23 August 2019

Monitor TempDB Contention

by Redgate Monitor Team

4,553 0 Performance

Metrics install automatically if you have Redgate Monitor installed.

If you are using Redgate’s SQL Server monitoring tool, Redgate Monitor, you can instantly install and run this metric on your servers.

Measures the total duration of latch waits on the tempdb database, in a one-minute time interval.

First, create and start for the following Extended Events session on the monitored SQL Server instance:

IF EXISTS --if the session already exists, then delete it. We are assuming you've changed something
  (
  SELECT * FROM sys.server_event_sessions
    WHERE server_event_sessions.name = 'MonitorTempDBContention'
  )
  DROP EVENT SESSION MonitorTempDBContention ON SERVER;
GO
CREATE EVENT SESSION MonitorTempDBContention
ON SERVER
  ADD EVENT sqlserver.latch_suspend_end
    (WHERE([sqlserver].[database_id] = (2)))
  ADD TARGET package0.ring_buffer
WITH
  (MAX_MEMORY = 4096KB,
EVENT_RETENTION_MODE = ALLOW_SINGLE_EVENT_LOSS,
MAX_DISPATCH_LATENCY = 30 SECONDS, MAX_EVENT_SIZE = 0KB,
MEMORY_PARTITION_MODE = NONE, TRACK_CAUSALITY = OFF,
STARTUP_STATE = ON);
GO
ALTER EVENT SESSION MonitorTempDBContention ON SERVER STATE = START;
GO

IF EXISTS --if the session already exists, then delete it. We are assuming you've changed something

(

SELECT * FROM sys.server_event_sessions

WHERE server_event_sessions.name = 'MonitorTempDBContention'

)

DROP EVENT SESSION MonitorTempDBContention ON SERVER;

CREATE EVENT SESSION MonitorTempDBContention

ON SERVER

ADD EVENT sqlserver.latch_suspend_end

(WHERE([sqlserver].[database_id] = (2)))

ADD TARGET package0.ring_buffer

WITH

(MAX_MEMORY = 4096KB,

EVENT_RETENTION_MODE = ALLOW_SINGLE_EVENT_LOSS,

MAX_DISPATCH_LATENCY = 30 SECONDS, MAX_EVENT_SIZE = 0KB,

MEMORY_PARTITION_MODE = NONE, TRACK_CAUSALITY = OFF,

STARTUP_STATE = ON);

ALTER EVENT SESSION MonitorTempDBContention ON SERVER STATE = START;

The goal is to get the total duration of latch waits, in the last minute, so this session collects all the event data, without any filter except for the database. Its designed to be as lightweight as possible in other regards, collecting only one event, and no additional data.

It might be useful to modify the event session to collect additional event data (“actions”) such as the session_id and sql_text associated with the session that was blocked. However, you’ll need to test it out, gauge how much data it collects over a period, and how much overhead it will cause to have it running continuously.

For further details see: Monitoring TempDB Contention using Extended Events and SQL Monitor.

Metric definition

Name

MonitorTempDBContention

Description

Measures the total duration of latch waits on tempdb, over a period (one-minute time intervals, in this example). Collected over time, this will establish a baseline, showing the typical profile for tempdb latching for your workload, and allow you to spot abnormalities that indicate contention.

The T-SQL query that will collect data


		
			
			
Transact-SQL
			
			DECLARE @Target_Data XML =
          (
          SELECT TOP 1 Cast(xet.target_data AS XML) AS targetdata
            FROM sys.dm_xe_session_targets AS xet
              INNER JOIN sys.dm_xe_sessions AS xes
                ON xes.address = xet.event_session_address
            WHERE xes.name = 'MonitorTempDBContention'
              AND xet.target_name = 'ring_buffer'
          );
SELECT SUM(Duration)
FROM 
  (
  SELECT 
    Convert(datetime2,
        SwitchOffset(CONVERT(datetimeoffset,xed.event_data.value('(@timestamp)[1]', 'datetime2')),
        DateName(TzOffset, SYSDATETIMEOFFSET()))) AS Thedatetime,
    xed.event_data.value('(data[@name="duration"]/value)[1]', 'int') AS [Duration]
  FROM @Target_Data.nodes('//RingBufferTarget/event') AS xed (event_data)
  )f(TheDateTime,Duration)
WHERE Convert(CHAR(17),TheDateTime,113)
       = Convert(CHAR(17),DateAdd(MINUTE,-2,GetDate()),113)
			
				
					
				
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						DECLARE @Target_Data XML =
          (
          SELECT TOP 1 Cast(xet.target_data AS XML) AS targetdata
            FROM sys.dm_xe_session_targets AS xet
              INNER JOIN sys.dm_xe_sessions AS xes
                ON xes.address = xet.event_session_address
            WHERE xes.name = 'MonitorTempDBContention'
              AND xet.target_name = 'ring_buffer'
          );
SELECT SUM(Duration)
FROM 
  (
  SELECT 
    Convert(datetime2,
        SwitchOffset(CONVERT(datetimeoffset,xed.event_data.value('(@timestamp)[1]', 'datetime2')),
        DateName(TzOffset, SYSDATETIMEOFFSET()))) AS Thedatetime,
    xed.event_data.value('(data[@name="duration"]/value)[1]', 'int') AS [Duration]
  FROM @Target_Data.nodes('//RingBufferTarget/event') AS xed (event_data)
  )f(TheDateTime,Duration)
WHERE Convert(CHAR(17),TheDateTime,113)
       = Convert(CHAR(17),DateAdd(MINUTE,-2,GetDate()),113)

Instances to collect from

Default

Databases to collect from

tempdb

Collection frequency

1 min

Use collected or calculated values

Leave the Use a calculated rate of change between collections check box unchecked

Metric collection

Enabled

Alert definition

The appropriate alert thresholds are entirely dependent on your system, and you should only enable them after establishing a baseline for your working instance.

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Monitor TempDB Contention

Metric definition

Name

Description

The T-SQL query that will collect data

Instances to collect from

Databases to collect from

Collection frequency

Use collected or calculated values

Metric collection

Alert definition

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