SQL Server Query Optimization
Starts at $1,275
Get a QuoteIdentify which SQL query to focus on optimizing with the help of response time analysis
SolarWinds® Database Performance Analyzer (DPA) is built to provide you with the fastest way to analyze SQL statements, identify the root cause of performance problems, show trends, and establish baselines for key performance metrics. With DPA and its 24/7 database monitoring, SQL query optimization is faster, easier, and more likely to be done right than if you try to do it on your own.
DPA’s insights on response time and wait time can help you quickly identify the problematic SQL queries and index recommendations to help you solve them. Response and wait time are some of the most useful metrics to use to gain insights on SQL query performance. DPA collates the data of all SQL statements and helps rank them based on response time. This data is then displayed through easy-to-read bar graphs in the DPA Query Performance Analyzer’s Query Details page. When you go on this page, the Top Waits chart is prominently displayed at the top, showing the query’s execution time for the time period you select. This bar graph is color-coded by type of wait with the option to see more detailed information, as well as possible resolutions, for each type of wait. This can help developers and database administrators (DBAs) identify which SQL query to focus on to optimize SQL database performance.
Monitor development, test, and production servers to solve SQL query issues before deployment
Far too often, SQL query code is not tested until late in the development and production process. Most of the time, application performance is put off until the deployment phase. This means developers won’t see how code is performing until it’s in use. If issues with performance are discovered then, the process of solving them and the delay in producing functional code can become a hassle and even a security risk.
With the SolarWinds SQL Query Analyzer solution in DPA, you can monitor development, test, and production servers with less than a 1% load, so you can begin your query optimization in SQL Server before deployment. This tool also lets you safely monitor SQL code performance in production. Using the DPA dashboard, developers can drill down into a production database to learn how code is performing and can begin working to resolve issues and test new code before it’s expected to be put into use. By incorporating application performance into development cycles, developers can better improve SQL performance.
Get all the information you need in easy-to-understand bar charts
DPA’s Query Performance Analyzer presents all the information you need about key performance indicators through easy-to-understand bar charts and associated alerts. Having easy access to this information can enable DBAs and application teams to reduce downtime, effectively optimize resources, and quickly identify which SQL query to focus on.
With DPA’s SQL Query Analyzer, you can get a unified view of database performance to help you isolate the root cause of a SQL performance issue typically in just a few clicks. With DPA’s straightforward, unified dashboard, you can monitor SQL Server, Oracle, DB2, MariaDB, Aurora, MySQL, Azure SQL, and SAP ASE from a single view. You can also monitor VMware with less than a 1% load.
With DPA, you can use a single pane of glass to see the direct correlation between system resources, helping simplify your SQL query optimization. With the SolarWinds DPA dashboard, you get an overview of all monitored instances and statuses for a full performance picture of your databases. You can also optimize SQL queries across those top RDBMS engines from the same single view using the SQL Query Analyzer.
Collect query plans in real time, so you can analyze them as needed
Query execution plans, also called query plans, tell you how an SQL query will be—or already was—executed. Since the automatically produced execution plans aren’t always optimal, it’s important to be able to look back at cached execution plans to determine if they need to be altered to optimize the SQL database.
SolarWinds DPA collects execution plans in real-time and links them with SQL statements, wait types, and other performance data. The data’s history is then stored by DPA, so you can watch for and get alerted on any changes to the plan that may have resulted in performance degradation. This data storage also means you can revisit the plan when needed to find exactly which execution plan was used.
DPA displays the plan graphically, with pop-up dialogs when scrolling over specific steps. It also displays compilations and recompilations per second, which lets you see if executions are being reused. In addition to the important metrics DPA collects and displays, these clear visuals can help you pinpoint the reasons behind SQL query performance degradation.
Optimize memory usage and tune insufficient SQL queries to improve performance
With DPA, you can gain insights into your memory usage and stress to better address the factors contributing to your query performance. By helping you understand your memory usage, DPA helps ensure you direct your SQL query optimization efforts toward the correct causes of performance issues.
DPA can also run table tuning analysis at the end of each day, leveraging both historical trends and current data to generate tuning advice. By catching both minor and widespread performance issues, and providing detailed, ranked input from tuning advisors, the Query Performance Analyzer in DPA is designed to help you better prioritize which issues need immediate attention and which are less pressing. This way you can streamline SQL query optimization, saving you both time and money and improving overall SQL query performance.
In addition to helping you optimize your SQL queries, DPA is built to help improve the server engine’s memory usage by reducing the number of single-use query plans stored in the memory. Single-use plans are statement plans stored in SQL server memory but are only used once. DPA enhances the server’s ability to search for and locate existing SQL statement plans instead of creating new ones.
Get More on SQL Query Optimization
What is SQL query optimization?
SQL query optimization is an integral element of successful database maintenance. Through proactive SQL query optimization, developers can reduce bottlenecks and achieve recognizable performance improvements. However, for these optimization efforts to be successful, developers need a lot of information to make sure they’re targeting the right root causes of their database performance issues. Otherwise, they might waste time optimizing bad or expensive queries.
