Tools I Used During Query Performance Troubleshooting

1. Execution Plan - An execution plan in SQL Server is a detailed roadmap created by the SQL Server Query Optimizer to determine the most efficient way to execute a query. It shows which operators being used (e.g. scans, seeks, nested join, hash match, ...), data volume, access order, indexes being used, row estimates, and other valuable information that helps understand how the optimizer views and optimizes queries. - There are two types of execution plan: estimated execution plan and actual execution plan. An Actual Execution Plan includes both estimated and run time properties, thus I prefer using actual execution plans for troubleshooting. An actual execution plan allows me to identify if there is a discrepancy in the estimated number of rows and the actual value. - To view actual execution plans, we enable Include Actual Execution Plan on the tool bar and execute queries. - However, if we encounter a situation when we can't run queries to obtain actual execution...