How to Optimize SQL Server Performance by Separating Workloads

How to Optimize SQL Server Performance by Separating Workloads

I wrote this to share a series of scripts that help identify if workloads are appropriately separated on the SQL Server host. The main reason we look for this is to avoid I/O contention and waits, which is a challenge that can significantly impact performance. If you are unsure if your server is experiencing I/O … Read more

The Curious Case of THREADPOOL Waits

investigating sql server threadpool waits

Featured image photo by alexey turenkov on Unsplash A client reached out for help with a performance problem that had been going on for over a day. The application was performing so slowly that it was nearly an outage to their users. I love working on production emergencies where there’s a severe performance problem. I … Read more

Parameter Sniffing – Alerting in SQL Server Using Automatic Tuning

sql server parameter sniffing

IMPORTANT NOTE: This requires SQL Server 2017 or newer, Query Store and Enterprise/Developer edition. In SQL Server 2016, we were given the Query Store feature, and all the perf tuners rejoiced. Finally we had a great tool to help us with SQL Server parameter sniffing issues. These days, any time I work on a parameter … Read more

VMware and SQL Server Best Practices.

I wish you knew a few things about VMware and SQL Server best practices. If you’ve ever asked yourself “Why does my storage seem slower on my SQL Server VMs?!”, this post may help. We love VMware in our SQL Server consulting practice. But there are some things you should know and do first. These … Read more

Are Power Saving Settings Killing Your SQL Server Performance? [Quick Tip]

At Straight Path Solutions, we love performing SQL Server Health Assessments. These are our exams that dig quickly into the root of your SQL Server instance and find problems that you are currently suffering from. Then we give you an action plan to stop suffering from them today. Rather than just performing the checks and finding the … Read more

Check SQL Server Configuration – Free Script

free dba tool of the week

I do a lot of SQL Server Health Assessments on SQL Server environments. I’m always checking  sys.configurations to look for problematic instance level configuration settings. I almost always find configurations worth changing. But the approach I’ve always used is a bit manual and I wanted to fix it.  So I finally wrote a script to … Read more