Unlock SQL Education with Database Health Monitor V3

If you’ve been following along with the Stedman SQL Podcast (Season 3, Episode 3), you heard Mitchell Glasscock and I introduce something we’re really excited about—the Database Health Monitor Rewards Program. This is a brand-new feature released with Version 3 of Database Health Monitor, and it’s our way of saying thank you to the loyal SQL Server professionals who support and use the tool every day.

But this isn’t just a “thank you.” It’s a way to turn your subscription into ongoing SQL Server education and professional growth.

What Is the Database Health Monitor Rewards Program?

If you’re a paid subscriber to Database Health Monitor (monthly or annual), you automatically start unlocking rewards over time. The longer you stay subscribed, the more benefits you receive.

This applies to Version 3 and later. If you’re still running an older version, it’s time to upgrade.

Each month, new rewards unlock inside the application under the Rewards section. Think of it as an ongoing education track built right into your monitoring tool.

First Four Months of Rewards

Here’s what you unlock during your first four months as an active subscriber:

Month 1: Aggregating Data Course

You get free access to our Aggregating Data SQL Server course.

This covers:

SUM, AVG, COUNT
GROUP BY fundamentals
Windowing functions (including the OVER clause)
Performance considerations for aggregation queries

If you’ve ever struggled with reporting queries or wondered how to optimize aggregation-heavy workloads, this course alone can make a big difference in your day-to-day SQL development.

Month 2: 20-Minute Personal Configuration Session

This is one of my favorites.

You get a 20-minute one-on-one session with someone from our team (often me or Mitchell) to help configure Database Health Monitor for your environment.

Why does this matter?

Database Health Monitor has over 100 built-in reports. It’s deep. It’s powerful. And sometimes you just need someone to point you to the right report for your specific issue.

During that session, we can:

Help tune alert settings
Review reports relevant to your environment
Walk through performance concerns
Answer questions about interpreting wait stats or index analysis

This kind of personalized help normally requires mentoring time—but here, it’s included.

Month 3: SQL JOIN Types Course

JOINs are one of the most misunderstood parts of SQL Server.

This course dives deep into:

INNER JOIN
LEFT/RIGHT OUTER JOIN
CROSS JOIN
SELF JOIN
APPLY operators
Avoiding Cartesian explosions

If you’ve ever looked at a query and thought, “Why is this returning way more rows than expected?” — this course is for you.

Understanding JOIN behavior is critical to writing performant, predictable queries. This is especially important in production systems where one poorly written JOIN can bring a server to its knees.

Month 4: The T-SQL OUTPUT Clause Course

This one surprises people.

Most SQL Server professionals I talk to haven’t fully leveraged the OUTPUT clause. But once you understand it, you’ll start using it everywhere.

With OUTPUT, you can:

Capture before-and-after values during UPDATE
Move deleted rows into an archive table in a single statement
Simplify auditing logic
Eliminate extra steps in data movement operations

It’s one of those features where people say, “Wait… SQL Server can do that?”

Yes. It can.

And It Doesn’t Stop There

We’re just getting started.

Upcoming rewards include:

Daily and Weekly Monitoring Email Setup Guidance
A Blocking and Deadlocking Deep Dive Course
Indexing for Performance Email Course
Full Performance Tuning Class
Backup and Recovery Strategy Course
Common Table Expressions (CTEs) Course
One Hour of Personal Mentoring at the one-year mark

Some of these are full-length premium courses. Some are mentoring sessions. All are included simply for being an active Database Health Monitor subscriber.

Why We Built This

Let me be clear—this isn’t a gimmick.

Database Health Monitor helps you identify:

Performance bottlenecks
Index inefficiencies
Wait stats issues
Configuration problems
Blocking and deadlocking
Schema drift
Backup concerns

But we don’t just want to show you the problems.

We want to help you understand and fix them.

The rewards program bridges that gap. It turns monitoring into education. It turns alerts into learning opportunities.

Why Ongoing SQL Server Education Matters

Here’s the reality:

SQL Server performance issues are not “if” problems. They’re “when” problems.
Corruption can happen—even on perfectly configured systems.
Hardware failures and ransomware don’t care how confident you are.
Untested backups are just theory.

Most IT managers don’t even realize there’s a brewing issue until it becomes an outage.

And when your SQL Server goes down—you go down.

That’s why proactive monitoring matters. That’s why education matters. And that’s why we built this program.

Database Health Monitor Version 3

Version 3 includes:

Enhanced Quick Scan report
Updated schema drift integration
Numerous report improvements
The new Rewards section
DB assistance enhancements

If your title bar doesn’t say Version 3.x, you’re missing out.

You can download a free trial at:

http://DatabaseHealth.com

Managed SQL Server DBA Support

Monitoring and education are powerful—but sometimes you just need expert help.

That’s where Stedman Solutions Managed Services comes in.

For DBA-managed services, Stedman Solutions are true SQL Server specialists delivering the best staffing, expertise, monitoring, support, mentoring, and price performance.

If you:

Don’t have a dedicated DBA
Need help with performance tuning
Want corruption detection and repair expertise
Need predictable, flat-rate SQL Server support
Want mentoring included instead of being nickel-and-dimed

Then let’s talk.

Watch this podcast episode here: https://youtu.be/_DJX9aAHuTc

Listen on Spotify!

Main Stedman SQL Podcast Page: https://stedmansolutions.com/home/sql-server-podcast/

Final Thoughts

The Database Health Monitor Rewards Program transforms your subscription into an ongoing professional development path.

You’re not just buying a monitoring tool.

You’re investing in:

Stronger SQL skills
Better performance practices
Fewer production surprises
And long-term growth as a DBA or developer

If you’re already a subscriber—check the Rewards section.

If you’re not—this might be the perfect time to upgrade.

Keep those databases healthy.

Database Health Monitor Rewards Program: Turning Monitoring Into Ongoing SQL Server Education