Optimize Azure SQL Performance
Quickly locate issues in your Azure database environment
Issues can pop up in your database environment at any time—let’s face it, none of us work in a static environment. With 24/7 Azure monitoring, SolarWinds® Database Performance Analyzer (DPA) is built to identify spikes in wait time behavior in a multi-dimensional way, making it easier to zero in on what’s causing the bottleneck and more easily understand where it’s coming from.
Powered by machine learning, DPA for Azure SQL is built to watch for anomalies in behavior patterns, allowing you to see a problem’s magnitude and receive an alert based on sensitivities you can define.
Analyze Azure SQL server performance for root causes
The Azure SQL database monitoring tool in DPA can help you find the biggest Azure SQL server performance issues in your environment—then easily drill into the analysis DPA provides to determine what’s causing the issues. Use correlated resource metrics for deeper insight into utilization issues.
The Azure SQL performance monitoring tool in DPA can offer detailed blocking and deadlock analysis to quantify the impact blocking has on end users and visualizes the blocking tree to see what sessions and queries were involved—allowing you to see what caused the issue and who the victims were. Query-level performance analysis brings available data into one view to help you answer, “Why is this query slow now?” and much more.
Use detailed data to optimize your databases
Finding and analyzing Azure SQL performance issues are often just the start. The ultimate goal of Azure SQL database monitoring is to use these performance insights to tune the database and reduce the effects of issues moving forward.
DPA is built to call attention to potential areas of improvement, pointing you in the right direction as you begin to optimize your databases. DPA can monitor real workloads to highlight queries going after more data than they need. DPA then aggregates the queries in a table, allowing you to see the best tuning and indexing opportunities at a holistic level. Often, simple changes have the biggest performance impacts, but you must know where to look.
Take advantage of table-tuning best practices
Following table-tuning best practices is an effective way to increase your Azure SQL server performance. But how do you know if your database tables are following best practices when you have many tables associated with your Azure SQL database?
You can more easily evaluate your tables and indexes against a set of SQL Server performance tuning best practices using DPA, including flagging and addressing common issues like foreign key not indexed, overlapping indexes, wide index, no defined indexes, or no primary key. DPA is also designed to help you quickly identify Azure SQL performance issues in urgent need of attention.
Correlate database performance with VM performance
Leverage the advanced and intuitive charting features in DPA to map performance issues to key virtual machine (VM) metrics and determine the impact of VM performance, including VMware vSphere performance, as it relates to your Azure SQL database. With this additional insight into Azure SQL service performance, you can resolve problems with database virtualization faster.
Get More on Azure SQL Database
How to monitor Azure SQL database DTU limits and costs
Given Microsoft Azure SQL database purchase models offer various service tiers based on Database Transaction Units (DTU), monitoring Azure SQL database DTU limits and costs should be one of your organization’s priorities.
SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is designed to monitor your DTU consumption, DTU utilization, and DTU limit, better allowing you to stay within your service tier’s Azure SQL database size limit. With an in-depth understanding of your Azure SQL database environment and your Azure SQL database size limit, you’ll be able to allocate your resources and budget more effectively and only pay for the service tier you need.
In addition to notifying when you’re approaching your tier’s Azure SQL database size limit, monitoring DTU limits and costs can offer you a comprehensive view of your SQL database environment during bottlenecks and slowdowns, providing invaluable data to help you get to the root of database performance issues. With an Azure SQL database monitoring tool, you can more easily see what percentage of available DTU your Azure SQL Database is consuming during day-to-day operations and whether you’re within your Azure SQL database size limit.
How to analyze Azure SQL performance metrics using DPA
With such a large and complex Azure environment, analyzing and monitoring Azure SQL database performance metrics can be challenging and time-consuming.
SolarWinds DPA is built to help make the process easier by offering detailed chart data and comprehensive reports, including commonly used wait-time metrics like average wait times for a single SQL statement or multiple SQL statements, a list of elements with the longest I/O wait times, and the time of day when an element experiences the longest wait times. Highly customizable, DPA can generate reports with specified time intervals and items, making Azure SQL performance monitoring easier than ever.
