Performance counters

Esat Erkec
Tune SQL Server performance using with help of the wait statistics

Boost SQL Server Performance with Wait Statistics

October 26, 2020 by

In this article, we will explore, how we can increase SQL Server performance with the help of the wait statistics. Wait statistics are one of the most important indicators to identify performance issues in SQL Server. When we want to troubleshoot any performance issue, at first we need to diagnose the problem correctly because correctly diagnosing problems help with half of the solution. Now, let’s learn wait statistics which helps to identify performance issues properly.

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Esat Erkec
Measuring disk latency with Perfmon for SQL Server troubleshooting

SQL Server troubleshooting: Disk I/O problems

August 17, 2020 by

In this article, we will discuss how to resolve I/O problems that is a very important point for the SQL Server troubleshooting. The storage subsystem is one of the significant performance factors for the databases. Detecting and identifying I/O problems in SQL Server can be a tough task for the database administrators (DBAs). Generally, the underlying reasons for the I/O problems can be:

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Nikola Dimitrijevic

SQL Server performance counters (Batch Requests/sec or Transactions/sec): what to monitor and why

June 5, 2018 by

When maintaining SQL Server, it is essential to get an accurate perception of how busy it is. Two metrics that are often considered as indicators of how busy SQL Server is are Batch Requests/sec and Transaction/sec. When those metrics trend higher, they often affect all other metrics and make them go higher as well. While they could look similar, they are using a different type of starting point for measurement; the batches and transactions. So, to correctly understand those important metrics, lets first try to understand what the batches and transactions in SQL Server are and what are the differences between the two

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Daniel Tikvicki

SSRS ReportServer: Service performance counters guide

July 27, 2016 by

SSRS performance counters

Measurements of the Reporting Services service (SSRS) monitoring cycle show which resources the reporting process consumes, and also, specific sets of counters show the particular type of the reporting process deployment in use, Native and SharePoint mode. The entire reports processing occurs in the Report Server, which is the core element of SSRS architecture, and among all features, collaboration with SharePoint platform is the most crucial, because of advantages of report processing and generating reports for SharePoint components.

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Daniel Tikvicki

SSIS Pipeline performance counters guide

July 14, 2016 by

SSIS Pipeline performance counters

SSIS Pipeline performance counters monitor the processes which are related to the execution of packages and the Data flow engine’s the most crucial feature, the (Data) Pipeline. Their measurements reveal in which way the memory resources are acquired during the execution of the SSIS packages, and also, show the amount of memory used during that events. The proficient monitoring of the SSIS Pipeline memory usage can mitigate the potential issues of memory and data leakage, data transformation interruptions and overall, avoid data integration damage.

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Eli Leiba

Construct a special multi-statement table function for checking SQL Server’s health

December 24, 2015 by

The Problem

Checking the many SQL Servers health conditions is one of the DBA basic tasks. Monitoring many servers and databases, day after day can be a very tedious job. There are many aspects to look for when checking the server performance figures. Such aspects include among others: CPU, Read and Write Disk counters, Various memory counters and locks performance counters. The DBA needs a tool that checks the most important counters and output a report that states whether the server is considered to be healthy or not. For every aspect, a counter is chosen to represent it to be included in the overall report.

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Milena Petrovic

Troubleshooting SQL Server issues with sys.dm_os_performance_counters

March 13, 2014 by

sys.dm_os_performance_counters

sys.dm_os_performance_counters is a system Dynamic Management View (DMV) that returns one row for each SQL Server performance counter. It’s useful for obtaining information about current performance counter values. These counter values are also shown in Windows Performance Monitor, besides other operating system counters Read more »
Milena Petrovic

A DBA guide to SQL Server performance troubleshooting – Part 1 – Problems and performance metrics

March 13, 2014 by
Monitoring SQL Server performance is a complex task, as performance depends on many parameters, both hardware and software. It’s recommended to monitor these parameters proactively in order to prevent any potential performance degradation. However, this is not always the case. If the performance degradation happens, the first step towards the resolution is to determine the problem, find out the cause, and resolve the issue. Severe performance issues require quick actions and resolutions. Less severe problems can have a delayed fix. In either case, DBAs should take actions to prevent these situations in future Read more »
Milena Petrovic

SQL Server disk performance metrics – Part 1 – the most important disk performance metrics

March 12, 2014 by
So far, we have presented the most important memory and processor metrics. These metrics indicate system and SQL Server performance, and are useful for troubleshooting performance issues and bottlenecks. Besides memory and processor metrics, equally important are SQL Server disk metrics. Sometimes a metric from one category can be masked by other events and be misleading – e.g. a disk issue can cause processor bottlenecks. That’s why it’s necessary to understand the cause and effect of each metric Read more »
Milena Petrovic

SQL Server processor performance metrics – Part 4 – processor metrics useful for deeper investigation and troubleshooting

March 12, 2014 by

In the previous part of this series, we presented the processor metrics that indicate hardware component problems that can affect SQL Server performance

In this part, we will present processor metrics that are not necessary in every performance monitoring scenario, but are useful for deeper investigation and troubleshooting Read more »
Milena Petrovic

SQL Server processor performance metrics – Part 3 – measures that indicate hardware component problems

March 11, 2014 by
In the Part 1 and Part 2 of the SQL Server processor performance metrics series, we described the most important processor performance metrics – Processor: % Processor Time, Process: % Processor Time, Processor Queue Length, Processor: % User Time, Processor: %Privilege Time, as well as various total times and thread metrics Read more »
Milena Petrovic

SQL Server processor performance metrics – Part 2 – Processor: % User Time, Processor: % Privilege Time, total times and thread metrics

March 11, 2014 by

In SQL server processor performance metrics – Part 1 – The most important cpu metrics, we described the Processor Queue Length and two most important processor time counters – Processor % Processor Time and Process % Processor time

In this part, we will continue describing important time processor counters Read more »
Milena Petrovic

SQL Server memory performance metrics – Part 6 – other memory metrics

March 10, 2014 by
So far, we have described the most popular and most important SQL Server memory metrics. Monitoring these metrics is recommended in every scenario when SQL Server performance monitoring and troubleshooting is needed. Besides the SQL Server Memory Manager metrics, the memory pressure can be indicated via the Buffer Manager metrics, as the buffer is the component that uses most of the SQL Server memory Read more »
Milena Petrovic

SQL Server memory performance metrics – Part 5 – understanding Lazy Writes, Free List Stalls/sec, and Memory Grants Pending

March 7, 2014 by
We’ve started the SQL Server performance metrics series with the SQL Server memory metrics that should be monitored to indicate and help troubleshoot SQL Server performance issues

In this part, we will continue with SQL Server memory performance metrics and present Lazy Writes, Free List Stalls/sec, and Memory Grants Pending Read more »