SQL Server: Using SentryOne Plan Explorer
Learn how to make the most out of the popular and free SentryOne Plan Explorer tool, applicable to anyone responsible for SQL Server performance tuning and query plan analysis, with any level of SQL Server experience.
What you'll learn
Query plan analysis is both a science and an art, and the best tool for the job is SentryOne Plan Explorer. In this course, SQL Server: Using SentryOne Plan Explorer, you will learn how to make the most of the tool to make query plan analysis and performance tuning much easier and more intuitive than using SQL Server Management Studio. First, you will gain an understanding of how Plan Explorer compares to Management Studio, demonstrating how Plan Explorer solves the problems and shortcomings that Management Studio has. Next, you will discover how to use the the Plan Explorer user interface, including how the various information displays can help with performance analysis and tuning, and the various methods for getting query plans into the tool. Finally, you will explore how to use the more advanced features of the tool like index and statistics analysis, and profiling query performance using live query statistics. When you are finished with this course, you will have the skills and knowledge to start using the powerful SentryOne Plan Explorer tool to greatly improve your query plan analysis and performance tuning capabilities.
Table of contents
- Introduction and Why Use Plan Explorer? 2m
- Course Objective: Collecting Plans 1m
- Course Objective: Comparing Plan Explorer to SSMS 1m
- Course Objective: Plan Explorer UI 2m
- Course Objective: Getting Plans to Plan Explorer 3m
- Course Objective: Index Analysis 2m
- Course Objective: Query Performance Profiling Recorder 2m
- Course Structure and Module Summary 1m
- Introduction 2m
- Historical Problems Viewing Plans in Management Studio 4m
- Demo: Plan Layout Differences 5m
- Performance Issue Identification 3m
- Demo: Performance Issue Identification Differences 7m
- Missing Index Information 2m
- Demo: Missing Index Information 3m
- Large Execution Plans 4m
- Demo: Large Execution Plans 5m
- Demo: Operator Cost Fixes 2m
- Demo: Scalar UDF Usage Highlighting 2m
- Module Summary 1m
- Introduction 2m
- Plan Explorer UI Overview 3m
- Demo: Results Tab Information 2m
- Statement Tree 2m
- Demo: Statement Tree 2m
- Plan Information Region 2m
- Demo: Plan Information Tabs 1m
- Plan Diagram 5m
- Demo: Plan Diagram 2m
- Plan Tree 3m
- Demo: Plan Tree Information 3m
- Top Operations 1m
- Demo: Top Operations 3m
- Query Columns 2m
- Demo: Query Columns 3m
- Additional Tabs 4m
- Demo: Additional Tabs 3m
- Table I/O 1m
- Demo: Table I/O 2m
- Plan Anonymization 2m
- Demo: Plan Anonymization 3m
- Demo: Deadlock Analysis and Playback 3m
- Module Summary 1m
- Introduction 2m
- Opening Execution Plans 3m
- Demo: Opening Execution Plans 2m
- Transferring Plans from Management Studio 3m
- Demo: Transferring Plans from Management Studio 2m
- Generating a Plan from a Statement within Plan Explorer 3m
- Demo: Generating a Plan from a Statement within Plan Explorer 2m
- Module Summary 1m
About the author
Jonathan Kehayias is a Principal Consultant with SQLskills. He is the youngest person ever to achieve the Microsoft Certified Master - SQL Server 2008 certification and has been a SQL Server MVP for many years. Jonathan is heavily involved in the SQL community; including being the top answerer on the MSDN Database Engine forum, writing deep technical content on his blog (plus his old blog, and answering questions as @SQLPoolBoy on Twitter. Jonathan is a performance tuning expert, both SQL Se... more