Deeper insight into unused indexes for SQL Server

Problem
One of the balancing acts of SQL Server is the use of indexes. Too few indexes can cause scans to occur which hurts performance and too many indexes causes overhead for index maintenance during data updates and also a bloated database. So what steps can be taken to determine which indexes are being used and how they are being used.

Solution
In a previous tip, How to get index usage information in SQL Server, we talked about how to get index usage information by using the DMVs sys.dm_db_index_operational_stats and sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats. The one issue with these views is that it only gives you part of the picture and you still need to dig deeper to get all of the information you need to determine which indexes are not used.

In this tip we will take it a step further and provide some additional queries that will shed some much needed light on the issue.

We will be using the DMV sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats which keeps track of each index that has been used and how it has been used. This was covered in the tip mentioned above. These stats are collected whenever an object is accessed. SQL Server resets these values if SQL Server is restarted or if you detach and reattach the database.

There are seven queries below and each one builds upon the others to give you more and more information. If you can't wait you can just skip right to Query 7. To select the code you should be able to triple click in the table cell to select all of the code.

Note: the information below was collected by restarting SQL Server and then doing selected queries on the AdventureWorks database. For a more heavily used database your numbers and index usage will be much higher.

In this first query we are just using sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats and sys.objects to get a list of the indexes that have been used and how they are being used.

In this query we are listing each user table and all of the tables indexes that have not been used by using a NOT EXISTS against sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats.

In this query we are listing each user table, all of its indexes and the columns that make up the index. The issue with this query is that you have a row for each column in the index which could get confusing if you have a lot of indexes.

In this query we use most of Query 3, but we are doing a PIVOT so we can see the index and the index columns in one row. This only accounts for 7 index columns, but it could easily be increased to handle more in the PIVOT operation. Here is another tip related to the use of PIVOT, Crosstab queries using PIVOT in SQL Server 2005. if you would like to better understand how PIVOT works.

In this query we tie in our PIVOT query above with sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats so we can look at only the indexes that have been used since the last time the stats were reset.

SELECT   TABLENAME, INDEXNAME, INDEX_ID, [1] AS COL1, [2] AS COL2, [3] AS COL3, 
         [4] AS COL4, [5] AS COL5, [6] AS COL6, [7] AS COL7 
FROM     (SELECT A.NAME AS TABLENAME, 
                 A.OBJECT_ID, 
                 B.NAME AS INDEXNAME, 
                 B.INDEX_ID, 
                 D.NAME AS COLUMNNAME, 
                 C.KEY_ORDINAL 
          FROM   SYS.OBJECTS A 
                 INNER JOIN SYS.INDEXES B 
                   ON A.OBJECT_ID = B.OBJECT_ID 
                 INNER JOIN SYS.INDEX_COLUMNS C 
                   ON B.OBJECT_ID = C.OBJECT_ID 
                      AND B.INDEX_ID = C.INDEX_ID 
                 INNER JOIN SYS.COLUMNS D 
                   ON C.OBJECT_ID = D.OBJECT_ID 
                      AND C.COLUMN_ID = D.COLUMN_ID 
          WHERE  A.TYPE <> 'S') P 
         PIVOT 
         (MIN(COLUMNNAME) 
          FOR KEY_ORDINAL IN ( [1],[2],[3],[4],[5],[6],[7] ) ) AS PVT 
WHERE    EXISTS (SELECT OBJECT_ID, 
                        INDEX_ID 
                 FROM   SYS.DM_DB_INDEX_USAGE_STATS B 
                 WHERE  DATABASE_ID = DB_ID(DB_NAME()) 
                        AND PVT.OBJECT_ID = B.OBJECT_ID 
                        AND PVT.INDEX_ID = B.INDEX_ID) 
ORDER BY TABLENAME, INDEXNAME;

This query also uses the PIVOT query along with sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats so we can also see the stats on the indexes that have been used.

