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 New Guy Would Like Direction

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viperbyte
Posting Yak Master

132 Posts

Posted - 2012-11-30 : 09:18:09
Good morning everyone. I just got my first DBA position ever. I'm so excited. I hope you can help my first day(s) be professional, and correctly spent. The reason a DBA was brought in, is to solve a slow application response problem that is being blamed on the MSSQL Server. Can I please be given direction on how to approach this task and how to go about my interaction with my bosses to relay my findings? I don't want to blow it and want to give a good impression and to continue to strongly campaign that I was the correct choice for the position in the early going until I'm accepted. Please help me.

sodeep
Master Smack Fu Yak Hacker

7174 Posts

Posted - 2012-11-30 : 10:33:14
Well that is a broad question

1) Figure out which application is running and what are the queries behind it. generate a trace of it.Try to see if it can be performance tuned. check Execution plan,indexes.

2) Check performance counters to see if you have enough memory,CPU,IO to support the applications.

There are lots of articles on SQLteam regarding this. Please search for it. You will need to study a lot regarding before performing any action since you are new in the field.

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robvolk
Most Valuable Yak

15732 Posts

Posted - 2012-11-30 : 11:44:51
Congratulations on getting the job! +100 on Sodeep's suggestions, but I think you can do other things before digging into Profiler.

I recommended performing wait stat analysis in this thread: http://www.sqlteam.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=181027

Using Glenn Berry's DMV queries: http://sqlserverperformance.wordpress.com/2010/05/02/recap-of-april-2010-dmv-a-day-series/

It's a good idea to get familiar with Glenn's queries, as he also updates them regularly and adds new ones, check the rest of his blog for them. You should also read the links on wait stats in the thread I posted above (links to Paul Randal's blog). The key thing is to eliminate specific factors (like disk, CPU, memory, etc.) based on their wait stats and then focus on the remaining areas.

Be careful with what you capture in Profiler, I recommend using the Duration or Tuning template first, don't just grab events at random. You'd need to capture at least 24 hours of trace activity and analyze it (use the time to study/learn about performance). Cleartrace is a great utility to analyze traces: http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/billg/archive/2012/06/12/cleartrace-for-sql-server-2012.aspx

If you plan on using Cleartrace make sure your trace captures TextData, Duration, CPU, reads and writes columns. The last 3 items are not standard in the templates I listed, but can easily be added.

I'd also suggest revisiting some of the things I mentioned in your earlier post: http://www.sqlteam.com/forums/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=181012 You may find that the database performs very well, i.e. low duration, but the application is still slow.

Here's a good guide if you're fairly new to being a DBA: http://www.simple-talk.com/books/book-reviews/book-review-troubleshooting-sql-server-a-guide-for-the-accidental-dba-by-jonathan-kehayias-and-ted-kreuger/ The PDF is free and there's a link on that page to buy the book. They cover much of what I've mentioned in more detail, and if their advice differs from mine, follow theirs.
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viperbyte
Posting Yak Master

132 Posts

Posted - 2012-11-30 : 12:22:53
Thanks guys. I really appreciate the help. I will definitly pay attention to everything that was suggested. Once again, super thanks!
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