Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) are a significant and valuable addition to the DBA's troubleshooting armory, laying bare previously unavailable information regarding the under-the-covers activity of your database sessions and transactions. Why, then, aren't all DBAs using them? Why do many DBAs continue to ignore them in favour of "tried and trusted" tools such as sp_who2, DBCC OPENTRAN, and so on, or make do with the "ready made" reports built into SSMS? Why do even those that do use the DMVs speak wistfully about "good old sysprocesses"? There seem to be two main factors at work. Firstly, some DBAs are simply unaware of the depth and breadth of the information that is available from the DMvs, or how it might help them troubleshoot common issues. This book investigates all of the DMVs that are most frequently useful to the DBA in investigating query execution, index usage, session and transaction activity, disk IO, and how SQL Server is using or abusing the operating system. Secondly, the DMVs have a reputation of being difficult to use. In the process of exposing as much useful data as possible, sysprocesses has been de-normalized, and many new views and columns have been added. This fact, coupled with the initially-baffling choices of what columns will be exposed where, has lead to some DBAs to liken querying DMVs to "collecting mystic spells." In fact, however, once you start to write your own scripts, you'll see the same tricks, and similar join patterns, being used time and again. As such, a relatively small core set of scripts can be readily adapted to suit any requirement. This book is here to de-mystify the process of collecting the information you need to troubleshoot SQL Server problems. It will highlight the core techniques and "patterns" that you need to master, and will provide a core set of scripts that you can use and adapt for your own systems, including how to: * Root out the queries that are causing memory or CPU pressure on your system * Investigate caching, and query plan reuse * Identify index usage patterns * Track fragmentation in clustered indexes and heaps * Get full details on blocking and blocked transactions, including the exact commands being executed, and by whom. * Find out where SQL Server is spending time waiting for resources to be released, before proceeding * Monitor usage and growth of tempdb The DMVs don't make existing, built-in, performance tools obsolete. On the contrary, they complement these tools, and offer a flexibility, richness and granularity that are simply not available elsewhere. Furthermore, you don't need to master a new GUI, or a new language in order to use them; it's all done in a language all DBAs know and mostly love: T-SQL.

Every action in SQL Server - queries, updates, whatever - leaves a set of tiny footprints; SQL Server records all that valuable data and makes it visible through Dynamic Management Views, or DMVs. A DBA or developer can use this incredibly detailed information to significantly improve the performance of queries and better understand what's really going on inside a SQL Server system SQL Server DMVs in Action is a practical guide that shows how to obtain, interpret, and act on the information captured by DMVs to keep SQL Server in top shape. The 100+ samples provided in this book will help readers master DMVs and also give them a tested, working, and instantly reusable SQL code library. Purchase of the print book comes with an offer of a free PDF, ePub, and Kindle eBook from Manning. Also available is all code from the book.

Queries not running fast enough? Wondering about the in-memory database features in 2014? Tired of phone calls from frustrated users? Grant Fritchey’s book SQL Server Query Performance Tuning is the answer to your SQL Server query performance problems. The book is revised to cover the very latest in performance optimization features and techniques, especially including the newly-added, in-memory database features formerly known under the code name Project Hekaton. This book provides the tools you need to approach your queries with performance in mind. SQL Server Query Performance Tuning leads you through understanding the causes of poor performance, how to identify them, and how to fix them. You’ll learn to be proactive in establishing performance baselines using tools like Performance Monitor and Extended Events. You’ll learn to recognize bottlenecks and defuse them before the phone rings. You’ll learn some quick solutions too, but emphasis is on designing for performance and getting it right, and upon heading off trouble before it occurs. Delight your users. Silence that ringing phone. Put the principles and lessons from SQL Server Query Performance Tuning into practice today. Covers the in-memory features from Project Hekaton Helps establish performance baselines and monitor against them Guides in troubleshooting and eliminating of bottlenecks that frustrate users

