Maintaining and improving database performance is a critical part of a database administrator’s (DBA’s) job. Slow and under-performing systems lead to dissatisfied users or customers. This in turn negatively impacts a business’s ability to compete and results in lost revenue.
In the competitive landscape of modern commerce, customers are likely to abandon a solution that doesn’t meet their expectations or takes too long to respond in favor of an offering from a market rival.
Database profiling can help DBAs keep their systems performing well.
What is Database Profiling?
Database profiling is a term describing the process of identifying and diagnosing issues affecting database performance so they can be addressed by the support team. Through profiling, DBAs can obtain the information they need to tune database performance without wasting time and effort trying to track down the source of problems.
Profiling requires insight regarding the inner workings of the database under review. This is best done with a dedicated tool tailored to the database platform on which the ill-performing instance is running.
DB Optimizer is such a tool, designed to save DBAs time and quickly get to the root of performance issues. It provides the following benefits:
- Graphical visualization of wait-time analysis enables teams to pinpoint poorly performing SQL code.
- Detailed information is provided for individual SQL statements, making them accessible for tuning.
- The tool offers a complete, easily installable, and agentless one-stop profiling solution that supports multiple relational database management systems (RDBMSs).
Let’s take a closer look at using wait-time analysis to identify performance bottlenecks.
Wait-Time Analysis for Database Profiling
Wait-time analysis is a technique that has gained popularity as a method of performance tuning and offers some advantages over traditional trace analysis.
Trace analysis requires DBAs to have some idea of what they are looking for and is most useful when a performance problem has already been isolated. Wait-time analysis is better suited to quickly locating the problems that need to be addressed.
Wait-time analysis works by providing DBAs with a list of the time delays impacting a database that are causing users to wait for requested information. It looks at queries, explain plans, and stored routines to give a complete picture of where bottlenecks are occurring.
DB Optimizer makes various categories of wait event analysis available for the supported database platforms. Examples include details on the wait-time for CPU events, I/O, locks, and memory access. Data is presented graphically to make it easier to understand.
Armed with this information, DBAs can go directly to the source of the specific performance problems plaguing their systems.
Profiling with DB Optimizer
DB Optimizer provides DBAs with the information necessary to tune relational databases on the Oracle, SQL Server, Db2, and Sybase platforms from a unified interface. Consolidating tuning capabilities for multiple platforms in this way aids productivity as DBAs become familiar with the tool’s features.
In multi-platform database environments, eliminating the complications involved with using additional tools will be greatly appreciated by the team.
Some of the features that make DB Optimizer a valuable tool for database teams searching for performance gains include:
- Graphical visualization of wait-time analysis;
- Continuous profiling for a configurable time interval;
- Explain plans that detail how SQL is executed and the performance costs;
- An SQL editor that can automatically flag and correct inefficient code.
The business benefits of DB Optimizer and its return on investment (ROI) can be demonstrated by measuring:
- The reduced time necessary to identify and resolve poorly-performing SQL code;
- Improved database performance resulting in better end-user productivity and enhanced customer satisfaction;
- Shorter quality assurance (QA) cycles are required to find and troubleshoot issues.
An IDERA solution brief is available that discusses the benefits of using DB Optimizer for better query profiling. It offers more details on how DB Optimizer can be used to streamline database performance. DBAs looking to improve the performance of their systems should give it a read.
DB Optimizer can be obtained as a stand-alone product or as part of the DB PowerStudio suite of database tools. This package of tools provides database teams with multiple solutions designed to extract the maximum performance from their systems.