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SQL Server Performance issues with Fragmentation and heavy usage of TEMPDB?

Published 15 May 8 3:59 AM | SSQA.net

Whenever a performance issue occurs on the SQL Server database best option for diagnosing and troubleshooting common problems by using publicly available tools such as Profiler, System Monitor (Perfmon), and Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) in SQL Server...

Filed under: sql server, performance, dmv, best practices, tempdb, monitoring, benchmarking, performance monitoring

SQL Server 2005 and Disk drive allocation unit size to 64K - any benefit or performance?

Published 28 April 8 3:1 AM | SSQA.net

You may be aware that or seen within your Database platform about slower disk performance than expect having multiple disks in Windows Server 2003 environment when you use a hardware-based redundant array of independent disks (RAID) or a software-based...

Filed under: sql server, performance, microsoft, technet, i/o, article, disk, best practices, monitoring, deployment, layout

SQL Server - Have you observed DBCC SHRINKFILE operation performance, on huge databases?

Published 25 April 8 3:30 AM | SSQA.net

In general it is not a best practice to perform SHRINK database operation on a production server, atleast regularly! Sometimes it may be compulsory to keep them sized in order to ensure the disk storage is not compromised for any sudden changes to databases...

Filed under: sql server, indexes, memory, databases, cache, cpu, monitoring, operating system, huge, dbcc shrinkfile

SQL Server databases - checkpoint, cache and I/O request - what you need to know?

Published 22 April 8 1:51 PM | SSQA.net

Have you ever wondered about flushing databases? Well not quite possible to flush it straight away and not a best practice too on the live server, so what it is about and you need to know about transactions state when they occur. Say when the changes...

Filed under: sql server, performance, msdn, backup, blogs, database, transaction log, cache, i/o, flush, monitoring, checkpointl

SQL Server latch waits - index contention & performance issues how DMVs can help you to get information?

Published 17 April 8 5:6 AM | SSQA.net

What kind of performance issues you see on day-to-day basis within your environment? The following elements are important factors that can add fuel to the fire (problem): Faulty hardware • Hardware that is not configured correctly • Firmware settings...

Filed under: sql server, memory, analysis, disk, IO, monitoring, configuration, iometer, contention, latches, latching

SQL Server 2005 Scalability and Performance - recommended limit on number of instances on a clustered environment?

Published 4 April 8 4:48 AM | SSQA.net

This is a very tricky question and hard to stick to 1 or few solutions as answer, it depends! Overall the say is if there isn’t any resource contention (from your pre-installation testing & analysis) and there is enough of each resource to go around...

Filed under: sql server, memory, maintenance plan, i/o, clustered, best practice, monitoring, resources, configuration, performance monitoring, contention

SQL Server configuration disk layout - best practices from field

Published 3 April 8 3:17 AM | SSQA.net

Configuration of server such as disk and memory is an important factor for SQL Server Performance, there is all about questions within newsgroups and forums that how do I setup the disk layout for a SQL Server database (say, 2005 version). Not only this...

Filed under: sql server, performance, data, log, disk, best practices, tempdb, monitoring, configuration, layout

SQL Server Memory - what's your method on Configuration and Troubleshooting Issues

Published 1 April 8 4:49 AM | SSQA.net

Memory - an important aspect of system performance within a RDBMS platform, not specific to a database product or application. Coming to Microsoft related products such as Windows Server and SQL Server so on, various resources available on web such as...

Filed under: sql server, performance, memory, cache, disk space, troubleshoot, system, best practice, raid, hardware, monitoring, configuration, baseline

What's your practice on Disk Defragmentation methods - specific to data file and indexes drives?

Published 26 March 8 3:1 AM | SSQA.net

Fragmentation is dearest friend of database when you need to deal with Performance, so by using the DBCC statements and other methods here you can deal the database level fragmentation, what about the physical level fragmentation? So what is the best...

Filed under: sql server, performance, blogs, dbcc, disk space, object, file, best practice, monitoring, showcontig, defrag, diskkeeper

SQL Server Clustering - what is the difference between Active/Passive and Active/Active Clustering, which is good for better performance?

Published 18 March 8 4:20 AM | SSQA.net

First part of question is a pure newbie FAQ to know about, and the simple answer would be it is one of the Clustering type you can adopt within your SQL Server environment. To cover on newbie aspect both Active/Passive & Active/Active configuration...

Filed under: sql server, performance, security, clustering, 2005, partition, monitoring, active/passive, parallel execution, performance monitoring, active/active, scalability

SQL Server 2005 PERFMON counter spikes in Transactions/sec and Buffer Cache Hit ratio, what does it say?

