"SQLQueryStress: Sql Server query performance testing tool"
I found this month's utility reading Adam Machanic's newest book Expert SQL Server 2005 Development - a book I highly recommend for advanced Sql server developers. Lately I've found myself using this utility quite a bit so I thought it would make a great candidate for this month's utility.
SQLQueryStress
Ever find yourself running a long sql statement (and timing it in Sql Management Studio) or trying to speed up a stored procedure by trying multiple ways to write it or wondering how a certain load is going to effect a stored procedure? Fortunately or not, I have found myself in all those situations. Lately I have been doing the second one - trying multiple ways to get the same thing - then checking the performance of each one.
SQLQueryStress is a utility that does one thing and does it well. Just start it up, set your database connection information and start running sql statements against the database (using up to 200 threads and up to 100,000 iterations of your sql statement) and you start seeing IO and timing statistics right away. Adam has done a good job of documenting the utility, so I'm not going to go into too much detail.
Besides setting the number of times the statements should be executed, you can setup parameter substitution to plug in values for the parameters as it cranks through the iterations (which can even be queries from other databases or tables). I'll have to admit I haven't used the parameter substitution feature too much yet, but I'm sure I will after I get past my R&D stage. Once you have set the query the way you want it to run and the options set (File->Options), you can save the query and settings for running again later (File->Save Settings and File->Load Settings) - Very handy feature!
Where you can find the utility:
SQLQueryStress home site
(download page, documentation page)
I'm sure you'll find Adam's utility a good addition to your toolbox if you do any type of Sql perf testing (even if it is just another set of perf numbers you can use for evaluating the overall picture). Try it out and let me know what you think, I'm always curious :)