Performance problems after updating statistics SQL Server 2014 - sql-server

I've received a database that was previously on SQL Server 2008R2 but was just put on a SQL Server 2014 instance. There were no maintenance tasks run of any kind run on the database since 2014 (e.g. Rebuilding of indexes, updating statistics, etc.).
Once we ran update statistics as part of our regularly scheduled maintenance that we do on a set schedule, the performance of some queries has taken a massive hit to the point where some select statements will seem to never finish.
The queries have some CASE...WHEN statements in them, but I wouldn't expect there to be such a performance hit. Does anybody have any thoughts on what might cause such issues?
I've tried updating the compatibility level to 120 since it was on 100 when the database first came in but, that didn't make any difference on the performance.

If you have only just moved the database, give the system some time to build up its execution plans and cache. Also, do your index maintenance and then something like this for the stats. Dont use sp_updatestats though as it just uses a sample of data not a full scan.
what results do you get for this:
SELECT
[sch].[name] + '.' + [so].[name] AS [TableName] ,
[ss].[name] AS [Statistic],
[sp].[last_updated] AS [StatsLastUpdated] ,
[sp].[rows] AS [RowsInTable] ,
[sp].[rows_sampled] AS [RowsSampled] ,
[sp].[modification_counter] AS [RowModifications],
Convert (decimal(18,2),(convert(numeric,[sp].[modification_counter]) / convert(numeric,[sp].[rows]) * 100)) as [Percent_changed]
FROM [sys].[stats] [ss]
JOIN [sys].[objects] [so] ON [ss].[object_id] = [so].[object_id]
JOIN [sys].[schemas] [sch] ON [so].[schema_id] = [sch].[schema_id]
OUTER APPLY [sys].[dm_db_stats_properties]([so].[object_id],
[ss].[stats_id]) sp
WHERE [so].[type] = 'U'
AND [sp].[modification_counter] > 0
And [sp].[last_updated] < getdate()-1
ORDER BY [Percent_changed] DESC

Related

Why is a Teradata query faster in MS-Access than SQL Server

I need to join a Teradata table with about 0.5 billion records and a local table with about 10,000 records. I have it working in MS Access and it takes about 15 minutes to run. I would prefer to do it in SQL Server but can't even get a join with 1 record in the local SQL table to work.
Why is MS Access able to do this, albeit slowly, whereas SQL Server chokes? What is MS Access doing differently from SQL Server?
The SQL Server query with a join that fails:
SELECT a.trk, a.wgt
FROM openquery(TERADATA, 'SELECT trk, wgt
FROM SHIPMENT_DB.pkg') a
INNER JOIN (Local_Tbl) b ON a.trk = b.Tracking_Number
A simple SQL Server query without a join that works:
SELECT *
FROM openquery(TERADATA,'SELECT trk, wgt
FROM SHIPMENT_DB.pkg
WHERE trk = ''773423067500''')
Not the answer, but I had a similar issue using OPENDATASOURCE. Performance was terrible, the query took hours to run.
The solution was to ensure all colmns involved in the WHERE clause had mathcing datatypes. In my case the remote column was INT but in the query it was being passed as a varchar: ...'WHERE remote_table.ID = ''4'''...
Once I changed all values to the appropriate datatypes the query took seconds to run.
Look at the Execution Plan in SQL Server. Since it knows very little about the dataset that is going to come back from Teradata, it is making some has assumptions.
Swapping the order of the tables in the join will help. Using an explicit INNER HASH JOIN may help (once you've switched the order).

SQL Performance using MAX on joined tabled

I'm using SQL Server 2008R2
I'd like your views on the the two SQL statements below as regards to performance and best practice.
select
*
from BcpSample1
where dataloadid = (select MAX(id) from LoadControl_BcpSample1 where Status = 'completed')
And
select
a.*
from CiaBcpSample1 a
inner join (select ActiveDataLoadId = MAX(id) from LoadControl_BcpSample1 where Status = 'completed') as t
on a.DataLoadId = t.ActiveDataLoadId
I tried the Query plan in SQL Server Studio but after 2 runs both are returning showing the same query plans.
Thanks
In "regards to performance and best practice." it depends on many things. What works well one time might not be the best the next. You have to test, measure the performance and then choose.
You say the plan generated by SQL Server is the same, so in this instance there shouldn't be any difference. Choose the query easiest to maintain and move on to the next problem.

