1. Tracking Index Usage Like a Pro
Ed Pollack
Sr. Database Administrator
Autotask

2. Agenda Understanding Index Usage to Optimize Performance:
Introduction.
Quick review of indexes.
Index usage stats tracking & demo.
Missing index usage tracking & demo.
Conclusion.
Questions!?
Where to find me.

3. Introduction (aka: why are we here?)
Indexes are key to query performance.
No index = slow, inefficient performance*.
*Assuming that is not what you want.
Too many indexes waste space and slow down writes.
System views are available to track usage.
System views are available to track missing indexes.
Let’s use them to optimize our applications!

4. Quick Index Review
Indexes are structures that organize data and optimize it for specific types of queries.
Indexes speed up reads that use them effectively.
Indexes slow down writes when they need updating.
Indexes consume disk space and require maintenance.
TableClustered IndexNonclustered Indexes
Also: Columnstore (CI & NCI), XML, Spatial, Hash.

5. Index Usage Statistics
Demo

6. Missing Index Statistics
Demo

7. Conclusion Indexes are critical to performance.
Tracking usage long-term is the only way to fully understand indexing needs.
Schedule jobs/tasks to regularly collect this data.
Report on these metrics to prevent performance nightmares!

8. Questions???

9. Contact Info & Links
Ed SQL Shack SQL Server Central SQL Saturday Albany (2017) Thank you!!!