Troubleshooting
If you get a connection failure after 30 seconds…
That means SQLServerCheckup wasn’t able to connect to your SQL Server. It might be a firewall issue, or it might be that the server & instance name wasn’t quite typed in correctly. For complex server names (like with periods, backslashes, tricky characters, etc.) make sure to frame the server name in quotes, like this:
SQLServerCheckup.exe --datasource "MyServerName\MyInstanceName"
And same with your username, password, and database name if necessary.
Are you out of the domain?
If your SQL Server instance is using Windows Authorization and you are not on a machine in the proper domain you need to switch the Command Prompt to run in that user context. To do this first run:
runas /noprofile /netonly /user:MyDomain\MyUserName cmd
When the new window pops up follow the original connection instructions from there.
If you get a connection failure instantly…
It probably means we were able to connect to the SQL Server, but your login credentials weren’t accepted. If you’re using SQL authentication with a password that contains symbols, try enclosing the password in double quotes. Remember: If you’re using Windows Authentication– don’t pass in a user or password.
If you get a timeout error…
That’s okay. It means that one of the diagnostic queries couldn’t complete within the default of five minutes. You can change the timeouts if you like.
If you get a “Reference to database and/or server name in ‘master.sys.all_objects’ is not supported in this version of SQL Server” error…
That’s okay – it means you’re using Azure SQL DB, which doesn’t support some advanced diagnostic tooling available in SQL Server and Managed Instances. We can still get plenty of diagnostic data without that, though.
If you get an error opening the spreadsheet…
That’s okay – it’s a known issue when Excel tries to open a file with complex cell contents. Since SQLServerCheckup is taking your queries and putting them straight into Excel, it’s entirely possible that some of your queries will give Excel problems when opening the file.
You can just say yes, open the file anyway, and Excel will prompt you to delete the discarded contents. That’s completely okay – the spreadsheet is still chock full of diagnostic goodness.
If you get an error about “database failed to process because > 100 partitions were found…”
By default, we don’t analyze indexes on servers with hundreds of table partitions because it can be pretty slow going. If you’re sure you want to run the analysis, you’ll need to make two changes:
- Open Resources\SQLServerCheckup\70_sp_BlitzIndex.sql, search for “@BringThePain = 0”, and change it to “@BringThePain = 1”.
- Open Resources\querymanifest.json, search for “70_sp_BlitzIndex”, and change Timeout: 300 to a larger number. That’s measured in seconds. Depending on the size of your database and the horsepower in your server, you might need to try 30 minutes or more (1800 seconds.) There are 2 places in the manifest where you’ll need to change the timeout.
If your version has expired…
Our newsletter subscribers can always download an updated version. Just re-download from the SQL iSpy™ Download page as needed.