Sometimes It Is Just The Simple Things
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Sometimes It Is Just The Simple Things
Every now and then I find myself slapped with the ultra-basics. I get dropped in checking on an issue (often performance) or building out queries related to other queries or... well, whatever. You start with a level 200 or 300 type solution to the issue and then suddenly realize that you should have started more simply.
Today's thought is to not forget indexes. This is, in my experience, a common thing with those that are more developer than administrators for SQL Server. SO many times I've seen applications built, tested and deployed without indexes defined, or with only indexes on primary keys. Of course the application allows searches, has reporting queries and other areas where indexes are clearly needed, but since the development models had limited data, performance was fine... until the database was loaded with real data.
So, my suggestion - review your schemas. More specifically, look at your tables and see what's there now in terms of indexes, compare it to how your system is used. You can use sp_helpindex <table> to see what's up. For example:
sp_helpindex tbl_MyTable
This will return a list of the indexes defined, the columns they include and so-on. Compare the columns that are indexed with your application. You're not only looking for search columns, you're also looking for indexes that will never be used. Those are candidates for further review and possible removal (extra indexes can add unnecessary work for SQL Server to maintain).
So, there's your tip of the day. Start basic. MORE basic than it seems you may need to. Make sure, if you're chasing a performance issue, that you at least have the supporting indexes in place. If so, then you can start looking at other things that may be impacting that speed.
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Today's Articles
Note: 'Guest' articles below will be available for seven days to registered guests.
SQL Server Topics
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| Migrating Departmental Data Stores to SQL Server, Part 4: Model the System (Decide on the Destination)
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Setting SQL Server ErrorLog Retention and Rollover with Powershell
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SQL Server 2008 R2 UNICODE Compression – what happens in the background?
| | (Peter Scharlock) SQL Server 2008 R2 added a much requested feature: Unicode compression. It addresses the need to compress U... [more]
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Populate TreeView Control with Tables, Views and Columns from a SQL Server Database
| | (Dennis Wallentin) This is the second blog post about populating a TreeView control. In the first blog post, Populate TreeVie... [more]
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ASMX ScriptService mistakes: Installation and configuration
| | (Dave Ward) Continuing my series of posts about ASMX services and JSON, in this post I’m going to cover two common mistakes t... [more]
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Tool for generating DGML graphs showing why your object can’t be collected (VisualGCRoot)
| | (Tess Ferrandez) Visual Studio.NET 2010 has a new feature that allows you to create nice directed graphs with a markup langua... [more]
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Visual Brush in WPF
| | (Mahesh Chand) The Visual object in WPF represents a visual control. That said, you can pretty much create a visual that can ... [more]
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Inserts Experiencing an Increasing CPU Consumption
| | (Christian Antognini) Last week I had to analyze a strange performance problem. Since the cause/solution was somehow surprisi... [more]
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SQL Developer: Install Unit Testing Repository
| | (chet justice) I'm not a big tools guy, I prefer SQL*Plus to anything else. I especially don't like paying for tools (yes, th... [more]
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ORA-02050 Remote DB in Doubt? How About Gone for Years??
| | (Kellyn Pedersen) Interesting Issue… I was working on an interrupted distributed, (remote) transaction that I’d come across i... [more]
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Creating a NIEM IEPD, Part 3: Extend NIEM
| | (Priscilla Walmsley) In the first two articles of this series, you learned to model a NIEM exchange, map it to the NIEM base ... [more]
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Serializing Encoded XML Documents using LINQ to XML
| | (Eric White) Writing encoded (utf-8, utf-16, etc.) documents using LINQ to XML is pretty straight-forward, but there is one i... [more]
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What's The Inspiration for Semantic Web Innovation? (Part 1)
| | (Jennifer Zaino) The semantic web is an innovation upon an innovation. As this blog regularly covers, innovations are being b... [more]
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March 2010- Unintended consequences
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DB2 Performance and cost savings tip: Don't maintain unused stuff (LASTUSED)
| | (Henrik Loeser) When you enjoying a regular life, over time you usually accumulate a lot of stuff. Some (most?) of that stuff... [more]
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Composite business applications in WebSphere Business Services Fabric, Part 2: Modeling and implementing a composite business application
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