There’s just so much to do to get your systems to run in an optimal fashion, but where do you start. This session will walk you through an extensive checklist of things you can do to better manage your servers, databases and code. We’ll start with server configurations and what you can do with them. We’ll then move through standard administrative tasks that will help with performance. Then it’s off to the intricacies of database design and how that can affect performance. We’ll finish up with T-SQL and where it can hurt or help your systems. Get your own systems to run faster with the information you’ll receive.

1. Grant Fritchey | www.ScaryDBA.com
www.ScaryDBA.com
SQL Server Optimization
Checklist
Grant Fritchey
Product Evangelist
Red Gate Software

2. Grant Fritchey | www.ScaryDBA.com
Agenda
 Server Configuration
 SQL Server Administration
 Database Design
 TSQL Coding
2

3. Grant Fritchey | www.ScaryDBA.com
Get it Touch
3
scarydba.com
grant@scarydba.com
@gfritchey

4. Grant Fritchey | www.ScaryDBA.com
Test
Test
Test
Test
Test
4

5. Grant Fritchey | www.ScaryDBA.com
Remember
 This is focused on performance tuning
5

6. Grant Fritchey | www.ScaryDBA.com
Remember
 This is focused on performance tuning
6
There are always exceptions

7. Grant Fritchey | www.ScaryDBA.com
Remember
 This is focused on performance tuning
 There are always exceptions
7
Your hardware may be DIFFERENT

8. Grant Fritchey | www.ScaryDBA.com
Remember
 This is focused on performance tuning
 There are always exceptions
 Your hardware may be different
8
Did I mention test?

9. Grant Fritchey | www.ScaryDBA.com
Remember
 This is focused on performance tuning
 There are always exceptions
 Your hardware may be different
 Did I mention test?
9
In
cre
men
tal changes

10. Grant Fritchey | www.ScaryDBA.com
Remember
 This is focused on performance tuning
 There are always exceptions
 Your hardware may be different
 Did I mention test?
 Incremental changes
10
onitoryour servers

11. Grant Fritchey | www.ScaryDBA.com
Remember
 This is focused on performance tuning
 There are always exceptions
 Your hardware may be different
 Did I mention test?
 Incremental changes
 Monitor your servers
11
I am NOT a systems expert

12. Grant Fritchey | www.ScaryDBA.com
Remember
 This is focused on performance tuning
 There are always exceptions
 Your hardware may be different
 Did I mention test?
 Incremental changes
 Monitor your servers
 I am not a systems expert
12
You might want toTEST

13. Grant Fritchey | www.ScaryDBA.com
Remember
 This is focused on performance tuning
 There are always exceptions
 Your hardware may be different
 Did I mention test?
 Incremental changes
 Monitor your servers
 I am not a systems expert
 You might want to test
13

14. Grant Fritchey | www.ScaryDBA.com
Server Configuration
14
Memory CPU Disks

15. Grant Fritchey | www.ScaryDBA.com
SQL Server Configuration:
Memory
 >4g enable AWE
» On 2008R2 or less
» On 32-bit systems
 Dynamic
» but set a minimum and a maximum value
 Optimize for Ad HocWorkloads
» Enable on all servers
15

16. Grant Fritchey | www.ScaryDBA.com
SQL Server Configuration:
CPU
 CostThreshold for parallelism
» 5, the default, is too low
» OLTP = 40
» Reporting = 25
 Max Degree of Parallelism
» Leave it on, after you change the cost threshold
 Consider using Query Governor
» Set a cost limit
16

17. Grant Fritchey | www.ScaryDBA.com
SQL Server Configuration:
Storage
 TEMPDB
» Separate from other data when possible
» Multiple Files
— Not equal to #of processors
— Equal sized files
 Compression
» Minimum, index compression
 More disks is better
» But only if you have more controllers
 Spend money
» Buy faster disks
17

18. Grant Fritchey | www.ScaryDBA.com
SQL Server
Administration
 Maintain Statistics
» Enable AUTO_CREATE & AUTO_UPDATE
» You must also plan for manual updates
» You may need FULL SCAN
» Consider ASYNC
 Defragment your indexes
» Number of pages does matter
» You can defrag below 1000 pages
» You can’t defrag below 8 pages
» Separate defrag & statistics updates
18

19. Grant Fritchey | www.ScaryDBA.com
SQL Server
Administration 2
 Avoid dangerous settings
» Disable AUTO_CLOSE
» Disable AUTO_SHRINK
 Do not use the Profiler GUI on production systems
» Create a server-side trace usingTSQL scripts
(prior to 2008)
» Use extended events
— Consider for 2008 or better
— Absolutely for 2012 or better
 Set Blocked ProcessThreshold
» Based on your system
19

20. Grant Fritchey | www.ScaryDBA.com
Database Design
 Storage
 Constraints
 Indexes
20

21. Grant Fritchey | www.ScaryDBA.com
Database Design: Storage
 Separate Log & Data
 Multiple File Groups
» Even on a single drive
 Turn off auto-grow
» If not possible, used fixed growth, not percentage
 Consider In-Memory
» 2014 only
» I/O Latch waits
21

22. Grant Fritchey | www.ScaryDBA.com
Database Design:
Constraints
 Normalize your Data
» Normalization benefits performance
 Enforce Constraints
» Foreign keys
» Primary keys
» Unique values
22

23. Grant Fritchey | www.ScaryDBA.com
Database Design: Indexes -
General
 Narrow
» As narrow as possible
 Integers
» Believe it or not, they’re better
 Choose leading edge carefully
» Most selective column
 Covering Indexes are fastest
» Use INCLUDE
23

24. Grant Fritchey | www.ScaryDBA.com
Database Design: Indexes -
Clustered
 Again, Narrow
» As narrow as possible
 Design around the clustered index
» Most frequent used path to data
 Rebuilding clustered index
» Use DROP_EXISTING
 Avoid columns that get updated frequently
» This means all non-clustered indexes are updated
too
24

25. Grant Fritchey | www.ScaryDBA.com
TSQL Coding
 Return only the data you need, when you need it
 Use stored procedures or parameterized queries
» Encourages plan reuse
» Prevents SQL Injection
 Avoid cursors,WHILE, LOOP
» Row By Agonizing Row style processing
 Qualify all object names
» Reduces lookup costs
 Avoid using ‘sp_*’ for procedure names
» Eliminates additional read to the master database
25

26. Grant Fritchey | www.ScaryDBA.com
TSQL Coding 2
 Avoid nonsargeable conditions
» Meaning functions on columns
» Or, using LIKE ‘%Anything’
 Use SET NOCOUNT ON
» Reduces returns on network
 Do not nest views
» Or join them. It confuses the optimizer
 Don’t use optimizer hints
» More often than not it causes problems
» Especially NOLOCK
26

27. Grant Fritchey | www.ScaryDBA.com
TSQL Coding 3
 Avoid Recompiling Execution Plans
» Stored procedures & parameterized queries
» Table variables instead of temp tables
» ANSI standards on connection settings
— And Don’t change them within a query
» Don’t interleave DDL & DML
 Adopt best practices for transactions
» Keep scope as short as possible
» Use SET XACT_ABORT
» Consider using READ COMMITTED SNAPSHOT
27

28. Grant Fritchey | www.ScaryDBA.com
Relax
 It’s not that bad
 Most things can be changed
 Help is available
 Test everything
28

29. Grant Fritchey | www.ScaryDBA.com
Questions?
29