The widest DMV surface here, and the grant it depends on
Real blocked-session detection and real index seek and scan counts are things most engines cannot give, and a restricted login still sees none of them.
5 posts
Writing on SQL Server
Pooled connections with sys.* catalog introspection, DMV-backed monitoring and agent mode under a least-privilege read-only profile. Where it stops: The editor has no Explain action: SQL Server's estimated plan is a session mode that a statement prefix cannot express. Only agent mode reads an estimated plan, to admit a statement and as the plan it reports.
SQL Server support in Studio → SQL Server RSS feed → All posts
Three quiet fidelity limits in a T-SQL result grid
Wide integers and high-scale decimals arrive as JavaScript numbers, only the first result set of a batch is read, and one paged statement is not recognised.
A plan that needs a session, and a path that has none
The showplan setting is session-level state and the explain path sends one statement, so the capability is declared false and the action is hidden.
SQL Server connects encrypted but unauthenticated by default
Encryption is on out of the box while certificate validation is off for any host that is not the recognised managed one, and two named modes do not pin a CA.
What silently degrades on a managed SQL Server database
The one managed host the code recognises by name switches certificate validation on, and the same move narrows the monitoring and maintenance surface.