Resolve issues proactively, before they impact the business
Correctly recognize the symptoms to deal with the root cause of any diagnostic challenge.
The Spotlight Home Page highlights obvious bottlenecks and problem areas. Color coding makes it easy to see which issues need your attention first. Related server statistics are grouped together on panels that are connected by a series of graphical flows and icons. Spotlight updates these flows in real time so you can see how quickly data is moving through the system.
From this view you can drill down on a particular control to see detailed diagnostics and trace the problem to its source.
The SQL Server architecture shown in the diagram below is the basis for the design of the main Spotlight on SQL Server Overview page.
Drilldown on the workload of any SQL Server instance. Determine what work the database system is producing in a given time and the resources that are consumed in producing this work.
The Wait Events drilldown assesses sampled workload waits, that is waits that occur as a result of executing SQL statements (via an XEvents trace). The design assists in identifying SQL Statements involved with specific waits to the extent that this information is actually available.
An assessment of the data from server level wait statistics (sys.dm_os_wait_stats) is made to determine the overall performance health of your SQL Server.
This assessment results in a high level view of potential bottlenecks.
A SQL server instance is considered healthy if Database time is being spent productively on CPU and IO.
A performance-health rating of 80% or more is considered healthy.
It is considered unhealthy if too much database time is spent waiting for bottlenecks such as locks and latches.