SQL Server DMVs in Action

Preface

When I first discovered DMVs, I was enthralled because they made many difficult things so easy. It was simple to identify, typically within seconds, the core performance problems that affect SQL Server databases. For example, I could quickly discover which queries were taking the longest time to run, which indexes were missing, and why queries were being blocked. This was only the tip of the iceberg; the deeper I dug into DMVs, the more information they provided to help me fix performance problems.

Although I was captivated by the power of DMVs, I was frustrated because there was very little awareness, even among experienced DBAs, of their existence. In response to this I wrote an article for Microsoft’s MSDN magazine that was published ...