I wanted to take a minute to draw some attention to a few things in this month’s SQL Server Magazine.  If you’ve gotten your copy of SQLMag, you’ll notice poster that’s a really great reference guide for SQL Server system stored procedures.  This outstanding poster can hang in your cube or office and outlines the function and syntax of these stored procs – a great tool for any SQL Server DBA.  Tom LaRock, a friend of mine through PASS and a member of Quest’s Association of SQL Server Experts helped to put this together and it looks fantastic, thanks a lot Tom! 

If you don’t subscribe to SQLMag, you can also pick up this poster at our booth at TechEd this week, as well as another useful poster that shows all of the DMVs in SQL2005/2008 and their uses.  Finally, Quest has also just released the SQL Server Consolidation Guide, a useful handbook for virtualization and consolidation within your SQL Server environment.  Swing by the booth and grab all three. One other item on the stored procedure poster that I want to mention is a link to a great freeware tool which is in beta from Quest called Discovery Wizard for SQL Server (you can get it here:  www.quest.com/sqldiscovery).  We all know about “SQL Server sprawl”, I and many MVP colleagues have written extensively on the subject.  Quest’s Discovery Wizard (we call it Disco! Take that John Travolta!) allows you to detect SQL Server instances and monitor your network for newly added servers. It utilizes a number of discovery methods which helps to reveal even those SQL Server instances that can’t be detected using the native tools.  It’s really neat, it’s free, and I suggest you check it out.Thanks!-Kevin