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How can you quickly determine if any of these in

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How can you quickly determine if any of these indexes are really being used?

You are examining a SQL Server 2005 system as part of a consulting engagement. The client has complained the inserts and updates are slow to process on the system. You discover that there are over thirty indexes on some of the most heavily updated columns. How can you quickly determine if any of these indexes are really being used?

Answer: Query sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats

Explanation: SQL Server 2005 collects information on index usage since the last restart in sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats. You can query this after the system has run for a reasonable period of time to see if indexes are really being used.

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