How do I monitor and find unused indexes in SQL database - sql-server

Question

I would like to monitor index usage for an SQL database in order to find unused indexes and then drop them. How can I monitor index usage most efficiently? Which scripts could be useful?
I'm aware of this question about identifying unused objects, but this applies only to the current run of the SQL server. I would like to monitor index usage over a period of time.

Answer 1

This is an interesting question. I've been working on this same question over the past week. There is a system table called dm_db_index_usage_stats that contains usage statistics on indexes.
Indexes That Never Appear in the Usage Statistics Table
However, many indexes never appear in this table at all. The query David Andres posted lists all indexes for this case. I've updated it a little bit to ignore primary keys, which probably shouldn't be deleted, even if they aren't ever used. I also joined on the dm_db_index_physical_stats table to get other information, including Page Count, Total Index Size, and the Fragmentation Percentage. An interesting note is that indexes that are returned by this query don't seem to show up in the SQL Report for Index Usage Statistics.
DECLARE #dbid INT
SELECT #dbid = DB_ID(DB_NAME())
SELECT Databases.Name AS [Database],
Objects.NAME AS [Table],
Indexes.NAME AS [Index],
Indexes.INDEX_ID,
PhysicalStats.page_count as [Page Count],
CONVERT(decimal(18,2), PhysicalStats.page_count * 8 / 1024.0) AS [Total Index Size (MB)],
CONVERT(decimal(18,2), PhysicalStats.avg_fragmentation_in_percent) AS [Fragmentation (%)]
FROM SYS.INDEXES Indexes
INNER JOIN SYS.OBJECTS Objects ON Indexes.OBJECT_ID = Objects.OBJECT_ID
LEFT JOIN sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats(#dbid, null, null, null, null) PhysicalStats
on PhysicalStats.object_id = Indexes.object_id and PhysicalStats.index_id = indexes.index_id
INNER JOIN sys.databases Databases
ON Databases.database_id = PhysicalStats.database_id
WHERE OBJECTPROPERTY(Objects.OBJECT_ID,'IsUserTable') = 1
AND Indexes.type = 2 -- Nonclustered indexes
AND Indexes.INDEX_ID NOT IN (
SELECT UsageStats.INDEX_ID
FROM SYS.DM_DB_INDEX_USAGE_STATS UsageStats
WHERE UsageStats.OBJECT_ID = Indexes.OBJECT_ID
AND Indexes.INDEX_ID = UsageStats.INDEX_ID
AND DATABASE_ID = #dbid)
ORDER BY PhysicalStats.page_count DESC,
Objects.NAME,
Indexes.INDEX_ID,
Indexes.NAME ASC
Indexes That Do Appear in the Usage Statistics Table, But Are Never Used
There are other indexes that do appear in the dm_db_index_usage_stats table, but which have never been used for user seeks, scans, or lookups. This query will identify indexes that fall into this category. Incidentally, unlike the indexes returned from the other query, the indexes returned in this query can be verified on the SQL Report by Index Usage Statistics.
I added a Minimum Page Count that allows me to initially focus on and remove unused indexes that are taking up a lot of storage.
DECLARE #MinimumPageCount int
SET #MinimumPageCount = 500
SELECT Databases.name AS [Database],
Indexes.name AS [Index],
Objects.Name AS [Table],
PhysicalStats.page_count as [Page Count],
CONVERT(decimal(18,2), PhysicalStats.page_count * 8 / 1024.0) AS [Total Index Size (MB)],
CONVERT(decimal(18,2), PhysicalStats.avg_fragmentation_in_percent) AS [Fragmentation (%)],
ParititionStats.row_count AS [Row Count],
CONVERT(decimal(18,2), (PhysicalStats.page_count * 8.0 * 1024) / ParititionStats.row_count) AS [Index Size/Row (Bytes)]
FROM sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats UsageStats
INNER JOIN sys.indexes Indexes
ON Indexes.index_id = UsageStats.index_id
AND Indexes.object_id = UsageStats.object_id
INNER JOIN sys.objects Objects
ON Objects.object_id = UsageStats.object_id
INNER JOIN SYS.databases Databases
ON Databases.database_id = UsageStats.database_id
INNER JOIN sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats (DB_ID(), NULL, NULL, NULL, NULL) AS PhysicalStats
ON PhysicalStats.index_id = UsageStats.Index_id
and PhysicalStats.object_id = UsageStats.object_id
INNER JOIN SYS.dm_db_partition_stats ParititionStats
ON ParititionStats.index_id = UsageStats.index_id
and ParititionStats.object_id = UsageStats.object_id
WHERE UsageStats.user_scans = 0
AND UsageStats.user_seeks = 0
AND UsageStats.user_lookups = 0
AND PhysicalStats.page_count > #MinimumPageCount -- ignore indexes with less than 500 pages of memory
AND Indexes.type_desc != 'CLUSTERED' -- Exclude primary keys, which should not be removed
ORDER BY [Page Count] DESC
I hope this helps.
Final Thought
Of course, once indexes are identified as candidates for removal, careful consideration should still be employed to make sure it's a good decision to do so.
For more information, see Identifying Unused Indexes in a SQL Server Database

