It is pretty common for large, busy SQL Server implementations to run into I/O pressure or bottlenecks, especially since many people seem to buy “big” servers with lots of CPU capacity and lots of RAM, but they treat the I/O subsystem as an afterthought. I have run into this situation enough lately, that I thought I would write a little about it.

The situation is not improved when you have SQL Server DBAs and SAN engineers working for different parts of large organizations, that may have different goals. If you suspect that your SQL Server instance is having I/O issues, these queries can help furnish proof that you are under I/O pressure, and they can help pinpoint what is causing the problem.  As with most DMV queries, you will need VIEW SERVER STATE permission to run most of them.

I always like to run the Top Wait Stats rollup query first. If you see I/O related wait types at the top of the list, then you should start looking at the problem in more detail with the rest of the queries below:

-- Isolate top waits for server instance since last restart or statistics clear
WITH Waits AS
(SELECT wait_type, wait_time_ms / 1000. AS wait_time_s,
100. * wait_time_ms / SUM(wait_time_ms) OVER() AS pct,
ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY wait_time_ms DESC) AS rn
FROM sys.dm_os_wait_stats
WHERE wait_type NOT IN ('CLR_SEMAPHORE','LAZYWRITER_SLEEP','RESOURCE_QUEUE','SLEEP_TASK'
,'SLEEP_SYSTEMTASK','SQLTRACE_BUFFER_FLUSH','WAITFOR', 'LOGMGR_QUEUE','CHECKPOINT_QUEUE'
,'REQUEST_FOR_DEADLOCK_SEARCH','XE_TIMER_EVENT','BROKER_TO_FLUSH','BROKER_TASK_STOP','CLR_MANUAL_EVENT'
,'CLR_AUTO_EVENT','DISPATCHER_QUEUE_SEMAPHORE', 'FT_IFTS_SCHEDULER_IDLE_WAIT'
,'XE_DISPATCHER_WAIT', 'XE_DISPATCHER_JOIN'))
SELECT W1.wait_type, 
CAST(W1.wait_time_s AS DECIMAL(12, 2)) AS wait_time_s,
CAST(W1.pct AS DECIMAL(12, 2)) AS pct,
CAST(SUM(W2.pct) AS DECIMAL(12, 2)) AS running_pct
FROM Waits AS W1
INNER JOIN Waits AS W2
ON W2.rn <= W1.rn
GROUP BY W1.rn, W1.wait_type, W1.wait_time_s, W1.pct
HAVING SUM(W2.pct) - W1.pct < 95; -- percentage threshold
-- Common Significant I/O Wait types with BOL explanations
-- *** I/O Related Waits ***
-- ASYNC_IO_COMPLETION  Occurs when a task is waiting for I/Os to finish
-- IO_COMPLETION        Occurs while waiting for I/O operations to complete. 
--                      This wait type generally represents non-data page I/Os. Data page I/O completion waits appear 
--                      as PAGEIOLATCH_* waits
-- PAGEIOLATCH_SH        Occurs when a task is waiting on a latch for a buffer that is in an I/O request. 
--                      The latch request is in Shared mode. Long waits may indicate problems with the disk subsystem.
-- PAGEIOLATCH_EX        Occurs when a task is waiting on a latch for a buffer that is in an I/O request. 
--                      The latch request is in Exclusive mode. Long waits may indicate problems with the disk subsystem.
-- WRITELOG             Occurs while waiting for a log flush to complete. 
--                      Common operations that cause log flushes are checkpoints and transaction commits.
-- PAGELATCH_EX            Occurs when a task is waiting on a latch for a buffer that is not in an I/O request. 
--                      The latch request is in Exclusive mode.
-- BACKUPIO                Occurs when a backup task is waiting for data, or is waiting for a buffer in which to store data

