A little while ago I thought about putting together my own ERD for the DMVs and System Views.  Everyone in the world of relational databases knows how important and useful such diagrams are, and in the (apparent) absence of a Microsoft one, after many fruitless searches, I set about putting together a model myself.

But then a search came up trumps.  I discovered Microsoft’s own System Views Map for SQL Server 2005 displaying all of the system views and DMVs and their connecting relationships.  Hoorah!  Below are the links to the downloads for the last 3 versions of SQL Server:

SQL Server 2008 R2: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=65b81dce-db80-43f3-90e8-0753c751eaa7

SQL Server 2008: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=531C53E7-8A2A-4375-8F2F-5D799AA67B5C

SQL Server 2005: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=2EC9E842-40BE-4321-9B56-92FD3860FB32

I hope this helps you as much as it helped me.