partitioned tables. We skip these by default for performance reasons.
- @SkipStatistics = 0 - right now, by default, we skip statistics analysis because we've had some performance issues on this.
- @Filter = 0 (default) - 1=No low-usage warnings for objects with 0 reads. 2=Only warn for objects >= 500MB
(stub - describe the big picture here)
In addition to the parameters common to many of the stored procedures, here are the ones specific to sp_BlitzFirst:
(stub - describe the lesser-used stuff)
- @Help = 1 - returns a result set or prints messages explaining the stored procedure's input and output. Make sure to check the Messages tab in SSMS to read it.
- @ExpertMode = 1 - turns on more details useful for digging deeper into results.
- @OutputDatabaseName, @OutputSchemaName, @OutputTableName - pass all three of these in, and the stored proc's output will be written to a table. We'll create the table if it doesn't already exist.
- @OutputServerName - not functional yet. To track (or help!) implementation status: BrentOzarULTD#293