The next morning, the team asked how I fixed it. I said, "SQL Studio 2014 – same tool you've been ignoring." They laughed.
I connected to the production instance: FIN-SRV-03\LEGACY . The Object Explorer slowly populated – Databases > System Databases > WideWorldImporters (a test restore, thankfully, not live). Tables, Views, Stored Procedures… thousands of them. sql studio 2014
I opened (right-click server instance in Object Explorer). Saw the batch requests/sec spike, then settle. No blocking. No heavy waits. Perfect. The next morning, the team asked how I fixed it
I found it. A CROSS JOIN hiding in a 12-year-old stored procedure written by "Dave" (no last name, no comments, no mercy). The Object Explorer slowly populated – Databases >
I closed SSMS 2014. The splash screen flashed for a second – the classic blue SQL Server logo. I saved my session (Session > Save as .sql) into a folder called Phoenix_Fixes . No Git. No CI/CD. Just a network drive and a prayer.
This was my secret weapon. In SSMS 2014, the was still a separate tool but tightly integrated. I captured a workload trace from the past 24 hours, fed it to the advisor, and let it churn.