Performance Related Fixes in Post-SQL Server 2012 SP1 Builds

There have already been six Cumulative Updates (CU) for the Service Pack 1 branch of SQL Server 2012. There have been a fairly high number of hotfixes in every one of these early Cumulative Updates, as more people are using SQL Server 2012 over time. SQL Server 2012 SP1 has all of the fixes through SQL Server 2012 RTM CU2. Especially if you are getting ready to migrate to SQL Server 2012 from an earlier version, I think you should start out with the latest SQL Server 2012 Service Pack and Cumulative Update. Right now, that means Service Pack 1, CU6 (Build 11.0.3381).

This table shows the SP1 CU builds that have been released so far.

Build	Description	Release Date
11.0.3000	SP1 RTM	November 7, 2012
11.0.3321	SP1 CU1	November 20, 2012
11.0.3339	SP1 CU2	January 21, 2013
11.0 3349	SP1 CU3	March 18, 2013
11.0.3368	SP1 CU4	May 30, 2013
11.0.3373	SP1 CU5	July 15, 2013
11.0.3381	SP1 CU6	September 16, 2013

Table 1: SQL Server 2012 SP1 CU Builds

You can follow the KB article link below to see all of the CU builds for the SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 1 branch.

The SQL Server 2012 builds that were released after SQL Server 2012 Service Pack 1 was released

Like I did in my previous post, I decided to scan the hotfix list for all of the Cumulative Updates in the SP1 branch, looking for performance and general reliability-related fixes for the SQL Server Database Engine. I came up with the list below, but this is completely arbitrary on my part. You may come up with a completely different list, based on what SQL Server 2012 features you are using.

Here are the fixes in the RTM branch, before Service Pack 1 was released:

 

SQL Server 2012 RTM Cumulative Update 1  (Build 11.0.2316) , 65 total public hot fixes

FIX: Low CPU spikes at a set interval even without user activity in SQL Server 2008 R2 or in SQL Server 2012

FIX: Slow performance when an AFTER trigger runs on a partitioned table in SQL Server 2008 R2 or in SQL Server 2012

FIX: It takes a long time to restore a database in SQL Server 2008 R2 or in SQL Server 2008 or in SQL 2012

FIX: Poor performance when you run a query that contains correlated AND predicates in SQL Server 2008 or in SQL Server 2008 R2 or in SQL Server 2012

FIX: Slow performance occurs in SQL Server 2008 R2 or in SQL Server 2012 if high CPU usage is observed with contention over the QUERY_EXEC_STATS spinlock

FIX: Out-of-memory error when you run SQL Server 2012 on a computer that uses NUMA

SQL Server 2012 RTM Cumulative Update 2  (Build 11.0.2325) , 37 total public hot fixes

FIX: An access violation occurs intermittently when you run a query against a table that has a columnstore index in SQL Server 2012

SQL Server 2012 RTM Cumulative Update 3  (Build 11.0.2332) , 35 total public hotfixes

FIX: Incorrect results when you run a parallel query that uses a columnstore index in SQL Server 2012

 

Here are the fixes in the Service Pack 1 branch:

 

SQL Server 2012 SP1 Cumulative Update 1 (Build 11.0.3321), 44 total public hot fixes

FIX: “out of memory” error when you use ODBC with SQL Server 2012, SQL Server 2008 R2 or SQL Server 2008

FIX: Performance of a SELECT statement that contains a LIKE operator and an ESCAPE clause is low in SQL Server 2008 R2 or in SQL Server 2012

FIX: SQL Server 2012, SQL Server 2008 R2 or SQL Server 2008 stops responding and a “Non-yielding Scheduler” error is logged

FIX: Slow performance or deadlock when you restore a database and execute statements at the same time in SQL Server 2012

FIX: Worker threads do not wake up immediately when multiple I/O-intensive tasks are running at the same in SQL Server 2012

FIX: “Process appears to be non-yielding on Scheduler ” error message when you run a query in SQL Server 2012

SQL Server 2012 SP1 Cumulative Update 2 (Build 11.0.3339), 50 total public hot fixes

A database transaction log continues to grow after you upgrade to SQL Server 2012, SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1, SQL Server 2008 SP2 or SQL Server 2008 SP3

FIX: The size of a database file is not reduced when you use the DBCC SHRINKFILE command in SQL Server 2008 R2 or in SQL Server 2012

FIX: High CPU usage when you query a binary large object column by using the NOLOCK hint in SQL Server 2008 R2 or in SQL Server 2012

FIX: Large queries that modify data run slower than expected when many locks accumulate in a SQL Server 2008 R2 or in SQL Server 2012

FIX: A transaction log restore operation takes longer than expected and a 3402 error occurs if a database file is removed in SQL Server 2008 R2 or in SQL Server 2012

SQL Server 2012 experiences out-of-memory errors

FIX: Deadlocks occur when you execute a stored procedure to alter a temporary table if lock partitioning is enabled in SQL Server 2008 R2 or in SQL Server 2012

FIX: Memory leak if you enable the AUTO_UPDATE_STATISTICS_ASYNC statistics option in SQL Server 2008, in SQL Server 2012 or in SQL Server 2008 R2

FIX: A “non-yielding” error occurs on a server for Service Broker Message Forwarding in SQL Server 2008 R2 or in SQL Server 2012

FIX: Error 17883 when you run a query on a server that has many CPUs and a large amount of memory in SQL Server 2012

SQL Server 2012 SP1 Cumulative Update 3 (Build 11.0.3349), 38 total public hot fixes

FIX: Access violation when you run a query that contains many constant values in an IN clause in SQL Server 2008 or in SQL Server 2012

FIX: Memory leak when you run queries against a temporary table in a nested stored procedure in SQL Server 2012

FIX: Poor performance in SQL Server 2012 when you run a SQL Server trace

FIX: You experience poor performance when you run a query against an RCSI-enabled table in SQL Server 2012

FIX: CPU spike when there is no load on a server after you install SQL Server 2012 on the server

SQL Server 2012 experiences performance issues in NUMA environments

SQL Server 2012 SP1 Cumulative Update 4 (Build 11.0.3368), 38 total public hot fixes

FIX: Out-of-memory errors related to a memory clerk in SQL Server 2012

FIX: Out of memory error when you build a columnstore index on partitioned tables in SQL Server 2012

Update that improves the Service Broker when you send messages to remote servers in SQL Server 2012 is available

An update is available for SQL Server 2012 Memory Management

FIX: “Non-yielding Scheduler” error occurs when you insert a row in SQL Server 2012

FIX: You may experience performance issues in SQL Server 2012

SQL Server 2012 SP1 Cumulative Update 5 (Build 11.0.3373), 27 total public hot fixes

FIX: Poor performance when you run a query that uses the LIKE operator in the WHERE clause in SQL Server 2008 R2

FIX: Non-yielding scheduler error when you run a stored procedure that uses a TVP in SQL Server 2012

SQL Server 2012 SP1 Cumulative Update 6 (Build 11.0.3381), 24 total public hot fixes

FIX: Slow performance on SQL Server 2012 linked server when you update the data together with different collation on the remote server

FIX: A memory leak occurs when you enable AlwaysOn Availability Groups or SQL Server failover cluster in Microsoft SQL Server 2012

 

Again, the idea here is to give you some concrete reasons to want to stay current with the latest SQL Server 2012 SP and CU, by pointing out some of the more valuable fixes in each CU in the Service Pack 1 branch.