Microsoft® SQL Server 2012 Unleashed

Summary

To proactively identify needed enhancements to the indexing, partitioning, or physical table design, you should be running the DTA utility with a good representation of the production workload on a fairly regular basis. Don’t wait until the database application is having major performance issues. DTA has matured enough where most of the recommendations are going to be fairly accurate if you have provided a good workload that represents what must be tuned for. Using DTA is not an excuse to blame others, though. (Don’t blame Microsoft if the recommendations don’t help much.) Use DTA results for what they are and test your application as much as possible with any changes that are being suggested. This is your responsibility. You will then ...