Answer 2

Currently (as of SQL Server 2005 - 2008) the SQL index stats information is only kept in memory and so you have to do some of the work yourself if you would like to have that persisted across restarts and database detaches.
What I usually do, is I create a job that runs every day and takes a snapshot of the information found in the sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats table, into a custom table that I create for the database in question.
This seems to work pretty well until a future version of SQL which will support persistent index usage stats.

Answer 3

Pulled this puppy off of http://blog.sqlauthority.com/2008/02/11/sql-server-2005-find-unused-indexes-of-current-database/. Note that this works for 2005 and above. The key is the JOIN to the SYS.DM_DB_INDEX_USAGE_STATS system table.
USE AdventureWorks
GO
DECLARE #dbid INT
SELECT #dbid = DB_ID(DB_NAME())
SELECT OBJECTNAME = OBJECT_NAME(I.OBJECT_ID),
INDEXNAME = I.NAME,
I.INDEX_ID
FROM SYS.INDEXES I
JOIN SYS.OBJECTS O ON I.OBJECT_ID = O.OBJECT_ID
WHERE OBJECTPROPERTY(O.OBJECT_ID,'IsUserTable') = 1
AND I.INDEX_ID NOT IN (
SELECT S.INDEX_ID
FROM SYS.DM_DB_INDEX_USAGE_STATS S
WHERE S.OBJECT_ID = I.OBJECT_ID
AND I.INDEX_ID = S.INDEX_ID
AND DATABASE_ID = #dbid)
ORDER BY OBJECTNAME,
I.INDEX_ID,
INDEXNAME ASC
GO

