Welcome to the first issue of what I hope will become a monthly series called “What’s In My Utility Belt?”. The intent is to share with you some of the top free SQL tools, Windows utilities, Internet tools, and even some paid software that I find indispensable in my role as a DBA – some are free, some are not, all are useful in some way. I’ll publish a new issue each month, adding new tools or removing ones that I no longer use. Without further ado, let’s dive into the first issue!

Top Free SQL Tools

	SQL Sentry Plan Explorer This should be in every SQL DBA’s toolbox, either the free version or the Pro version. There simply is no better way to view query plans.
	RedGate SQL Search There’s nothing here that you can’t do by querying system tables, but it’s much more convenient. Adds a nifty search box to Management Studio into which you simply type your search term. SQL Search will find every SQL object that contains that term. I recommend this to every developer in the company who works with SQL Server.
	ApexSQL Complete It’s like Intellisense, only better. See, as you’re typing, the parameters for a stored procedure, the syntax of a SQL command, the name of the table that you’re trying to type, the columns inside that table, and more.
	ApexSQL Refactor I have my own preferences for how code should be formatted – we all do. I despise getting a large block of unformatted SQL text that I have to cleanup before trying to tune. This little gem, totally free of charge, makes this cleanup as simple as clicking a button. It’s becoming one of my favorite tools.
	ApexSQL Search The third free offering from ApexSQL, this one offers similar functionality to RedGate’s SQL Search, but in a slightly different way. I’m not sure which one I prefer just yet, but after seeing the other tools from ApexSQL, I had to give this one a try.

Top Paid SQL Tools

RedGate SQL Doc This one’s not free, but for a simple way to publish your database schema, it can’t be beat. I use this to create a compiled help document after each month’s production deployment, which is then made available to the entire development team.

Top Free Windows Tools

	Dropbox I’m a loyal paying Dropbox customer. It’s my off-site backup for personal files, photos, you name it. It’s how I sync files between my various computers. We also use it within the DBA team as a central repository for our utility scripts and shared non-sensitive files. It “just works”.
	7-Zip Yes, modern versions of Windows include built-in zip file features, but you can’t do password-protection or encryption. Plus, I just prefer the 7-Zip tool in general.
	MagicDisc If you download software in ISO format, and who doesn’t these days, you need this tool. It allows you to mount a disc image in ISO format, plus several others, as a virtual drive.
	Notepad++ My go-to text editor, offering color syntax highlighting for several different programming languages. I use this for Powershell, HTML, batch files, even T-SQL scripts. Extendable through plugins, it can be made to do quite a lot of things.

Other Database Tools

Oracle client Sigh… Yes, it’s true. It’s very, very rare, but I do on occasion need to connect to an Oracle box. I don’t like it any more than you do.

The post What’s In My Utility Belt? Issue #1 appeared first on RealSQLGuy.