We've recently come across multiple customers who have had excessively high LCK_M_SCH_M waits. These surface in sys.dm_os_wait_stats, but much more visibly in the SQL Sentry Performance Advisor dashboard: Upon digging deeper, we observed the following resource_description in sys.dm_os_waiting_tasks: metadatalock…
Introduction In Mining Performance Data from SQL Sentry (Part 3) on mining performance data from the SQL Sentry database, we learned about several repository tables that store information about the storage schema for a server. This time, we’ll learn how to query for information pertaining specifically to SQL Server files.…
Introduction In Mining Performance Data from SQL Sentry (Part 2) we took a quick look at a table that lets us query some information about the Operating System from the SQL Sentry repository database. In this post, we're going to kick things up a notch, and go over some tables that will give us a picture of our storage…
Introduction In Mining Performance Data from SQL Sentry (Part 1) of this series we learned how to use the SQL Sentry repository database to find out about the various computers and connections SQL Sentry knows about. In this post, we're going to build on that foundation, and use it to get some deeper information about the…
Introduction SQL Sentry Client Services encompasses both our Professional Services group and our Technical Support group. Between the two there are often requests for assistance mining performance metrics from the repository database. We don't publish an ERD mainly because we reserve the right to change it, sometimes…
This month's edition of T-SQL Tuesday is being hosted by Tracy McKibben (T|B). I was challenged by Aaron Bertrand (T|B) to participate in this T-SQL Tuesday. I instantly knew what and who I wanted to write about, but my schedule being what it is prevented me from writing the blog entry until straight up at midnight. Since…
This month's T-SQL Tuesday event is hosted by RealSQLGuy, whose blog has the supremely appropriate tag line "Helping You To Become A SQL Hero." I was challenged by Aaron Bertrand (T|B) to participate in this T-SQL Tuesday, and quite frankly I said yes before thinking it through. Sadly, this isn't the first time I've done…
Not a week goes by that I don't run across either a comparison of server-side (file) and Profiler (rowset) trace performance, with rowset ending up with the short end of the stick; and/or someone who's afraid (or not allowed) to run traces against a production server because it will undoubtedly kill SQL Server performance.…
Today I want to take a minute to talk about gaps. Not the kind where you find trendy clothes for the young (and young at heart) folks, but the kind that you might see in a performance chart on the SQL Sentry Performance Advisor Dashboard. I've found myself explaining this to a few customers in recent months, and I wanted…
This month's T-SQL Tuesday is being hosted by Dev Nambi (@DevNambi), who I first met on SQLCruise a few years ago. For this installment, Dev wants us to write about assumptions that we encounter when working with SQL Server, and boy, do I come across a lot of those. Rather than pick just one, I thought I would lightly…
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