Description
Page Latches are used to guarantee consistency of index and data pages for user and system objects in-memory. Pages that manage allocations are protected by internal allocation pages (PFS, GAM, SGAM and IAM). This wait type accumulates while page latches are being destroyed. If this wait type is high then the common problem of PFS contention may be present
Resolved by
DBAs and Developers
Suggested solutions
- Monitor page latches over time (see link below), confirm which database the problem is coming from. It is most likely tempdb
- Ensure tempdb has the correct number of data files. A rule of thumb is one file for every 4 CPU cores
- Enable trace flag 1118
Additional research
Analyzing Tempdb Contention
How to Tell if You Need More Tempdb Files
Tempdb Contention