Exam Essentials

• Know how to use the performance monitoring tools.   SQL Server 2005 has a range of tools. You need to ensure you understand each tool’s pros and cons so you can choose the correct tool to use for the task at hand.

• Understand the client/server architecture.   It is important to be able to narrow down and look at the correct layer or component of the client/server architecture. Do not discount the importance of understanding how the Windows operating system works and what to monitor.

• Know your performance baselines.   Within the context of a baseline, it is important to understand what metrics you should be gathering. You need to be familiar with the “more common” performance object counters monitored for both SQL Server 2005 and the Windows platform.

• Know your performance thresholds.   It is critical to know the more common thresholds to watch out for that would indicate that you have a potential bottleneck in one of the server’s or SQL Server 2005’s subsystem.

• Understand the SQL traces.   Make sure you are familiar with how to generate a SQL trace and the different event classes that are available to be monitored.

• Be familiar with the different types of alerts.   SQL Server 2005 has a number of different types of alerts that can be used to design a database monitoring solution. Make sure you know how to implement these different types of alerts.

• Understand event notifications.   Make sure you are familiar with the differences between triggers and event notifications in how they operate. Again, you should be familiar with the types of events that can be trapped by event notifications.