Professional Association for SQL Server
Cindy Gross, Microsoft Dedicated Support Engineer and Microsoft
Certified Master (MCM) – SQL Server 2008 http://blogs.msdn.com/cindygross
Sponsored by:

Cindy Gross
Dedicated Support Engineer
Microsoft’s Premier Field Engineering Team
Boise, ID
Microsoft Certified Master : SQL Server
Cindy.Gross@Microsoft.com
http://blogs.msdn.com/cindygross

The Microsoft Certified Master program for SQL Server is the deepest technical certification available from Microsoft, validating and recognizing the top SQL Server talent in the world
To achieve this certification, candidates must pass the following two exams in the following sequence:
• Exam 88-970: “SQL Server 2008 Microsoft Certified Master: Knowledge Exam” (4 hours)
• Exam 88-971: “SQL Server 2008 Microsoft Certified Master: Lab Exam” (6 hours)
Designed for the real-world demands of top-tier SQL Server professionals, find out more about the new program requirements for MCM: SQL Server 2008 by visiting: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/certification/master-sql-path.aspx

• Methodology
• SQLDiag / PSSDiag
• SQLNexus
• Other Tools
• References

• Know your SLAs
• Define the problem and exit criteria
• Understand baselines
• Gather data
• Analyze data
• Test potential solutions
• Post Mortem
• Refine solution
• Update standards/best practices, apply to other systems

• Save baselines
• Compare performance before and after coding, index, or hardware changes
• Save off SQL Server configuration information
• Gather information to troubleshoot various problems –
SQLDiag is good for “something is slow” type issues

• It’s too heavy
• It doesn’t capture what I need
• Just use the individual tools
• SQLDiag/PSSDiag are totally different

• Ships with SQL Server
• Can be made into a service and/or scheduled
• With /X gathers a snapshot: evt/err logs, configs
• Else gathers snapshot + PerfMon + Profiler
• Controlled by XML files – edit with true/false
<EventlogCollector enabled=" false " startup=" false " shutdown=" true " />

• Wrapper around SQLDiag + Custom Diags
• Examples: DMV information, clone db, msdb backup,
PerfStats
• Controlled by the same XML file as SQLDiag
• Usually has custom collectors bundled with it

Example from PerfStats download:
SQLDiagPerfStats_Detailed_Trace2008.XML
<CustomDiagnostics>
<CustomGroup name="SQL 2008 Perf Stats" enabled="true" />
<CustomTask enabled="true" groupname="SQL 2008
Perf Stats" taskname="SQL 2008 Perf Stats Script" type="TSQL_Script" point="Startup" wait="No" cmd="SQL_2008_Perf_Stats.sql" pollinginterval="0" />

• Open dos-prompt with “run as administrator”
• Example location: C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL
Server\100\Tools\Binn
• Run with /X for snapshot and to generate XML files
• Review SD_Detailed.XML
• Edit and save to a new file, pass with /I to SQLDiag
• SQLDiag creates a server-side Profiler trace

• Know your goal
• If collecting for a long time, collect fewer/less detailed events
• Be prepared for multiple iterations, get more detailed once you narrow it down

• Few (one) traces at a time.
• Avoid the GUI, SQLDiag uses server side. 929728
• Trace to local disk with write cache, never to a network share.
307786
• Never trace to UNC path, even if UNC points to local disk.
• Use fastest available volume not already used by data or log files. Avoid RAID-5 (write intensive).
• Whether the trace impacts instance perf can depend on disk speed.
• Test in QA environment or during non-peak hours.

• Avoid high frequency events like Object:Opened,
Lock:Acquired/Released, etc.
• Default to batch-level, not statement-level.
• Filtering reduces file size and I/O cost of tracing but increases CPU cost. Try to filter on integer column (dbid, duration, etc) instead of a text column (database name, textdata, etc) and only when filter removes >10% of events.

• No real value in eliminating rare but high-value events
(e.g. Hash Warning, Exception, Data File Auto Grow, etc).
• Events that greatly impact trace size:
SQL:StmtCompleted
SP:StmtCompleted
Degree of Parallelism
Lock:Timeout
Show Plan Statistics
SQL:BatchStarting
RPC:Starting

• All the Showplan events have high overhead and should be used only for a short time
• Actual plans for most uses:
Showplan Statistics Profile or
Showplan XML Statistics Profile
• Estimated plans for when queries never seem to complete: Showplan All or Showplan XML
• Text versions are subsets: no rows, execs, etc.
• Non-XML will be deprecated

• Logical disk
– Avg disk sec/read < 10-20ms, log sec/write < 3-5ms
– Disk reads/sec, Disk writes/sec
• Memory - Available MBytes
• MSSQL Buffer Manager - Page Life Expectancy
• MSSQL Databases - Active Transactions, Backup/Restore
Throughput/sec, Repl. Pending Xacts, Repl. Trans. Rate,
Transactions/sec
• MSSQL Memory Manager - Total Server Memory, Target
Server Memory
• MSSQL Plan Cache - Cache Hit Ratio (all instances)
• MSSQL Wait Statistics - (all)
• Process - % Processor Time (all instances)
• Processor - % Processor Time (all instances)

• Download Nexus from Codeplex.com
• Install RML tools
• Optimize your load: Pre-size your Nexus db, use simple recovery, set autogrow
ALTER DATABASE [NexusAdvWorks] SET RECOVERY SIMPLE WITH NO_WAIT
ALTER DATABASE [NexusAdvWorks] MODIFY FILE ( NAME = N'NexusAdvWorks', SIZE =
100MB , FILEGROWTH = 10MB )
ALTER DATABASE [NexusAdvWorks] MODIFY FILE ( NAME = N'NexusAdvWorks_log', SIZE =
100MB )
• Import your SQLDiag + PerfStats output
• Analyze your Data
• Repeat

• Show import options
• Review available reports
• Narrow down the problem
• Find your bottlenecks and worst performing queries
• Gather more detailed data for problem areas

• Show Showplan output options
• Show Export feature

• New in 2008, SSMS GUI in Denali
• Lighter weight than SQL Profiler / SQL Trace
• Using SQL Server Extended Events http://blogs.msdn.com/b/extended_events/

• Performance Analysis of Logs (PAL)
• RML Utilities – Readtrace, Ostress, ORCA
• SQLIO – disk subsystem performance
• SQLIOSim – data correctness, ships with SQL 2008+
• StorPort tracing enhancements

• Waits and Queues White Paper
• PerfStats Download
• SQLDiag Parameters/Usage

Professional Association for SQL Server

May 11-13, Orlando, FL
Save 25%: Register by April 12 th www.sqlpass.org/sqlrally
Oct 11-14, Seattle, WA
Register by March31st: save 40% and have the chance to win a cruise to
Alaska!
“24HR11” code gets you $100 off www.sqlpass.org/summit