File Growth Analysis via Default Trace
SQL Server continuously tracks certain critical events in the “default trace”. Among those events are the file growth events triggered when SQL Server automatically grows a database data or log file, or when a user…
Gaps between SQL Server Agent Jobs
For a busy server, with lots of SQL Server Agent Jobs, it can be difficult to determine the optimal time to perform maintenance with the least impact on other operations. The code below inspects the…
Obtaining machine names for failed logins
The SQL Server error log contains invaluable details about failed logins, but only if you enable login auditing. Once enabled, the error log will provide the details of logins that failed including the name of…
Allowing users to start and stop SQL Server Agent Jobs
I recently received a request to allow certain users to start and stop SQL Server Agent jobs, without giving them the ability to use the SQL Server Agent tools in SQL Server Management Studio. I…
Removing a filegroup that contains data.
Occasionally, you may find you have an extra filegroup that is no longer required for whatever reason. In order to remove that filegroup, you must move all data from that filegroup to a new filegroup….
How can I automate statistics management?
Occasionally, it can be beneficial to turn off AUTO_CREATE_STATISTICS and AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS, and manage these items yourself. I’ve created the following stored procedure, which lives in master to allow it to be called from the context…
