sp_blitz

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So I’ve just watched Brent’s How I Use the First Responder Kit: sp Blitz and figured I’d write some notes on what I found interesting, for the sake of my future self.
Create a new database Blitz_Maintenance on the same server that you wish to analyse and install the SQL-Server-First-Responder-Kit. Brent installs his scripts into the master database, but I didn’t fancy playing with system databases so opted to create my own.
Run sp_blitz, which will scan every database in the sql instance.
sp_blitz @CheckServerInfo = 1,
 @OutputDatabaseName = 'Blitz',
 @OutputSchemaName = 'dbo',
 @OutputTableName = 'Blitz_Results'
The latter 3 parameters are optional to output the data into a new database. If you don’t have access to do this, just omit those parameters and copy the data from the query results panel in SSMS.
Have a read over the set of data that is produced, but for an overview on the server take a look at the Priority=250 entries. It will show you the version of SQL Server, # cores, RAM, # databases, size of databases, etc.
Next take a look at the highest priority items 1-50 and take notes on things that scare you, and start shouting about them. Look for anything that might cause loss or corruption of data.
  • no backups
  • server restarted recently
  • no check db
  • evaluation edition time-bomb
  • etc
This script is fantastic at giving you a top level view of a db server and highlighting the critical issues that need addressing.

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