Introduction
Imagine you are new to a SQL Server environment and are given the task to analyse it for overall performance. Or that you are a DBA that needs to provide hard facts to management what increase in performance to expect from a move to different hardware, or from the move to a different version of software. Where would you start? What would be the first steps? And how long would they take you? How much resources would, or could you allocate to such tasks?
What would you say when there is a tool that could give you meaningful answers to those questions within a few minutes? You think I’m exaggerating? Or that this is some kind of marketing event that can not live up to its promise? Well, you’d better read on then.
Qure Analyzer
To describe what exactly Qure Analyzer (QA) is, it might be best to quote from its user guide:
Qure Analyzer helps you analyze database workloads comprised of one or more SQL traces. Using the intuitive graphical interface and multi-dimensional grouping, sorting and filtering, you can easily analyze all aspects of your database workloads. For example, you can easily isolate the most resource-consuming SQL statements, applications, users, hosts, and much more.Now what exactly does this mean?
Well, simply put, it means that you feed standard SQL Server trace files (or tables) to Qure Analyzer once for processing and analysis, these results are stored to a dedicated repository and can be retrieved and manipulated later through Qure Analyzer without having to reread the original traces again. The results are displayed in a GUI that allows for multi-dimensional analysis, sorting, grouping, and filtering. This makes it really easy to drill down and find the most expensive queries, or the most resource-intensive application.
Installation, system requirements, and supported SQL Server versions
DBSophic’s Qure Analyzer can be downloaded free of any charge from the product homepage. All that is required is a short registration before you can actually download the software. There is no further restriction to the software, such as an expiration date or a limitation on how many servers and/or workstations it can be installed.
The computer on which you want to install the software should at least meet the following requirements:
| Minimal Installation Hardware Requirements: |
| 2 GB RAM recommended. |
| 50 MB free disk space for binary/executable/log files. |
| 2 GHz CPU. Dual core recommended. |
| Qure Analyzer Installation Software Requirements: |
| Windows XP/Vista/7, Windows Server 2003/2008/2008R2 – 32 or 64-bit. |
| Microsoft .Net Framework 4.0. |
| Microsoft SQL Server 2005/2008 client tools, 32 or 64-bit (required for analysis of trace files only). |
| Supported Trace Formats: |
| SQL Server 2005/2008/2008R2 |
| Trace File or Trace Table |
The installation of the Qure Analyzer is completed with just a few mouse clicks. It is quite straightforward and therefore does not require special attention in this review.