'LINQ query plan' horribly inefficient but 'Query Analyser query plan' is perfect for same SQL!

I have a LINQ to SQL query that generates the following SQL :
exec sp_executesql N'SELECT COUNT(*) AS [value]
FROM [dbo].[SessionVisit] AS [t0]
WHERE ([t0].[VisitedStore] = #p0) AND (NOT ([t0].[Bot] = 1)) AND
([t0].[SessionDate] > #p1)',N'#p0 int,#p1 datetime',
#p0=1,#p1='2010-02-15 01:24:00'
(This is the actual SQL taken from SQL Profiler on SQL Server 2008.)
The query plan generated when I run this SQL from within Query Analyser is perfect.
It uses an index containing VisitedStore, Bot, SessionDate.
The query returns instantly.
However when I run this from C# (with LINQ) a different query plan is used that is so inefficient it doesn't even return in 60 seconds. This query plan is trying to do a key lookup on the clustered primary key which contains a couple million rows. It has no chance of returning.
What I just can't understand though is that the EXACT same SQL is being run - either from within LINQ or from within Query Analyser yet the query plan is different.
I've ran the two queries many many times and they're now running in isolation from any other queries. The date is DateTime.Now.AddDays(-7), but I've even hardcoded that date to eliminate caching problems.
Is there anything i can change in LINQ to SQL to affect the query plan or try to debug this further? I'm very very confused!
This is a relatively common problem that surprised me too when I first saw it. The first thing to do is ensure your statistics are up to date. You can check the age of statistics with:
SELECT
object_name = Object_Name(ind.object_id),
IndexName = ind.name,
StatisticsDate = STATS_DATE(ind.object_id, ind.index_id)
FROM SYS.INDEXES ind
order by STATS_DATE(ind.object_id, ind.index_id) desc
Statistics should be updated in a weekly maintenance plan. For a quick fix, issue the following command to update all statistics in your database:
exec sp_updatestats
Apart from the statistics, another thing you can check is the SET options. They can be different between Query Analyzer and your Linq2Sql application.
Another possibility is that SQL Server is using an old cached plan for your Linq2Sql query. Plans can be cached on a per-user basis, so if you run Query Analyser as a different user, that can explain different plans. Normally you could add Option (RECOMPILE) to the application query, but I guess that's hard with Linq2Sql. You can clear the entire cache with DBCC FREEPROCCACHE and see if that speeds up the Linq2Sql query.
switched to a stored procedure and the same SQL works fine. would really like to know what's going on but can't spend any more time on this now. fortunately in this instance the query was not too dynamic.
hopefully this at least helps anyone in the same boat as me

How to find slowest queries

Using Sql Server 2005 Profiler, what events, columns, and filters do you trace to find your slowest queries and stored procedures?
Slow = greater than N seconds, 10 for sake of argument.
In SQL 2005 you can use management views to find slow running queries. A good script i found a while ago on SQL server performance will help get you started; it lists data with the slowest performing first.
SELECT creation_time
,last_execution_time
,total_physical_reads
,total_logical_reads
,total_logical_writes
, execution_count
, total_worker_time
, total_elapsed_time
, total_elapsed_time / execution_count avg_elapsed_time
,SUBSTRING(st.text, (qs.statement_start_offset/2) + 1,
((CASE statement_end_offset
WHEN -1 THEN DATALENGTH(st.text)
ELSE qs.statement_end_offset END
- qs.statement_start_offset)/2) + 1) AS statement_text
FROM sys.dm_exec_query_stats AS qs
CROSS APPLY sys.dm_exec_sql_text(qs.sql_handle) st
ORDER BY total_elapsed_time / execution_count DESC;
Before I use the profiler, I check the built-in usage reports. Right click a database, Reports, Standard Reports, then Object Execution Statistics.
It lists the currently cached execution plans, along with the amount of resources and the number of times they've been run. This generally gives a very good idea about what's keeping the server busy.
The duration column does it for me, but sometimes I look at the reads and writes columns too.
I use the TSQL:StmtCompleted filter to get the raw queries. You may want to add others like stored procedures to that, but the tsql is the 'base' you need to view. As the MSDN article says
"The execution of a stored procedure
can be monitored by the SP:Starting,
SP:StmtStarting, SP:StmtCompleted, and
SP:Completed event classes and all the
TSQL event classes."

