Milena Petrovic

SQL Server memory performance metrics – Part 6 – other memory metrics

March 10, 2014 by
So far, we have described the most popular and most important SQL Server memory metrics. Monitoring these metrics is recommended in every scenario when SQL Server performance monitoring and troubleshooting is needed. Besides the SQL Server Memory Manager metrics, the memory pressure can be indicated via the Buffer Manager metrics, as the buffer is the component that uses most of the SQL Server memory Read more »
Milena Petrovic

SQL Server memory performance metrics – Part 5 – understanding Lazy Writes, Free List Stalls/sec, and Memory Grants Pending

March 7, 2014 by
We’ve started the SQL Server performance metrics series with the SQL Server memory metrics that should be monitored to indicate and help troubleshoot SQL Server performance issues

In this part, we will continue with SQL Server memory performance metrics and present Lazy Writes, Free List Stalls/sec, and Memory Grants Pending Read more »

Milena Petrovic

SQL Server memory performance metrics – Part 4 – Buffer Cache Hit Ratio and Page Life Expectancy

March 5, 2014 by

In SQL Server performance metrics – part 3, we presented some of the SQL Server Buffer Manager metrics. As the SQL Server buffer pool manages data cache, it’s important to monitor various buffer pool metrics as they help identify and solve memory pressure issues

In this article, we will present 2 more Buffer Manager counters – Buffer Cache Hit Ratio and Page Life Expectancy.

Read more »
Milena Petrovic

SQL Server memory performance metrics – Part 3 – SQL Server Buffer Manager metrics and memory counters

March 3, 2014 by
In the previous parts of the SQL Server performance metrics series, we presented most important SQL Server memory metrics that indicate overall SQL Server memory pressure. The described metrics show how SQL Server uses memory and physical I/O to store, read and write data pages. In this part, we continue with SQL Server Buffer Manager metrics and memory counters Read more »
Milena Petrovic

SQL Server memory performance metrics – Part 2 – available bytes, total server, and target server memory

February 21, 2014 by
In the first part of this series, we started with most important SQL Server performance memory metrics. We described Pages/sec and Page faults/sec, what they indicated, and what the normal values were In this part, we will present three more memory metrics that affect SQL Server performance – Available memory bytes, Total server memory, and Target server memory Read more »
Milena Petrovic

SQL Server performance monitoring with Data Collector – Part 2 – set-up and usage

February 21, 2014 by
In the previous part of this article, we described SQL Server Data Collector, its features, and pre-defined collection sets. We showed what data is collected and described the mechanisms used to collect, store, and purge the saved records. In this part, we will give detailed steps to provide all necessary pre-requests and set up Data Collector Read more »
Milena Petrovic

SQL Server performance basics

February 19, 2014 by
Monitoring is recommended in dynamic environments. When it comes to SQL Server – users, DBAs, and the system itself are performing events constantly – changing data and database structure, user privileges, etc. SQL Server can manage automatically all these requests, but its self-tuning doesn’t provide best results, and additional monitoring and manual tuning can provide better performance Read more »
Ivan Stankovic

Top 10 articles on the SQL Server transaction log

February 13, 2014 by

Understanding Logging and Recovery in SQL Server

In “Understanding Logging and Recovery in SQL Server”, Paul S. Randal has given a complete overview of the transaction log. In four sections he explains: what is logging, what is recovery, how the transaction log works, and which recovery models are available. This article can be used as a starting point in understanding fundamentals of the transaction log and the logging process Read more »
Ivan Stankovic

A beginner’s guide to SQL Server transaction logs

February 11, 2014 by

What is a transaction log?

A transaction log is a file – integral part of every SQL Server database. It contains log records produced during the logging process in a SQL Server database. The transaction log is the most important component of a SQL Server database when it comes to the disaster recovery – however, it must be uncorrupted. After each database modification – transaction occurrence, a log record is written to the transaction log. All the changes are written sequentially Read more »