The main purpose of SQL Server Agent is executing administrative tasks within SQL Server, mostly as on-demand user actions. It is Windows service which runs continuously in the background, but it stores necessary information within SQL Server itself, in the msdb system database.
December 6, 2016
The following recommendations are part of an effective strategy for investigating SQL Server performance issues caused by slow queries:
November 23, 2016
Part 1 of this series describes some basics about performance baselining, while Part 2 explains how to establish and use baselining for detecting SQL Server performance issues in SQL Server using user defined tables, scripts and baseline calculations. In this final article, we’ll demonstrate how to implement baselining with a 3rd party tool, including some value added functionality
October 26, 2016While Performance Monitor can be used for monitoring performance parameters of SQL Server, it doesn’t provide an option to get notifications when certain performance metrics values breach specified thresholds. The main reason why this is important is to be able to identify SQL Server performance issues as soon as possible, and react before they affect too many users. In addition, notifications on potential SQL Server performance issues could help avoid more serious problems by forecasting when they are likely to occur in order to avoid them. Therefore, one of the primary tasks for the database administrator is to establish a system that will ensure that he/she is going to be notified in case when certain performance metrics values are beyond the expected/desired range
September 8, 2016Probably the most common issue when maintaining SQL Servers are slow-running queries. It is not unusual that a DBA gets information that the application or user database is slow, or even that users are getting timeout messages when working with SQL Server or SQL Server applications. Generally, when such SQL Server performance related issues are encountered, the first step in troubleshooting such an issue is to quickly identify whether and what slow-running queries in SQL Server are the cause of such a problem. The next step is then to determine why these queries run slow and what is the root cause for such behavior.
September 8, 2016In Part 1 of this series using native SQL Server tools for monitoring AlwaysOn Availability Groups performance is described. In this part the focus will be on a third party solution – ApexSQL Monitor; designed to overcome most of the limitations of the aforementioned native SQL Server tools
August 9, 2016DBAs often find themselves tasked with creating custom SQL Server performance counters to meet the increasing complexity of their environments and monitoring requirements.
May 19, 2016The AlwaysOn Availability Group was introduced as a new feature in the SQL Server 2012 Enterprise edition and is designed to ensure a more advanced and reliable option for SQL Server high availability and disaster recovery.
May 19, 2016In the previous article we described native SQL Server capabilities for troubleshooting SQL Server performance issues using wait statistics and especially the query wait statistic.
In this part, we’ll focus on a 3rd party solution – ApexSQL Monitor. ApexSQL Monitor is a SQL Server and system performance monitoring tool designed for monitoring of operating system, SQL Server, and database performance metrics in real time including wait statistics as well as query wait statistic on cumulative and individual query level. Besides being able to track wait statistics, ApexSQL Monitor allows a database administrator to configure and receive alert notifications about wait statistics as well.
May 21, 2015The ability to successfully solve a problem and pinpoint the root cause of an issue that affects SQL Server performance depends on knowledge of the particular SQL Server system and environment, but also on personal experience which can help in determining where to start SQL Server performance troubleshooting.
May 20, 2015
