Problem
Being able to identify SQL Server performance issues at the drop of a hat is easier said than done. Without a means to collect and analyze the performance data it is difficult at best to understand and correct the items in a timely manner. SQL Server ships with a handful of tools to include Profiler, Sysmon\Perfmon and the Database Engine Tuning Advisor\Index Tuning Wizard. Much of the time these tools meet the needs for manual collection and analysis, but what if you need to go beyond the tools that are available and to resolve a performance issue quickly?
Solution
A handful of vendors have built SQL Server performance products that can be quickly deployed to collect performance metrics to focus resources on the most resource intensive portions of SQL Server. These products include:
| ID | Product | Monitoring | Tuning | SQL Server | Windows | Network | Reporting | Alerting | Advice |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ApexSQL Monitor | * | * | * | * | * | |||
| 2 | Confio Ignite | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * |
| 3 | Embarcadero DB Performance Center XE | * | * | * | * | ||||
| 4 | Heroix Longitude | * | * | * | * | * | * | ||
| 5 | Idera’s SQL diagnostic manager | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | |
| 6 | Lepide SQL Storage Manager | * | * | * | * | * | * | ||
| 7 | ManageEngine SQLDBManager Plus | * | * | * | * | * | * | ||
| 8 | Microsoft’s System Monitor | * | * | * | * | * | |||
| 9 | Microsoft’s SQL Server Profiler | * | * | ||||||
| 10 | Microsoft’s SQL Server Database Engine Tuning Advisor | * | * | * | * | ||||
| 11 | Pearl Knowledge Solution’s SQL Centric | * | * | * | * | * | * | ||
| 12 | Precise i3 for SQL Server | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * |
| 13 | Quest Products for SQL Server | * | * | * | * | * | * | ||
| 14 | Red-Gate SQL Monitor | * | * | * | * | * | * | ||
| 15 | SQL Power Tools | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * |
| 16 | SQLRanger | * | * | ||||||
| 17 | SQL Sentry Performance Advisor | * | * | * | * | * | * | * | * |
| 18 | SQLTreeo | * | * | * | * | * | |||
| 19 | TNT Software’s ELM Performance Manager | * | * | * | * |
Next Steps
- If you do not have performance problems you are in the minority. When they occur from adding more users or applications to your SQL Server, turn to these products as a means to improve the overall ROI on your platform.
- Most of these products have a trial version for 15 to 30 days. Check out the trial versions to see if they will meet your needs so you can focus on building and supporting your business applications.
- These products are built by organization’s who solely focus on performance issues. As such, these products can save you a great deal of time as opposed to building an internal solution and not being confident of the results.
- If you use another tool or work for a company that builds a performance monitoring or tuning tool for SQL Server please send an email to tips@mssqltips.com so we can add it to the list.
Jeremy Kadlec is a Founder, Editor and Author at MSSQLTips.com with more than 300 contributions and 25+ years of SQL Server experience. Jeremy leads a team of more than 300 authors helping millions of SQL Server professionals around the globe every second of the day for the last 20 years. He is also the CTO @ Edgewood Solutions and a six-time SQL Server MVP based on his community contributions. Jeremy brings 25+ years of SQL Server DBA and Developer knowledge to the community and holds a bachelor’s degree from SSU and master’s degree from UMBC.
