Find Ad Hoc Plan Cache Bloat with sys.dm_exec_cached_plans
Not every plan in SQL Server's cache earns its place. A query compiled once — because its literal values were hard-coded into the text instead of passed as parameters — gets a full compiled plan cached right alongside plans an application reuses thousands of times a day. sys.dm_exec_cached_plans is where that …
Read MoreRank Top Memory Consumers with sys.dm_os_memory_clerks
Jul 20, 2026 / · 8 min read · sql server sys.dm_os_memory_clerks memory clerks memory pressure plan cache xtp query store dmv performance monitoring scripts ·Buffer pool counters explain data cache pressure but go silent the moment memory trouble comes from somewhere else. sys.dm_os_memory_clerks is the DMV that covers everything the buffer pool doesn't — plan cache, In-Memory OLTP, Query Store, query memory grants, Extended Events sessions — by reporting pages_kb per …
Read MoreSQL Server DBCC Commands: The Complete DBA Reference Guide
Jun 8, 2026 / · 6 min read · sql server dbcc commands database maintenance database administration maintenance scripts sql scripts consistency checks DBCC CHECKDB DBCC SHRINKFILE plan cache ·Every SQL Server instance ships with a parallel command vocabulary that never appears in an ORM, a stored procedure, or an application query: the DBCC statements. They validate physical page structure, reclaim file space, evict cached plans, reseed identity columns, and report internal counters that no SELECT exposes — …
Read MoreSQL Server DBCC FREEPROCCACHE: Clear the Plan Cache Safely
A stored procedure that returned in 20 milliseconds yesterday is timing out today, and nothing in the code changed. The data did not grow meaningfully, the indexes are intact, and statistics look current — yet the query is suddenly scanning a million rows it used to seek. The usual culprit is a cached execution plan …
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