-- Some I/O Specific DMV Queries
-- Glenn Berry
-- December 2009
-- http://glennberrysqlperformance.spaces.live.com/
-- Twitter: GlennAlanBerry
-- Always look at Avg Disk Sec/Read and Avg Disk Sec/Write in PerfMon for each Physical Disk 
-- Check for IO Bottlenecks (run multiple times, look for values above zero)
SELECT cpu_id, pending_disk_io_count 
FROM sys.dm_os_schedulers
WHERE [status] = 'VISIBLE ONLINE';
-- Look at average for all schedulers (run multiple times, look for values above zero)
SELECT AVG(pending_disk_io_count) AS [AvgPendingDiskIOCount]
FROM sys.dm_os_schedulers 
WHERE [status] = 'VISIBLE ONLINE';
-- High Latch waits (SH and EX) indicates the I/O subsystem is too busy 
-- the wait time indicates time waiting for disk
SELECT wait_type, waiting_tasks_count, wait_time_ms, signal_wait_time_ms,
       wait_time_ms - signal_wait_time_ms AS [io_wait_time_ms]
FROM sys.dm_os_wait_stats
WHERE wait_type IN('PAGEIOLATCH_EX', 'PAGEIOLATCH_SH', 'PAGEIOLATCH_UP')
ORDER BY wait_type;
-- Analyze Database I/O, ranked by IO Stall%
WITH DBIO AS
(SELECT DB_NAME(IVFS.database_id) AS db,
 CASE WHEN MF.type = 1 THEN 'log' ELSE 'data' END AS file_type,
 SUM(IVFS.num_of_bytes_read + IVFS.num_of_bytes_written) AS io,
 SUM(IVFS.io_stall) AS io_stall
 FROM sys.dm_io_virtual_file_stats(NULL, NULL) AS IVFS
 INNER JOIN sys.master_files AS MF
 ON IVFS.database_id = MF.database_id
 AND IVFS.file_id = MF.file_id
 GROUP BY DB_NAME(IVFS.database_id), MF.[type])
SELECT db, file_type, 
  CAST(1. * io / (1024 * 1024) AS DECIMAL(12, 2)) AS io_mb,
  CAST(io_stall / 1000. AS DECIMAL(12, 2)) AS io_stall_s,
  CAST(100. * io_stall / SUM(io_stall) OVER()
       AS DECIMAL(10, 2)) AS io_stall_pct,
  ROW_NUMBER() OVER(ORDER BY io_stall DESC) AS rn
FROM DBIO
ORDER BY io_stall DESC;
-- Average stalls per read, write and total
SELECT DB_NAME(database_id) AS [Database Name], file_id, io_stall_read_ms, num_of_reads,
CAST(io_stall_read_ms/(1.0+num_of_reads) AS numeric(10,1)) AS [avg_read_stall_ms],
io_stall_write_ms, num_of_writes,
CAST(io_stall_write_ms/(1.0+num_of_writes) AS numeric(10,1)) AS [avg_write_stall_ms],
io_stall_read_ms + io_stall_write_ms AS io_stalls,
num_of_reads + num_of_writes AS total_io,
CAST((io_stall_read_ms+io_stall_write_ms)/(1.0+num_of_reads + num_of_writes) 
AS numeric(10,1)) AS [avg_io_stall_ms]
FROM sys.dm_io_virtual_file_stats(null,null)
ORDER BY avg_io_stall_ms DESC;
-- Calculates average stalls per read, per write, and per total input/output for each database file. 
SELECT DB_NAME(database_id) AS [Database Name], file_id ,io_stall_read_ms, num_of_reads,
CAST(io_stall_read_ms/(1.0 + num_of_reads) AS NUMERIC(10,1)) AS [avg_read_stall_ms],io_stall_write_ms, 
num_of_writes,CAST(io_stall_write_ms/(1.0+num_of_writes) AS NUMERIC(10,1)) AS [avg_write_stall_ms],
io_stall_read_ms + io_stall_write_ms AS [io_stalls], num_of_reads + num_of_writes AS [total_io],
CAST((io_stall_read_ms + io_stall_write_ms)/(1.0 + num_of_reads + num_of_writes) AS NUMERIC(10,1)) 
AS [avg_io_stall_ms]
FROM sys.dm_io_virtual_file_stats(null,null)
ORDER BY avg_io_stall_ms DESC;
