How to Conduct a SQL Server Performance Audit

We have been doing DBA work for long, if you have been a DBA for a number of years you know that performance tuning SQL Server is not an exact science. To do a pretty thorough audit we have put together a quick checklist.

To make your SQL Server performance audit easier, we have divided it into sections.

* Use Performance Monitor to Identify SQL Server Hardware Bottlenecks
* Server Hardware Performance Checklist
* Operating System Performance Checklist
* SQL Server 2000 Configuration Performance Checklist
* Database Configuration Settings Performance Checklist
* Index Performance Checklist
* Application and Transact-SQL Performance Checklist
* Use Profiler to Identify Poor Performing Queries

The best way to conduct your SQL Server performance audit is to first review each of the above sections, and to print them out. Go through each section and write down the results as you collect them. You don’t have to use the above order, we only listed the above steps in this order because this is the way we generally approach a performance audit.