Index fragmentation happens when a new record is inserted into a current database. It is like adding a new name to a phone book, there is no room and the name has to be placed out of order. Or taking a name out of a phone books, then there is a blank space, making the phone book longer than it needs to be. Therefore taking longer to read it, back it up, and recover it. If you do not defragment your indexes, your database has to cache all of those blank records, wasting memory. Many defragmentation scripts are set to run as part of a maintenance routine, whether they need it or not. This causes extra items on the transaction log, the longer the backups take, the longer the restores take. Spotlight on SQL Server alerts you when defragmentation needs to occur Bad internal fragmentation (a lot of empty spaces) and bad external fragmentation (a lot of records out of order) make the index longer than it needs to be and therefore storage performance is slower. Setting a lower page fill filter (such as 50%) makes your inserts incredibly fast, but your reads are twice as slow. Tweaking this fill filter is a dangerous game Spotlight on SQL Server will show you if the root of your problem is the fragmented indexes and how critical they are requiring an entire rebuild or just a defragmentation.

1. Global Marketing
How to Monitor Index Fragmentation
in Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise
SQLDBApros

2. SQLDBApros
Why should you care?
• Index fragmentation happens when a new record is inserted into a
current database.
– It is like adding a new name to a phone book, there is no room and the
name has to be placed out of order.
– Or taking a name out of a phone books, then there is a blank
space, making the phone book longer than it needs to be.
› Therefore taking longer to read it, back it up, and recover it.
• If you do not defragment your indexes, your database has to cache
all of those blank records, wasting memory.
• Many defragmentation scripts are set to run as part of a maintenance
routine, whether they need it or not.
– This causes extra items on the transaction log, the longer the backups
take, the longer the restores take.
• Spotlight on SQL Server alerts you when defragmentation needs to
occur
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3. SQLDBApros
Monitoring index fragmentation
• Bad internal fragmentation (a lot of empty spaces) and bad external
fragmentation (a lot of records out of order) make the index longer
than it needs to be and therefore storage performance is slower.
• Setting a lower page fill filter (such as 50%) makes your inserts
incredibly fast, but your reads are twice as slow.
– Tweaking this fill filter is a dangerous game
• Spotlight on SQL Server will show you if the root of your problem is
the fragmented indexes and how critical they are:
– Requiring an entire rebuild
– Or just a defragmentation
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4. SQLDBApros
Learn more with the following video
• The following video teaches you how to monitor index
fragmentation in Spotlight on SQL Server 10.0
• New features in version 10.0
– Alarm that tracks whether large indexes require rebuilding
– Home page metrics that allow you to easily drilldown for details
– Quickly generate defragmentation script
• How to set up customizable alarms
• How to view easy home page metrics
• How to get tailored scripts for your defragmentation jobs
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5. SQLDBApros
Click to watch the video now
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6. Learn More
Download Spotlight on SQL Server
View Tutorial on YouTube