More free SQL Server developer and DBA tools: May SDU Tools Release

Hi Folks,

We’ve just created the May 2017 update for SDU Tools. We’re pretty excited about what we’re delivering this month.

The first part that we’ve added is a set of tools to make it really, really easy to capture a performance query trace, to load it, and to perform a basic analysis of it. There are three tools involved in this:

  • CapturePerformanceTuningTrace – Just give the trace a name, say where it should be stored, which databases to filter on (if any), and how long you want the trace to run. We do the rest.
  • LoadPerformanceTuningTrace – This tool loads the completed trace into a table. AnalyzePerformanceTuningTrace - And then we find the things in the trace that are of interest – automatically

Next, we’ve added a useful tool to help with your database consistency. I often run into databases where columns that hold the same information are defined differently across the database.

  • ListMismatchedDataTypes - check if columns with the same name have been declared the same way across your database.

Every month, we also add to our list of standard functions:

  • CalculateAge - Ever looked for code to calculate how old someone or something is?
  • AsciiOnly – Can be used to strip non-ASCII characters from a string. Optionally can also strip control characters.

We’ve also made it easier to work with SQL Server Agent jobs. sp_start_job is great but it returns as soon as the job starts.

  • ExecuteJobAndWaitForCompletion – Executes a SQL Server Agent job synchronously (ie: wait for it to complete before returning). It has configurable timeouts for starting the job and for waiting for it to complete.

Our list of scripting functions has also been enhanced:

  • FormatDataTypeName - Takes the name of a data type, the maximum length, precision, and scale and outputs the data type the way it appears in a table definition
  • PGObjectName - Considering migrating to PostgreSQL ? We hope not but if you are needing to work with other systems, this tool for creating PostgreSQL compatible object names from SQL Server ones might help.

Finally, we’ve also posted new videos for each new tool and updated the demo script files.

If you have registered with us, you should have already received an email with a download link.

You can find out more about our free SDU Tools here:

http://sqldownunder.com/sdu-tools

2017-05-07