When I think back to my early years as a junior DBA, I can’t help but cringe. Man, did I have some dark days! Mainly because I had no idea what was even possible when it came it to SQL Server monitoring.
Oh, the joys of manual monitoring!
Whenever issues popped up, I’d stop what I was doing and manually write scripts to try to track down the problem. Not only did this take forever, but it didn’t always reveal the root cause of the issue anyway – much less provide any helpful insight about how to resolve it. And even when I did finally pinpoint the culprit, more servers would start to fail – before I could even begin to fix the first issue of the day.
I was exhausted and overworked.
I thought using free, manual methods was the right thing to do. I thought it made me a more valuable employee. The last thing I wanted to do was rock the boat or admit I needed a better solution. What I didn’t realize then that I know now is that companies value efficiency and peak database performance above all else. The success of their business hinges on those two things. And when you find a better method, like a powerful, automated approach to SQL Server performance monitoring, everyone wins.
Knowledge is power.
But when you’re starting out, it’s hard to know what you don’t know. And that’s where expert help comes in. Looking back, the one thing that had the most profound impact on my career – and personal happiness – was taking an hour here or there to attend expert webcasts. Think the biggest names in tech can’t be your personal mentors? Think again! With so many options for free, online training out there, you can learn from the best and the brightest.
Case in point: Andy Warren’s MSSQL webcast
Back in the day, I would’ve killed for all the expert insight in this webcast on SQL Server monitoring. You can check it out to get life-changing monitoring tips from one of the founders of SQL Saturday. In this session, Andy covers everything I struggled with that I just mentioned, and what you’re probably dealing with, too.
Learn cool monitoring hacks for busy DBAs.
You’ll learn what you need to monitor in your environment and how to monitor it proactively – without wasting time writing scripts. You’ll discover a faster way to detect blocking, deadlocks, long-running queries, failed logins and failed jobs. Plus, you’ll see how to capture more detail on how the system is being used at both the hardware and software level. You’ll gain a deeper understanding of built-in capabilities like reports in SSMS, sp_who, Profiler and Extend Events, as well as Perfmon and PAL as a way to monitor and capture metrics related to server performance and SQL Server itself.
Look at SQL Server monitoring in a new light.
There are easier ways to overcome your current challenges, and I can’t recommend this kind of webcast highly enough. It’s truly the best place to start. You won’t believe what’s possible when it comes to database monitoring. But I promise you, you’ll be so much happier when you get away from tedious, inefficient methods. And as intimidating as it is to even consider a new approach, in the end, it’s the only way to take your career, and your company, to the next level.
Put your tough days behind you.
Check out Andy’s simple tips to improve SQL Server monitoring.