Answer 4

I tweaked John Pasquet's queries here: Identifying Unused Indexes in a SQL Server Database to return indexes used 10 or less times, unioned the results that aren't in the usage stats tables, exclude heap indexes and unique constraints or primary key indexes, and finally to exclude indexes with zero pages.
Be careful with the results of this query – it's best to use in production where indexes are actually getting used the way you would expect. If you query on a database with rebuilt or dropped/recreated indexes or on a recent database backup you could get false positives (indexes that normally would get used but aren't because of special circumstances). Not safe to use in test or dev environments to decide whether to drop indexes. As Narnian says, this query just identifies candidates for removal for your careful consideration.
USE [DatabaseName]
DECLARE #MinimumPageCount int
SET #MinimumPageCount = 500
DECLARE #dbid INT
SELECT #dbid = DB_ID(DB_NAME())
-- GET UNUSED INDEXES THAT APPEAR IN THE INDEX USAGE STATS TABLE
SELECT
Databases.name AS [Database]
,object_name(Indexes.object_id) AS [Table]
,Indexes.name AS [Index]
,PhysicalStats.page_count as [Page Count]
,CONVERT(decimal(18,2), PhysicalStats.page_count * 8 / 1024.0) AS [Total Index Size (MB)]
,CONVERT(decimal(18,2), PhysicalStats.avg_fragmentation_in_percent) AS [Fragmentation (%)]
,ParititionStats.row_count AS [Row Count]
,CONVERT(decimal(18,2), (PhysicalStats.page_count * 8.0 * 1024) / ParititionStats.row_count) AS [Index Size Per Row (Bytes)]
,1 AS [Appears In Usage Stats Table]
FROM sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats UsageStats
INNER JOIN sys.indexes Indexes
ON Indexes.index_id = UsageStats.index_id AND Indexes.object_id = UsageStats.object_id
INNER JOIN SYS.databases Databases
ON Databases.database_id = UsageStats.database_id
INNER JOIN sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats (DB_ID(),NULL,NULL,NULL,NULL) AS PhysicalStats
ON PhysicalStats.index_id = UsageStats.Index_id AND PhysicalStats.object_id = UsageStats.object_id
INNER JOIN SYS.dm_db_partition_stats ParititionStats
ON ParititionStats.index_id = UsageStats.index_id AND ParititionStats.object_id = UsageStats.object_id
WHERE
UsageStats.user_scans <= 10
AND UsageStats.user_seeks <= 10
AND UsageStats.user_lookups <= 10
-- exclude heap indexes
AND Indexes.name IS NOT NULL
-- ignore indexes with less than a certain number of pages of memory
AND PhysicalStats.page_count > #MinimumPageCount
-- Exclude primary keys, which should not be removed
AND Indexes.is_primary_key = 0
-- ignore unique constraints - those shouldn't be removed
AND Indexes.is_unique_constraint = 0
AND Indexes.is_unique = 0
UNION ALL
(
-- GET UNUSED INDEXES THAT DO **NOT** APPEAR IN THE INDEX USAGE STATS TABLE
SELECT
Databases.Name AS [Database]
,Objects.NAME AS [Table]
,Indexes.NAME AS [Index]
,PhysicalStats.page_count as [Page Count]
,CONVERT(decimal(18,2), PhysicalStats.page_count * 8 / 1024.0) AS [Total Index Size (MB)]
,CONVERT(decimal(18,2), PhysicalStats.avg_fragmentation_in_percent) AS [Fragmentation (%)]
,-1 AS [Row Count]
,-1 AS [Index Size Per Row (Bytes)]
,0 AS [Appears In Usage Stats Table]
FROM SYS.INDEXES Indexes
INNER JOIN SYS.OBJECTS Objects
ON Indexes.OBJECT_ID = Objects.OBJECT_ID
LEFT JOIN sys.dm_db_index_physical_stats(#dbid, null, null, null, null) PhysicalStats
ON PhysicalStats.object_id = Indexes.object_id AND PhysicalStats.index_id = indexes.index_id
INNER JOIN sys.databases Databases
ON Databases.database_id = PhysicalStats.database_id
WHERE
Objects.type = 'U' -- Is User Table
-- exclude heap indexes
AND Indexes.name IS NOT NULL
-- exclude empty tables
AND PhysicalStats.page_count <> 0
-- Exclude primary keys, which should not be removed
AND Indexes.is_primary_key = 0
-- ignore unique constraints - those shouldn't be removed
AND Indexes.is_unique_constraint = 0
AND Indexes.is_unique = 0
AND Indexes.INDEX_ID NOT IN
(
SELECT UsageStats.INDEX_ID
FROM SYS.DM_DB_INDEX_USAGE_STATS UsageStats
WHERE
UsageStats.OBJECT_ID = Indexes.OBJECT_ID
AND Indexes.INDEX_ID = UsageStats.INDEX_ID
AND DATABASE_ID = #dbid
)
)
ORDER BY [Table] ASC, [Total Index Size (MB)] DESC

Answer 5

You should take a look at Brent Ozars sp_BlitzIndex. This stored procedure lists among others unsused indexes. It lists the disorders in a report. For each entry an URL is given which explains what to look for and how to handle the issue.