SQL Server 2008 introduced a powerful feature called the Resource Governor, which allows enterprise customers to monitor and control the utilization of CPU and memory resources by different workloads on their SQL Server instances. In this article, we will explore the concept of Resource Governor and discuss its practical usage scenarios and best practices.

What is Resource Governor?

The Resource Governor is a feature available in Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Enterprise edition. It provides administrators with the ability to dictate and monitor how a SQL Server instance behaves in terms of CPU, memory, and response time. This level of control is crucial for managing scale, concurrency, high availability, consolidation, virtualization, and meeting service level agreements (SLAs) in production environments.

Key Benefits and Usage Scenarios

The Resource Governor offers several benefits and can be utilized in various scenarios. Let’s explore some of the key benefits and usage scenarios:

• Consolidation: The Resource Governor allows you to build a consolidation plan by allocating resources to different workloads based on their importance and priority. This ensures optimal utilization of resources and avoids resource contention.
• Preventing Runaway Queries: By setting resource limits for different workloads, you can prevent runaway queries from consuming excessive resources and impacting the overall performance of the SQL Server instance.
• Meeting SLAs: The Resource Governor enables you to meet service level agreements driven by response time and concurrency. By allocating resources based on workload importance, you can ensure that critical workloads receive the necessary resources to meet their performance requirements.
• Chargeback System: Implementing a chargeback system becomes easier with the Resource Governor. You can track and recover resource costs by assigning costs to different workloads based on their resource consumption.
• Monitoring: The Resource Governor provides new functionality to monitor SQL Server instances. You can analyze resource utilization, identify bottlenecks, and make informed decisions to optimize performance.

Best Practices and Limitations

While using the Resource Governor, it is important to follow best practices to ensure optimal performance and avoid potential limitations. Some of the best practices include:

• Thoroughly analyze and understand your workload requirements before implementing the Resource Governor.
• Regularly monitor and adjust resource allocations based on workload changes and performance analysis.
• Consider using workload groups and resource pools to categorize and manage different workloads effectively.
• Test your consolidation plan thoroughly before implementing it in a production environment.

It is also important to be aware of the limitations of the Resource Governor. For example, it cannot control disk I/O or network bandwidth, and it may not be suitable for all types of workloads. Understanding these limitations will help you make informed decisions when implementing the Resource Governor.

Conclusion

The Resource Governor in SQL Server provides administrators with a powerful tool to monitor and control the utilization of CPU and memory resources. By effectively utilizing this feature, you can optimize performance, meet SLAs, prevent runaway queries, and implement a chargeback system. However, it is important to understand the best practices and limitations associated with the Resource Governor to ensure its successful implementation.

Download the whitepaper here to learn more about using the Resource Governor in SQL Server.