You don't want any one session to do too much. It makes it harder to distinguish the information, search for what you want, etc.. Plus, you put more of a...

Oof. Trace. Not extended events. These are even more resource intensive than extended events. I'd turn them ALL off and go with XE, especially because your system is already under...

Is the blocked process report running as part of query collection? It shouldn't separate those out. One as one session. One as another. And, yeah, capturing query metrics, especially at...

I don't have one I can recommend,...

Have you captured the blocked process report? That's going to show you the precise blocking chain. You'll have a total story, and one that cannot be argued with. And yeah,...

A bunch to unpack here. Let's start with the nerdier stuff.

You list a bunch of events for capturing query metrics, but, you're missing a few, sp_statement_completed for example, since you're...

Personally, I'd go with what I'm familiar with and can support. If you're better in AWS, that's probably your best bet.

HOWEVER...

I would also be very cautious about moving your friend...

If I were doing a lot of external data, I'd absolutely be looking at Polybase. It's a way to query the data in place that's more efficient than some...

I'd look at this article by Jonathan Kehayias. I think it covers what you're looking for. In general, you may not have a direct, "HERE IS THE ONE PIECE...

Education.

Get extended events out and set up data collection. Show them how long queries take. Show them how blocking works, and how sometimes, you simply can't guarantee 2 seconds of...

If you've been running without partitions for 12 years or so, why add them back? Partitions are all about data management, not performance. If you're not dealing with all the...

Ha! I was just coming down to say something similar. I suspect we're going to be seeing a LOT...

Oh, I know all too well how people try to avoid doing new & different stuff. The issue to me is pretty clear though. Learning is a skill, like any...

Bob Ward's pre-con was a pretty compelling reason to go to Austin's SQL Saturday.  I saw a 2 hour-ish presentation about a year ago by Bob Ward on 2022. ...

As emphatically strong a suggestion as I can make...

If you get the opportunity to take the all-day class on SQL Server 2022 put on by Bob Ward of Microsoft, jump...