Using Database Engine Tuning Advisor
You can access Database Engine Tuning Advisor at the command prompt by using the dta.exe file, or through the application's graphical user interface (GUI). The command-line utility lets you incorporate Database Engine Tuning Advisor functionality into scripts and software programs. The dta utility also takes XML input. The Database Engine Tuning Advisor GUI makes it easy to view existing tuning sessions tuning recommendations.
Note
Database Engine Tuning Advisor stores tuning session data and other information in the msdb database. Implement an appropriate backup strategy for the msdb database to avoid the risk of losing tuning session data.
The following sections contain conceptual information about using both user interfaces of Database Engine Tuning Advisor.
In This Section
| Topic | Description |
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Contains information about how to initialize Database Engine Tuning Advisor immediately after installing Microsoft SQL Server 2005. A member of the sysadmin fixed server role must launch the application first before others can use it. |
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Contains information about the types of events that Database Engine Tuning Advisor can tune. |
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Contains information about the overall process of tuning the physical database design and provides links to the how-to topics that describe each task. |
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Contains information about all the tuning options that Database Engine Tuning Advisor provides, such as limiting the tuning time, the amount of space consumed by recommendations, and so on. |
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Contains information about each type of analysis report that Database Engine Tuning Advisor generates after consuming a workload. |
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Contains information about using a test server to offload tuning overhead from the production server. |
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Contains information about how to use Database Engine Tuning Advisor to tune multiple databases. |
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Contains information about using an XML input file for tuning, including information about specifying hypothetical configurations for Database Engine Tuning Advisor to analyze. |
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Tuning Mode Precedence: When the dta Utility Overrides XML Tuning Input |
Contains information about what tuning options take precedence over others. |
Contains information about how to use Database Engine Tuning Advisor sessions to compare and evaluate tuning results. |