Microsoft® SQL Server 2012 Unleashed

Tools of the Performance and Tuning Trade

If you are going off to war (Performance and Tuning War), you should not come empty handed. Bring all your heaviest artillery. In other words, make sure you have plenty of performance and tuning tools to help you diagnose and resolve your issues (to fight your war). One tool we are providing you is this formal performance and tuning methodology outlined in this chapter. But methodologies are only part of the process. There are tools you can use out of the box from Microsoft as well as plenty of third-party tools that will help you shed much light on any issues you may be having. In the following sections, we outline a few of both so you can see various methods of getting to the heart of your performance ...