CPU utilization by database?

Is it possible to get a breakdown of CPU utilization by database?
I'm ideally looking for a Task Manager type interface for SQL server, but instead of looking at the CPU utilization of each PID (like taskmgr) or each SPID (like spwho2k5), I want to view the total CPU utilization of each database. Assume a single SQL instance.
I realize that tools could be written to collect this data and report on it, but I'm wondering if there is any tool that lets me see a live view of which databases are contributing most to the sqlservr.exe CPU load.
Sort of. Check this query out:
SELECT total_worker_time/execution_count AS AvgCPU
, total_worker_time AS TotalCPU
, total_elapsed_time/execution_count AS AvgDuration
, total_elapsed_time AS TotalDuration
, (total_logical_reads+total_physical_reads)/execution_count AS AvgReads
, (total_logical_reads+total_physical_reads) AS TotalReads
, execution_count
, SUBSTRING(st.TEXT, (qs.statement_start_offset/2)+1
, ((CASE qs.statement_end_offset WHEN -1 THEN datalength(st.TEXT)
ELSE qs.statement_end_offset
END - qs.statement_start_offset)/2) + 1) AS txt
, query_plan
FROM sys.dm_exec_query_stats AS qs
cross apply sys.dm_exec_sql_text(qs.sql_handle) AS st
cross apply sys.dm_exec_query_plan (qs.plan_handle) AS qp
ORDER BY 1 DESC
This will get you the queries in the plan cache in order of how much CPU they've used up. You can run this periodically, like in a SQL Agent job, and insert the results into a table to make sure the data persists beyond reboots.
When you read the results, you'll probably realize why we can't correlate that data directly back to an individual database. First, a single query can also hide its true database parent by doing tricks like this:
USE msdb
DECLARE #StringToExecute VARCHAR(1000)
SET #StringToExecute = 'SELECT * FROM AdventureWorks.dbo.ErrorLog'
EXEC #StringToExecute
The query would be executed in MSDB, but it would poll results from AdventureWorks. Where should we assign the CPU consumption?
It gets worse when you:
Join between multiple databases
Run a transaction in multiple databases, and the locking effort spans multiple databases
Run SQL Agent jobs in MSDB that "work" in MSDB, but back up individual databases
It goes on and on. That's why it makes sense to performance tune at the query level instead of the database level.
In SQL Server 2008R2, Microsoft introduced performance management and app management features that will let us package a single database in a distributable and deployable DAC pack, and they're promising features to make it easier to manage performance of individual databases and their applications. It still doesn't do what you're looking for, though.
For more of those, check out the T-SQL repository at Toad World's SQL Server wiki (formerly at SQLServerPedia).
Updated on 1/29 to include total numbers instead of just averages.
SQL Server (starting with 2000) will install performance counters (viewable from Performance Monitor or Perfmon).
One of the counter categories (from a SQL Server 2005 install is:)
- SQLServer:Databases
With one instance for each database. The counters available however do not provide a CPU % Utilization counter or something similar, although there are some rate counters, that you could use to get a good estimate of CPU. Example would be, if you have 2 databases, and the rate measured is 20 transactions/sec on database A and 80 trans/sec on database B --- then you would know that A contributes roughly to 20% of the total CPU, and B contributes to other 80%.
There are some flaws here, as that's assuming all the work being done is CPU bound, which of course with databases it's not. But that would be a start I believe.
Here's a query that will show the actual database causing high load. It relies on the query cache which might get flushed frequently in low-memory scenarios (making the query less useful).
