Does Sql Server cached compiled queries and execution plan across transactions? - sql-server

Folks,
I'm using the best-practice of prepared sql statements to execute many Inserts/Updates that vary by the same parameters. I have two choices in my design: 1. all of the work gets done in a single transaction. 2. break-up the work into a number of transactions (not one per statement, but something that suits the concurrency of my environment). If I opt for #2, will SQL take advantage of the cached compiled query/execution plan across transactions? Or, because the query was made within a transaction, the life of the cache will be limited to the transaction?

Plans are unrelated to transactions. Or connections for that matter
That is, a plan can be shared by many txns and/or users and/or connections. And at different times if the plan is valid and still in cache

The query cache is independent of transactions, so your queries will get cached regardless which option you choose.

Related

One database vs Multiple database in SQL SERVER 2014

I have a sql server running on my machine.It contains 10 data base file.
say
a
b
....
z
so my question is 10 or more database or 1 single database is best for sql server .Does more database cause more performance issue on single server machine? what is recommended?
You may think like:
"Using multiple databases helps like they are outer index and it can be helpfull for search times.
Think like that, when searching begins, your database server takes your query it will go the firstly to your table and it will execute query on that table and which helps for querying time because datas on other tables will not be looked only your table index will be looked at tables table. :)
In same manner when you group your tables on different dbs query will begin to look just table index of that table on tables table and because there will be less table in that table finding your tables table id will going to complete in less time. :) "
But that is not correct! If you dont have millions of tables it will not going to impact because datastructures used on dbs mostly acces data in O(log(n)) and that means that if(Big if) accesing in 1,000,000 input takes 6 step complete then 100,000 will take 5 step and 1,000 will take 3. As you can see it not makes difference.
On the other hand using 2 db guarantees that it has to be at least 2 connections and connections are expensive things and that is why connection pools are exist.
Mostly Common issue is for poor database design
The causes for performance problems can be various, but the most common are a poorly designed database, incorrectly configured system, insufficient disk space or other system resources, excessive query compilation and recompilation, bad execution plans due to missing or outdated statistics, and queries or stored procedures that have long execution times due to improper design
Memory bottlenecks are caused by limitations in available memory and memory pressure caused by SQL Server, system, or other application activity. Poor indexing requires table scans which in case of large tables means that a large number of rows is read from disk and handled in memory
Network bottlenecks are caused by overload on a server or network, so the data cannot flow as expected
I/O issues can be caused by slow hardware used, bad storage solution design, and configuration. Besides hardware components, such as disk types, disk array type, and RAID configuration that affect I/O performance, unnecessary requests made by a database also affect I/O traffic. Frequent index scans, inefficient queries, and out of date statistics can also cause I/O workload and bottlenecks
- See more at: http://www.sqlshack.com/dba-guide-sql-server-performance-troubleshooting-part-1-problems-performance-metrics/#sthash.QrzEyKbz.dpuf
Multiple Database is not a problem for performance.
you can see these links. I think it will help you about understanding performance tuning :D

Clear SQL Azure execution plan / query cache

I have a few "inefficient" queries that I am trying to debug on Azure SQL (v12). The problem I have is that after the query executes for the first time (albeit, many seconds) Azure appears to cache the query / execution plan. I have done some research and several people have suggested adding and removing a column will clear the cache but this doesn't seem to work. If I leave the server alone for a few hours / overnight and re-run the query it takes its usual time to execute but once again the cache is in place - this makes it very hard to optimise my query. Does anyone know how to force Azure SQL to not cache my queries / execution plans?
ALTER DATABASE SCOPED CONFIGURATION CLEAR PROCEDURE_CACHE is designed to help wit this problem.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/t-sql/statements/alter-database-scoped-configuration-transact-sql?view=sql-server-2017
This is closest to the DBCC FREEPROCCACHE you have in SQL Server but is scoped to a database instead of the server instance. This does not prevent caching of query plans - it just invalidates the current cache entries.
Please note that the query store is there to help you in SQL Azure (on-by-default). It stores a history of plan choices and plan performance (per-plan). So, if you have a prior plan that performs better available in the history of your application, you can force it using SSMS if you'd prefer to have the query optimizer pick this plan each time your query compiles. One common reason for what you are seeing is parameter-sensitivity in the plan choice where the optimizer will use the passed parameter value to try to generate the query plan, assuming it is representing a common pattern when you run that query. If that value is actually not close to a common value (in terms of how frequent it is in the table), then you can sometimes compile and cache a plan that is not better on average for your application.
Query store has an overview here:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/relational-databases/performance/monitoring-performance-by-using-the-query-store?view=sql-server-2017
Note that SQL Azure also has an automated mechanism to try forcing prior plans if it notices a performance regression. It is somewhat conservative, however, so it may not kick in for every single regression until it sees an obvious pattern over time. So, while you can force things in SSMS, you can also potentially just wait (assuming this is the issue you were seeing)

