DBA Dash - SQL Server Monitoring Tool

Download

Download the latest release - the release notes include a guide to which file to download.

DBA Dash Visualizer

A small stand-alone app for viewing SQL Server execution plans (.sqlplan), deadlock graphs (.xdl) and result grids - no DBA Dash installation, repository or SQL Server connection needed. It uses the same viewers that are built into DBA Dash.

• Query plans - operators ranked by cost, CPU, elapsed time, reads or estimate error, with badges for warnings, bad estimates, parallelism and missing indexes. Insights highlight issues such as implicit conversions, scalar UDFs, excessive memory grants, catch-all parameters and missing partition elimination.
• Plan comparison - compare two plans side by side to see exactly what changed.
• Deadlock graphs - an interactive graph with findings that explain the deadlock.
• Result grids - sorting, filtering, Group By, data bars, and export to Excel, JSON, Markdown, HTML or SQL INSERT statements.

Query plans with insights	Deadlock graphs with findings
Plan comparison	Result grids with data bars

Download the setup program (DBADash_Visualizer_Setup_<version>.exe, which updates itself) or the zip (DBADash_Visualizer_<version>.zip) from the latest release. See the DBA Dash Visualizer documentation.

SSMS Extension

An extension for SSMS 21 and 22 that adds Open in DBA Dash Visualizer to SSMS:

• Execution plans - from the execution plan right-click menu.
• Deadlock graphs - from deadlock graph tabs, or XML holding a plan or deadlock graph (e.g. sp_BlitzLock output).
• Results grids - one grid, or all the results from a query window in one go.
• Live plans - right-click a row with a session_id (e.g. from sp_BlitzWho or sp_WhoIsActive) and choose Open Live Plan in DBA Dash Visualizer to follow the running query's plan as it progresses. The Visualizer connects to the instance with the query window's connection (Windows or SQL Server authentication) and needs VIEW SERVER STATE and lightweight query profiling.

The option is also on the Tools menu (Ctrl+Alt+Shift+D). Results opened in the Visualizer can be sorted, filtered, grouped and exported - or scripted as INSERT statements to re-create the results in a temp table.

Open in DBA Dash Visualizer from SSMS	Results grids - script as INSERT, save to a table, or export

The extension is included with DBA Dash and the Visualizer. Install it from Options > SSMS Extension in DBA Dash, or Settings > Install SSMS Extension... in the Visualizer. See the SSMS Extension documentation.

Website

Documentation is available on dbadash.com, including an easy to follow quick start guide.

Project Summary

DBA Dash is a tool for SQL Server DBAs to assist with daily checks, performance monitoring and change tracking. You can be up and running within minutes and it will provide you with a wealth of information that will make your life as a DBA easier.

• Daily DBA Checks

  • Backups
  • Last Good DBCC check
  • Corruption
  • Drive space
  • Agent Jobs
  • Availability Groups
  • Log Shipping
  • Mirroring
  • Identity Columns
  • Failed Logins
  • OS Loaded Modules
  • Custom Checks and more

• Performance

  • Performance Summary across all your instances
  • OS Performance Counters + Custom Metrics
  • Stored Procedure/Function/Trigger execution stats
  • Waits
  • Memory
  • Snapshot of running queries
  • IO Performance
  • Blocking
  • Deadlocks - collection, reporting, signatures, viewer, static & AI analysis
  • Capture slow queries (Extended Event trace)
  • Ad-hoc Extended Events traces across multiple instances
  • Azure DB monitoring, including read replicas

• Query plans & deadlocks

  • Query Plan Viewer - insights, plan comparison and optional AI analysis
  • Deadlock Viewer - findings and optional AI analysis

What DBA Dash collects and when

Screenshots

Daily checks - the health of all your SQL instances on a single dashboard	Performance Summary - key metrics for all your instances on one page
Running Queries - what was running at any point in time, with blocking chains	Slow Queries - captured with extended events
Deadlocks - tracked over time and grouped by signature	AI Analysis - optional AI analysis of plans and deadlocks, with follow-up questions

More screenshots 📷

Video Overview

Requirements

• SQL Server 2016 SP1 or later required for DBADashDB repository database. RDS & Azure DB is supported.
• SQL 2008-SQL 2022 supported for monitored instances - including Azure and RDS (SQL Server).
• Windows machine to run agent. Agent can monitor multiple SQL instances.

Prerequisites

• Account to use for agent. Review the security doc for required permissions.
• .NET Desktop Runtime 10 is used by DBA Dash. You will be prompted to install the .NET runtime version 10 if it's not already installed.

Note It's possible to run as a console app under your own user account for testing purposes.

Installation

👋 Quick start guide here.

Upgrades

👋 See here for upgrade help

Help

👋 More help here