Pythian Blog: Technical Track

How to store performance counters directly on SQL server using TypePerf Command

by Pythian Marketing on Nov 29, 2016 12:00:00 AM

Introduction

Every DBA should know that the baseline is one of the most important pieces to make a proactive troubleshoot to discover potential problems in your SQL Server environment. The baseline is a key point to measure the instance performance by capturing the data in regular intervals over time to establish a trendline and a pattern of your SQL Server instances. Without a proper baseline, it’s hard to say when and why the problem occurred. You also lose the ability to look over a period and analyze if a problem is really a problem, or if it is a normal environment behavior.  

Baseline Value

Here is one of the best examples to describe this – A customer opens a ticket informing that the SQL Server is running slow, and he needs to find the root cause of the problem because it’s impacting his business continuity. Before we dig into the investigation, there are some questions that should come to your mind, such as:
  1. Have these issues been reported before?
  1. Do I have any useful information to guide me into this?
  1. Do I have a baseline established to verify the performance over a period and find why this came out now?
There are a lot of more questions that will fill your mind, but in the end, you will end up by asking yourself, "how can I tell the customer that this is a real problem if I don’t have a baseline to prove this?" The truth is that the ticket that was opened reporting slowness on the client side could be a lot of things, such as:
  1. Ad-Hoc query that is using all the available resources of the SQL Server machine.
  1. The developer team that changed a procedure code and now the query plan is causing more CXPACKET usage.
  1. The SQL Server that is sitting on a virtual machine that is using dynamic memory allocation and because of this is draining the memory.
  1. The primary site went down, and the DR site doesn’t have the same machine resources than the primary node has.
  1. The Database Administrator changed the compatibility mode of SQL Server from 2012 to 2014 and the new cost estimator for a particular plan is not behaving accordingly.
  1. One of the systems started to receive more incoming requests than normal. (i.e. Christmas and Black Friday)
Most of the time you can discover the problem on the SQL Server side, but this doesn’t mean that you tackled the root cause of the bottleneck. You may have just solved the problem in that particular time but possibly the same problem or an even worse one can arise afterward, and without a proper baseline process will be almost impossible to discover what has changed during the time. There are some options available to capture a baseline using SQL Server. The most popular are:
  1. PAL – Performance Analysis of Log - https://straightpathsql.com/archives/2016/07/create-sql-server-baseline/
  1. Custom Scripts – DMV’s, DMF’s and Procedures - https://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/erin/sql-server-baselines-series-on-sqlservercentral-com/
These solutions differ in some parts. The PAL solution is a specific performance counter collector that will capture the data over a period and will process the data using a tool shared on the CodePlex site - https://pal.codeplex.com/ when on the other hand the Erin Stellato approach is a brilliant directive to store and maintain some precious baseline information i.e. – SQL Server configuration and setting, prime performance data, wait statistics and more. There are some scenarios when you need to go even further and analyze more than SQL Server counters. As we know, the dynamic management view doesn’t give the entire performance counter picture, and because of this we need to come with a plan to store and maintain the performance counters inside of the SQL Server database for fresh analysis.  

TypePerf Command

That’s when the TypePerf command come into play, to help us Database Administrators to store and maintain performance counter information directly to SQL Server. Now there is no more need to save this information on a .xlx file and mark to import using BCP or SSIS or even using RELOG to put together the .blg and then import to SQL Server. Since Windows Server 2008 we have had this command available for use, and to be quite honest I was using an old school solution - too bad for me. A comment about scalability - I tested this solution in some clients, and at this moment I did not see any considerable bottleneck or latency on the capture process. Of course, this depends on your environment and the interval of your collection.

