Troubleshooting SQL Azure and query optimization

The SQL Azure database is a relational database service provided by Microsoft based on cloud technology. Cloud-based Data solutions can offer many benefits, including fast provisioning, more economical scalability, high availability, and reduced management overhead. This article describes the dynamic management views available in SQL Azure and how to speak them for troubleshooting.

Performance considerations

SQL Azure uses the SQL Server 2008 data engine as its core. The dynamic management view (DMVS) introduced by SQL Server 2005 has become a powerful troubleshooting tool for troubleshooting performance issues from System State to deadlock information. In the initial release of SQL Azure, most of the DMV is disabled and is enabled in subsequent scheduled updates (Service update). The DMV exposes instance-level information. Because SQL Azure is a shared schema model, the DMV needs to be modified to limit the DMV's output to show only the right information. The following DMV has been enabled in the first phase.

These DMV require view SERVER state permissions in SQL Server that is deployed locally. In SQL Azure, querying these DMV requires a new permission named View DATABASE state.

and affairs of the DMV

Sys.dm_tran_active_transactions: Returns information about the transactions of your current logical database.

Sys.dm_tran_database_transactions: Returns information about user database-level transactions.

Sys.dm_tran_locks: Returns information about the lock Manager resource that is currently active. Corresponds to a row for each current activity request issued to the lock manager that has been granted a lock or is waiting to be granted a lock. The columns in the result set are broadly divided into two groups: resource groups and request groups. The resource group describes the resource in which the lock request is being made, and the request group describes the lock request.

Sys.dm_tran_session_transactions: Returns relevant information about the associated transaction and session.

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