MICROSOFT SQL Server
- 1. Health Check for MICROSOFT SQL Server The Health Check for Microsoft SQL Server is a carefully crafted program designed to review the efficiency as well as effectiveness Ideal System Performance of a Microsoft SQL Server-based database management system. To achieve the optimal performance The efficiency of the system is evaluated by determining the for a given system one must ensure the extent to which the Microsoft SQL Server products have been optimal performance of each compo- utilized; essentially, is the system “firing on all cylinders”? nent of the system. The components addressed in this performance analysis are: The efficiency of a system takes into consideration issues such as: • Hardware utilization including CPU, I/O bottlenecks, and memory • Is the database and operating system properly tuned? • Operating System and storage • Are there sufficient hardware resources for the various applications? configuration • Have schemas been normalized or denormalized where appropriate? • SQL Server Database Server • Have the proper indexes been created? installation and configuration • Are critical administrative utilities run regularly? • Client Communications • Does the staff have the requisite skills needed to maintain an efficient system? • Application Implementation • Operations and Maintenance In a complex computing environment, the extent to which these and including backup, recovery, other issues are addressed will affect the overall efficiency and consistency checks and others. effectiveness of the systems in place. The SQL Server Health Check addresses these issues of efficiency and effectiveness by having Each of these components is critically a skilled SQL Server engineer assess your SQL Server-based important to the optimal performance computing environment over a one to five day period. of the overall system. What We Do The following are some of the issues related to each system component. Assess the performance, stability and availability of your Microsoft SQL Server-based systems Hardware Resources: What You Get Documented recommendations The server hosting yourMicrosoft SQL Server database relies primarily on three hardware relating to performance, stability subsystems for efficient performance – CPU, Memory, and I/O. and availability of your database system and also, if desired, the Xtivia expertise to apply them A well-architected system will show optimal CPU utilization without queues. A fully utilized CPU is ideal, but an additional check for the number of processes waiting for the What You Save CPU is required. Time, money and headaches What You Achieve The I/O subsystem of the server hosting your MS SQL system is critical to the performance Increased performance, of the database and applications. Ideally, the disks in the system will be responding to maximized availability, boosted requests in less than 50 milliseconds, and there will be no queues forming on those disks. productivity and peace of mind Additionally, for large decision support queries, the controllers will be analyzed for bottle- necks and limitations. If RAID is being used on-site, this will be analyzed for its effect on the database and applications. I/O configuration is the most flexible of the resources, since Xtivia’s team of Microsoft SQL the database and system administrators can easily work together to balance the I/O load server Specialists have helped across all available resources. clients of all sizes that were faced with finding qualified resources in the areas of database administra- A large server may contain several gigabytes of main memory. The use of that memory has tion, management, performance to be carefully allocated among the critical functions of the server – applications, database, tuning, development and mainte- nance services. Xtivia has been and operating system. The goal is to have ample free memory to meet the peak demands successfully providing Database of the workload, while maintaining good cache hit rates in the database and avoiding Consulting and it’s Virtual-DBA process swapping. Remote DBA Services to clients of all sizes for several years. www.Xtivia.com info@xtivia.com Xtivia, Inc. © 2008
- 2. Operating System: The operating system is the least likely place to find performance issues; however, Microsoft Windows Server does have a number of memory configuration options. These will be analyzed and addressed. SQL Server There are numerous items that relate to database performance. However, key elements of Database Server: this score will reflect the use of indexes, table fragmentation and I/O balance, optimizer statistics, parameter settings, transaction logging, database layout, session activity, cache utilizations, and others. These areas will be investigated extensively based on the overall behavior of the database and application. Each component of the analysis will be detailed in the report that is delivered at the completion of the service. Client There are several optimizations available for client PCs connecting to your MS SQL Server. Communications: These will be evaluated for appropriateness in the environment. Additionally, if clients are connecting to SQL Server with older versions of software, there is tremendous opportunity for performance improvements through client library upgrades. Application Database applications can often be enhanced through techniques that have been intro- Implementation: duced since the application was originally designed. A discussion with the application developers will aid the DBA in making recommendations for improving the application. While the above analysis strives to leverage hardware and software to its fullest potential, this area of the assessment strives to provide operational stability to the environment. Looking at batch jobs, backup and recovery strategies, logging strate- gies, upgrade strategies, and test platform capability will enable the DBA to provide recommendations for improving up time of the environment. During the Performance Analysis, clients will provide access to pertinent systems and key personnel to ensure a thorough and productive assessment. Key individuals within the environment will be the DBA, the System Administrator, the Application Team Leader, and others identified as subject matter experts. For more information on how Xtivia can help your organization better manage its IT services, please contact an office near you or visit our web site at www.Xtivia.com. New York New Jersey Texas Colorado 888-685-3101 option 2 www.Virtual-DBA.com www.Xtivia.com info@xtivia.com Xtivia, Inc. © 2008