Why You Need Query Store, Part III: Proactively analyze your workload

 

The amount of data collected by Query Store pales in comparison to the amount of data available in all of SQL Server that could be captured.  But the quality of the data overshadows the quantity, or lack thereof.  While most people target the execution statistics when viewing historical data in Query Store, I would argue that the query text and query plan information are equally as valuable when it comes to taking the time to analyze your workload.

The query text and plan are stored in two separate tables, sys.query_store_query_text and sys.query_store_plan, respectively.  The text is stored as a nvarchar(max) data type, and the plan is stored as varbinary(max).  This means that the data can be mined, looking for patterns and explicit use of objects.  Want to know what queries use an index?  Look for it in the plans.  Want to know what queries have a RECOMPILE hint on them?  Look for it in the query text.  Anything you want to find with regard to query text or plans is there, you just have to know how to query the data.

Mining Query Store: Queries

But wait, can’t we just search the text?  Sure, with the query_text field you can just wildcard your way through it looking for things.  For example, the query below will help you find every statement in Query Store that has RECOMPILE in the text.

SELECT
     [qsq].[query_id],
     [qsp].[plan_id],
     [rs].[last_execution_time],
     [rs].[avg_duration],
     [rs].[avg_logical_io_reads],
     [qst].[query_sql_text],
     TRY_CONVERT(XML, [qsp].[query_plan]) AS [QueryPlan_XML]
FROM [sys].[query_store_query] [qsq]
JOIN [sys].[query_store_query_text] [qst]
     ON [qsq].[query_text_id] = [qst].[query_text_id]
JOIN [sys].[query_store_plan] [qsp]
     ON [qsq].[query_id] = [qsp].[query_id]
JOIN [sys].[query_store_runtime_stats] [rs]
     ON [qsp].[plan_id] = [rs].[plan_id]
WHERE [qst].[query_sql_text] LIKE '%RECOMPILE%';
GO

Mining Query Store: Plans

Query plans have a specific format, defined by Microsoft, which can be searched using wildcards, but the performance is abysmal and you’re better served using XQuery.  That’s right, I said XQuery.  If you don’t know, XQuery and I are frenemies.  I love the information I get when using it, but writing the T-SQL always makes me want to compulsively eat M&Ms and animal crackers until I feel sick.

Fortunately for me, Jonathan writes XQuery and creates the foundation of the queries I manage to cobble together for Query Store.  In his post, Finding what queries in the plan cache use a specific index, Jonathan has the code to look through the plan cache and find what queries use a specific index.  The challenge is that the plan cache can be volatile, particularly in an ad hoc workload.  Even in a parameterized/procedural workload, there is churn and the plans that are cache change as different business processes run throughout the day, week, and month.

Consider the scenario where you use sys.dm_db_index_usage_stats to determine if an index is being used, and when you find one that it isn’t….how do you really know?  As we know, the plan cache is transitory, so a query that uses it might not be in cache at that moment.  But it would be in Query Store, depending on your retention settings.  If we modify the query from Jonathan’s post, we can interrogate the Query Store data:

SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL READ UNCOMMITTED;
GO

DECLARE @IndexName AS NVARCHAR(128) = '[FK_Sales_InvoiceLines_InvoiceID]';
-- Make sure the name passed is appropriately quoted

IF (LEFT(@IndexName, 1) <> '[' AND RIGHT(@IndexName, 1) <> ']') SET @IndexName = QUOTENAME(@IndexName);
--Handle the case where the left or right was quoted manually but not the opposite side
IF LEFT(@IndexName, 1) <> '[' SET @IndexName = '['+@IndexName;
IF RIGHT(@IndexName, 1) <> ']' SET @IndexName = @IndexName + ']';
;WITH XMLNAMESPACES
(DEFAULT 'http://schemas.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2004/07/showplan')
SELECT
     stmt.value('(@StatementText)[1]', 'varchar(max)') AS SQL_Text,
     obj.value('(@Database)[1]', 'varchar(128)') AS DatabaseName,
     obj.value('(@Schema)[1]', 'varchar(128)') AS SchemaName,
     obj.value('(@Table)[1]', 'varchar(128)') AS TableName,
     obj.value('(@Index)[1]', 'varchar(128)') AS IndexName,
     obj.value('(@IndexKind)[1]', 'varchar(128)') AS IndexKind,
     query_plan
FROM
(
     SELECT query_plan
     FROM
     (
          SELECT TRY_CONVERT(XML, [qsp].[query_plan]) AS [query_plan]
          FROM sys.query_store_plan [qsp]) tp
          ) AS tab (query_plan)
     CROSS APPLY query_plan.nodes('/ShowPlanXML/BatchSequence/Batch/Statements/StmtSimple') AS batch(stmt)
     CROSS APPLY stmt.nodes('.//IndexScan/Object[@Index=sql:variable("@IndexName")]') AS idx(obj)
OPTION(MAXDOP 1, RECOMPILE);

Summary

Beyond looking at performance metrics over time for a query, take advantage of the plethora of data in the Query Store tables.  Use both the text and plan information to proactively look for anti-patterns in your workload: use of index hints, RECOMPILE, NO LOCK…all the things that may cause problems, and understand both object access and expensive operations in the plans.  There is no limit to the patterns, and anti-patterns, you can find.  You just have to write the code.

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