SQL Server DBA Guides, Scripts, and AI Health Checks
Production-first SQL Server content from a working DBA: troubleshooting guides, copy-paste scripts, and a health check workflow where dba-tools collects the evidence and AI helps surface the blindspots.
The Major Pillars
The reference libraries the rest of the site hangs off. Whatever brought you in, an error message, a wait type, a script you need, the rest of that library sits one link away.
DBA Scripts
Every script on the site, grouped by the question it answers, with a decision matrix for picking between the ones that look similar.
- 190+ production scripts, copy and paste ready
- Grouped into eight areas of the job
- Each one with output you can read
SSMS Complete Guide
Install, update, connect and fix the client itself, including the certificate error that stops people connecting after an upgrade.
- Install and update, manual or scripted
- The connection errors, with real causes
- What moved to VS Code, and what did not
Error Library
Search by message text or error number and land on what actually causes it on a live server, not a restatement of the message.
- Grouped by what you are actually dealing with
- Severity, cause and fix for each
- Written for someone mid-incident
Wait Stats Library
What the server is queueing on, wait type by wait type, with the benign ones filtered out so the list is short enough to act on.
- The full wait type reference
- Ranked by what actually matters
- Benign background waits filtered
The Script Areas
Open an area to see the pillars inside it and the scripts used most, or see how it all connects on the Site Map.
Server & Configuration
Pillars: Server Inventory, SQL Server Installation
Used most: Patch Level, Instance Configuration Snapshot, OS and Hardware Info
Storage & Capacity
Pillar: Storage and Capacity
Used most: Database Sizes, Transaction Log Size, Autogrowth History
Backup & Recovery
Pillar: Backups and Recovery
Used most: Backup Chain Integrity, Backup Coverage, Backup Restore Progress
High Availability
Pillar: High Availability
Used most: AG Replica Role, AG Failover Readiness, Always On Availability Group Latency
Performance & Troubleshooting
Pillars: Query, Blocking and Locking, Extended Events Tracing, Collectors
Used most: Wait Statistics, Missing Indexes, Blocking Summary
Maintenance & Automation
Pillars: SQL Agent and Jobs, Index Maintenance, SQL Server Maintenance Job Framework
Used most: Maintenance Job Status, SQL Agent Job Failure Summary, SQL Agent Job Overview
Migration & Deployment
Pillar: SQL Server Migration Script Generators
Used most: Fix Orphaned Users, Migration Risk Assessment, Orphaned Users
Start Here
Latest Posts
Everything on the site is maintained, not archived. This is what changed most recently.
Browse By Topic
Every post rolls up into one of these areas, and each panel opens the hub that owns it.
More About Me
I am a SQL Server DBA working in large-scale production environments, working remotely from home in Edinburgh, Scotland.
My focus is on reliability, performance, and keeping systems running when they matter most. Most of my day-to-day work sits around operations, incident response, platform engineering, and automation, supporting SQL Server workloads that need to stay available and predictable under real pressure.
There is more on the about page: how the scripts get verified, what the site is for, and how to tell me when something here is wrong.