What is the proper way to run a long query against an active database?

We are using SQL Server 2012 EE but currently do not have the option to run queries on a R/O mirror though that is my long term goal, though am concerned I may run into the below issue in that scenario as well since the mirror would also be updating data I am querying.
I have a view that joins across several tables from two databases and is used for invoicing from existing data. Three of these tables are also actively updated by ongoing transactions. Running a report that used this view did not used to be a problem but now our database is getting much larger and I have run into some timeout problems. First the query was timing out so I set command timeout to 0 and reran the query which pegged all 4 CPUs 100% for 90 minutes and then I killed it. There were no problems with active transactions during that time. I reviewed the query and found a field I was joining on that was not indexed so created an index on that field, reran the report, which then finished in three minutes and all the CPUs were busy but not at all pegged out. Same data amount queried both times. I figured problem solved. Of course later, my boss ran a similar query, perhaps with some more data but probably not a lot more, and our live transactions started timing out 100% while his query was running. I did not get a chance to see the CPU usage during that time.
So my questions are two:
Given I have to use the live and active database, what is the proper way to run a long R/O query so that active transactions can still continue? I am considering NO LOCK but am hoping there is a better standard practice.
And what might cause sqlserver to peg out 4 CPUs with 100% busy and not cause live transaction timeouts, yet when my boss ran his query, after I added the index and my query ran much better, the live update transactions start timing out 100%?
I know this is not a lot of info to go on. I'm not very familiar with sql profiling and performance monitoring yet this behavior seems rather odd and am hoping a best practice would be the correct workaround.
The default behavior of SELECT queries in the READ_COMMITTED transaction isolation level is to acquire shared locks during query execution to provide the requested data consistency (read committed data only). These locks are typically row-level and released quickly during query execution immediately after each row is read. There are also less granular intent locks at the page and table level prevent concurrent updates to data as it is being read. Depending on the particulars of the execution plan, there may even be shared locks held at the table level for the duration of the query, which will prevent updates to the table during query execution and result in readers blocking writers.
Setting the READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT database option causes SQL Server to use row versioning instead of locking to provide the same read consistency. A row version store is maintained in tempdb so that when a row requested by the query has changed since the query began, the most recent committed row version is returned instead. This row-versioning behavior avoids locking and effectively provides a statement-level snapshot of the database at the time the query began. Readers do not block writers and writers do not block readers. Do not confuse the READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT database option with the SNAPSHOT isolation level (a common mistake).
The downside of setting the READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT is additional resource usage. An additional 14 bytes of storage overhead for each row is incurred once the database option is enabled. Updates and deletes will generate row versions in tempdb. These versions require tempdb space for the duration of the longest running query and there is overhead in maintained the version store. Also consider whether you have existing applications that depend on readers-block-writers locking behavior. Despite this overhead, the concurrency benefits may yield better overall performance depending on your workload, while providing read integrity. See http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms188277.aspx for more information.
Actually I decided to create a snapshot at the beginning of each month for reporting to run against. Then delete when no longer needed for reporting. This seems to work fine. I could do something similar with a database restore but slightly more work. This allows not needing a second SQL EE license, and lets me run reports w/o locking tables for live transactions.

