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sql server performance

  • October 30, 2012 at 3:10 pm

    #284330

    Hi I am attending job interviews as a Sr. SQL server deveoper and most of the interviewers are asking about how to achieve bette performance tuning.

    I am pretty much taking about the steps in the below article.

    http://blog.sqlauthority.com/sql-server-performance-tuning/

    But it seems they are not convinced. They keep asking me what else you still have to do if you don't achieve the required performance.

    Can anyone who works exclusively on performance tuning can provide any additional steps are some real time issues/solutions so that they can be helpful for my future interviews?

    Thanks in advance.

  • October 30, 2012 at 3:30 pm

    #1554399

    SQL Server performance tuning is an art and not a science. Every situation is different and you have to use a wholistic approach. The first thing I like to start with is reviewing the DMV's regarding wait types. SQL Server is excellent at telling you what it is waiting for and that typically is a good place to start. There are TONS of queries you can find online, look for anything referencing sys.dm_os_waiting_tasks. Sometimes its blocking, out of date statistics, long running queries, index maintenance, etc...

    It really boils down to analyzing the symptoms, forming a hypothesis about the cause of the performance problem and testing one controlled variable at a time until you identify a root cause. If I learned anything from SQLSkills training, never make a change based on a knee jerk reaction. You may solve the problem without knowing how you solved it and that doesn't help the next time the problem occurs.

  • October 30, 2012 at 3:53 pm

    #1554405

    Entire books have been written on that subject. One I'd suggest is Grant Frichey's Query performance tuning distilled book.

    Gail Shaw
    Microsoft Certified Master: SQL Server, MVP, M.Sc (Comp Sci)
    SQL In The Wild: Discussions on DB performance with occasional diversions into recoverability

    We walk in the dark places no others will enter
    We stand on the bridge and no one may pass

  • October 30, 2012 at 4:07 pm

    #1554410

    I would also recommend "Troubleshooting SQL Server: A Guide for the Accidental DBA" by Jonathan Kehayias and Ted Krueger.

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