Description
Page Latches are used to guarantee consistency of index and data pages for user and system objects in-memory. Pages that manage allocations are protected by internal allocation pages (PFS, GAM, SGAM and IAM). This wait type accumulates while page latches are in share/read mode. If this wait type is high then the common problem of PFS contention may be present
Resolved by
DBAs and Developers
Suggested solutions
- Monitor page latches over time (see link below), confirm which database the problem is coming from. It is most likely tempdb
- Ensure tempdb has the correct number of data files. A rule of thumb is one file for every 4 CPU cores
- Enable trace flag 1118
Additional research
Analyzing Tempdb Contention
How to Tell if You Need More Tempdb Files
Tempdb Contention