Debugging SQL Server Slowness: Same Database, Different Servers

For a while now we've been having anecdotal slowness on our newly-minted (VMWare-based) SQL Server 2005 database servers. Recently the problem has come to a head and I've started looking for the root cause of the issue.
Here's the weird part: on the stored procedure that I'm using as a performance test case, I get a 30x difference in the execution speed depending on which DB server I run it on. This is using the same database (mdf) and log (ldf) files, detached, copied, and reattached from the slow server to the fast one. This doesn't appear to be a (virtualized) hardware issue: he slow server has 4x the CPU capacity and 2x the memory as the fast one.
As best as I can tell, the problem lies in the environment/configuration of the servers (either operating system or SQL Server installation). However, I've checked a bunch of variables (SQL Server config options, running services, disk fragmentation) and found nothing that has made a difference in testing.
What things should I be looking at? What tools can I use to investigate why this is happening?
Blindly checking variables and settings won't get you very far. You need to approach this methodically.
Are the two procedures executed the same way? Namely, is the plan different? A quick check is to SET STATISTICS IO ON and run the two cases. Is the number of logical-reads the same? Is the number of physical-reads the same? Is the number of writes the same? Differences in logical-reads or writes would indicate a different plan. Differences in physical-reads (while logical-reads is similar) indicate cache and memory problems. If the plans are different, you need to further investigate what is different in the actual execution plan. Does one plan uses a different degree of parallelism? Does one use different join types? Different access paths?
If the plans are similar yet the execution is still different, and you cannot blame the IO subsystem, then you need to check contention. Use SET STATISTICS TIME ON and compare the elapsed time and worker time in the two cases. Similar worker time but different elapsed time indicate that there is more waiting in one case. Use the wait_type and wait_resource info in sys.dm_exec_requests to identify the cause of contention.
The methodology of investigation is discussed in more detail in the Waits and Queues whitepaper.
Run SQL Server Profiler to gather information about running processes within SQL Server. This is probably the best start. This will give you a good idea of the things that are consuming a lot of resources.
If you still have issues after Indexing / Rebuilding Indexes, or rewriting queries, then the next step would be to run PerfMon.

Using a duplicate SQL Server database for queries

I have a very large (100+ gigs) SQL Server 2005 database that receives a large number of inserts and updates, with less frequent selects. The selects require a lot of indexes to keep them functioning well, but it appears the number of indexes is effecting the efficiency of the inserts and updates.
Question: Is there a method for keeping two copies of a database where one is used for the inserts and updates while the second is used for the selects? The second copy wouldn't need to be real-time updated, but shouldn't be more than an hour old. Is it possible to do this kind of replication while keeping different indexes on each database copy? Perhaps you have other solutions?
Your looking to setup a master/child database topology using replication. With SQL server you'll need to setup replication between two databases (preferrably on separate hardware). The Master DB you should use for inserts and updates. The Child will service all your select queries. You'll want to also optimize both database configuration settings for the type of work they will be performing. If you have heavy select queries on the child database you may also want to setup view's that will make the queries perform better than complex joins on tables.
Some reference material on replication:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms151198.aspx
Just google it and you'll find plenty of information on how to setup and configure:
http://search.aim.com/search/search?&query=sql+server+2005+replication&invocationType=tb50fftrab
Transactional replication can do this as the subscriber can have a number of aditional indexes compared with the publisher. But you have to bear in mind a simple fact: all inserts/updates/deletes are going to be replicated at the reporting copy (the subscriber) and the aditional indexes will... slow down replication. It is actually possible to slow down the replication to a rate at wich is unable to keep up, causing a swell of the distribution DB. But this is only when you have a constant high rate of updates. If the problems only occur durink spikes, then the distribution DB will act as a queue that absorbes the spikes and levels them off during off-peak hours.
I would not take this endevour without absolute, 100% proof evidence that it is the additional indexes that are slowing down the insert/updates/deletes, and w/o testing that the insert/updates/deletes are actually performing significantly better without the extra indexes. Specifically , ensure that the culprit is not the other usual suspect: lock contention.
Generally, all set-based operations (including updating indexes) are faster than non set-based ones
1,000 inserts will most probably be slower than one insert of 1,000 records.
You can batch the updates to the second database. This will, first, make the index updating more fast, and, second, smooth the peaks.
You could task schedule a bcp script to copy the data to the other DB.
You could also try transaction log shipping to update the read only db.
Don't forget to adjust the fill factor when you create your two databases. It should be low(er) on the database with frequent updates, and 100 on your "data warehouse"/read only database.

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