select dbs.name, cacheobjtype, total_cpu_time, total_execution_count from
(select top 10
sum(qs.total_worker_time) as total_cpu_time,
sum(qs.execution_count) as total_execution_count,
count(*) as number_of_statements,
qs.plan_handle
from
sys.dm_exec_query_stats qs
group by qs.plan_handle
order by sum(qs.total_worker_time) desc
) a
inner join
(SELECT plan_handle, pvt.dbid, cacheobjtype
FROM (
SELECT plan_handle, epa.attribute, epa.value, cacheobjtype
FROM sys.dm_exec_cached_plans
OUTER APPLY sys.dm_exec_plan_attributes(plan_handle) AS epa
/* WHERE cacheobjtype = 'Compiled Plan' AND objtype = 'adhoc' */) AS ecpa
PIVOT (MAX(ecpa.value) FOR ecpa.attribute IN ("dbid", "sql_handle")) AS pvt
) b on a.plan_handle = b.plan_handle
inner join sys.databases dbs on dbid = dbs.database_id
I think the answer to your question is no.
The issue is that one activity on a machine can cause load on multiple databases. If I have a process that is reading from a config DB, logging to a logging DB, and moving transactions in and out of various DBs based on type, how do I partition the CPU usage?
You could divide CPU utilization by the transaction load, but that is again a rough metric that may mislead you. How would you divide transaction log shipping from one DB to another, for instance? Is the CPU load in the reading or the writing?
You're better off looking at the transaction rate for a machine and the CPU load it causes. You could also profile stored procedures and see if any of them are taking an inordinate amount of time; however, this won't get you the answer you want.
With all said above in mind.
Starting with SQL Server 2012 (may be 2008 ?) , there is column database_id in sys.dm_exec_sessions.
It gives us easy calculation of cpu for each database for currently connected sessions. If session have disconnected, then its results have gone.
select session_id, cpu_time, program_name, login_name, database_id
from sys.dm_exec_sessions
where session_id > 50;
select sum(cpu_time)/1000 as cpu_seconds, database_id
from sys.dm_exec_sessions
group by database_id
order by cpu_seconds desc;
Take a look at SQL Sentry. It does all you need and more.
Regards,
Lieven
Have you looked at SQL profiler?
Take the standard "T-SQL" or "Stored Procedure" template, tweak the fields to group by the database ID (I think you have to used the number, you dont get the database name, but it's easy to find out using exec sp_databases to get the list)
Run this for a while and you'll get the total CPU counts / Disk IO / Wait etc. This can give you the proportion of CPU used by each database.
If you monitor the PerfMon counter at the same time (log the data to a SQL database), and do the same for the SQL Profiler (log to database), you may be able to correlate the two together.
Even so, it should give you enough of a clue as to which DB is worth looking at in more detail. Then, do the same again with just that database ID and look for the most expensive SQL / Stored Procedures.
please check this query:
SELECT
DB_NAME(st.dbid) AS DatabaseName
,OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME(st.objectid,dbid) AS SchemaName
,cp.objtype AS ObjectType
,OBJECT_NAME(st.objectid,dbid) AS Objects
,MAX(cp.usecounts)AS Total_Execution_count
,SUM(qs.total_worker_time) AS Total_CPU_Time
,SUM(qs.total_worker_time) / (max(cp.usecounts) * 1.0) AS Avg_CPU_Time
FROM sys.dm_exec_cached_plans cp
INNER JOIN sys.dm_exec_query_stats qs
ON cp.plan_handle = qs.plan_handle
CROSS APPLY sys.dm_exec_sql_text(cp.plan_handle) st
WHERE DB_NAME(st.dbid) IS NOT NULL
GROUP BY DB_NAME(st.dbid),OBJECT_SCHEMA_NAME(objectid,st.dbid),cp.objtype,OBJECT_NAME(objectid,st.dbid)
ORDER BY sum(qs.total_worker_time) desc

Resources