Performing Azure SQL performance monitoring and creating Azure SQL database reports with DPA is simple. Just click Reports in the DPA menu, select SQL Database, and pick your report type. Reports automatically include elements with high wait times, but you can also add up to 50 specific elements by selecting User-Defined, Add, and then using the search box. To specify the time and dates the report will include, click Dates to Display.
With the detailed database monitoring metrics DPA reports provide, you can effectively identify and communicate database performance baselines and trends, allowing you to quickly detect Azure SQL database performance anomalies.
To determine if your optimization efforts were successful, track performance tuning results with DPA. You can also easily share reports and analyses with colleagues and use utilization trends to improve your organization’s resource allocation.
How does Azure SQL Database performance monitoring work in DPA?
SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer (DPA) helps simplify Azure SQL performance monitoring by offering templates for monitoring various databases, including Azure SQL performance monitoring templates.
Using Azure SQL Server database performance and statistics counters starts with setting up a PowerShell module and connecting to Azure Portal using your login credentials. Once the DPA Microsoft Azure SQL monitoring template is configured, it’s built to continuously monitor a range of components that can include blocked, failed, and successful connections, deadlocks, database throughput units, database size, average CPU and IO utilization, and other Azure SQL performance metrics.
DPA offers default Azure SQL Database metrics, but you can also create custom metrics. If you have a virtual machine (VM) license and register for VM monitoring, DPA will also provide many valuable VM metrics, such as VM CPU Usage Percentage and VM Memory Swap-In Rate.
The Azure SQL performance monitoring template included in DPA is highly customizable. If the default metrics don’t suit your organization’s needs, you can adjust thresholds via the Resources tab and create custom metrics to gather more insightful information. You can pinpoint bottlenecks and other issues by using custom wait-time metrics or query-based metrics.
For query-based metrics, DPA generates a metric chart showing query execution time and value and the rate of change between queries. With flexible, query-based custom metrics, you can track everything from index fragmentation to the number of page splits to the number of buffer manager pages Azure SQL database reads per second.
As this DPA template monitors Azure SQL server performance, you’ll have access to both real-time and historical data, allowing you to immediately act and resolve critical Azure SQL performance issues. In addition to providing this detailed data, this Azure SQL database performance monitor uses machine learning to detect anomalies.
DPA also collects metrics related to license compliance, such as the number of connected users, sessions, and machines connected to the Azure SQL Database. You’ll know who has access to your database and when users experience database performance issues.
With SolarWinds Azure SQL performance monitoring tool, you can even automate alerts for critical Azure SQL performance issues by using convenient and customizable email templates.
With the help of the DPA Azure SQL performance monitoring template, you’ll gain an in-depth understanding of your Azure SQL database, including performance metrics and issues. Thanks to this comprehensive Azure SQL database monitoring tool, you can establish an Azure SQL database baseline, receive critical alerts, quickly identify and resolve performance issues, improve Azure PaaS and Azure IaaS application performance, and see whether you’re within your Azure SQL database size limit, so you can budget your time and money more effectively.
- How to monitor Azure SQL database DTU limits and costs
- How to analyze Azure SQL performance metrics using DPA
- How does Azure SQL Database performance monitoring work in DPA?
How to monitor Azure SQL database DTU limits and costs
Given Microsoft Azure SQL database purchase models offer various service tiers based on Database Transaction Units (DTU), monitoring Azure SQL database DTU limits and costs should be one of your organization’s priorities.
SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is designed to monitor your DTU consumption, DTU utilization, and DTU limit, better allowing you to stay within your service tier’s Azure SQL database size limit. With an in-depth understanding of your Azure SQL database environment and your Azure SQL database size limit, you’ll be able to allocate your resources and budget more effectively and only pay for the service tier you need.
In addition to notifying when you’re approaching your tier’s Azure SQL database size limit, monitoring DTU limits and costs can offer you a comprehensive view of your SQL database environment during bottlenecks and slowdowns, providing invaluable data to help you get to the root of database performance issues. With an Azure SQL database monitoring tool, you can more easily see what percentage of available DTU your Azure SQL Database is consuming during day-to-day operations and whether you’re within your Azure SQL database size limit.
Efficiently maximize Azure SQL database performance
Database Performance Analyzer
- Access query and table tuning advisors
- Continuously monitor active sessions
- Isolate the root cause of complex issues with multi-dimensional analysis
Starts at $1,275
Subscription and Perpetual Licensing options available