Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
Due to these considerations, the iterative process of performance tuning that will be used
throughout the topic is represented in the following diagram:
Elaborate a baseline
Investigate the problem
Assume a solution, a test case
and a rollback strategy
Implement the solution
Do it again
Test the solution
Compare the results
Results are
good?
NO
YES
Problem solved
To elaborate a baseline, keep track of how the system—and not only the database—is
performing. We need unbiased data to compare before and after different solutions are
implemented in the systems.
Performance of the system here means performance of the server,
I/O, network, database, the application, and other factors.
If there is a generic "slow response-time problem", and new hardware resources (CPU, RAM)
are added to the database server, this may lead to a situation where it performs worse than
before. With a good baseline, before adding more resources, we could evaluate if the problem
we are experiencing is related to the lack of enough hardware power—for example RAM—or
something else.
