SQL Server Reference Guide

Mar 28, 2003

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In the first part of this series (you can use the “Back” link to locate it) I explained that since SQL Server runs on Windows, it’s important to understand the tools that Windows has for monitoring and tuning your system. In fact, far from only being able to monitor the Windows and hardware components, these tools also let you drill down to the SQL Services and databases that run on them.

In the last tutorial I showed you tools that start from the “outside in”, meaning a broad level of monitoring that deals with the “big four” of a computer system, and how the system uses them:

CPU
DISK (or I/O)
Memory
Network Interface (or NIC)

I explained the Task Manager, one of the first tools I start with when I evaluate a system or tune performance. I explained each of the tabs in-depth, to set the basis for the discussion on the tools that follow. As you may recall, there’s a button on the Performance panel called the “Resource Monitor” — a new tool in Windows and the next one I’ll explain.

Resource Monitor

The Resource Monitor is a tool that is “in between” the Task Manager and the other tools I’ll explain in a moment. You can get to it in a couple of ways, but while I’m on the Performance tab in the Task Manager I’ll just click the button there.

Figure 7

At the top of the tool are four graphs that correspond to the four components I mentioned earlier. These are similar to the graphs you saw in the Task Manager tool, with one exception — with this tool, you can start and stop the data collection on the screen. To do that, click the “Monitor” menu item and click the action you want.

You can also see in the graphic that there are various “bands” of information, similar to the new Activity Monitor in SQL Server 2008 and higher. In the titles of those bars are “mini-graphs” that show the current load on that component, and a “high water” mark of the most units of that resource used. This is another way to quickly view the performance data of a running system.

This tool, like the Task Manager, does not have an output feature, but there is a way around it — at least a little. If you expand a band, you can highlight various rows with the SHIFT key for contiguous rows or SHIFT-CTRL (or Control) key for non-contiguous rows. Press CTRL-C after you highlight the rows you’re interested in, and then you can paste them into anything that accepts text. It even gets the title of the columns — a great help.

Reliability and Performance Monitor

The Task Manager and Resource Monitor tools are a great place to start evaluating a system, particularly if you are sitting at the console and you are monitoring real-time. But when you need to perform longer-term monitoring in a more holistic way, then you should open the (very long-named) Reliability and Performance Monitor.

Figure 8

Once you do, you’ll notice that you’re presented with the same view as the Resource Monitor I just explained a moment ago. But there is a difference, almost immediately: you can connect to another computer with this tool simply by clicking the “Action” menu item and selecting the “Connect to another computer” item.

After you’ve selected the system you want to monitor, you’ll notice there’s a pane on the left-hand side that leads to other functions. I’ll treat these separately.

Performance Monitor

Under the “Monitoring Tools” folder there are two items. The first is the venerable Performance Monitor which has been with us since the earliest versions of Windows Server.

I won’t spend a great deal of time explaining this part of the tool, since I’ve got a complete article on that here, and several more are available with a search of the InformIT site. A full web search will reveal even more. The article I wrote is still valid, and the tool works the same way that I describe there. I also point out the objects, counters and values that you should consider when you tune your system.

Reliability Monitor

Moving on then to the next object in the Reliability and Performance Monitor, I’ll now open the Reliability Monitor on my system.

Figure 9

This tool is less about performance than stability. It scrubs various Windows Event Logs and other sources to gather information in two large buckets: Software changes and Failures.

Just below the time graph are a series of bands. The first band shows the software installs and uninstalls on the machine — at least the ones that were recorded as such. Although it’s not a bullet-proof recording of those activities, I do find it very useful.

Below that band are a set of reports that are generated when Windows detects a failure in an application, hardware, Windows itself, and other sources. This is a much-overlooked set of information by not only data professionals but even System Administrators. These failures have impacts on system stability, but they also can dramatically affect performance. I evaluated one system, and before I began any tuning I checked these failures. I found a network card that was randomly failing, and when we replaced that the performance of the system returned to “normal” without changing anything in SQL Server at all!

Data Collector Sets and Reports

Other than the Performance Monitor, the new Data Collector Sets (no relation to the Data Collector in SQL Server that I’ve explained here) is of the most useful parts to this new monitoring system. It does require a little setup, however.

Figure 10

There are two main areas underneath this object, but I’ll forego explaining the “User Defined” object for now. I’ve expanded the “System” object and you can see that there are three Collector Sets shown: LAN Diagnostics, System Diagnostics, and System Performance. The Data Collectors function runs three kinds of collections on a set of components that make up each of those areas.

The “Data Collectors” are groups of three kinds of measurements: system Traces (similar to the SQL Trace I’ve documented here, but for Windows), a Configuration check (properties of the object) and Performance Monitor counters. Combining all three of these, the system makes an XML document that can then be read by a report or even directly. I’ll show you the reports in a moment — but first you need to start the Data Collectors.

You can see there in the graphic that I’ve hovered over the green arrow in the icon bar while the LAN Diagnostics item is highlighted. I click that to start the collection, and then I click the LAN Diagnostics item to see all of the items it’s collecting.

Figure 11

You can see that the icon on that item now has a green arrow on it, indicating that it is running. You can also see all of the items it is collecting, and where it is storing the data. After about an hour, I stopped the collection (using the square icon in the icon bar) and then opened the Reports object in the left panel, and drilled down to the System and then LAN Diagnostics item.

Figure 12

And here’s the report. So the process is to select an item in the Data Collector Sets area, start it, and when it completes to open its corresponding report. I’ve done that with all three items. For the “System Diagnostics”, the process stops all by itself after only a few minutes.

Figure 13

You can see in this graphic I’ve actually run this report a couple of times.

I also ran the System Performance collector — and it also shuts itself off automatically, after about a minute. Just start it and let it run.

Figure 14

This report is incredibly useful. I normally run it three times — “at rest”, or with little activity on the system, normal activity, and high activity. It’s a light-touch, high value way to see what is happening in the Windows and hardware part of my SQL Servers.

You can create your own Data Collector Sets, and you can create your own reports, but to be honest I did not find the process easy enough to warrant doing that a lot. I just use these “canned” Data Collector Sets and reports — the value they provide and the ease of use are definitely worth investigating on your own systems.

InformIT Articles and Sample Chapters

I cover more performance tools and techniques in the Performance Tuning section of the Guide.

Books and eBooks

If you’re new to Windows Server 2008, and you don’t have a great deal of interest in becoming a System Administrator, the “How to” series of books is a great resource to have. Start with Windows Server 2008 How-To.

Online Resources

And the definitive guide for Performance Tuning a Windows Server is here.

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