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.
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