Wondering how to check query performance in SQL Server? Some of the performance metrics admins may need for SQL optimization include:
- Execution
- Query duration
- CPU time
- Logical and physical reads
Gathering all this information, in addition to establishing baselines and maintaining historical data, is critical to achieving effective SQL query optimization. However, manual SQL query optimization is often time-consuming and can easily be overlooked for more urgent tasks with the result that people may try to optimize queries without doing all the necessary work. This can lead to expensive and unnecessary hardware upgrades and fail to solve the original problem.
To make sure you don’t waste time or money, you need to use a tool capable of gathering the information needed for SQL query optimization in SQL Server. With the actionable insights provided by SQL query tools, you can rest easy knowing you’re performing your optimization correctly.
Why is SQL query performance tuning important?
One of the biggest mistakes people make with SQL query optimization is thinking the way to fix SQL query performance is by buying all the latest hardware upgrades—without considering if the problem really is the hardware or understanding exactly which hardware is to blame. This results in wasting money on costly upgrades without doing anything to solve the SQL query issues.
The solution to this problem lies in SQL query performance tuning. With quality tuning, you can analyze and optimize existing hardware resources before investing in costly upgrades. The best way to ensure you make the best hardware recommendations is with the aid of a tuning advisor tool.
The tuning advisor tools in SolarWinds DPA are designed to help align resource provisioning with database performance, which can give you the kind of information needed to be more definitive about hardware recommendations and help you see (down to the physical host layer) how hardware affects performance.
How do I make a SQL query run faster?
Memory usage has a significant and direct effect on how quickly queries are executed. DBAs will often try to add more memory to accelerate SQL Server performance without addressing the real issue—poorly written queries. Badly written queries can consume available memory far too quickly, resulting in a shortage.
Factors with an influence on memory usage and cause query performance issues include:
- Page life expectancy (PLE)
- O/S memory usage
- Plan cache size
- Memory paging rate
- Buffer cache size
- Buffer cache hit ratio
- Procedure cache hit ratio
- Log bytes per second
- Log flushes per second
- SQL compilations
PLE is a particularly important measure for understanding memory stress. If you experience drops in PLE, pages are being dropped. That’s bad for your memory stress because if pages are dropped, they’re not staying in the memory or being reused.
How does SQL query optimization work in DPA?
DPA is designed to help with SQL query optimization by letting you quickly drill down to find the root causes behind an unexpected or significant increase in wait time for a SQL statement. Its database anomaly detection algorithm is built to use normal historical data to identify unexpected wait time increases. You can then view changes over time using a trend chart to help pinpoint what might have caused the increase.
DPA query performance analyzer can also help optimize SQL database maintenance results by correlating execution delays for queries with the impact on end users to help you better prioritize your actions. The Query Performance Analyzer in DPA is built to assemble the most relevant data about a SQL query and clearly display it in the Query Details page. In addition to the Top Waits chart and the Tuning tab, the Query Details page includes intelligently assembled charts to help you investigate and solve performance issues. The Query Performance Analyzer uses key information, such as the predominant wait type, to automatically add the most relevant charts to the Query Details page. You can also manually add other charts as needed.
With the Query Details page, it’s easy to figure out how to check database performance in SQL Server. By offering clear, comparative visualizations, the Query Performance Analyzer simplifies the process of finding and understanding query issues. Since the Top Waits chart stays at the top as you scroll through other charts, it’s also designed to be easier to correlate related metrics for a given period.
The SQL query optimization and other monitoring features in SolarWinds DPA are designed to help you better identify bottlenecks, pinpoint root causes, and prioritize your actions to improve database performance.
- What is SQL query optimization?
- Why is SQL query performance tuning important?
- How do I make a SQL query run faster?
- How does SQL query optimization work in DPA?
What is SQL query optimization?
SQL query optimization is an integral element of successful database maintenance. Through proactive SQL query optimization, developers can reduce bottlenecks and achieve recognizable performance improvements. However, for these optimization efforts to be successful, developers need a lot of information to make sure they’re targeting the right root causes of their database performance issues. Otherwise, they might waste time optimizing bad or expensive queries.
Wondering how to check query performance in SQL Server? Some of the performance metrics admins may need for SQL optimization include:
- Execution
- Query duration
- CPU time
- Logical and physical reads
Gathering all this information, in addition to establishing baselines and maintaining historical data, is critical to achieving effective SQL query optimization. However, manual SQL query optimization is often time-consuming and can easily be overlooked for more urgent tasks with the result that people may try to optimize queries without doing all the necessary work. This can lead to expensive and unnecessary hardware upgrades and fail to solve the original problem.
To make sure you don’t waste time or money, you need to use a tool capable of gathering the information needed for SQL query optimization in SQL Server. With the actionable insights provided by SQL query tools, you can rest easy knowing you’re performing your optimization correctly.
Make SQL query optimization easy
Database Performance Analyzer
- Use the Query Details page to easily visualize performance metrics for your SQL queries.
- Get actionable suggestions from table tuning advisors to improve your SQL query performance.
- Solve SQL query issues before deployment by monitoring development, test, and production servers.
