Preface
When I first discovered DMVs, I was enthralled because they made many difficult things so easy. It was simple to identify, typically within seconds, the core performance problems that affect SQL Server databases. For example, I could quickly discover which queries were taking the longest time to run, which indexes were missing, and why queries were being blocked. This was only the tip of the iceberg; the deeper I dug into DMVs, the more information they provided to help me fix performance problems.
Although I was captivated by the power of DMVs, I was frustrated because there was very little awareness, even among experienced DBAs, of their existence. In response to this I wrote an article for Microsoft’s MSDN magazine that was published in January 2008, which showed how useful DMVs could be. I then waited, expecting someone to write a book about the subject.
Time passed, and although several articles about DMVs were subsequently published, the book I wanted to read was not forthcoming. So late in 2009 I contacted Manning Publications to discuss the possibility of writing such a book. You’re now holding the fruit of that conversation.
I’m confident this book will help you successfully identify and target your performance problems as well as suggest solutions to these problems, giving you better-performing SQL Server databases.