Minion CheckDB is a stand-alone database integrity check module. Once installed, Minion CheckDB automatically checks all online databases on the SQL Server instance, and will incorporate databases as they are added or removed.

Some of the very best features of Minion CheckDB are, in a nutshell:

  1. Dynamic Thresholds – Minion CheckDB allows you to automate whether databases get a DBCC CheckDB operation, or a DBCC CheckTable operation.
  2. Remote CheckDB – Automatically run DBCC CheckDB remotely for any database.
  3. Dynamic Remote CheckDB – Allows you to set a tuning threshold, so the CheckDB will run remotely only if it is above that threshold.
  4. Custom Snapshots – Choose to create a custom snapshot, for versions of SQL Server that support custom snapshots. This allow you to determine where your snapshot file(s) will be located.
  5. Custom Dynamic Snapshots – For CheckTable operations, you can configure “rotating” dynamic snapshots that drop and recreate every few minutes.
  6. Multithreaded database processing – Run multiple DBCC CheckDB operations in parallel.
  7. Multithreaded table processing – Run multiple DBCC CheckTable processes at the same time.
  8. Rotational scheduling – Minion CheckDB allows you to define a rotation scenario for your operations. For example, a nightly round of 10 databases would perform integrity checks on 10 databases the first night, another 10 databases the second night, and so on. You can also use the rotational scheduling to limit operations by time; for example, you could configure MC to cycle through DBCC CheckDB operations for 90 minutes each night.
  9. Operation ordering – Run DBCC CheckDB and CheckTable operations in exactly the order you need.
  10. Extensive, useful logging – Use the Minion CheckDB log for estimating the end of the current CheckDB run, troubleshooting, planning, and reporting. Errors are reported in the log table instead of text files.
  11. Run code before or after CheckDBs and CheckTables – This is an extraordinarily flexible feature that allows for nearly infinite configurability.
  12. Integrated help – Get help on any Minion CheckDB object without leaving Management Studio, with the Minion.HELP stored procedure.
  13. Clone Settings – Use the new CloneSettings procedure to generate template insert statements for any table, based on an example row in the table.
  14. Scenario testing — Test the settings to be used at any given time for any database.
  15. Automated installation – Run the Minion CheckDB installation scripts, and it just goes. You can even rollout to hundreds of servers almost as easily as you can to a single server.
  16. Granular configuration without extra jobs – Configure extensive settings at the default, database, and/or table levels with ease. Say good-bye to managing multiple jobs for specialized scenarios. Most of the time you’ll run MC with a single job.
  17. Live Insight – See what Minion CheckDB is doing every step of the way. You can even see the percent complete for each operation as it runs.
  18. Flexible include and exclude – Perform integrity checks on only what you need, using specific database names, LIKE expressions, and even regular expressions. Further restrict operations by including or excluding by schemas and/or tables.
  19. Inline Tokens – Inline Tokens allow you use defined patterns to create dynamic names. For example, MC comes with the predefined Inline Token “Server” and “DBName”. For more information, see the “About: Inline Tokens” section.

For links to downloads, tutorials and articles, see MinionWare.net.