Community Script Downloads
Here are some stored procedures written and maintained by the SQL community that I’ve found very useful.
1)The first is sp_whoisactive, written by Adam Machanic. It is a great proc to monitor activity on a SQL Server instance to gather data to diagnose many kinds of performance issues.
2) The second is from Brent Ozar, the sp_blitz procedure. This is very useful to return information for the administration of a SQL Server instance. Running the procedure will (among other things) let you know if there are databases that haven’t been recently backed up, a database with untrusted foreign keys, potential security issues, and the list goes on.
A great feature is that when an issue is discovered, the results will return a URL to Brent’s site to give more detail on the issue and steps to resolve it.
3) Ola Hallengren has a great set of database maintenance scripts.
They are also available on GitHub
4) Glenn Berry has a set of diagnostic SQL scripts.
5) Greg Low of the SQL Down Under podcast has released SDU Tools, a set of diagnostic and utility scripts:
6) Kimberly Tripp: sp_helpindex
7) SQL Cop: tSQLt tests to highlight potential problems in your database
8) sp_pressuredetector: Erik Darling – Script to diagnose CPU and memory pressure.
Online Query Tools
These sites will run SQL for various database engines through your browser.
DB Fiddle: MySQL, Postgres, and SQLite.
One Compiler: MariaDB, MySQL, Postgres, SQLite, SQL Server, Plus Redis and MongoDB. You can also use it to run code for Python, Java, and a whole list of other programming languages.
SQL Fiddle: MySQL, Oracle, Postgres, SQLite, SQL Server.
Other Tools
2012 Best Practices Analyzer: No versions available for 2014 or later as of now.
2019 Feature Pack: Command line utilities, drivers and other utilities.
Data Migration Assistant: Replaces the Upgrade Advisor.
SQL Server Central – List Of Tools And Utilities
I’ve also blogged on other query tools.
I’ve also blogged on additional SQL Server tools on this post.
Here are companies that sell SQL Server tools:
Apex SQL
Devart
Idera
Quest: Toad and erwin tools
Redgate
Solarwinds / Sentry One
SQL Grease: Performance Monitoring
Development Tools
Links to some development tools that I’ve found useful. Tools have a free community version available unless otherwise noted.
Advanced Rest Client: A free tool to make REST API calls.
DBeaver: One tool for all of the databases you use. I’ve written about DBeaver on my blog.
Draw IO : Diagramming and flowchart tool – Web app or desktop app.
Notepad++: A Notepad replacement and a source code editor, with built-in support for dozens of languages. I like the ‘XML Tools’ plugin which allows for formatting XML files with its ‘Pretty Print’ feature. The ‘JSON Viewer’ plugin can format JSON, as well.
SQL Sentry Plan Explorer: Tool to view SQL Server execution plans with many improvements over SSMS – Acquired by Solarwinds.
Vertabelo: Online data modeling tool. Free trial, with subscriptions or per-day usage available.
Windows Terminal: Run multiple shells (like Powershell and command). I like having access to these in one place, plus the multiple tabs feature.
Winget: Package manager for Windows (Included with Windows 10 and later). Install and Update applications from the command line.
WinMerge: Tool to compare directories or to compare files. Differences can be merged from one file to another.
Scott Hanselman posts a list of his favorite tools periodically on his site.
SQL Rob 