We’re blessed in the SQL Server community that there are so many people willing to share work they have done for the benefit of others. I’ve collated five scripts that have really helped me out over the years by some of the best in the business, enjoy…

Paul Randal – sp_AllocationMetaData

If you’re serious about SQL Server you will know all about Paul Randal (he’s the guy who wrote DBCC CHECKDB). Paul has written a great bit of code that provides information about IAM chains and allocation units. It’s not something that you’re going to use on a daily basis, but great to have in your toolkit.

http://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/paul/inside-the-storage-engine-sp_allocationmetadata-putting-undocumented-system-catalog-views-to-work/

Kimberly Trip – sp_HelpIndexn

I was lucky enough to go to the SQLSkills IE1 event last year and gutted not to go to IE2 this year. Kimberly’s presentation on indexing internals was absolutely fantastic. You too can benefit from her wisdom through her custom version of sp_helpindex. Like many of these scripts it is being regularly updated so make sure you keep going back to download the latest version.

http://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/kimberly/category/sp_helpindex-rewrites/

Ola Hallengren – SQL Server Backup

Prior to moving to a third party vendor who have a fantastic data protection product for SQL Server I used to have this running on my servers. It does a great job of managing not only your backups but also managing the defragmentation of your indices. You’ll never go back to using maintenance plans again!

http://ola.hallengren.com/sql-server-backup.html

Adam Machanic – Sp_WhoIsActive

Adam Machanic is another of those really clever guys who gives a lot to the community. Not also is he awesome at coding as proven by sp_whoisactive but he also started T-SQL Tuesdays!

This script provides a myriad of information about what is happening on your server right now.

Brent Ozar – sp_Blitz

Brent Ozar and the crack team at Brent Ozar Unlimited have created a script that you can use as a health check for your server. How cool is that?

Brent and the team have opened this up to you the community and are constantly rewriting this with your help to make it a great resource.

You can download the sp here – http://www.brentozar.com/blitz/

What community scripts would you have in your top 5? I’d love to hear your views.

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Related posts:

1. Care in the community
2. Microsoft Community Contributor Award
3. New Year Ambitions – Brent Ozar – Consulting