While working with SQL Server databases, if you often find the database
performance sluggish, it could be due to bad coding of procedures or incorrectly
set database variables. Here's a tool that can analyze SQL database instances
and help you in removing bottlenecks that cause the slow down. The tool monitors
SQL Server's hardware utilization rate and performance through parameters such
as CPU, memory and I/O sub systems, and correlates system utilization with user
connections and SQL code.
It has an agent that accesses the SQL Server instance once in every 5
minutes, keeping the footprint at a low level. The agent captures the
performance counters, which are subsequently saved. Collected data is then sent
to Teratrax main console for further analysis in the form of charts and reports.
Teratrax exports these at any time using an easy-to-understand user interface.
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The tool can be installed on a host machine, where you have SQL server
running. You can even install it on a remote machine and connect it to your SQL
server instance. Download it from www.teratrax.com/tpm.
Please note that this tool runs only on MS-SQL 2000 and above versions. Install
it on a Windows based machine and restart.
Configure agents
To monitor entire SQL instances, you first need to configure the Monitoring
Agent on remote machines running SQL. This agent fetches data from the database
and forwards it for analysis to the Teratrax console. Run Monitoring Agent 3.0
from Start menu, where under General tab you need to give the names of SQL
instances. Once the agent is connected, you can monitor each and every move of
your SQL database.
Using Teratrax Performance Viewer
Launch the Teratrax Performance Viewer from the Start menu. This will open a
console that's divided in two parts-on the left you will get the Server
Explorer, while on the right you will get the performance gauge in the form of
graphs.
The elements that consume more time in your SQL code are easily identified and rectified using Teratrax Performance Monitor |
To check performance, you have to connect the Viewer to the Monitoring Agent.
For this select the SQL instance and you can see the performance of the database
on the right panel. The tool also lets you create performance reports in the
form of a Web page.