SQL Server 2014: Features and

Administration
Module No.: 4 - Performance

Lesson No: 5 - Waits and Queues

Student Lab Manual

Version 1.0

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2 Module 4 – Performance Lesson 5 - Waits and Queues

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4 Module 4 – Performance Lesson 5 - Waits and Queues

Exercise 1: Parse Performance Data with SQL

Nexus

Exercise Overview
In this scenario, you have collected performance data as the application team stated they
are seeing longer query run times from their application. We will use SQL Nexus to
determine if there are any bottlenecks present and what queries may be the cause.

First, we will import the collected data in to a SQL Server database using SQL Nexus.

Steps
1. Login into SQL2014Client.
User: Features2014DC\DBA
Password: Corp123!
2. Start SQL Nexus
a. Open Windows Explorer
b. Navigate to
C:\Utilities\SQLNexus\Release4.0.0.64\SqlNexus4.0.0.64\SqlNexus
4.0.0.64
c. Double click on sqlnexus.exe
3. Connect to SQL2014N1

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 Module 4 – Performance Lesson 5 - Waits and Queues 5

4. Click the database dropdown and select <new database>

5. In the database name, type sqlnexus_lab

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6 Module 4 – Performance Lesson 5 - Waits and Queues

6. Click on Import in the bottom left panel

7. In the Data Import window, click the folder icon and navigate to
C:\Demos\4_4_Performance_Waits\pssdiag_output\output
8. Click OK

9. Click Import
10. Wait for the import to complete. You should see all green bars in the import
window.

11. Close the import window

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 Module 4 – Performance Lesson 5 - Waits and Queues 7

Exercise 2: Analyzing Performance Data with

SQL Nexus

Exercise Overview
Now that we have loaded the performance data in SQL Nexus, we will look at some of
the reports to note the load characteristics and find top resource consuming queries.

Steps
1. If not already open, start SQL Nexus and connect to the database created in
Exercise 1.
2. Click on the SQL Perf Main link in the top right panel
3. Click on the Bottleneck Analysis report.
4. What is the SQL Server CPU?
_________________________________________________
5. Does it look like CPU is the main problem resource?
_________________________________________________
6. What is the top wait type?
__________________________________________________
7. Click on the back arrow to return to the report list.

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8 Module 4 – Performance Lesson 5 - Waits and Queues

8. Click on ReadTrace Reports

9. Are there certain time periods where load was higher or lower?
____________________________________________________
____________________________________________________
There are a couple of very distinct spikes. However this is a fairly short trace so
we won’t need to isolate those periods. If you wanted narrow the timeframe to
a specific spike, you can click on the Parameters button. In the Parameters
menu, you can set start and end times to filter the report times.

10. Click on Unique Batches

11. From the Top graphs, you will note one particular query appears to be more
resource intensive than other. What is the top consuming query:

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 Module 4 – Performance Lesson 5 - Waits and Queues 9

_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
_____________________________________________
12. Click on the Query Template value for Query Number 1. This will show the
details of the query’s execution. Compare the spikes in this chart to the spikes
in the main chart. You will notice they line up and this query is likely either the
cause of or playing a part in the applications performance issues.

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