Performance Tuning - Category Archive

The following is a list of all entries from the Performance Tuning category.

An Introduction to Data Compression in SQL Server 2008

This is an excerpt from my free eBook, Brad’s Sure Guide to SQL Server 2008. There is one thing every DBA knows with certainty, and that is that databases grow with time. MDFs grow, backups grow, and it never stops. The more data we have, the more work SQL Server has to perform in order ...read more


Introduction to the SQL Server 2008 Resource Governor

This is an excerpt from my free eBook, Brad’s Sure Guide to SQL Server 2008. I think most of us are familiar with this situation: a SQL Server database is the backend of an OLTP (Online Transaction Processing) application, but you are required to allow users to run any reports they want on the production ...read more


Getting the Most Out of SQL Server Profiler Using Templates

In case you haven’t discovered this for yourself, SQL Server Profiler is one of the most powerful tools that come with SQL Server. It has the ability to gather huge amounts of data you can use to help you identify and troubleshoot many different SQL Server problems. In fact, Profiler can capture about 180 different ...read more


Free T-SQL Database Maintenance Scripts

I often get questions in e-mails, or at user group meetings, for advice on writing T-SQL database maintenance scripts. There seem to be a lot of DBAs who need more flexibility than what the Database Maintenance Wizard offers to perform database maintenance, which means they must user either T-SQL or PowerShell scripts in order to ...read more


Help Design a New SQL Server Monitoring Tool

In an experiment in SQL Server community involvement, the members of Red Gate Software’s software development usability team have created a new website called www.thefutureofmonitoring.com. This team, among other teams at Red Gate Software, are working Version 2 of its popular SQL Response software. The goal of the new website is to get your input ...read more


SQL Server 2008: Performance Data Collector

SQL Server 2008’s Performance Data Collector lets us create a central repository to store performance data and includes three built-in Data Collection sets that can be used to collect and store this data. Three built-in reports can then be used to access the stored data, so we can identify and troubleshoot SQL Server performance problems. ...read more


Reasons Why You May Not Want to Use a Heap

I have started compiling a list of reasons why heaps aren’t usually a good choice when designing a database. Now, I didn’t say that heaps are always bad, but in most cases, I think they should be avoided (read the list to see why). As I compiled the list, in some cases I have had ...read more


Check Out the Free Performance Analysis of Logs (PAL) Tool

Traditionally, analyzing Performance Monitor data has not been an easy task. It often involved viewing Performance Monitor logs in graph view, seeing what was happening, and hoping that your knowledge and background in SQL Server and the Windows OS provided you with enough information in order to help you to be able to pinpoint specific ...read more


Copyright 2009-2011 Brad M McGehee