That’s So Metadata: Discover Your Database From the Inside ~ Rob Volk

Have you ever needed to learn a new database design and don’t know where to begin? Or are trying to find out why a query doesn’t perform well? Or need to provide security information to auditors or your security team? SQL Server has a number of metadata facilities available to help you with these tasks, and more. Functions, dynamic management views, and system stored procedures can illuminate details from the smallest column up through an entire SQL Server instance and everything in-between. We will demonstrate metadata techniques to help you: Document your database schema objects such as procedures, functions, tables, columns and indexes Investigate performance and look for bottlenecks Discover metadata to administer your databases backups, index maintenance, and security Apply your own metadata using extended properties