Workload Tuning Training

I recently booked my flight to the U.K. for SQLBits, and I realized I probably should write a post about my full day training session on workload tuning! It’s on Wednesday, February 27, 2019, and you can read the abstract here: Stop Tuning Your Queries and Start Tuning Your Workload.

I included a fair bit of information about what I’ll cover, so I thought it might be interesting to anyone considering this session to hear the backstory about how it came to be.
First, this is a new full day session, I haven’t presented it anywhere else previously. It does have pieces of content I’ve discussed elsewhere, but this really represents a different approach for tuning and troubleshooting. Namely: let’s not focus on one or two or five specific queries that are causing problems, let’s focus on the workload as a whole to identify patterns and then address them in specific queries.

What I have noticed over the past couple years is that I see similar patterns when I’m looking at a given system. Very often, within a solution there are patterns in terms of how queries are written, typical performance problems, and then typical ways they are addressed or fixed internally.

For example, we engage with a customer and discover they use table variables in a lot of their code, and this causes poor cardinality estimates and then a host of subsequent issues. We optimize a couple queries using temporary tables instead, and they then replace all table variables with temporary tables, and then start seeing issues related to temp table contention. Both options have a time and a place, the key is to understand when and why.

The ultimate goal of my session is to share my experience working with a wide range of customers and solutions over the years, the patterns I have seen, and options for addressing them. I’ll tell you now that there is no “easy button” in terms of fixes. But you already knew that 😊 A big key is figuring out how to convince your team of the changes that need to be made, and understanding how and why is critical. That’s what we’ll discuss, because I want you to walk away with applicable information that you can use immediately in your environment.

Still have questions? Add a comment or send me an email. I’d love to hear from you. I hope to see you in Manchester in Feburary!

p.s. I should also mention that next week (Jan 15 – Jan 17) I’m presenting my Query Store course online, and it’s the only delivery of it scheduled for the first part of the year. There is still space if you’re interested! Three afternoons next week, each day with two 1.5 hour sessions. I really like this format, it gives people good breaks to absorb information and think of/ask questions.

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