Practical Performance Monitoring & Troubleshooting for SQL Server and AzureSQL

As a DBA, developer, or consultant supporting SQL Server databases, you’re frequently asked to investigate poor performance—whether it’s a specific query, a sluggish application, or even the entire server. Time and again, you face the same challenge: how to identify the root cause as quickly as possible.
In this full-day workshop, led by a former senior member of the Microsoft SQL Server team, you’ll learn practical methods for troubleshooting and performance analysis - from fundamental approaches to advanced techniques. What makes this PreCon unique is its (fully optional) hands-on component: attendees with a laptop can connect directly to the demo SQL Server running a continuous workload that illustrates common database performance problems.
This workshop, while based on SQL Server in a VM, teaches techniques applicable to on-premises installation, Azure SQL, and SQL database in Fabric. Topics include, among others:
• Dynamic Management Views (DMVs)
• Wait Statistics
• Extended Events
• Query Store
• Identifying underperforming queries and query plans
• Analyzing Indexes & Statistics
• Analyzing storage I/O performance
• Analyzing Locking & Blocking
While no one has evolved into a performance-tuning master in one single day, you can be sure to learn valuable techniques and concepts to build upon for day-to-day work. And of course, we will also discuss possible solutions. So, at your next phone call, “Help, the server is slow!” you know where to start.
Expect lots of demos and a deep dive into the core concepts of the SQL Server engine and the built-in tools that you can use.
Optional Hands-On!: Attendees who want to actively follow along can connect to the demo server live using SQL Server Management Studio. Simply bring a laptop with SSMS installed and internet access that allows connection to a SQL Server at the specified port.

Learn about core SQL Architecture and behaviors Learn where to start an Analysis and the most common symptoms and causes Learn to use Extended Events and DMVs to analyze a workload