How To Monitor SQL Server
How To Monitor SQL Server
Disk Activity
▪ Physical Disk: % Disk Time: This counter monitors the portion of time the disk is busy
with read/write activity. If the Physical Disk: % Disk Time counter is close to or over 90%,
it indicates that too many system requests are waiting for disk access (check this via the
Physical Disk: Current Disk Queue Length counter). The number of pending I/O requests
should be sustained at no more than 1.5 to 2 times the number of spindles of the
physical disk.
▪ Physical Disk: Average Disk Queue Length: number of I/O operations waiting (again,
▪ SQL Server Buffer Manager – Page reads/sec and page writes/sec. If this counter rises
above your baseline, it may indicate the need for more hardware power
Processor Utilization
▪ Processor: % Processor time: A consistent 80-90% is too high. Multiprocessor systems
▪ Processor: % Privileged time: indicates the time spent on Windows kernel commands
(SQL Server I/O requests). If both this and Physical Disk counters are high, there might
▪ Processor: % user time: the percentage of time the CPU spends on user processes
(SQL Server)
▪ Processor: Queue Length: the number of threads waiting for processor time. A high
Memory
▪ Memory: Available MBs: indicates how much memory is available for new processes
▪ Memory: Pages/sec: this counter indicates how many times the virtual memory is getting
accessed. A rule of thumb says that it should be lower than 20. Higher numbers might
mean excessive paging. Using Memory: Page Faults/sec can further indicate whether
counters. For example, the SQL Server Locks object has counters called Number of
▪ Access Methods – Full scans/sec: higher numbers (> 1 or 2) may mean you are not
▪ Buffer Manager – Buffer Cache hit ratio: This is the percentage of requests serviced by
data cache. When cache is properly used, this should be over 90%. The counter can be
▪ Memory Manager – Target Server Memory (KB): indicates how much memory SQL
Server “wants”. If this is the same as the SQL Server: Memory Manager — Total Server
Memory (KB) counter, then you know SQL Server has all the memory it needs.
▪ Memory Manager — Total Server Memory (KB): much memory SQL Server is actually
using. If this is the same as SQL Server: Memory Manager — Target Server Memory
(KB), then SQL Server has all the memory it wants. If smaller, then SQL Server could
▪ Locks – Average Wait Time: This counter shows the average time needed to acquire a
lock. This value needs to be as low as possible. If unusually high, you may need to look
for processes blocking other processes. You may also need to examine your users’ T-
Performance Monitor
Performance Monitor (or, in some older windows versions, System Monitor) is a handy real -
time graphical monitoring tool. It can monitor several, different metric sources and it offers
▪ A Trace Properties window will open and you can edit filter to Run.