We’ve just published a new article in the SQL docs, Tune nonclustered indexes with missing index suggestions . The article explains what the missing index feature is, limitations of the feature, and how to use missing index DMVs and missing index suggestions in Query Store to tune indexes.
Microsoft has just released a new round of cumulative updates for SQL Server 2012, and the release notes indicate that a fix to the sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats dynamic management view has been included in these updates. This is good news for index tuners using SQL Server 2012.
As of SP2 + CU12 and SP3 + CU3, SQL Server 2012 will persist index usage information even when ALTER INDEX REBUILD is run.
Managing indexes got trickier with SQL Server 2012. SQL Server has tracked and reported statistics on how often indexes are used and requested since SQL Server 2005. As of SQL Server 2012, suddenly all that information started getting reset whenever anyone ran ALTER INDEX REBUILD.
SQL Server 2016’s new Query Store feature makes it easier than ever for DBAs and developers to identify the most important queries to tune– and perhaps apply a quick fix by pinning an execution plan.
Copyright (c) 2025, Catalyze SQL, LLC; all rights reserved. Opinions expressed on this site are solely those of Kendra Little of Catalyze SQL, LLC. Content policy: Short excerpts of blog posts (3 sentences) may be republished, but longer excerpts and artwork cannot be shared without explicit permission.