Sql-Server-Performance.com
recently posted a really well written article on a new feature included
in MS SQL 2005 SP2 called the
Performance
Dashboard. This article was written by Brad M. McGehee
and really does a good job walking you through
installation and usage of this
new Performance Dashboard report.
I just installed this report this morning and it looks very promising. One issue
I did run into, is that your database must be set to 9.0 compatibility in
order to get the benefits of the Performance Dashboard. Here's a brief
quote from the article:
In brief, the SQL Server 2005 Dashboard is a custom report (custom reports
are a new feature of Service Pack 2) for Management Studio that gathers
data from the many Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) and Dynamic Management
Functions (DMFs) available in SQL Server 2005. It is not a replacement for
other performance tools, but an adjunct tool to help DBAs better identify
and troubleshoot performance problems. In many ways, the SQL Server 2005
Dashboard reports are similar to the many built-in reports already offered
by Management Studio.