This practical book provides a comprehensive overview of troubleshooting and performance tuning best practices for Microsoft SQL Server. Database engineers, including database developers and administrators, will learn how to identify performance issues, troubleshoot the system in a holistic fashion, and properly prioritize tuning efforts to attain the best system performance possible. Author Dmitri Korotkevitch, Microsoft Data Platform MVP and Microsoft Certified Master (MCM), explains the interdependencies between SQL Server database components. You'll learn how to quickly diagnose your system and discover the root cause of any issue. Techniques in this book are compatible with all versions of SQL Server and cover both on-premises and cloud-based SQL Server installations. Discover how performance issues present themselves in SQL Server Learn about SQL Server diagnostic tools, methods, and technologies Perform health checks on SQL Server installations Learn the dependencies between SQL Server components Tune SQL Server to improve performance and reduce bottlenecks Detect poorly optimized queries and inefficiencies in query execution plans Find inefficient indexes and common database design issues Use these techniques with Microsoft Azure SQL databases, Azure SQL Managed Instances, and Amazon RDS for SQL Server

Summary SQL Server MVP Deep Dives, Volume 2 is a unique book that lets you learn from the best in the business - 64 SQL Server MVPs offer completely new content in this second volume on topics ranging from testing and policy management to integration services, reporting, and performance optimization techniques...and more. About this Book To become an MVP requires deep knowledge and impressive skill. Together, the 64 MVPs who wrote this book bring about 1,000 years of experience in SQL Server administration, development, training, and design. This incredible book captures their expertise and passion in 60 concise, hand-picked chapters and offers valuable insights for readers of all levels. SQL Server MVP Deep Dives, Volume 2 picks up where the first volume leaves off, with completely new content on topics ranging from testing and policy management to integration services, reporting, and performance optimization. The chapters fall into five parts: Architecture and Design, Database Administration, Database Development, Performance Tuning and Optimization, and Business Intelligence. Purchase of the print book comes with an offer of a free PDF, ePub, and Kindle eBook from Manning. Also available is all code from the book. What's Inside Discovering servers with PowerShell Using regular expressions in SSMS Tuning the Transaction Log for OLTP Optimizing SSIS for dimensional data Real-time BI and much more Manning Publications and the authors of this book support the children of Operation Smile, an international children's medical charity that performs free reconstructive surgery for children suffering from facial deformities such as cleft lips and cleft palates by mobilizing medical volunteers who provide education and training programs to local doctors on the latest surgical techniques. ========================================​======= Table of Contents PART 1 ARCHITECTUREEdited by Louis Davidson Where are my keys? by Ami Levin "Yes, we are all individuals"A look at uniqueness in the world of SQL by Rob Farley Architectural growth pains by Chris Shaw Characteristics of a great relational database by Louis Davidson Storage design considerations by Denny Cherry Generalization: the key to a well-designed schema by Paul Nielsen PART 2 DATABASE ADMINISTRATION Edited by Paul Randal and Kimberly Tripp Increasing availability through testing by Allan Hirt Page restores by Gail Shaw Capacity planning by Greg Larsen Discovering your servers with PowerShell and SMO by Joe Webb Will the real Mr. Smith please stand up? by John Magnabosco Build your own SQL Server 2008 performance dashboard by Pawl Potasinski SQL Server cost recovery by Peter Ward Best practice compliance with Policy-Based Management by Rod Colledge Using SQL Server Management Studio to the fullest by Rodney Landrum Multiserver management and Utility Explorer - best tools for the DBA by Satya Shyam K. Jayanty Top 10 SQL Server admin student misconceptions by Tibor Karaszi High availability of SQL Server in the context of Service Level Agreements by Tobiasz Janusz Koprowski PART 3 DATABASE DEVELOPMENT Edited by Paul Nielsen T-SQL: bad habits to kick by Aaron Bertrand Death by UDF by Kevin Boles Using regular expressions in SSMS by John Paul Cook SQL Server Denali: what's coming next in T-SQL by Sergio Govoni Creating your own data type by Hugo Kornelis Extracting data with regular expressions by Matija Lah Relational division by Peter Larsson SQL FILESTREAM: to BLOB or not to BLOB by Ben Miller Writing unit tests for Transact-SQL by Luciano Moreira Getting asynchronous with Service Broker by Mladen Prajdic Effective use of HierarchyId by Denis Reznik Let Service Broker help you scale your application by Allen White PART 4 PERFORMANCE TUNING AND OPTIMIZATION Edited by Brad M. McGehee Hardware 201: selecting and sizing database server hardware by Glenn Berry Parameter sniffing: your best friend...except when it isn't by Grant Fritchey Investigating the plan cache by Jason Strate What are you waiting for? An introduction to waits and queues by Robert Pearl You see sets, and I see loops by Linchi Shea Performance-tuning the transaction log for OLTP workloads by Brad M. McGehee Strategies for unraveling tangled code by Jennifer McCown Using PAL to analyze SQL Server performance by Tim Chapman Tuning JDBC for SQL Server by Jungsun Kim PART 5 BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE Edited by Greg Low Creating a formal Reporting Services report part library by Jessica M. Moss Improving report layout and visualization by Greg Low Developing sharable managed code expressions in SSRS by William Vaughn Designing reports with custom MDX queries by Paul Turley Building a scale-out Reporting Services farm by Edwin Sarmiento Creating SSRS reports from SSAS by Robert Cain Optimizing SSIS for dimensional data loads by Michael Coles SSIS configurations management by Andy Leonard Exploring different types of enumerators in the SSIS Foreach Loop container by Abolfazl Radgoudarzi and Shahriar Nikkhah Late-arriving dimensions in SSIS by John Welch Why automate tasks with SSIS? by Ted Krueger Extending SSIS using the Script component by Tim Mitchell ETL design checklist by Rafael Salas Autogenerating SSAS cubes by Johan Ahlen Scripting SSAS databases - AMO and PowerShell, Better Together by Darren Gosbell Managing context in MDX by Boyan Penev Using time intelligence functions in PowerPivot by Thiago Zavaschi Easy BI with Silverlight PivotViewer by Gogula Aryalingam Excel as a BI frontend tool by Pedro Perfeito Real-time BI with StreamInsight by Allan Mitchell BI solution development design considerations by Siddharth Mehta

