You are a developer and/or DBA and want to learn in a very compact way the essential things about performance tuning & troubleshooting SQL Server installations? In our free 6 month long SQLpassion Performance Tuning Training Plan we give you week by week via email all the essential knowledge you need to know about performance tuning on SQL Server.
Month 1: Database Essentials
In the first month we lay out the foundation of SQL Server, and are talking about basic concepts in SQL Server. In the first 4 weeks we cover:
- How SQL Server executes a Query
- Data Pages – the Foundation of SQL Server
- Extent Management
- Data Page Restrictions
Month 2: Indexing
Based on the knowledge you have acquired in the first month, the second month is everything about Indexing in SQL Server. With a good indexing strategy you can achieve a huge performance boost of your SQL Server workload. Over the 4 weeks we cover in detail:
- Heap Tables
- Clustered Indexes
- Non-Clustered Indexes
- Covering Indexes & the Tipping Point
Month 3: Execution Plans
When we submit queries to SQL Server, we only describe through T-SQL statement what we want to get from SQL Server. But internally SQL Server has compile an Execution Plan. The Execution Plan is the access strategy how our requested data is accessed. If you have performance problems, you have to understand how to read and interpret the generated Execution Plan. In the 4 weeks you will learn the following about Execution Plans:
- Understanding Execution Plans
- Plan Caching
- Recompilations
- Parallel Execution Plans
Month 4: Statistics
Statistics are the most crucial part of your SQL Server database. Statistics are used during the generation of the Execution Plan to determine how many rows are returned from your queries. If your Statistics are out-of-date, you will get sub-optimal Execution Plans from SQL Server. Therefore we dedicate a whole month to Statistics, so that you will know them afterwards very well. We will cover in that month:
- Why Statistics are so important?
- The Histogram & the Density Vector
- Problems with Column Correlations
- Cardinality Estimation in SQL Server 2014
Month 5: Locking, Blocking, Deadlocking
By now your life as a developer/DBA was fine, because we have only executed with a single user queries against SQL Server. But what happens inside SQL Server if we run multiple users? In that case SQL Server have to acquire locks, and they will ultimately lead to blocking situations. And, if you are out of luck, the blocking situations can lead to deadlocks. To prepare you for these scenarios, we will cover in that month:
- Transaction Isolation Levels
- Optimistic Concurrency
- Lock Escalations
- Deadlocking
Month 6: Performance Monitoring & Troubleshooting
Wow, you have finally reached the last month of the SQLpassion Performance Tuning Training Plan. You are on your way to be an expert about performance tuning. But you need one additional knowledge: how to monitor and troubleshoot SQL Server installations in the case of performance problems. Therefore we cover in the last month:
- PAL Tools
- Wait Statistics
- TempDb
- Database Maintenance
