15Aug 2017 by Grant Fritchey 11 Comments

Bad Parameter Sniffing Decision Flow Chart

SQL Server, SQL Server 2016
Lots of people are confused by how to deal with bad parameter sniffing when it occurs. In an effort to help with this, I'm going to try to make a decision flow chart to walk you through the process. This is a rough, quite rough, first draft. I would love to hear any input. For this draft, I won't address the things I think I've left out. I want to see what you think of the decision flow and what you think might need to be included. Click on it to embiggen. Thanks to the attendees at my SQLSaturday Louisville pre-con for the great questions and the inspiration to get this done. Thank you in advance for any and all feedback.
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20Dec 2016 by Grant Fritchey 1 Comment

Database Configuration

Azure, SQL Server 2016
It's amazing just how much the landscape changed with the release of SQL Server 2016 SP1. For example, I just found out that you can disable parameter sniffing at the database level using the database configuration. Not only does this work for SQL Server 2016 SP1, but it's enabled for Azure SQL Database. How Database Configuration Works The syntax is very simple and documented here. So, if I want to disable parameter sniffing for a single database, I can do this: ALTER DATABASE SCOPED CONFIGURATION SET PARAMETER_SNIFFING = OFF; That's it. Done. It works from within the database and doesn't require rebooting or anything else. Changing this setting does flush the cache of all the execution plans for that database. No other actions are necessary. You can control parameter sniffing at the…
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12Dec 2016 by Grant Fritchey 7 Comments

OPTIMIZE FOR Hints When Parameter Sniffing is Turned Off

Azure, SQL Server, SQL Server 2016, T-SQL
While presenting recently and talking about dealing with bad Parameter Sniffing, I got the question; what happens to OPTIMIZE FOR hints when parameter sniffing is disabled? This is my favorite kind of question because the answer is simple: I don't know. Parameter Sniffing For those who don't know, parameter sniffing is when SQL Server uses the precise values passed into a query as a parameter (this means stored procedures or prepared statements) to generate an execution plan from the statistics using the value from the parameter. Most of the time, parameter sniffing is either helping you, or is not hurting you. Sometimes, parameter sniffing turns bad and hurts you quite severely. Usually, but not always, this is because you either have severely skewed data (some data is very different than the rest, lots…
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30Mar 2015 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Does the New Cardinality Estimator Reduce Bad Parameter Sniffing

T-SQL
No. Next question. Although, that answer can be slightly, ever so slightly, nuanced... Parameter sniffing is a good thing. But, like a good wine, parameter sniffing can go bad. It always comes down to your statistics. A very accurate set of statistics with very little data skew (some values that have radically more/less data than other values) and a very even distribution (most values have approximately similar cardinality), and parameter sniffing is your bestest buddy on the planet (next to a tested backup). But, introduce some data skew, let the stats get wildly out of date, or suffer from seriously uneven distribution, and suddenly your best friend is doing unspeakable things to your performance (kind of like multi-statement table valued user defined functions). SQL Server 2014 has the first upgrade…
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05Sep 2013 by Grant Fritchey 7 Comments

sp_executesql, Parameters and Parameter Sniffing

SQL Server, T-SQL
I'm honestly not crazy about dynamic T-SQL within stored procedures. There are just a few too many opportunities to mess it up with dire circumstances to your server and your data. However, I absolutely recognize that dynamic T-SQL may be needed, and, in some situations, the best way to solve a problem. If you must use dynamic T-SQL, there are ways that are much more efficient than others. The very best thing you can do if you need to build dynamic strings to execute T-SQL in your stored procedures is use sp_executesql. The main reason I advocate for sp_executesql is because you can build out completely dynamic strings of T-SQL, but, you can still take advantage of parameters. Parameters help you avoid a chat with the parents of Bobby Tables…
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