Building SQL ConstantCare®: Analyzing Query Plans

Starting to translate sp_BlitzCache into the cloud.

Query Plan Oddities: Two Identical Missing Indexes

Brent demos a single query plan that asks for 2 identical indexes on the same table.

Number of Rows Read / Actual Rows Read warnings in Plan Explorer

Rob Farley looks at information exposed in query plans about residual predicates and actual rows read, showing how Plan Explorer helps identify the issue.

Exploring Query Plans in SQL

SQL Server keeps the most-used execution plans in cache, so it doesn't need to recompile the same queries every time. How can we benefit from this to find potential performance problems in execution plans?

Query Plan Execution Order

Table Access Order

Execution plans

Showplan Operator of the Week – SORT

Fabiano introduces another ShowPlan operator that is used to build a query plan, or perform an operation specified in the DML. Once again, Fabiano demonstrates why it is important to be aware of these operators when getting queries to perform well.

DMVs for Query Plan Metadata

Before you can tackle any performance issues with a working database, you need to know which queries to work on first: The ones that are taking the most time in total, and which are the most expensive in terms of cache, CPU and disk. Although SQL Server Management Studio can help, it isn't long before you need an armoury of DMVs to provide you the statistics to find the culprits.

Queries, Plans, and Indexes

Find indexes associated with queries and vice versa. Helps figure out what procedures are using indexes.