Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
SQL Server 2005
Performance Dashboard
Reports
There are millions of deployments of SQL Server across the world ranging from the free SKU of
SQL Server Express Edition to SQL Server Enterprise Edition. Each SQL Server environment is
configured differently, has different business requirements, and serves different purposes. If you're
a good DBA in a perfect world, you'll have a handle on many of these. You know your required
up-time, integrated systems, dependencies, and so on. If something goes down, you are probably
aware of it and can resolve it quickly. If you are an IT Professional who manages multiple server
types or if you work in an enterprise that runs dozens of applications on top of hundreds of SQL
Servers, it's impossible to know all of your systems inside and out. You rely on monitoring tools to
alert you when there's a problem.
Now imagine that you work for Microsoft in SQL Server customer support. Each year you engage
with hundreds of different businesses with thousands of SQL Servers. You have no prior knowledge
of the environment or the business requirements. It's your job to get up to speed immediately. You
need to sift through symptoms, identify the underlying problems, and minimize the impact of the
resolution to bring the business back online as soon as possible. Oh, and one more thing: You have
to do this remotely and your only connection with the business is through the telephone.
The challenges you face as a DBA diagnosing problems in your environment are amplified when
you need to bring in a third party to help you remotely. Thus, it is critical that you can quickly
discover at a high level what could potentially be wrong with your environment and subsequently
dive deeper into that area to identify the underlying problem.
From a support perspective, performance troubleshooting and tuning is an area that frequently
starts with a lack of appropriate high-level information. A customer will call support and say
something like, ''my SQL Server is slow'' or ''my web app is slow and we think it is because of
SQL.'' This is not actionable high-level information. This requires the support specialist to spend a
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