Devices And Databases

• Make a separate data device for each database.

• Make a separate log device for each database.
• Put each device on its own drive.
• Do all that for tempdb as well as your application databases.
• At a minimum, put each log device on a drive separate from the data device.
• Mirror the log device for up to the minute recovery.
• Use named caches and buffer pools for 16K I/O.
• The log works best with 4K I/O... see sp_logiosize.

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Run sp_who

• spid - server process identification number (use this with the kill command)
• status - state of this task:
o recv sleep - waiting to read data from the network
o send sleep - waiting to write data to the network
o alarm sleep - waiting for an alarm (e.g., the waitfor command)
o lock sleep - waiting to acquire a lock, or sleeping on a semaphore
o sleeping - waiting for client input or disk activity
o running - only one task per engine can be running
• loginame - login associated with this task
• origname -
• hostname - descriptive string passed from the client
• blk - zero, or spid of other task blocking this one
• dbname - name of database currently used by this task
• cmd - command this task is currently running

Run sp_lock

• fid -
• spid - server process identification number (use this with the kill command)
• locktype - kind of lock owned by this task:
o Sh_intent - shared intent, which may be implied by Sh_page
o Sh_page - shared page: a page is being read and cannot be changed
o Sh_table - shared table: nothing in the table can be changed
o Update_page - a lock that is being upgraded from shared to exclusive
o Ex_intent - exclusive intent, which may be implied by Ex_page
o Ex_page - exclusive page: a page is being updated
o Ex_table - exclusive table: a whole table is locked
• table_id - object identification number of the affected table
 • page - zero, or number identifying the page that is locked
• dbname - database containing page or table that is locked
• class - information about the cursor holding the lock
• context -

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Run sp_monitor
sp_monitor

last_run current_run seconds

-------- -----------
-----------
Oct 21 1998 2:17PM Oct 22 1998 4:17PM
93606

cpu_busy io_busy idle

-------- ------- ----
26(20)-0% 155(153)-0% 18983(18955)-20%

packets_received packets_sent packet_errors

---------------- ------------ -------------
22756(22315) 10711(10332) 2(2)

total_read total_write total_errors connections

---------- ----------- ------------ -----------
15855(15312) 35308(30443) 0(0) 0(0)

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Run sp_sysmon
sp_sysmon begin_sample
go

[run your test script here, or just wait while other stuff runs]

sp_sysmon end_sample
go

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Optimize SELECTs

• Leave unnecessary columns out of the select list.

• Include all possible table joins in the where clause.
 • Avoid unnecessary expressions in the where clause.
• Use joins instead of subqueries.
• Use exists and in instead of not exists and not in.
• Use >= instead of >.
• Use procedure parameters instead of local variables in where clauses.
• Use exists instead of count(*).
• Use union instead of or.
• Use indexes to optimize max() and min().
• Avoid data conversions in where clauses that prevent the use of indexes.
• Watch out for NULL versus NOT NULL causing character data conversions in
where clauses.
• Use convert() to control where data conversions occur.
• Avoid data conversions involving procedure parameters in where clauses.
• Use set-oriented SQL statements instead of cursor fetch loops.

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Optimize Cursors

• Check cursor plans using the cursor, not the standalone version of the select.
• Use union instead of or clauses or in lists.
• Explicitly specify for update or for read only.
• Include the of column_name_list when using for update.
• Use the default set close on endtran off to keep cursors open across
transactions.
• Avoid multiple connections, open multiple cursors on a single connection
instead.
•
•
•

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Set Showplan On

• For standalone SQL statements that you don't want to execute, use this in SQL
Advantage:
• set showplan on
• go
• set noexec on
• go
• ...your SQL statement(s) here
• go
• set showplan off
• go
• set noexec off
• end
• To see the plan for trigger logic, you have to execute the SQL statements:
• set showplan on
• go
• ...your insert/update/delete SQL statement(s) here
• go
• set showplan off
• go
• To see the plan for procedures called from triggers, you have to copy and paste
the procedure logic into SQL Advantage as if it was a standalone SQL batch.