Building Solution

First and foremost let’s create the database that will be used to store the performance counter data.
  • Creating Database Named – PerfMonBaseline
[code language="sql"]</pre> CREATE DATABASE [PerfMonBaseline] CONTAINMENT = NONE ON  PRIMARY ( NAME = N'PerfMonBaseline', FILENAME = N'E:\BaseDados\PerfMonBaseline.mdf' , SIZE = 2048GB , FILEGROWTH = 25% ) LOG ON ( NAME = N'PerfMonBaseline_log', FILENAME = N'E:\BaseDados\PerfMonBaseline_log.ldf' , SIZE = 1024GB , FILEGROWTH = 10% ) GO ALTER DATABASE [PerfMonBaseline] SET RECOVERY SIMPLE GO <pre>[/code] Now that we have the database created it’s time to create two views to organize the information from the tables. The tables will be created once the collection starts.
  • Creating Views – vw_PerfMonAnalysisByServerperDay and vw_PerfMonAnalysisByserverperMinute
[code language="sql"]&lt;/pre&gt; USE PerfMonBaseline go --DELETE FROM [dbo].[CounterDetails] --DELETE FROM [dbo].[CounterData] --DELETE FROM [dbo].[DisplayToID] SELECT DISTINCT [MachineName] FROM dbo.CounterDetails&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp;&amp;nbsp; SELECT [DisplayString] , [LogStartTime] , [LogStopTime] FROM dbo.DisplayToID SELECT MachineName , CounterName , InstanceName , MIN(CounterValue) AS minValue , MAX(CounterValue) AS maxValue , AVG(CounterValue) AS avgValue , DisplayString FROM dbo.CounterDetails cdt INNER JOIN dbo.CounterData cd ON cdt.CounterID = cd.CounterID INNER JOIN dbo.DisplayToID d ON d.GUID = cd.GUID GROUP BY MachineName, CounterName, InstanceName, DisplayString USE PerfMonBaseline go DROP VIEW vw_PerfMonAnalysisByServerperDay go CREATE VIEW vw_PerfMonAnalysisByServerperDay AS SELECT REPLACE(MachineName,'\','') AS ServerName , CounterName , MIN(CounterValue) AS minValue , MAX(CounterValue) AS maxValue , AVG(CounterValue) AS avgValue , DAY(CAST(LEFT(CounterDateTime,10) AS DATETIME)) AS [Day] , MONTH(CAST(LEFT(CounterDateTime,10) AS DATETIME)) AS [Month] , YEAR(CAST(LEFT(CounterDateTime,10) AS DATETIME)) AS [Year] FROM dbo.CounterDetails cdt INNER JOIN dbo.CounterData cd ON cdt.CounterID = cd.CounterID INNER JOIN dbo.DisplayToID d ON d.GUID = cd.GUID GROUP BY MachineName, CounterName, DAY(CAST(LEFT(CounterDateTime,10) AS DATETIME)), MONTH(CAST(LEFT(CounterDateTime,10) AS DATETIME)), YEAR(CAST(LEFT(CounterDateTime,10) AS DATETIME)) go DROP VIEW vw_PerfMonAnalysisByServerperMinute go CREATE VIEW vw_PerfMonAnalysisByServerperMinute AS SELECT REPLACE(MachineName,'\','') AS ServerName , CounterName , MIN(CounterValue) AS minValue , MAX(CounterValue) AS maxValue , AVG(CounterValue) AS avgValue , DAY(CAST(LEFT(CounterDateTime,10) AS DATETIME)) AS [Day] , MONTH(CAST(LEFT(CounterDateTime,10) AS DATETIME)) AS [Month] , YEAR(CAST(LEFT(CounterDateTime,10) AS DATETIME)) AS [Year] FROM dbo.CounterDetails cdt INNER JOIN dbo.CounterData cd ON cdt.CounterID = cd.CounterID INNER JOIN dbo.DisplayToID d ON d.GUID = cd.GUID GROUP BY MachineName, CounterName, DAY(CAST(LEFT(CounterDateTime,10) AS DATETIME)), MONTH(CAST(LEFT(CounterDateTime,10) AS DATETIME)), YEAR(CAST(LEFT(CounterDateTime,10) AS DATETIME)) &lt;pre&gt;[/code]   Now it’s time to show how TypePerf works. Tn the next step, we will create an ODBC connection that will be used from TypePerf to save the performance data directly into SQL Server. Creating ODBC on Local Server Open ODBC Data Sources (64-Bit) Tab User DSN and Add Data Source Use SQL Server Data Source Name = PerfMonBaseline Server = [ServerName] Add Proper Credential Mark – “Perform Translation for Character Data” Test Data Source A quick recap - we’ve created the database, views and the connection [ODBC] that will permit TypePerf to store the performance counter information and store in a sync fashion. We’re almost there. Now to make our process mature and solid, let’s create a .txt file named – perfcounterssql and add all the collectors that we’re interested in capturing and storing inside of our database. If your idea is to collect a considerable amount of counters I would suggest running this command. It will populate a file with all available counters for this particular instance. You can remove those that you don’t want to collect.   [code language="sql"]</pre> TYPEPERF -q &gt;"C:\BaseDados\temp\performancecounterslist.txt" <pre>[/code] one1 One of the questions that pop into my mind now is "why do I love this solution?" Simply for the fact that I can collect not only the server that I’m running but that I can extend the collection and start to capture information for all my SQL Server machines by just adding the name of the server and the collector that I want to capture, for example:   \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:General Statistics\User Connections \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Memory Manager\Memory Grants Pending \\Scorpius\\System\Processor Queue Length \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Buffer cache hit ratio \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Page lookups/sec   Note that I’m capturing information from the instances called Scorpius and Serpens. Here is the collector that I’m using in my current solution, file named – perfcounterssqlserver.txt \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Buffer cache hit ratio \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Page lookups/sec \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Free list stalls/sec \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Free pages \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Total pages \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Target pages \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Database pages \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Reserved pages \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Stolen pages \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Lazy writes/sec \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Readahead pages/sec \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Page reads/sec \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Page writes/sec \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Checkpoint pages/sec \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\AWE lookup maps/sec \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\AWE stolen maps/sec \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\AWE write maps/sec \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\AWE unmap calls/sec \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\AWE unmap pages/sec \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Page life expectancy \\Scorpius\\Memory\Available MBytes \\Scorpius\\Paging File(_Total)\% Usage \\Scorpius\\PhysicalDisk(* *)\% Disk Time \\Scorpius\\PhysicalDisk(* *)\Avg. Disk Queue Length \\Scorpius\\PhysicalDisk(* *)\Avg. Disk sec/Read \\Scorpius\\PhysicalDisk(* *)\Avg. Disk sec/Write \\Scorpius\\PhysicalDisk(* *)\Disk Reads/sec \\Scorpius\\PhysicalDisk(* *)\Disk Writes/sec \\Scorpius\\Processor(*)\% Processor Time \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:General Statistics\User Connections \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Memory Manager\Memory Grants Pending \\Scorpius\\System\Processor Queue Length \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Buffer cache hit ratio \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Page lookups/sec \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Free list stalls/sec \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Free pages \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Total pages \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Target pages \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Database pages \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Reserved pages \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Stolen pages \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Lazy writes/sec \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Readahead pages/sec \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Page reads/sec \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Page writes/sec \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Checkpoint pages/sec \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\AWE lookup maps/sec \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\AWE stolen maps/sec \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\AWE write maps/sec \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\AWE unmap calls/sec \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\AWE unmap pages/sec \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Page life expectancy \\Serpens\\Memory\Available MBytes \\Serpens\\Paging File(_Total)\% Usage \\Serpens\\PhysicalDisk(* *)\% Disk Time \\Serpens\\PhysicalDisk(* *)\Avg. Disk Queue Length \\Serpens\\PhysicalDisk(* *)\Avg. Disk sec/Read \\Serpens\\PhysicalDisk(* *)\Avg. Disk sec/Write \\Serpens\\PhysicalDisk(* *)\Disk Reads/sec \\Serpens\\PhysicalDisk(* *)\Disk Writes/sec \\Serpens\\Processor(*)\% Processor Time \\Serpens\\SQLServer:General Statistics\User Connections \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Memory Manager\Memory Grants Pending \\Serpens\\System\Processor Queue Length \\Serpens\\SQLServer:SQL Statistics\Batch Requests/sec \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:SQL Statistics\Batch Requests/sec \\Serpens\\SQLServer:SQL Statistics\SQL Compilations/sec \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:SQL Statistics\SQL Compilations/sec \\Serpens\\SQLServer:SQL Statistics\SQL Re-Compilations/sec \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:SQL Statistics\SQL Re-Compilations/sec \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Page reads/sec \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Page writes/sec \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Checkpoint pages/sec \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Lazy writes/sec \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Locks(*)\Lock Requests/sec \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Locks(*)\Lock Timeouts/sec \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Databases(*)\Log Growths \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Databases(*)\Log Shrinks \\Scorpius\\SQLServer:Access Methods\Page Splits/sec \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Page reads/sec \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Page writes/sec \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Checkpoint pages/sec \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Buffer Manager\Lazy writes/sec \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Locks(*)\Lock Requests/sec \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Locks(*)\Lock Timeouts/sec \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Databases(*)\Log Growths \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Databases(*)\Log Shrinks \\Serpens\\SQLServer:Access Methods\Page Splits/sec   Now that we have the database, connectivity, and collectors stored in a file, it’s time to test and see if the process is storing the information directly into SQL Server. Before we start the process there are a few options that we need to know to run the command. The si and sc parameters are crucial for us and in this case we need to finely adjust to avoid any contention on the server.
  1. SI = Sample Interval
The collection interval of the collector, for example, if you put 60 (seconds), the TypePerf will check the performance counter every 60 seconds. This is the number that I found fine and reliable and I don’t think that we need less than this for a baseline process.  
  1. SC = Samples
As soon as we have added the SI, we need to determine how many samples will be captured on the process. In my personal configuration, I’ve been using the SI = 60 that means a collection every 60 seconds and the SC = 720, every 1 hour there are 60 samples, 12 hours of collection will be 720. This way I have an SQL Server Agent job configured to start at 8:00 AM and finish at 8:00 PM.

