3rd party performance tuning products these days?

  • Which 3rd party performance tuning products are the best on the market these days?

    I have been informed that I have $10,000 to spend on SQL tools for the purpose of performance tuning.

    What do you like these days?

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    SQL Database Management Tools

    Data Modeling Tools

    SQL Monitoring Tools

    SQL Tracing Tools

    SQL Auditing Tools

    Performance Tools

    Optimizing / Optimization Tools

    Building SQL Jobs

    Business Intelligence Tools for developing Business Intelligence applications

    DTS Converting and DTS Migration Tools

    Data Importing Tools and Data Exporting Tools

    Data Transformation – ETL Tools

    SQL / T-SQL Rapid Development Tools

    SQL Formatter (SQL Formatting Tools)

    SQL Server Query Tool

    SQL Backup Tools

    Database Restore

    Log Management

    Deployment Tools for deployment of database objects like script deployment, sql job deployment

    dealing with high number of servers

    Compare Data

    Compare Database Schemas and SQL Database Objects

    Script Data in Database Tables

    Building Reports / Report Development

    Intellisense or Autocomplete in SQL Editor

    Documenting SQL Objects or Database Documentation

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    Kahn

  • When you say performance tuning, what do you mean? Do you mean monitoring and alerting or something that will literally suggest or make changes to your system and/or queries?

    "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
    - Theodore Roosevelt

    Author of:
    SQL Server Execution Plans
    SQL Server Query Performance Tuning

  • I am referring to something that is a performance monitoring tool.

    Qwest Spotlight for SQL Server is sort of what I had in mind. It just sits in the background and lightly monitors the databases for performance issues that need attention.

    I was wondering if there are any other performance type programs worth investigating.

  • Oh, sure. I'd suggest taking a look at SQL Monitor[/url] from Red Gate Software then. .

    "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
    - Theodore Roosevelt

    Author of:
    SQL Server Execution Plans
    SQL Server Query Performance Tuning

  • I'd recommend Idera's SQL Diagnostic Manager, very configurable and has a BUNCH of great tools

    ______________________________________________________________________________Never argue with an idiot; Theyll drag you down to their level and beat you with experience

  • JamesMorrison (12/5/2011)


    Which 3rd party performance tuning products are the best on the market these days?

    I have been informed that I have $10,000 to spend on SQL tools for the purpose of performance tuning.

    What do you like these days?

    1) The best option would be $10K worth of ME!! 😎 Seriously, a performance review and some good mentoring by an expert will find and address current issues, which could REALLY make a world of difference in your environment if you are like every other client I have ever had. More importantly said engagement will give you the skills on how to monitor and TUNE things yourself in the future. Tools can be great for identifying "this thing sucks @ss" items, but don't really (except for one tool) really help you FIX problems in an efficient manner.

    2) Outside of me, I would say Confio Ignite is very good, SQL Sentry Performance Advisor too. DBSophic Qure is the tool that can actually refactor stuff for you.

    Best,
    Kevin G. Boles
    SQL Server Consultant
    SQL MVP 2007-2012
    TheSQLGuru on googles mail service

  • TheSQLGuru (12/7/2011)

    1) The best option would be $10K worth of ME!!

    I am sure you are a talented and entertaining personality, but I am not seeking to hire anyone. Good try though.

    I don't think we have major issues because we have been working on them since I got here earlier this year.

    The point of the performance tools is to find the smaller items that could have a cumulative impact as our data grows larger.

    One of the really useful items I saw in Quest Spotlight is the ability to go back and review what happened in the past.

    If there was an issue overnight that caused a significant backup in processing, what exactly was going on during that time frame?

    Spotlight could tell you without having had a trace running back during that time frame. Spotlight records it all in it's DW.

  • JamesMorrison (12/7/2011)


    TheSQLGuru (12/7/2011)

    1) The best option would be $10K worth of ME!!

    I am sure you are a talented and entertaining personality, but I am not seeking to hire anyone. Good try though.

    I don't think we have major issues because we have been working on them since I got here earlier this year.

    The point of the performance tools is to find the smaller items that could have a cumulative impact as our data grows larger.

    One of the really useful items I saw in Quest Spotlight is the ability to go back and review what happened in the past.

    If there was an issue overnight that caused a significant backup in processing, what exactly was going on during that time frame?

    Spotlight could tell you without having had a trace running back during that time frame. Spotlight records it all in it's DW.

    I don't "hire" - I "rent". Good try though. 😀

    Spotlight isn't the only product to do that. And the better perf-tuning products can actually tell you how a particular item PERFORMED historically, not just what ran when for how long. So you roll out a patch you can see how perf stacks up to the past by doing a comparative analysis. I really think the ones I mentioned are the cream of the perf monitoring products. If you want other monitoring as well then Confio drops down quite a bit and Qure goes away completely. SQL Sentry is still likely in the running though.

    Oh, and you don't need a tool to help you identify the small things that can cumulatively be harming performance. I do aggregate trace analysis as part of EVERY performance review I do. Surprising how many times the main killer is something(s) that takes very short time to run!! But when you take something that runs in 2 seconds but gets called 500 times per minute and make it run in 0.34 seconds it can REALLY open up headroom on the box - not to mention the potential concurrency benefits!

    Best,
    Kevin G. Boles
    SQL Server Consultant
    SQL MVP 2007-2012
    TheSQLGuru on googles mail service

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