The best way to use the Database Engine Tuning Advisor

Hello all,

I want to use the SQL Server 2005 Tuning Advisor on our database, and
I'm hoping someone here can just confirm the steps for me. We have a
10GB database that has a number of applications hitting it constantly,
all performing many SELECTs, INSERTs and UPDATEs. Are the following
the steps I need to take?

1. Stop all the applications hitting the database.
2. Make a backup of the database.
3. Start the profiler on the original database.
4. Turn on all the applications again.
5. Wait for a time before turning off the profiler and saving the
profile.
6. Run the tuning wizard against the backup database using the saved
profile.

Do I have to do this every time or am I missing something obvious? I'm
under the impression I need the backup because our database has a high
volume of INSERTs and UPDATEs so I have to make sure the state of the
database matches the state of the profile.

As a matter of interest, why is it not possible for the tuning wizard
to analyse the database using the *current* activity? Why does it have
to be a 'pre-recorded' workload?

Many thanks,
Tommy.

Re: The best way to use the Database Engine Tuning Advisor

Hi again,

Did anyone have any thoughts on this? I want to make sure I'm doing it
properly before diving in!

Thanks,
Tommy.

Re: The best way to use the Database Engine Tuning Advisor

On Oct 1, 10:02 am, Tommy Hayes wrote:
> Hi again,
>
> Did anyone have any thoughts on this? I want to make sure I'm doing it
> properly before diving in!
>
> Thanks,
> Tommy.

SQL SERVER 2005 does not require of you to do a backup each time you
are performing this tuning task.

Re: The best way to use the Database Engine Tuning Advisor

> SQL SERVER 2005 does not require of you to do a backup each time you
> are performing this tuning task.

Thanks for your reply.

If I need to record a set of work on the database, don't I need to
back it up so that I can re-apply that set of work to the backup
during the tuning? I can't apply a set of work twice to the same
database (once during the recording, the second time during the
tuning) as the database is stateful and cannot have the same
operations performed twice on it.

Or am I missing something?

Thanks.

Re: The best way to use the Database Engine Tuning Advisor

I found out I was missing something big after all:

The Tunding Advisor does *not* execute the workload on the database -
it just uses it to ask "what if?" questions.

- Tommy.