Chapter 11
Optimizing SQL Server 2012
WHAT’S IN THIS CHAPTER
- Benefits to Optimizing Application Performance
- Using Partitioning and Compression to Improve Performance
- Tuning I/O, CPU, and Memory to Increase the Speed of Query Results
Since the inception of SQL Server 7.0, the database engine has been enabled for self-tuning and managing. With the advent of SQL Server 2012, these concepts have reached new heights. When implemented on an optimized platform (as described in Chapter 10, “Configuring the Server for Optimal Performance”) with a properly configured SQL Server instance that has also been well maintained, SQL Server 2012 remains largely self-tuning and healing. This chapter introduces and discusses the SQL Server 2012 technologies needed to accomplish this feat.
APPLICATION OPTIMIZATION
There are many ways to squeeze more performance out of your SQL Server, and it is a good idea to make sure the application is running optimally. Therefore, the first order of business for scaling SQL Server 2012 on the Windows Server platform is optimizing the application. The Pareto Principle, which states that only a few vital factors are responsible for producing most of the problems in scaling such an application, is reflected in this optimization. If the application is not well written, getting a bigger hammer only postpones your scalability issues, rather than resolving them. Tuning an application for performance is beyond the scope of this chapter.
The goal of performance tuning ...
