Database professionals agree – SQL Server performance tuning is hard. And on top of that, it never stops because complex database environments are always changing with upgrades, application updates and queries. It often feels like as soon as you get one query optimized, there’s another one right behind it that’s eating CPU time or clogging memory or otherwise slowing down the entire database. Then, add to that, the instances when the latest SQL Server version itself has made performance worse instead of making it better as promised.
As with many daunting tasks, often the toughest part of performance tuning in SQL Server is knowing where to start. So, we asked several SQL Server experts to share their advice on what to look for when the database is performing slowly. During Quest’s Database Training Days webcast series, we invited Pinal Dave, SQL Server Performance Tuning Expert, Janis Griffin, Oracle ACE Director and Brent Ozar, Microsoft Certified Master to host hands-on training sessions where they identified quick wins, common performance inhibitors and the best places to begin and focus your efforts when tuning SQL Server. We’ve compiled their top tips to help guide you in your performance tuning efforts.