Isn’t it great when you work for a company that buys you all the nifty, expensive tools and gives you a handsome Christmas bonus to boot?  I remember the days of having a dozen instances of Quest Spotlight on SQL Server monitors, LiteSpeed, Redgate, you name it.  But these days, times seem to be a bit tighter.  I’m always looking for a good deal on SQL tools and wouldn’t you know… free tools are prices right!

What is your favorite free SQL tool?  Here are a couple of mine:

ClearTrace      Many Thanks to Bill Graziano for a fantastic way to quickly analyze SQL Profiler Trace files.  Slick as a whistle, find your expensive batches or statements by Application Name, Login Name, Normalized SQL Text or Host Name. I am worthless as a DBA without it… I am a hero with it!  He even has an online version now.

SMSS Tools Pack     This is new to me, but my colleague just passed it forward.  Thank you Mladen Prajdic for the add-in to Management Studio.  One of the features I already use is Windows Connection Coloring, a handy tool to know what type of server you are connected to (for me red=prod, orange =staging and test, green=dev and local).  Just a little indication to keep you from getting yelled at by mistakenly connecting to the wrong environment!  Query Execution History is a lifesaver when you’ve spent a bunch of time writing code and close your window without saving the script.  SQL Code Snippets are fantastic.

Hope you have a chance to give these tools a shot.  Let me know what your favorite free SQL tool is, I’d like to get some in my Christmas Stocking!

~Todd Carrier