Sql server tips from the field

SQL Server Tips From The Field
Three Things IT Leaders Need to Know…
Web: www.sqlwatchmen.com
Email: Jim.Murphy@sqlwatchmen.com
Twitter: @SQLMurph
Jim Murphy
CEO
SQLWatchmen, LLC.

1. Database Performance and Speed Matter
2
[ ]

3
2. Backups and Disaster Recovery
Plans are not all created equal[ ]
[ ]

4
2. Backups and Disaster Recovery
Plans are not all created equal[
3. High Availability / Disaster Recovery (HA/DR) is a
set of tools used for Proactive Disaster Protection
]
[ ]
[ ]

Who is SQLWatchmen?
● DBA Services – tuning, disaster recovery
planning, maintenance
● SQL Programming - views, SPs, triggers
● Integration Services - SSIS for trying
systems together
● Reporting - SSRS for custom analytics to
fill business needs
5
● Local to Austin
● Can serve as Remote / Fractional DBAs
● SQL Server Specialists (We work alongside
general tech consulting firms)
● Compliance (HIPPA, SOX, SOC2)
How can we assist you?

Database Performance and Speed Matter
66

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1. Identifying the problem & why you should
care
Problem:
• The database is the foundation of the entire
application or corporate stack. If the database is
slow…

8
care
Problem:
slow…

9
care
Problem:
slow…
• … Customers frustrated. Hurts reputation
• … Employees frustrated. Hourglasses waste time

10
2. There are many reasons for databases to
get slower over time (i.e. bottlenecks)
Cause:
• Bottleneck is usually:
• CPU
• Memory
• Disk IO
• Network

11
3. Slow-downs happen when queries
are inefficient
●More users
●More data volume
●More complex queries

12
4. Which solution is faster & cheaper?
Solution:
A. Upgrade hardware and migrate.
B. Figure out which queries are the biggest resource
hogs and make adjustments.
That doesn’t sound
cheap!
So offending queries use
far fewer resources.

13
5. Performance Tuning gets to the root
cause of slowdowns
●Benefit = Lower Cost
●Benefit = Tuning is more effective at improving
speed & performance

14
● SQL Server processes query; makes Execution Plan
● Execution Plan cached; remembered next time
● Ad hoc (one-time, on-demand) queries can fill up the cache with lots of these (inefficient)
● Stored Procedures reuse pre-cached Execution Plans (more efficient)
6. Understanding how Queries are processed

15
Demo
Measuring results with Perfmon:
MSSQL:SQL Statistics -> Batch Requests/sec

Backups and Disaster
Recovery Plans are not
all created equal
16

17
care
●What’s the difference between a backup and a
disaster recovery plan?
●Backup Plan = Backups work
●Disaster Recovery Plan = Data recovered

18
2. There are lots of different technologies you
might consider using:
●VM Snapshots
●SAN Replication
●Volume Shadow Copy
●VEEAM
●SQL Dump Files – Microsoft recommended

19
3. Transaction Log explained
• Diary of data changes
• Diary won’t ‘clear’ (Truncate) and be reused until it is
backed up (if database in FULL mode)
• T-Log (.LDF file) will grow and grow until drive fills up
• DANGER! Full drive = corrupt database (and also bring it
offline)!

20
4. Transaction Log explained (continued)
• FULL backup hurts performance
• Saves off all data pages with valid data on it
• Locks tables and indexes to access up-to-date data
• T-Log backup DOES NOT hurt performance
• T-Log is circular in usage. Segments (VLF)
• T-Log backup backs up each VLF & “truncates” T-Log
• Doesn’t lock tables

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5. There are also 2 different recovery modes
to consider:
SIMPLE
• Only non-production
• Uses Transaction Log for current
transactions only.
• T-Log only grows if a long
transaction with lots of data
changes runs.
• No point-in-time recovery (can
only recover to most recent FULL
or Differential backup).
FULL
• Use for all Production databases.
• Keeps T-Log as diary for all data
changes until T-Log is backed up (and
also ‘replicated’ if an HA/DR
technology is configured).
• T-Log will grow until drive is filled if
not backed up.
• Can perform point-in-time recovery
(restore to an exact millisecond
before a disaster so no data is lost).

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6. An example of Point in Time Recovery
Image Source: https://sqlbak.com/blog/sql-server-backup-and-restore/

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PRO TIP
If T-Log backup is getting too big,
and you can’t backup or shrink
- Switch your Recovery Mode to Simple*[ ]

High Availability / Disaster Recovery (HA/DR)
is a set of procedures and methods used
for proactive disaster protection
25

26
care
Reasons why you might want to consider HA/DR
for your company
●What does High Availability mean?
●What is Disaster Recovery in this context?
●What is AlwaysOn?
●What are Availability Groups?

27
2. Solutions involve removing the single
point of failure
●Clustering - redundant hardware
●RAID - redundant individual disks
●“Replication” - redundant databases
○ What are the limitations?

28
3. Problems that arise with “Replication”
methods
Transactional
Replication
MirroringLog Shipping
• No automatic failover.
• Secondary DB is not
really Online*.
• Single DB solution.
• Secondary offline
while restoring T-Logs.
• Secondary database is
not Online.
• Single Mirror/ Secondary
only.
• SNAC/Failover Partner
in connection string.
What will AlwaysOn Solve?
• No automatic failover.
• Major headache.
o Higher
administration.
o Republish articles,
etc.
o Complicated
troubleshooting

29
4. AlwaysOn Solves World Hunger!
…and peace on earth and goodwill toward men.
● Automatic Failover
● Multiple Replicas (secondaries) – and readable!
● “Replication” - redundant databases
○ Offload Backups, Reporting, etc.
● Availability Groups - assists with using multiple DBs
● Lower administrative costs
● Plus more!

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5. There are a few requirements to consider
●Enterprise Edition
●AD for WSFC
●Nodes must be in the same domain

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6. HA, DR, or Both?
● Synchronous
● Asynchronous
Sync Async
Legend

32
7. Listener (Virtual
Network Name)
Node 1 Node 2
DENALI02 DENALI03
VNN
Node 1 Node 2

What’s New in SQL Server 2016?

35
What’s new in 2016?
• Columnstore indexes for big data
○ 30x in-memory OLTP speed
○ 100x in-memory Columnstore speed
• Query Store – better diagnostics for a DBA
• Stretch databases (Auto-archiving)
• Always Encrypted (at rest, in motion, cloud)
• Temporal DB – track historical changes
• Row-level security.
• …and a lot more.

SQL Server is beautiful…
but it can be a beast[ ]
36

You don’t need new hardware
- Tune for Performance[ ]
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Keep your backups secure.
Disaster recovery methods
should be tested!
[ ]
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Next Steps
● For another slide deck that delves deeper on SQL backups -
visit http://www.sqlwatchmen.com/contact-us
● To check out if a Database Diagnostic Exam is right for you -
visit http://www.sqlwatchmen.com/services/database-
diagnostic-analysis
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Treated properly, MS SQL Server can
contribute a solid foundation to the
efforts of your business ][
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Let us help you,
Protect Your Data ][
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SQL Server Tips From The Field
Three Things IT Leaders Need to Know…
Web: www.sqlwatchmen.com
Email: Jim.Murphy@sqlwatchmen.com
Twitter: @SQLMurph
Jim Murphy
CEO
SQLWatchmen, LLC.
http://www.sqlwatchmen.com/services/database-diagnostic-analysis

Sql server tips from the field

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