Creating a Culture of Observability in SQL Server, Even Without a Full-Time DBA
If you’re leading an IT team without a dedicated DBA, you’re not alone. Many small- to mid-sized organizations rely on a sysadmin or developer to “keep SQL Server running.” While that can work for a while, it often leaves teams blindsided when something breaks suddenly—or worse, when something breaks slowly. This is why it’s important to proactively create a culture of observability.
Observability isn’t just about having monitoring tools. Monitoring tools cannot replace a good DBA. Observability is about building a culture where your team is aware of what’s happening in your SQL Server environment, can spot issues early, and feels confident responding to them.
Here are some things you can do today to start building that culture of observability in your SQL Server environment, even if you don’t have a full-time DBA.
1. Know What You’re Working With
If you don’t already have one, list all the SQL Servers in your environment. Then, do a quick health check on each one to determine their status.
Start with these four steps:
- Get a list of all your production and lower-level SQL Servers.
- Make sure your backups are working.
- Check the integrity of your databases.
- Determine your SQL Server version and patch levels.
For more information, see Working Without A SQL Server DBA? Do These 10 Things Now.
2. Know What “Normal” Looks Like
You can’t catch problems if you don’t know what healthy looks like. Start by tracking a few key SQL Server metrics:
- CPU usage
- Buffer cache hits and PLE
- Disk I/O latency and throughput
- Wait stats
- Number of concurrent users
- Batch Requests/sec
- Transactions/sec
- SQL Errors
Even a simple baseline can help your team recognize when something’s off. Tools like SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), built-in reports, or lightweight third-party monitoring tools can help you get started. You can query the Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) for a lot of this information.
3. Make Monitoring a Shared Responsibility
If you don’t have a DBA, observability has to be a team sport. Encourage your sysadmin or developer to think beyond “Is the server up?” and ask:
- Are backups running and restorable?
- When was the last time an integrity check was run?
- Are there long-running queries or blocking issues?
- Are we seeing unusual growth in database size?
Build a habit of checking these things regularly, not just when something breaks or when users are complaining.
4. Keep It Simple (and Visible)
You don’t have to have a complex monitoring stack to be effective. Start with what you have. Set up email alerts for failed jobs. Schedule maintenance jobs and verify they’re completed successfully. Run the benchmarking queries from Step 2 and monitor the results over time.
Create a shared dashboard with key metrics. Review it in your weekly team meeting.
The goal isn’t perfection. It’s awareness and visibility. It’s observability.
5. Encourage Curiosity
When someone on your team asks, “Why did this query suddenly slow down?”, encourage them to dig deeper. Give them the time and space to investigate. (Just make sure they use trusted sources—be careful downloading scripts from the internet!)
Curiosity is the foundation of observability. Make time to dig into odd behavior, even if it’s not urgent. That’s how you build a team that’s proactive, not reactive.
Know When (and Who) to Ask for Help
If your team doesn’t have the time or expertise to interpret what they’re seeing, important issues may be overlooked. That’s where we come in.
We help IT leaders like you make SQL Server environments more secure, reliable, and observable without the overhead of hiring a full-time DBA. Whether you need help setting up monitoring, tuning performance, or just knowing what to look for, we can help.
Schedule a discovery call, and let’s talk.