List of Threshold Value for SQL Server Performance Counters
By : Kasim Wirama, MCDBA, MCITP
Monitoring database performance is proactive task that a DBA should do. Possible bottleneck for SQL Server is memory, processor, I/O subsystem, tempdb database, and locking. For SQL Server specifics, below list is a minimum set of counters that should be used for monitoring SQL Server performance daily. I would give preferred value but your environment might require the value stick with the preferred one because each database environment is unique. For your initial baseline, it could your reference.
1. 1. SQL Server:Access Methods with counter : Forwarded Records/sec
Preferred value : less than 10 of 100 Batch Requests/Sec
2. 2. SQL Server:Access Methods with counter : Full Scans/sec
Preferred value : (Index searches/sec)/(Full scans/sec) should be greater than 1000
3. 3. SQL Server:Access Methods with counter : Index Searches/sec
Preferred value : same with point 2
4. 4. SQL Server:Access Methods with counter : Page Splits/sec
Preferred value : less than 20 of 100 Batch Requests/sec
5. 5. SQL Server:Buffer Manager with counter : Buffer Cache Hit Ratio
Preferred value : greater than 90%
6. 6. SQL Server:Buffer Manager with counter : Free List Stalls/sec
Preferred value : less than 2
7. 7. SQL Server:Buffer Manager with counter : Free Pages
Preferred value : greater than 640
8. 8. SQL Server: Buffer Manager with counter : Lazy Writes/Sec
Preferred value : less than 20
9. 9. SQL Server: Buffer Manager with counter : Page Life Expectancy
Preferred value : greater than 600 seconds.
10. 10. SQL Server: Buffer Manager with counter : Page Lookup/sec
Preferred value : (Page Lookup/sec)/(Batch Requests/sec) should less than 100
11. 11. SQL Server: Buffer Manager with counter : Page Reads/sec
Preferred value : less than 90
12. 12. SQL Server: Buffer Manager with counter : Page Writes/sec
Preferred value : same with point 11
13. 13. SQL Server: General Statistics with counter : Logins/sec
Preferred value : less than 2
14. 14. SQL Server: General Statistics with counter : Logouts/sec
Preferred value : less than 2
15. 15. SQL Server: Latches with counter : Latch Waits/sec
Preferred value : (Total Latch Wait Time)/(Latch Waits/Sec) less than 10
16. 16. SQL Server: Latches with counter : Total Latch Wait Time (ms)
Preferred value : same with point 15
17. 17. SQL Server: Locks with counter : Lock Wait Time(ms)
Preferred value : should not exceeds 60 seconds.
18. 18. SQL Server: Locks with counter : Lock Waits/sec
Preferred value : should be zero
19. 19. SQL Server: Locks with counter : Number of Deadlocks/sec
Preferred value : less than 1
20. 20. SQL Server: SQL Statistics with counter : SQL Compilations/sec
Preferred value : less than 10% of number of Batch Requests/sec
21. 21. SQL Server: SQL Statistics with counter : SQL Re-Compilations/sec
Preferred value : less than 10% of number of SQL Compilations/sec
Generally 15 seconds sample rate is sufficient and it is recommended to save it into CSV for later analysis.