Testing and Scheduling Daily Run

Open PowerShell ISE and use this command bellow making the adjustments for your environment. [code language="sql"]</pre> TYPEPERF -f SQL -s Serpens -cf "C:\BaseDados\temp\perfcounterssqlserver.txt" -si 60 -sc 720 SQL:PerfMonBaseline!log1&nbsp; <pre>[/code]   -f = SQL Server Type -s = ServerName -cf = Performance Counter File -si = Sample Interval = 60 -sc = Sample Amount = 720 SQL:PerfMonBaseline = Name of ODBC Data Source   I would recommend creating two SQL Server Agent Jobs   PerfMonRecordSampleData Schedule Time = 08:00 AM Daily [code language="sql"]</pre> TYPEPERF -f SQL -s Serpens -cf "C:\BaseDados\temp\perfcounterssqlserver.txt" -si 60 -sc 720 SQL:PerfMonBaseline!log1&nbsp; <pre>[/code]   Purge – PerfMonBaselineData Schedule Time = 10:00 PM on Sunday [code language="sql"]</pre> DELETE FROM PerfMonBaseline.dbo.CounterData WHERE CONVERT(DATETIME,SUBSTRING(CounterDateTime,0,20)) < DATEADD(HH, -168, GETDATE()) <h3>[/code]

Exposing Data

Now that you’ve your own baseline repository containing performance information, you can create an Excel workbook, or create beautiful reports using PowerView, or move this to PowerBI and elevate your analysis to the next level. one1

Conclusion

  The sky is the limit! You can use the Erin Stellato solution together and increase your baseline repository. Here is some useful information for further exploration:   https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc753182(v=ws.11).aspx https://sqlmag.com/sql-server/q-restore-missing-sql-server-performance-counters https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb490960.aspx https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/askperf/2009/05/12/two-minute-drill-typeperf/  

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