Performance Dashboard Reports for SQL Server 2008

During a recent visit to Seattle for a Microsoft conference, I learned from my colleague Michael Thomassy that it's possible to run the SQL Server 2005 Performance Dashboard reports on SQL Server 2008, with a slight modification. There is a great new feature in SQL Server 2008 called Performance Data Collection, which I have blogged about in the past, and this is excellent for tracking SQL Server performance over time across your 2008 estate. There is also the excellent revamped Activity Monitor in SQL 2008. However, if you want to continue to use the Performance Dashboard reports, which many DBA's have found invaluable, they are not supported in SQL Server 2008. If you try to install the Performance Dashboard reports, you get the following error:

Msg 207, Level 16, State 1, Procedure usp_Main_GetCPUHistory, Line 6
Invalid column name 'cpu_ticks_in_ms'.
Msg 15151, Level 16, State 1, Line 1
Cannot find the object 'usp_Main_GetCPUHistory', because it does not exist or you do not have permission.

The reason for this is due to a change in the sys.dm_os_sys_info DMV from SQL Server 2005 to 2008 (the cpu_ticks_in_ms column has been removed in 2008 https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms175048.aspx). Download and install the performance dashboard reports as normal (but save the files in the Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\Tools\PerformanceDashboard directory) and then modify the setup.sql file as shown below before running it against your SQL Server 2008 instance.

Please note that SQL Server 2008 has introduced new wait types that the Performance Dashboard reports currently don't handle. I would strongly recommend using the new Management Data Warehouse reports in SQL Server 2008 in order to get the best user experience. However, this workaround will help you get the Performance Dashboard Reports up and running on your SQL Server 2008 instances (see the screenshot below).