Published 14 March 8 4:16 AM | SSQA.net

Recently I was involved in one of the Performance Audit exercise at a client's place where they complain about Server CPU is always HIGH and what they have observed is even the physical disk where TEMPDB is located has been used extensively, as they...

Filed under: sql server, perfmon, performance, dmv, cache, buffer, sysmon, tempdb, monitoring, temp tables, worktables, workfiles, ratio

SQL Server 2005 Partitioned Tables and Indexes - learning curve

Published 12 March 8 3:1 AM | SSQA.net

When do you need data partitioning? The data you see in relational database may need such a strategy if the volume is huge, for instance the data to store event-log information having the schema such as: [Id] INT (make this primary key clustered), [Unit_Id...

Filed under: sql server, performance, indexes, data, backup, bi, database, statistics, partition, monitoring, strategy, data warehouse

SQL Server error: messages are appearing when the working set of SQL Server 2005 process reaches 50 percent of the memory that is committed to the process.

Published 7 March 8 4:54 AM | SSQA.net

Have you seen the above message within the SQL Server error logs? If not then no need to worry and make sure to continue your performance monitoring tasks. So when to be concerned! It is evident that SQL Server 2005 component handles memory differently...

Filed under: sql server, performance, memory, dmv, windows, 2000, 2005, awe, 64 bit, monitoring, worker threads, paging out, buffers, verison

Query Execution Plans security and new feature within SQL Server 2008 Management Studio

Published 4 March 8 2:4 AM | SSQA.net

If there is any performance issue within your queries then looking at query execution plan is the first step towards assessing the loss, you may be aware that execution plans of queries and queries on partitioned tables and indexes can be examined by...

Filed under: sql server, performance, ssms, query, users, execution plan, monitoring, new features, .xml, plan cache, document, .sqlplan

SQL Server 2005: Clustering FAQ is Active/Active a load balancing solution?

Published 29 February 8 4:4 AM | SSQA.net

Another FAQ within newsgroups & forums that will SQL Server Clustering supports load balancing? It is quite common for a newbie to say and look at Clustering configuration such as Active-Active where you have n+1 nodes as a serving instances, the...

Filed under: sql server, performance, blogs, environment, clustered, clustering, san, best practice, monitoring, benchmarking

Warning: Autogrow of file 'DB File Name' in database 'DB Name' took <number> milliseconds. Consider using ALTER DATABASE to set a smaller FILEGROWTH for this file.

Published 21 February 8 6:22 AM | SSQA.net

The message on subject is self-explanatory where your disk subsystem is referring to SQL Server that it is unable to cope up the demand. Having AUTOGROW option enabled on a SQL Server database is a common setup that allows SQL Server automatically expands...

Filed under: sql server, performance, databases, dba, disk space, error log, monitoring, configuration, alter database, auto grow

SQL Server license with multi-core CPU technology, confusing concepts?

Published 20 February 8 2:47 AM | SSQA.net

How many SQL Server licenses you need to fix the number of CPUs on the server? The answer it depends on the number! Well having hyper-threading (i.e. multiple threads execute on a single physical CPU appearing as 2 logical CPUs) and dual-core technology...

Filed under: sql server, performance, microsoft, version, article, license, 2005, cpu, monitoring, administrator, value, costing

SQL Server licensing with having multi-core CPU technology, confusing concepts?

Published 19 February 8 2:47 AM | SSQA.net

How many SQL Server licenses you need to fix the number of CPUs on the server? The answer it depends on the number! Well having hyper-threading (i.e. multiple threads execute on a single physical CPU appearing as 2 logical CPUs) and dual-core technology...

Filed under: sql server, performance, microsoft, version, article, license, 2005, cpu, monitoring, administrator, value, costing

SQL Server Analysis Services MDX Query performance monitoring - highlights

Published 29 January 8 3:27 AM | SSQA.net

When it comes to monitor the query performance whether it is TSQL or MDX, the process is similar. You need to have a better understanding on how queries are executed (architecture), what tools are available for monitoring and best practices to improve...

Filed under: sql server, performance, mdx, query, best practices, tsql, monitoring, Analysis Services, baseline, benchmarking

SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition - make data available while creating indexes on large tables!

Published 25 January 8 3:41 AM | SSQA.net

Though it is not a best practice to perform a CREATE INDEX on large tables during the online hours where you have number of users accessing the metadata of SQL Server database. Within SQL Server 2005 Enterprise Edition you can perform ONLINE indexes operation...

Filed under: sql server, performance, indexes, cache, users, tsql, best practice, backups, create, online, monitoring, operating system, busy, creation