What tools do you use to tune database performance?

Database performance tuning is the process of optimizing the efficiency and responsiveness of a database system. It involves identifying and resolving bottlenecks, improving query execution plans, adjusting configuration parameters, and applying best practices for data modeling and indexing. As a database administrator, you need to use various tools to monitor, analyze, and improve your database performance. Here are some of the most common and useful tools that you can use to tune your database performance.

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1 SQL Profiler

SQL Profiler is a graphical tool that allows you to capture and analyze the events that occur in your SQL Server database. You can use it to trace the queries that run on your database, view their duration, CPU usage, reads, writes, and other metrics, and filter them by various criteria. You can also use SQL Profiler to replay the captured events on a different server or compare them with a baseline. SQL Profiler can help you to identify slow or problematic queries, optimize your indexes, and troubleshoot performance issues.

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Ernesto O. Martinez Delgado

Profesional en administración de bases de datos y desarrollo de software
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It's a great tool but one downside is that it takes a lot of resources, especially HD space, and you cannot review historical data. So, it's a very useful tool to use in relatively short windows of time to see what's happening in the database.

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Ervin Weber

Makes databases and clouds more efficient. #gcp #postgresql
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For databases that have no such tool included you can either use third-party tools (Like PgBadger or PgAdmin for PostgreSQL) or leverage your system administration skills and use operating system standard debuggers (like gdb) which can help investigate "complitely unexplainable slowdowns" if used correctly

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2 Database Engine Tuning Advisor

Database Engine Tuning Advisor is a tool that analyzes your workload and provides recommendations for improving your database performance. You can use it to evaluate the impact of adding, removing, or modifying indexes, statistics, partitions, and other database objects. You can also use it to generate scripts to implement the suggested changes or apply them directly to your database. Database Engine Tuning Advisor can help you to optimize your database design and configuration based on your actual usage patterns.

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Ervin Weber

Makes databases and clouds more efficient. #gcp #postgresql
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For open-source databases such tools are usually not included. Instead, multiple "support vendors" for given database develop their propietary toolkits and tune your database based on such data. For managed cloud-based databases, in many cases you will not even see tools or data that used for tuning decisions, and instead you only will see what database configuration is reccomended for your instance size and historical usage patterns.

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3 Performance Monitor

Performance Monitor is a tool that allows you to monitor and collect data on various aspects of your system and database performance. You can use it to view real-time or historical data on CPU, memory, disk, network, and other resources, and create charts, graphs, and reports. You can also use it to set alerts and thresholds for specific performance counters or events. Performance Monitor can help you to diagnose and resolve performance problems, identify trends and patterns, and plan for capacity and scalability.

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Ernesto O. Martinez Delgado

Profesional en administración de bases de datos y desarrollo de software
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For sure it's always a good practice to see how your hardware resources are being used. Which hours are the peak hours, the amount of memory the db is using at those hours, and how the demand for hardware resources is growing over time and estimate scalability issues.

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4 Dynamic Management Views

Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) are a set of views that expose the internal state and activity of your SQL Server database. You can use them to query information about sessions, connections, transactions, locks, waits, execution plans, index usage, and more. You can also use them to join with other system tables or views to create custom reports and dashboards. DMVs can help you to gain insight into your database performance and behavior, troubleshoot issues, and optimize your queries and indexes.

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5 Query Store

Query Store is a feature that tracks and stores the history and performance of your queries and execution plans. You can use it to view the query statistics, such as duration, CPU time, logical reads, and execution count, over time and across different sessions. You can also use it to compare the performance of different execution plans, force a specific plan for a query, or revert to a previous plan. Query Store can help you to monitor and tune your query performance, identify and fix plan regressions, and ensure consistency and stability.

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6 Here’s what else to consider

This is a space to share examples, stories, or insights that don’t fit into any of the previous sections. What else would you like to add?

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Ernesto O. Martinez Delgado

Profesional en administración de bases de datos y desarrollo de software
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I think one key aspect to consider is the transaction log files, how are they growing, which is the policy to increase their size. It's also important to have a good backup plan to apply and upgrade consistently.

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What tools do you use to tune database performance?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 SQL Profiler

2 Database Engine Tuning Advisor

3 Performance Monitor

4 Dynamic Management Views

5 Query Store

6 Here’s what else to consider

Database Administration

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What tools do you use to tune database performance?

1

2

3

4

5

6

1 SQL Profiler

2 Database Engine Tuning Advisor

3 Performance Monitor

4 Dynamic Management Views

5 Query Store

6 Here’s what else to consider

Database Administration

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