Conquer SQL Server 2017 administration—from the inside out Dive into SQL Server 2017 administration—and really put your SQL Server DBA expertise to work. This supremely organized reference packs hundreds of timesaving solutions, tips, and workarounds—all you need to plan, implement, manage, and secure SQL Server 2017 in any production environment: on-premises, cloud, or hybrid. Four SQL Server experts offer a complete tour of DBA capabilities available in SQL Server 2017 Database Engine, SQL Server Data Tools, SQL Server Management Studio, and via PowerShell. Discover how experts tackle today’s essential tasks—and challenge yourself to new levels of mastery. • Install, customize, and use SQL Server 2017’s key administration and development tools • Manage memory, storage, clustering, virtualization, and other components • Architect and implement database infrastructure, including IaaS, Azure SQL, and hybrid cloud configurations • Provision SQL Server and Azure SQL databases • Secure SQL Server via encryption, row-level security, and data masking • Safeguard Azure SQL databases using platform threat protection, firewalling, and auditing • Establish SQL Server IaaS network security groups and user-defined routes • Administer SQL Server user security and permissions • Efficiently design tables using keys, data types, columns, partitioning, and views • Utilize BLOBs and external, temporal, and memory-optimized tables • Master powerful optimization techniques involving concurrency, indexing, parallelism, and execution plans • Plan, deploy, and perform disaster recovery in traditional, cloud, and hybrid environments For Experienced SQL Server Administrators and Other Database Professionals • Your role: Intermediate-to-advanced level SQL Server database administrator, architect, developer, or performance tuning expert • Prerequisites: Basic understanding of database administration procedures

The SQL Server Query Optimizer is perceived by many to be a magic black box, transforming SQL queries into high performance execution plans in the blink of an eye through some unknowable process. The truth is that, while the Query Optimizer is indeed the highly-complex result of decades of research, learning how it works its magic is not only possible, but immensely useful to DBAs and Developers alike. A better understanding of what the Query Optimizer does behind the scenes can help you to improve the performance of your databases and applications, and this book explains the core concepts behind how the SQL Server Query Optimizer works. With this knowledge, you'll be able to write superior queries, provide the Query Optimizer with all the information it needs to produce efficient execution plans, and troubleshoot the cases when the Query Optimizer is not giving you the best plan possible. With over 15 years of experience in the use of Relational Databases (including SQL Server since version 6.5), Benjamin has watched the SQL Server Query Optimizer grow and evolve. His insight will leave you with an excellent foundation in the practicalities of the Query Optimizer, and everything you need to know to start tuning your queries to perfection.