I started going a little further than this, mapping out some of the more common wait types, and noting some of the properties they shared. Translated into questions a tuner might have about a wait type they are experiencing:
- Can the wait type be solved at the query level?
- Is the core symptom of the wait likely to be affecting other queries?
- Is it likely you will need more information outside the context of a single query and the wait types it experienced in order to “solve” the problem?
When I set out to write this post, my goal was just to group the most common wait types together, and then start jotting notes about them relating to the above questions. Jason pulled the most common ones from the library, and then I drew some chicken scratch on a whiteboard, which I later tidied up a bit. This initial research led to a talk that Jason gave on the most recent TechOutbound SQL Cruise in Alaska. I’m kind of embarrassed that he put a talk together months before I could finish this post, so let’s just get on with it. Here are the top waits we see (which largely match Paul’s survey from 2014), my answers to the above questions, and some commentary on each:
Read on for the top 10 list.