Continuing with our Performance Tuning series as you have learned baselining and knowing your normal system performance metrics is an important part of performance tuning. In part 1 we discussed collecting vital system metrics such as CPU Utilization and Memory usage. In part 2 we took a glimpse into how we can gather those metrics and other using the different tools that are available to use like Performance Monitor, Profiler, Extended Events and DMVs. In this part 3 we will look at how identifying the appropriate waits events and corresponding resolution will be critical for resolving performance issues. But first you need to understand what waits are and where to find the information needed to identify waits in your system.
When a thread is being executed and is forced to wait on something this is called queueing. The thread waits for system resources, lining up in a first come first served fashion waiting for things like a CPU scheduler. The time waiting between actively running and suspended (waiting) states is the measurable wait event that SQL Server keeps track of via using. internal metrics. The database engine tracks why executed waits must wait and how long they are queuing for resource threads. These are commonly called wait statistics. These metrics are easily discernible using the dynamic management view (DMV) sys.dm_os_wait_stats (or in Azure SQL Database sys.dm_db_wait_stats). This information is important to understanding what baseline performance of your database and can help you identify specific performance issues both with query execution and hardware limitations. Data gained from this view can be aggregated and tracked to provide a clearer picture on what might be causing the executed thread to wait. Knowing the top waits that occur in your environment is a key task for all DBAs. Below you will learn common actionable waits as well as those that are benign and occur normally as part of SQL Servers thread queueing process.
Check out the full part 3 article on the Idera Community Site.
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