08. Monitoring SQL Server for Performance

Module 8: Monitoring SQL Server for Performance

Overview

Why to Monitor SQL Server Performance Monitoring and Tuning Tools for Monitoring SQL Server Common Monitoring and Tuning Tasks

Why to Monitor SQL Server

Optimize the Business Application of SQL Server Minimize the User or Query Response Time Maximize the Throughput

Performance Monitoring and Tuning

Strategies for Performance Tuning Selecting an Approach to Performance Tuning Developing a Performance Tuning Methodology Establishing a Performance Baseline Detecting Performance Bottlenecks Common Monitoring Tasks

Strategies for Performance Tuning

Optimizing the Response Time Requires knowledge of the application, the environment,

and the users

Optimizing the Throughput Requires knowledge of how SQL Server handles data

access, concurrency, and interaction with Windows 2000

Selecting an Approach to Performance Tuning

Approach Optimization for Application Response Time and Server Throughput by: Tuning the client application

Tuning the database

Tuning SQL Server

Tuning the hardware configuration

Developing a Performance Tuning Methodology

Design for Performance Know the user requirements

Know the data

Design appropriately

Plan for Performance Define the parameters

Set performance goals

Measure and document actions and results

Establishing a Performance Baseline

SQLServer

Workload

Throughput

SystemResources

Optimization

Contention

Detecting Performance Bottlenecks

Decide What to Examine Memory, CPU use, disk I/O, user connection, and locks

Know the Acceptable Range Extremes above or below the baseline may indicate

bottlenecks

Common Monitoring Tasks

SQL Query Analyzer

Windows 2000 Event Viewer

Windows System Monitor

Current Activity window in SQL Server Enterprise Manager

Transact-SQL

SQL Profiler

System-Level Monitoring Hardware

Operating system

Application

SQL Server-Specific Monitoring SQL Server activity

Data consistency

Specific Query Performance

Tools for Monitoring SQL Server

Windows 2000 Event Viewer Windows System Monitor with SQL Server Current Activity Window in SQL Server Enterprise

Manager Transact-SQL Tools SQL Profiler SQL Query Analyzer

Windows 2000 Event Viewer

Windows 2000 Event Viewer Displays Error, Warning, and Informational Messages

Windows 2000 Event Viewer Allows You to View Windows Event Logs Windows application log

Windows system log

Windows security log

Windows System Monitor with SQL Server

Windows System Monitor Can Track: SQL Server I/O

SQL Server memory usage

SQL Server user connections

SQL Server locking

Replication activity

Current Activity Window in SQL Server Enterprise Manager

SQL Server Process Information View by process ID

View by object

Locks, Blocking, and Deadlocks Managing Locks and Processes

System administrators can take actions to inform users or terminate processes

Transact-SQL Tools

System Stored Procedures Global Variables Transact-SQL Statements DBCC Statements Trace Flags

SQL Profiler

Trace and Capture Server Activity Choose events to monitor

Choose trace criteria

Choose what data to capture

Group data meaningfully

Demonstration: Using SQL Profiler

SQL Query Analyzer

Show Query Execution Plan Show Server Trace Show Server-Side Statistics Show Client-Side Statistics Index Tuning Wizard

Common Monitoring and Tuning Tasks

Monitoring Memory Use Monitoring Threads and Processor Use Monitoring Hard Disk I/O Monitoring Locks Monitoring for Poorly Performing Queries

Monitoring Memory Use

MemoryMemoryandandPagingPagingFileFileUseUse

Object: CounterObject: Counter GuidelineGuidelineMemory: Available Bytes This counter should be greater than

5,000 KB

Memory: Pages/sec This counter should never be consistently greater than zero

Process: Page Faults/sec A high number indicates excessivepaging

MemoryMemoryand and Buffer Buffer UseUse

Object:Object: CounterCounter GuidelineGuideline

Process: Working Set This counter should be greater than 5,000 KB

SQL Server: Buffer Manager: Buffer Cache Hit Ratio

This counter should be greater than 90 percent

SQL Server: Buffer Manager: Total Pages

A low number may indicate frequent disk I/O, more memory may be required

SQL Server: Memory Manager: Total Server Memory

If this counter is consistently close to the amount of physical memory, more memory may be required

Monitoring Threads and Processor Use

Object:Object: CounterCounter GuidelineGuideline

Processor: %Processor Time This counter should usually be less than 90 percent

System: Context Switches/Sec

On a multiprocessor computer, if this counter reaches 8000, and the Processor: % Processor Time counter is over 90 percent, consider enabling SQL Server fiber mode scheduling

System: Processor Queue Length This counter should never be consistently greater than 2

Processor: %Privileged Time This counter should be as low as possible

Processor: %User Time This counter gives the percentage of time executing user processes such as SQL Server

Monitoring Hard Disk I/O

Object: CounterObject: Counter GuidelineGuideline

PhysicalDisk: %Disk Time This counter should be consistently less than 90 percent

PhysicalDisk: Avg.Disk Queue Length

This counter should be no more than 2 times the number of spindles

PhysicalDisk: Disk Reads/sec This counter should be consistently less than the capacity of your hard disk subsystem

PhysicalDisk: Disk Writes/sec This counter should be consistently less than the capacity of your hard disk subsystem

Monitoring Locks

Deadlocks Automatically detected and killed

Blocking Locks Administrator intervention required

Managing Locks Windows System Monitor, SQL Profiler, SQL Server

Enterprise Manager, and stored procedures

Monitoring for Poorly Performing Queries

Identifying Query Performance SQL Profiler, traces, and stored procedures

Causes of Poor Query Performance Network, memory, statistics, indexes, and query

structure

Recommended Practices

Establish a Performance Baseline

Monitor Actual Performance

Identify Performance Bottlenecks

Use the Appropriate Tools

Lab A: Monitoring SQL Server

Review

Why to Monitor SQL Server Performance Monitoring and Tuning Tools for Monitoring SQL Server Common Monitoring and Tuning Tasks