3rd party performance tuning monitor/software?

Hi all, My boss has asked me to research and recommend a product that our developers (not database developers, but front-end developers that *cringe* get into the database to make the occasional stored procedure) can use to determine the relative efficiency of thier code and/or the database structure and keys.

We currently have a few licensed versions of Quest's Coefficient software, which I think is very usable for such things (I do on a regular basis), but he doesn't think that is "friendly" enough for a GUI developer that is not a database expert.

Any thought and/or suggestions for a 3rd party software package that y'all have used or are using that might fit the bill? I don't mind doing the footwork and research, just thought I would "seek the advice of my peers" to get started.

Yeah, I know the design should drive the database, but we are in various stages of "getting there", so any help in the interim is a good thing.

Thanks for the thoughts and waste of brain cells on my behalf.I'm still not understanding exactly what you want to analyze. Are you trying to get at the design of the database, the implementation, the performance of specific queries... There are too many moving parts for me to figure out how to start to answer your question.

-PatP|||Pat, this request is coming from a manager. :rolleyes: The target, therefore, is a moving one. Assuming (big leap here) that the basic design of the database is sound, then what I am looking for is something that will suggest where an index would be valuable, Probably by examining specific queries, or tables, or views.

Probably Enterprise Manager has such tools, such as SQL Profiler, and I will also look into that, but someone has gotten my manager's ear, I think, about getting a tool that makes the detection of problem access methods/code apparent.

The basic trouble is that the developers are NOT SQL Server experts, as I am the closest to that in the group (yep, scary, eh?) and there is only so many of me.

The ultimate solution is to educate the masses, but that ain't gonna happen soon, so I am just looking for a tool or suggestions (or both) regarding some ways to keep 'em out of too much trouble in the meantime.|||I have been beating the drum of sql quality control around my shop since I got here.

The only effective method of improving the sql going into the application that I have found is education and mentoring. A developer will come to me and say "sql server sucks, why is my code so slow. QA says the page performs like crap". I will make them sit there while I go over their sql, execution plan and table design and indexes and I will explain stuff to them. Then I will offer to lend them a book on writing sql.

In my 16 months here I think I have helped the quality of the overall output of 3 or 4 of the developers.