Here are four key areas where improved monitoring means better network performance and less stress for you and your users. Firefighting mode is a familiar state of existence for DBAs. You configure your alerts and alarms as best you can, then come in in the morning (or get up in the middle of the night) to stamp out those fires. But which are really the hottest? Which can burn a little longer while others get immediate attention? Some DBAs just work down the list, addressing issues in order of occurrence, but this can be a mistake when better solutions are available. Correctly assessing and prioritizing your firefighting activities depends on not only instantaneity and granularity, but a quick and durable method or tool for prioritization.

1. Clarity from
Chaos:
Better SQL Server
Performance
Monitoring
SQL Server DBA Professionals
Global Marketing

2. Firefighting
mode is a
familiar state
of existence
for DBAs
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3. Firefighting
While the initial blaze may be a rush
of adrenaline, aren’t you tired of
sweating? Isn’t your extinguisher
running low?
You configure your alerts and alarms
as best you can, then come in in the
morning (or get up in the middle of
the night) to stamp out those fires.
• But which are really the hottest?
• Which can burn a little longer
while others get immediate
attention?
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4. Firefighting
• Some DBAs just work down the
list – addressing issues in order
of occurrence
• This can be a mistake when
better solutions are available.
• Here are four key areas where improved monitoring means better
network performance and less stress for you and your users:
– Monitoring
– System Health Checks
– Performance Health: Insight into Individual Instances
– Expensive Queries
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5. Monitoring
• Fortunately, SQL Server
performance monitors are
making this easier for you all
the time.
• Rather than streaming columns
of text that have to be read and
analyzed, real-time graphic
representations of system
health and performance help
you spend your problem
remediation time effectively.
– Heatmap views
– Alarms list
– Graphical Representations
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6. System Health
Checks
• Being able to more effectively
firefight is one thing.
• But DBAs also want to see
what underlying issues may
be causing them problems
tomorrow.
• Health checks are now
available to help you pinpoint
and address issues in your
infrastructure along five
categories
– Security
– Disaster Recovery
– Index Optimization
– Memory
– SQL Best Practice
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7. Performance
Health
• Gaining insight and real-time
analysis of an individual SQL
Server instance — including
data such as system waits and
I/O latency — is the
foundation for seeing how
your performance is trending
over time.
• This is valuable in establishing
performance benchmarks for
your environment.
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8. Expensive
Queries
• Expensive SQL queries that
tie up resources are
something you want to
know about.
• New-breed performance
monitors give you
clear, comprehensive, and
immediately actionable
information such as trend
charts and execution plans.
• Comparing SQL queries
shows whether a change in
query plan has a positive or
negative effect.
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9. It’s all about
clarity from
chaos…and
we are here
to help.
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10. You can now monitor your server connections
within SQL Server Management Studio using the
new SpotlightTM Essentials Plug-in.
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11. The SpotlightTM Health Check provides a
prioritized list of key system health issues
enabling you to pinpoint and address these
issues within your SQL Server infrastructure.
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12. Learn More
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