SQL Server Alerts - Best Practices

Question

What SQL Server Alerts do you always setup for every database? What do you always monitor regardless of the database?

Answer 1

You should monitor and be alerted for severity levels 17 to 25.

Severity levels from 17 through 19 will require intervention from a DBA, they're not as serious as 20-25 but the DBA needs to be alerted.
17 Insufficient Resources
18 Nonfatal Internal Error Detected
19 Error in Resource


These are serious errors that will mean SQL Server is no longer working
20 SQL Error in Current Process
21 SQL Fatal Error in Database dbid Processes
22 SQL Fatal Error Table Integrity Suspect
23 SQL Fatal Error: Database Integrity Suspect
24,25 Hardware Error

for more information on the severity levels see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa937483(SQL.80).aspx

Answer 2

I would also add alerts on Error 823, 824 and 832, since these errors indicate corruption.

For more information see http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Memory+Corruption/93424/ and http://www.sqlskills.com/BLOGS/PAUL/post/Dont-confuse-error-823-and-error-832.aspx