SQL Server Health Check
One week inside your SQL Server estate: performance, backups, security, and high availability, with findings ranked by what to fix first.
What you get
- Performance findings that name the culpritWait-statistics analysis, the queries and plans doing the damage, and index findings with the evidence attached.
- Backup chain validation, plus a real restore testWe verify the chains and restore one agreed database to an isolated target. A backup that has never been restored is a hope.
- Security and configuration reviewLogins, roles, encryption posture, and instance settings checked against CIS benchmarks and plain good practice.
- HA and DR postureAlways On configuration, failover readiness, and whether your DR story survives contact with a bad Tuesday.
- A prioritized remediation planEvery finding ranked by risk and effort, split into fix-now, fix-this-quarter, and worth-knowing.
What we need from you
- Read-only access to the instances, or DMV/PerfMon captures if you prefer to run our collection scripts yourself.
- One hour with whoever owns the main application, so findings land in business terms.
- Access to a restore target (a test server or an isolated VM) for the restore test.
Timeline
Kickoff, access, and collection: configuration, wait stats, backup history, security posture.
Analysis and the restore test. Anything alarming gets flagged the day we find it, not saved for the report.
Written report and a live walkthrough with your team.
Who it's for, and who it isn't
- The database is slow and nobody can say why with evidence.
- Backups run green but nobody has ever restored one.
- You inherited an estate and need a baseline before touching it.
- You already have senior DBAs with monitoring and quarterly restore tests. This would tell you what you know.
- Your whole estate is one Express instance behind an app. Call us; that is a conversation, not an assessment.
Sample deliverable: table of contents
- 1 · Executive summary
- 2 · Instance and database inventory
- 3 · Performance findings and evidence
- 4 · Backup and restore-test results
- 5 · Security and configuration findings
- 6 · HA/DR posture
- 7 · Prioritized remediation plan (now / quarter / later)
Common questions
Will you change anything on our servers?
No. Collection is read-only, and the restore test lands on an isolated target you designate. The environment is exactly as we found it, which is also why the findings are trustworthy.
Which versions and platforms do you cover?
SQL Server 2014 through 2022, plus Azure SQL and Amazon RDS variants with their managed-service differences accounted for. Anything older still gets reviewed, and its end-of-support exposure becomes a finding in its own right.
What happens if you find something urgent mid-week?
You hear about it the day we find it, with a suggested immediate action. Broken backup chains and wide-open permissions do not wait for a Friday walkthrough.
Can this lead into ongoing DBA coverage?
Yes, and it is designed to: the health check doubles as the onboarding inventory for our Remote DBA retainer. The report is yours and complete either way.
Related
Connect with us about your SQL Server estate.
A fifteen-minute scope call confirms fit and sets the fixed fee. Then a week later you know exactly where you stand.