SQL Server Monitoring Week – Database Performance Analyzer

April 22, 2019

Today I am starting a week-long series where I will be discussing various SQL Server Monitoring Tools. My primary aim is to help people with my consulting workshop Comprehensive Database Performance Health Check. While I help customers with their various SQL Server performance issues, I often see them struggling to monitor their SQL Server’s health. One of the primary discussions at the end of the consultation is about which tool is the best for their situation and how it can prevent them from encountering more trouble in the future. Today we will briefly talk about Database Performance Analyzer (DPA).

Wait Statistics and Intuitive

SQL Server wait statistics are my favorite subject and I have been a big advocate of this method for looking at performance issues. Database Performance Analyzer can deliver better results using a very different approach where it prioritizes the wait statistics and helps you identify the root cause of your complex database issues.

The best part of this tool is that it is very simple to use and install. If you have installed SQL Server tools, then you must be familiar with the possible installation issues. Database Performance Analyzer is installed very quickly and, within a few minutes of the installation, it starts to point out various important details about your SQL Server. Not only will it point out the issues but it will also properly guide you along with the various available solutions.

My Top 3 Favorites of Database Performance Analyzer

There are many reasons for liking this tool, however, I would love to expand on 3 of the reasons I like it.

Reason 1: Anomaly Detection by Machine Learning

This is super cool. I think SolarWinds have invested a lot of time and energy building a tool that not only looks at your problems but also makes a decision based on their wide experience of working with many other installations. Dynamic baselines compare historic performance to identify issues and that helps to improve the response time for the user.

Reason 2: Agentless Architecture

I am a big fan of Agentless Architecture on a SQL Server. When we install SQL Server Agent and tools often, it takes up lots of resources on your database. In the past, I have seen many solutions for monitoring the SQL Server using a lot of resources leading to SQL Server Performance being negatively impacted. The way DPA is built means that it actually puts less than 1% load on monitoring. This helps to monitor thousands of environments on the SQL Server without worrying about a huge load on the resources.

Reason 3: Multi-Vendor Relational Database Support

The real world is not as simple as it seems. Many successful organizations use different tools for different parts of their application. DPA’s database management software provides full coverage of your databases without looking at how it is deployed or relational database product it is. It supports physical, virtual, cloud, or DBaaS for deployment and supports SQL Server (Azure), Oracle, MySQL, MariaDB, Aurora, IBM Db2, and ASE.

When DPA is Best For You?

If your system is facing frequent performance problems like sudden slowing down of queries, sluggish response, or deadlocks, you should consider DPA as your first choice. Often, during a consulting engagement, I will learn that the customer has DPA and, instead of solving their problem, I end up teaching them how to use DPA.