A SQL Server Performance Tuning Framework

SQL Server Performance tuning is usually not a planned activity. Often, performance problems will happen at the worst times and this prompts an “emergency” performance tuning effort by the DBA. During the emergency intervention, any of the following changes could be applied on the server. Manually creating or dropping indexes Creating indexes and statistics via… Continue reading A SQL Server Performance Tuning Framework

The importance of taking a regular SQL Server Baseline

Are your databases performing faster or slower than one month ago? Stop guessing and take a SQL Server baseline! If you are planning a major code release, migrating to a new server, or upgrading your hardware, then you should take a baseline before and after your change so you can assess the impact on database… Continue reading The importance of taking a regular SQL Server Baseline

Upwork / Fiverr and Database Performance

We are frequently called by customers to fix applications performance problems with our SQL Server Performance Tuning service. When talking to these customer I often find out that they’ve had their development work done via Upwork or Fiverr. It seems that fast application performance is rarely a requirement when people get their software built on… Continue reading Upwork / Fiverr and Database Performance

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Categorized as General

Prepare for a SQL Server to Azure or EC2 migration

When you run SQL Server on an Azure virtual machine or an Amazon EC2 instances there are certain weaknesses on these platforms that could cause unstable or poor performance in your databases. To arm yourself against this it is important to collect some information from your on-premises SQL Server before you migrate. This information will… Continue reading Prepare for a SQL Server to Azure or EC2 migration

Comparing SQL Server Performance Baselines

Taking a baseline of your SQL Server and comparing performance over time is an important part of proper SQL Server management. By regularly comparing baselines you can identify trends, anticipate when bottlenecks are likely to occur, and quickly find the root cause of performance bottlenecks. Here are some questions that can be answered by taking… Continue reading Comparing SQL Server Performance Baselines

Azure VM SQL Server Disk Configuration

Azure VM SQL Server Disk Configuration Proper disk configuration is one of the most important determining factors of SQL Server performance. When running SQL Server on Windows Azure VMs this is even more important because Windows Azure VMs run on shared infrastructure where performance can vary. The following are some guidelines to follow when setting… Continue reading Azure VM SQL Server Disk Configuration

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Categorized as Azure

Chatty application performance on an Azure VM

A three tier application running on Azure VMs We were recently contacted by a customer because they had moved their application to a test environment on Azure and performance had become unacceptable. The application consisted of a three tier architecture: an HTTP layer, a middle tier of J2EE applications running on JBoss and the SQL… Continue reading Chatty application performance on an Azure VM