As a DBA, you are often alert to the usual suspects—blocking, deadlocks, or long-running queries. But sometimes, performance issues creep in silently, and one of the quietest yet most impactful culprits is latch contention. Unlike locks, latches are lightweight synchronization primitives that protect internal memory structures. When these get overwhelmed, even the most well-tuned queries can slow to a crawl.
In this guide, you will explore what latch contention is, how it differs from locks, when it occurs, how to detect it, and most importantly—how to tune your system to minimize its impact. Whether you are running a high-throughput OLTP workload or managing a reporting environment, understanding latches could be the missing piece in your performance puzzle.
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Recently, Mark Varnas posted a client's experience in his LinkedIn profile. The client has 16 core virtual processors however, SQL Server was using only 4 cores and performance was terrible. My favorite SQL Server expert Brent Ozar also commented and shared his relevant blog's link in the post. I was curious how Mark Varnas identified and resolved this. Robert Concepcion's comments and Brent's blog showed me the path. Let's go through the problem!
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In the world of SQL Server performance tuning, intuition is helpful—but data is essential. Without a solid performance baseline, DBAs are left guessing whether a system slowdown is an anomaly or just another busy working day. Creating a baseline gives you a point of comparison to understand what "normal" looks like for your SQL Server environment. This article will guide you through what to capture, how to capture it, and how to turn that information into actionable insight—so the next time someone says, "the database is slow", you will have data to prove or disprove it.
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In today’s data-driven environments, SQL Server performance is not just about fast queries, efficient indexes — it also heavily depends on how well your database communicates over the network. Whether it is a slow application response, timeout errors, or replication delays, the network often plays an invisible but critical role. As DBAs, we tend to focus on CPU, memory, and disk — yet overlooking network performance can leave significant bottlenecks unresolved.
This guide will walk you through essential network-related metrics, troubleshooting techniques, and tuning tips to ensure your SQL Server operates smoothly. Let’s decode what is happening between your servers — and keep the data flowing efficiently.
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CPU performance plays a critical role in the responsiveness and scalability of SQL Server. When CPU resources are overwhelmed, even well-optimized queries and tuned indexes may not deliver expected performance. Understanding how SQL Server utilizes CPU, identifying bottlenecks, and analyzing workload patterns are essential tasks for any DBA aiming to maintain a high-performing environment.
This guide walks you through the fundamentals of CPU behavior in SQL Server, the key metrics to monitor, common causes of CPU pressure, and practical strategies for diagnosing and resolving CPU-related issues.
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When it comes to SQL Server performance, disk I/O is often one of the most critical and overlooked components. While CPU and memory get much of the spotlight, the underlying storage subsystem plays a foundational role in how efficiently SQL Server can read and write data. Slow or misconfigured disk I/O can lead to query bottlenecks, long transaction times, and degraded user experience—especially under heavy workloads.
This guide helps DBAs understand how SQL Server interacts with storage, how to monitor disk I/O, and how to optimize it for better performance. From key metrics to practical tuning tips, you will gain the insights needed to keep your SQL Server running smoothly at the storage layer.
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Memory is one of the most critical resources in SQL Server. It affects query performance, workload efficiency, and overall server stability. As a DBA, understanding how SQL Server uses memory—and how to manage it effectively—can make the difference between a system that runs smoothly and one that is constantly under pressure.
In this guide, we will walk through the basics of SQL Server memory architecture, explore key configuration settings, and cover simple techniques to troubleshoot memory-related issues. Whether you are managing a small instance or supporting enterprise workloads, this article will help you build a solid foundation in memory management—without diving too deep into internals.
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I was reviewing my index rebuild and recreate activities. Some index rebuilding tasks are scheduled once or twice a week. I followed the best practices for the activities. However, it was not yielding expected performance gain. So, wondering what could be going wrong! Are there any hidden issues hindering the performance? I kept searching for potential clues in my favourite SQL Server gurus writing and compiled the hidden facts. Let's share my findings with you.
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When it comes to SQL Server performance tuning, few settings spark as much debate as MAXDOP—Maximum Degree of Parallelism. This small but powerful configuration controls how many processors SQL Server can use to execute a single query in parallel. While parallelism can speed up queries, it can also lead to unexpected issues like CPU pressure, query blocking, or inconsistent performance across workloads.
In this article, we will explore what MAXDOP really does, why it matters, and how to configure it wisely to strike the right balance between speed and stability in your SQL Server environment.
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As a DBA your job is to keep an eye on your SQL Server's performance, health, and potential issues. Though SQL Server has some built-in tools and commands, but you will not get any consolidate view or resolution from them. With your tight budget, most of the time you cannot afford the hefty pricey commercial monitoring tools. Fortunately DBADash, a free, open-source monitoring tool designed by David Wiseman to help DBAs track SQL Server metrics efficiently without breaking the budget.
Whether you are managing a single server or an entire fleet, DBADash offers insightful dashboards, historical data collection, and alerting features that empower you to proactively maintain your database environment. In this article, we will explore what DBADash offers, how it works, and why it is worth considering for both personal projects and production environments.
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