-- Which queries are causing the most IO operations (can take a few seconds)
SELECT TOP (20) total_logical_reads/execution_count AS [avg_logical_reads],
    total_logical_writes/execution_count AS [avg_logical_writes],
    total_worker_time/execution_count AS [avg_cpu_cost], execution_count,
    total_worker_time, total_logical_reads, total_logical_writes, 
    (SELECT DB_NAME(dbid) + ISNULL('..' + OBJECT_NAME(objectid), '') 
     FROM sys.dm_exec_sql_text([sql_handle])) AS query_database,
    (SELECT SUBSTRING(est.[text], statement_start_offset/2 + 1,
        (CASE WHEN statement_end_offset = -1
            THEN LEN(CONVERT(nvarchar(max), est.[text])) * 2
            ELSE statement_end_offset
            END - statement_start_offset
        ) / 2)
        FROM sys.dm_exec_sql_text(sql_handle) AS est) AS query_text,
    last_logical_reads, min_logical_reads, max_logical_reads,
    last_logical_writes, min_logical_writes, max_logical_writes,
    total_physical_reads, last_physical_reads, min_physical_reads, max_physical_reads,
    (total_logical_reads + (total_logical_writes * 5))/execution_count AS io_weighting,
    plan_generation_num, qp.query_plan
FROM sys.dm_exec_query_stats
OUTER APPLY sys.dm_exec_query_plan([plan_handle]) AS qp
WHERE [dbid] >= 5 AND (total_worker_time/execution_count) > 100
ORDER BY io_weighting DESC;
-- Top Cached SPs By Total Physical Reads (SQL 2008). Physical reads relate to disk I/O pressure
SELECT TOP(25) p.name AS [SP Name],
qs.total_physical_reads AS [TotalPhysicalReads], qs.total_physical_reads/qs.execution_count AS [AvgPhysicalReads],
ISNULL(qs.execution_count/DATEDIFF(Second, qs.cached_time, GETDATE()), 0) AS [Calls/Second],
qs.total_logical_reads AS [TotalLogicalReads], qs.total_logical_reads/qs.execution_count AS [AvgLogicalReads],
qs.total_worker_time AS [TotalWorkerTime], qs.total_worker_time/qs.execution_count AS [AvgWorkerTime], 
qs.execution_count, 
qs.total_elapsed_time, qs.total_elapsed_time/qs.execution_count AS [avg_elapsed_time], qs.last_elapsed_time,
qs.cached_time 
FROM sys.procedures AS p
INNER JOIN sys.dm_exec_procedure_stats AS qs
ON p.[object_id] = qs.[object_id]
WHERE qs.database_id = DB_ID()
ORDER BY qs.total_physical_reads DESC;
    
    
-- Top Cached SPs By Total Logical Writes (SQL 2008). Logical writes relate to both memory and disk I/O pressure 
SELECT TOP(25) p.name AS [SP Name],
qs.total_logical_writes AS [TotalLogicalWrites], qs.total_logical_writes/qs.execution_count AS [AvgLogicalWrites],
ISNULL(qs.execution_count/DATEDIFF(Second, qs.cached_time, GETDATE()), 0) AS [Calls/Second],
qs.total_logical_reads AS [TotalLogicalReads], qs.total_logical_reads/qs.execution_count AS [AvgLogicalReads],
qs.total_worker_time AS [TotalWorkerTime], qs.total_worker_time/qs.execution_count AS [AvgWorkerTime], 
qs.execution_count, 
qs.total_elapsed_time, qs.total_elapsed_time/qs.execution_count AS [avg_elapsed_time], qs.last_elapsed_time,
qs.cached_time
FROM sys.procedures AS p
INNER JOIN sys.dm_exec_procedure_stats AS qs
ON p.[object_id] = qs.[object_id]
WHERE qs.database_id = DB_ID()
ORDER BY qs.total_logical_writes DESC;