In 2005, rebuilding a table that was a heap (no clustered index) wasn't easy.  You could copy it to a different table, or you could add a clustered index and then drop it. In 2008, this is a far easier thing to do.  They have added to the ALTER TABLE command a method to rebuild the table, which is the same as rebuilding the clustered ...

  This object provides very useful stats on how many times an index has been used, locked, waited on, etc. An index in this context can mean several things: a clustered index, heap, index, or a partition of either of these. The grain of the function is down to the partition level, so if you are working with a table that is partitioned into ...

Information about how queries have been optimized since the server has been restarted. Note that counters are only affected when there is some sort of optimization event, not on every query. (reference: http://sqlserver-qa.net/blogs/perftune/archive/2007/05/11/get-statistics-on-query-plan-optimizer-execution.aspx ) Type: View Data: Accumulating ...

Excellent dmv that shows, for each file that SQL Server uses for the databases, stats on how frequently the file has been used by the database. This is one of the primary dynamic management views I use almost daily (well, not usually when I am on vacation, but even sometimes then!)  The file can be any file used in the database, including the ...

This object gives statistics on how an index has been used to resolve queries. Most importantly it tells you the number of times a query was used to find a single row (user_seeks), a range of values, or to resolve a non-unique query (user_scans ), if it has been used to resolve a bookmark lookup (user_lookups) and how many changes to the index ...

Give space usage of objects in tempdb (most likely this will be extended to more than just tempdb in a future edition of SQL Server.) Can be used to see how and why space is being used in Tempdb, on a file by file basis. Type: View Data: temporal, reflects the current state of the file usage Columns: database_id – identifies the database (relates ...

For the current database, gives you space oriented statistics for each partition of indexes (even if you only have one partion), like row count, page counts, etc. Resembles the sysindexes in previous versions of SQL Server, with more information. Type: view Data: accumulating, refreshed at server restart Scope: Reset on server restart (or ...

Well, I am working on a project that is going to be a book on dynamic management views (and functions, but DMF is an interesting acronym, and objects, as in DMO, has a well known other meaning.  What I will post will be one object in the following format: Name of object Type: Function or View Parameters: If it is a function Scope: Really ...