Path: utzoo!attcan!telly!lethe!torsqnt!tmsoft!beaudin!john
From: john@beaudin.UUCP (John Beaudin)
Newsgroups: comp.databases
Subject: Sybase query
Message-ID: <1453@beaudin.UUCP>
Date: 27 Oct 90 23:59:40 GMT
Lines: 26

A friend familiar with another database told me a tale recently (I'm
considering Sybase as a database). Here's what she said:

"At my shop we had a query which took 3 weeks to finish. Some of our
database admins took a look at it and the files involved. They determined,
from statistics available from the database server, that the files needed
to be tuned. The statistics mentioned that some columns were not referenced
very frequently, while others requiring joins were accessed often. It seems
that some of the joins were very complex and resource consuming. Therefore
the DBA's merged some relations and partitioned others. The query now runs
in an hour. Make sure that any database you get also has these stats
available so that database tuning is feasible and more scientific, as
compared to making intelligent guesses. Otherwise, you run the risk of
not knowing where bottlenecks are and eventually having to rebuild the
whole database, which could take a few days, if things really get sloppy."

Of course I'm paraphrasing her, and I'm uncertain of the accuracy of the
terms I used. Does Sybase have these stats available for database tuning?
What kind of info can they tell you? What do other products tell you about
the health of the database. Are these some or all of the bells & whistles
I hear vaguely described? 

"...oh yeah, sure Sybase is the fastest in the industry, but add all
the Big database bells & whistles and it'll be as slow as the others..."
-- 
My .signature is awaiting apropriate display technology