Database Reference
In-Depth Information
production.
Tip
Work with both the DBA and the application owners to understand the workload
and determine an appropriate sampling period and duration.
Our experience has taught us that when sampling a SQL Server database, the sampling
interval should be 5 minutes or less. We typically recommend 15-second intervals.
When sampling T-SQL, we recommend using a 1-minute interval. A lot can happen in a
database in a short amount of time.
Tip
When sampling a SQL Server database, we highly recommend using a very
frequent sampling interval of 5 minutes or less—with 15 seconds being the
recommendation.
Difference Between Performance Baseline and Benchmarks
A performance baseline is not the same as a benchmark, although you can record a
baseline during a benchmark. A
benchmark
is where you apply a standardized synthetic
or simulated (that is, not real-world) workload model to the system under test and then
measure the results. A key difference of a benchmark is that it's a synthetic simulation
against a non-production system, rather than a recording of actual performance of a real
production system. There are three main types of benchmarks:
Industry-standard benchmarks, which are created by a standards body of some
sort. Examples of this type of benchmark include TPC, TPC-C (OLTP), and TPC-
H (Decision Support).
Vendor benchmarks, which are created by an application or system vendor.
Custom benchmarks, which you create based on your own system workload
models or recordings from actual production systems.
Industry-Standard Benchmarks
Benchmark tests are commonly performed by software and hardware vendors to
demonstrate the performance of their solutions compared to the competition, as well as
by project teams during software development projects. Benchmarking is also very
useful during system migration and virtualization projects. The tests are run using an
industry-standardized and defined workload model that has been developed to try and
simulate a certain type of application's load characteristics.
