You’ve got a Microsoft SQL Server that somebody else built, or that other people have made changes to over the years, and you’re not exactly sure what kind of shape it’s in. Are there dangerous configuration settings that are causing slow performance or unreliability?
You want a fast, easy, free health check assessment that flags common issues in seconds, and for each warning, gives you a link to a web page with more in-depth advice.
Download sp_Blitz in my free First Responder Kit.
Download & install sp_Blitz in any database – it checks the health of the entire server no matter which database it’s installed in. (I usually use the master database just because if it’s installed in there, then you can call it from any database.)
Then run:
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EXEC sp_Blitz @CheckUserDatabaseObjects = 0; |
That’s the fastest way to run sp_Blitz because it skips checking objects inside the databases, like heaps and triggers. Once you’re comfortable with sp_Blitz’s speed, then you can remove that parameter and get even more advice on your system.
It returns a prioritized health assessment with the most urgent issues at the top, like database corruption or missing backups:
I like to joke that Priority 1-50 are the reasons why people get fired. If there’s a warning you don’t recognize or understand, copy/paste the URL from the URL column into your browser, and I’ve written a ton of free documentation that explains the issue and how to get it fixed.
The sp_Blitz documentation covers additional parameters that will return more results, store the results to a table, and even output the results in Markdown for easy copy/pasting.
sp_Blitz works on SQL Server 2008 and newer, but if you use an older version, take heart: there’s an older sp_Blitz in the Deprecated folder of theFirst Responder Kit that still works in 2005.
For free interactive support, you’ve got a few good options:
In my How I Use the First Responder Kit class, I teach you the most important parameters and how I use them in my day-to-day work.
Once you’ve conquered that, my Fundamentals classes cover index tuning, query tuning, TempDB, running SQL Server in the cloud, and much more.
Don’t have time to learn the hard way? I’m here to help with a quick, easy process that gets to the root cause of your database health and performance pains. Learn more, see sample reports, and book a free call with me.