It really is so much easier to just throw hardware at badly performing databases. Just buy a bigger, faster server with more and faster disks and you can put off doing tuning work for another 6-9 months, easily. But, for most of us, sooner or later, our performance problems get so big or, we just don’t have any more money to spend, and we’re stuck. We have to tune the queries. And frankly, query tuning is a pain in the nether regions.

But, after you’ve tuned queries 20 or 30 times, you start to recognize the patterns and it gets easier (never easy, just not as hard). But, if you haven’t done it 20 or 30 times, what do you do? My suggestion, talk to someone who has done it 30 times (or even a couple of hundred times), like me for example.

I have an all day session on tuning queries. It goes from understanding how the optimizer works (which will automatically lead you to write better queries), to how to gather performance metrics (so you know where the pain points are located), to reading execution plans (you need to know what has gone wrong with the query) to various mechanisms for fixing the query. This information is applicable to systems from SQL Server 2005 to SQL Server 2014 (sorry everyone still on 2000, it’s time to upgrade). The session is based on the books I’ve written about query tuning and execution plans, plus years and years of doing lots of query tuning.

Right now I’ve got two events scheduled. Before SQL Saturday #286 in Louisville, KY, I’ll be putting on this precon. We’re limited to seating, so don’t wait. You can go here to register. Then we can get together the next day at the SQL Saturday event to get some more education from all the great speakers there. Next, before SQL Saturday #302 in Albany, NY (their first one, ever), I’ll be hosting this. You can register by clicking here. Don’t miss the early bird special. Again, the next day will be filled with learning at the SQL Saturday event.

I’m working on taking this to other locations and venues. If you’re interested, please get in touch. I’ll do what I can to come to you.

If you have a particularly thorny query, bring it along with an actual execution plan. If we have time at the end of the day, I’ll take a look and makes suggestions, live (uh, please, no sensitive patient data or anything like that).

Let’s get together and talk query tuning.

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