SELECT   PVT.TABLENAME, PVT.INDEXNAME, [1] AS COL1, [2] AS COL2, [3] AS COL3, 
         [4] AS COL4, [5] AS COL5, [6] AS COL6, [7] AS COL7, B.USER_SEEKS, 
         B.USER_SCANS, B.USER_LOOKUPS 
FROM     (SELECT A.NAME AS TABLENAME, 
                 A.OBJECT_ID, 
                 B.NAME AS INDEXNAME, 
                 B.INDEX_ID, 
                 D.NAME AS COLUMNNAME, 
                 C.KEY_ORDINAL 
          FROM   SYS.OBJECTS A 
                 INNER JOIN SYS.INDEXES B 
                   ON A.OBJECT_ID = B.OBJECT_ID 
                 INNER JOIN SYS.INDEX_COLUMNS C 
                   ON B.OBJECT_ID = C.OBJECT_ID 
                      AND B.INDEX_ID = C.INDEX_ID 
                 INNER JOIN SYS.COLUMNS D 
                   ON C.OBJECT_ID = D.OBJECT_ID 
                      AND C.COLUMN_ID = D.COLUMN_ID 
          WHERE  A.TYPE <> 'S') P 
         PIVOT 
         (MIN(COLUMNNAME) 
          FOR KEY_ORDINAL IN ( [1],[2],[3],[4],[5],[6],[7] ) ) AS PVT 
         INNER JOIN SYS.DM_DB_INDEX_USAGE_STATS B 
           ON PVT.OBJECT_ID = B.OBJECT_ID 
              AND PVT.INDEX_ID = B.INDEX_ID 
              AND B.DATABASE_ID = DB_ID() 
ORDER BY TABLENAME, INDEXNAME;

This last query allow us to see both used and unused indexes. Since the DMV sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats only tracks when an index is used it is hard to compare the used and unused indexes. The query below allows you to see all indexes to compare both used and unused indexes since the stats were collected by using a UNION.

SELECT PVT.TABLENAME, PVT.INDEXNAME, PVT.INDEX_ID, [1] AS COL1, [2] AS COL2, [3] AS COL3, 
       [4] AS COL4,  [5] AS COL5, [6] AS COL6, [7] AS COL7, B.USER_SEEKS, 
       B.USER_SCANS, B.USER_LOOKUPS 
FROM   (SELECT A.NAME AS TABLENAME, 
               A.OBJECT_ID, 
               B.NAME AS INDEXNAME, 
               B.INDEX_ID, 
               D.NAME AS COLUMNNAME, 
               C.KEY_ORDINAL 
        FROM   SYS.OBJECTS A 
               INNER JOIN SYS.INDEXES B 
                 ON A.OBJECT_ID = B.OBJECT_ID 
               INNER JOIN SYS.INDEX_COLUMNS C 
                 ON B.OBJECT_ID = C.OBJECT_ID 
                    AND B.INDEX_ID = C.INDEX_ID 
               INNER JOIN SYS.COLUMNS D 
                 ON C.OBJECT_ID = D.OBJECT_ID 
                    AND C.COLUMN_ID = D.COLUMN_ID 
        WHERE  A.TYPE <> 'S') P 
       PIVOT 
       (MIN(COLUMNNAME) 
        FOR KEY_ORDINAL IN ( [1],[2],[3],[4],[5],[6],[7] ) ) AS PVT 
       INNER JOIN SYS.DM_DB_INDEX_USAGE_STATS B 
         ON PVT.OBJECT_ID = B.OBJECT_ID 
            AND PVT.INDEX_ID = B.INDEX_ID 
            AND B.DATABASE_ID = DB_ID() 
UNION  
SELECT TABLENAME, INDEXNAME, INDEX_ID, [1] AS COL1, [2] AS COL2, [3] AS COL3, 
       [4] AS COL4, [5] AS COL5, [6] AS COL6, [7] AS COL7, 0, 0, 0 
FROM   (SELECT A.NAME AS TABLENAME, 
               A.OBJECT_ID, 
               B.NAME AS INDEXNAME, 
               B.INDEX_ID, 
               D.NAME AS COLUMNNAME, 
               C.KEY_ORDINAL 
        FROM   SYS.OBJECTS A 
               INNER JOIN SYS.INDEXES B 
                 ON A.OBJECT_ID = B.OBJECT_ID 
               INNER JOIN SYS.INDEX_COLUMNS C 
                 ON B.OBJECT_ID = C.OBJECT_ID 
                    AND B.INDEX_ID = C.INDEX_ID 
               INNER JOIN SYS.COLUMNS D 
                 ON C.OBJECT_ID = D.OBJECT_ID 
                    AND C.COLUMN_ID = D.COLUMN_ID 
        WHERE  A.TYPE <> 'S') P 
       PIVOT 
       (MIN(COLUMNNAME) 
        FOR KEY_ORDINAL IN ( [1],[2],[3],[4],[5],[6],[7] ) ) AS PVT 
WHERE  NOT EXISTS (SELECT OBJECT_ID, 
                          INDEX_ID 
                   FROM   SYS.DM_DB_INDEX_USAGE_STATS B 
                   WHERE  DATABASE_ID = DB_ID(DB_NAME()) 
                          AND PVT.OBJECT_ID = B.OBJECT_ID 
                          AND PVT.INDEX_ID = B.INDEX_ID) 
ORDER BY TABLENAME, INDEX_ID;