At the PASS Summit, the folks from PSS had a lab environment where you could sit down and go through some exercises to learn how to use tools and learn what to look for when diagnosing SQL Server problems.  PSS was also at the Seattle Summit last year and I did not get a chance to go to the labs.  This year, I was able to carve out an hour to see what it was about.  I started on the Memory labs.  Because of everything else that was going on, I did not have time to finish.  These same labs are now available for download and use on your own system.  There is a link to the files at http://www.sqlpass.org where you can obtain them.  These files are available to everyone - not just attendees of the PASS Summit.

These labs are based on SQL Server 2000 sp3a and hotfix MS03-031.  Do NOT use these on your production server.  Set up a test server, VPC, or other PC to work on these.

The labs include the following topics:

  • Memory
  • Performance
  • Blocking
  • Recovery
  • Debugging

Enjoy!