1. A big party is being held to honor relational database systems and their impact on modern society. Outside the venue, the host awaits the guests.
The first limousine arrives and out steps Oracle followed by 4 people.
Host: Who have you brought along? Oracle: I have 4 DBA’s in tow. One to install me, one to design the databases, one to administer me, and the other to justify the cost.
A second limo arrives and out steps DB2 followed by 40 people.
Host: Who have you bought along? DB2: I have 2 DBA’s, 2 hardware specialists, and 36 consultants.
A third limo arrives and out steps SQL Server all on his own.
Host: Why haven’t you brought anyone? SQL Server: I didn’t bring anyone because I am easy to install and am basically self managing. But I did bring the #sqlhelp Twitter hashtag for when the excrement hits the fan.
20 minutes later, up rushes MySQL, unshaved, hair a mess.
Host: Where have you been MySQL? MySQL: Sorry, I thought it was February 31st.

2. Free SQL Tools
Kevin Bullen

3. SQL Search
development/sql-search/
Red Gate “freebie”
Find fragments of SQL text within database objects (stored procedures, functions, views, etc…)
Supports SQL 2005+
Requires .NET 3.5

4. SQL Search
Demo

5. SQL Sentry Plan Explorer
server-query-view.asp
SQL Sentry “freebie”
FREE tool that builds upon the graphical plan view in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) to make query plan analysis more efficient
Supports SQL 2005+
Requires .NET 4.0

6. SQL Sentry Plan Explorer Demo

7. DB Comparer http://dbcomparer.com/
Object comparison between two databases.
Supports 2005, 2008.
Highlights differences within the SQL syntax.

8. DB Comparer
Demo

9. PoorSQL http://poorsql.com/
Open-source C#/.NET 2.0 SQL formatting tool.
Available Online, SSMS plug-in, WinMerge plug-in, Notepad++ plug-in, & CLI
Demo
SSMS
CLI via PowerShell

10. SQL Decryptor http://www.devart.com/dbforge/sql/sqldecry ptor/
Decrypts encrypted database objects.
Supports 2000 – 2012, except for SQL Azure.

11. SQL Decryptor

12. SQL Decryptor
Demo

13. ClearTrace http://www.scalesql.com/cleartrace/
Imports SQL trace files, calculates and displays summary information.
Works with SQL 2000 – SQL 2008.
SQL 2012 depreciates traces and expands extended events.

14. ClearTrace
A Trace Group is simply a way to group traces together. Each trace file must have a unique name.  Any time a trace file is imported for a specific Trace Group it replaces what is already there.
Duration from SQL Server traces is stored in microseconds (one- millionth of a second) while Duration from SQL Server 2000 is stored in milliseconds (one-thousandth of a second).
ClearTrace will group by TextData (the SQL statement), ApplicationName, LoginName and/or HostName
It only processes RPC:Completed and SQL:BatchCompleted events.
Ability to summarize by time as well as by day. Enter a minute value in the Time Granularity field (not supported by the interface, you need to query the view directly (CTTraceSummaryView).

15. ClearTrace
ClearTrace Demo

17. SSMS Tools http://www.ssmstoolspack.com
Published by SQL MVP Mladen Prajdic
Leatherman of SQL tools that plug into SSMS.

18. SSMS Tools Demo Window Connection Coloring CRUD Generator
Insert statements
SQL Snippets

19. Ola Hallengren http://ola.hallengren.com/
Scripts for running backups, integrity checks, and index and statistics maintenance.
Supports
SQL based solution, can be modified to be used with SQL Express Editions.

20. Ola Hallengren
Database backup support 3rd party backup solutions (Red Gate’s Hyperbac, Quest LightSpeed, RedGate SQL Backup, Idera SQL Safe Backup), compression, & encryption.
IndexOptimize supports statistics maintenance as well.
DatabaseIntegrityCheck is a DBCC CHECKDB wrapper.
All command include param, ability to test the command before actual execution.

21. Ola Hallengren
Examples

22. PAL (Performance Analysis of Logs)
Automates building perfmon data collector sets from predefined sets of performance counters (threshold files).
Reads in a perfmon counter logs and analyzes them using known thresholds and produces HTML reports that identify performance issues.

23. PAL (Performance Analysis of Logs)
PAL Interface
Import Counter Set
Sample Report
PAL Demo

26. Roll Your Own Don’t underestimate the value of DMVs Idera web casts
Red Gate Bookstore