05Oct 2011 by Grant Fritchey 1 Comment

Extended Events and Performance Tuning Knowledge

Uncategorized
I’m working on updating my book, Query Performance Tuning Distilled, so that it reflects the new things available in SQL Server vNext:Denali. I’m going through the first chapters that are all about gathering information about your systems. Performance tuning is all about building up knowledge of how the system is working in order to understand what you need to change in order to improve it. I’m surprised by how much hasn’t changed. But some of the changes are fundamental and huge. Let’s talk huge. Extended Events is huge. Extended Events came out in SQL Server 2008, but very few people, myself included, paid much attention. Those who did found the implementation awkward and confusing. Only a few people persevered enough to discover just how powerful and amazing these things are.…
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04May 2011 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

SQL Rally

PASS
The Rally is next week. It’s not too late to register. This is going to be a very solid event with excellent opportunities for learning and networking. If you’re on the fence about going, don’t be. You should attend. I even have a few (somewhere near 10) slots open in my pre-conference seminar, Query Performance Tuning: Start to Finish. I’ve been working on hard on this presentation and showing pieces of it to various user groups around the country. The reception so far has been very good. If you want a seven hour brain dump on the ins and outs of performance tuning your queries, I strongly recommend it. Since there are still openings, you can get in, but I’d act quickly. Not because they’re all likely to fill, but…
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14Apr 2011 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

Performance Tuning: Start to Finish

PASS
The very first ever SQL Rally is taking place in a little less than four weeks in Orlando Florida. It’s going to be quite the event. There will be two full days of sessions on any number of topics. But before that all starts, there’s going to be a set of full day pre-conference seminars. These too are on a number of topics, but I’m hoping to draw your attention to just one, mine. I’ve put together a seven hour session on query performance tuning. I’ve tried to make it as complete as I possibly can. I’m going to cover the whole process from collecting data on your machines to identify where problems may be, to understanding the optimizer so you know how things work, to reading execution plans so…
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11Aug 2010 by Grant Fritchey 3 Comments

24 Hours of PASS: Summit Preview

PASS, T-SQL
Registration is open for the second 24 Hours of PASS this year. This one is going to be a preview of the Summit itself. So all the sessions are tied, in some manner, to sessions being given at the summit.Here's a link to go and register. I'm very excited to be able to say that I'll be presenting in this 24HOP. One of my presentations at the Summit this year is Identifying and Fixing Performance Problems Using Execution Plans. It covers pretty much what it says, methods for fixing performance problems by exploring the information available within execution plans. But, how do you know you have a performance problem? That's where my preview session comes in. Identifying Costly Queries will show you several ways to gather metrics on your system so that you…
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16Apr 2010 by Grant Fritchey 7 Comments

Confio Ignite: Part II

Tools
I'm continuing to evaluate Confio's Ignite database monitoring tool. I've had it collecting data on a couple of production servers for about a week now. Based on what I've seen so far, it's looking like a pretty good piece of software. Breaking with the usual tradition, I'm going to talk about the things I'm not crazy about with the software, before I start singing its praises. The first thing, that I thought was missing, but is actually just hard to find, is the ability to look at the query information that Ignite collects, broken down by database. It looks like you should be able to get to it by looking at the Databases tab, but instead you have to first drill down into a time-period, then select specific databases within that time period,…
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06Apr 2010 by Grant Fritchey 2 Comments

Confio Ignite: First Impressions

SQL Server
One of the national sponsors for SQL Satuday is Confio Software. Just because they sponsor SQL Saturday, it's worth checking out their product, but they also host the speaker's dinner at these events. So, having eaten off their dime, I felt obligated to take a look. I'm glad I did. Confio Ignite is a monitoring software that keeps real-time and historical track of the performance of your SQL Server (and Oracle and DB2) database servers. It's focus is on wait states and queues, a very common method for troubleshooting performance. You can get a trial download from their web site to run for a couple of weeks yourself. Everyone's first impression of a software, after the web site of course, is when go to do the install. The install routine for Ignite was very…
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05Apr 2010 by Grant Fritchey 25 Comments

nHibernate, First Look at TSQL

nHibernate
I've blogged in the past about the nHibernate project that has been going on at my company for the last eighteen months. Prior to today, I have only seen the database generated by nHibernate. But today I finally started seeing some TSQL code. My first impressions... oy! There are two levels of concern coming out of the gate. First, it appears that some of the programming decisions, completely independent of nHibernate, are going to cause problems. Second, it appears we're going to be hitting issues with nHibernate. First, the programming decision. I've been using Confio to monitor this server for a few days now (look for upcoming posts on my eval of Confio). Only one day has captured any real activity from the nHibernate team (and yes, I'm basically spying on…
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21Sep 2009 by Grant Fritchey 6 Comments

Identifying Frequently Running Queries

SQL Server, T-SQL
It's not enough to look at the longest running query. What if you have two queries, one runs for 5 minutes and the other runs for 5 seconds. Which do you tune? The first one, of course. But, let's add a little information to our thought experiment. The one that runs for 5 minutes is called 2AM, your local time, when there are almost no users on the system and the one that runs for 5 seconds is called 40 times a minute all day long. Now, which one do you tune? That's right, suddenly that 5 second query takes on a HUGE significance based on how often it's called. But how do you know how often a query is called? The easiest way to gather that information is not…
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14Sep 2009 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

Editorial on SQL Server Central

Misc, Tools
My first one over there. It's discussing whether or not you should do two things, build your own monitoring tool, come out in particular favor of one tool or suite of tools from a single vendor. Please read it and watch the video. And, even more importantly, leave a comment in the discussion.
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11Sep 2009 by Grant Fritchey No Comments

LaRock on Monitoring

SQL Server, T-SQL
Since I just spent a bit more than half of my 24 Hours of PASS presentation on tuning queries talking about monitoring performance, you could probably tell that I think that the two are inextricably linked. I'm not alone. Tom LaRock has put a post on why it's important to understand the extent of your problem prior to attempting to fix it. It's absolutely spot-on and a must read. Remember, if someone says performance on a system you manage is slow, you have to ask, as compared to what? You need to understand what "normal" performance is on your system in order to arrive at the ability to identify a particular process as performing in an abnormal manner. That's not to say that you couldn't tune a query in complete…
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