Index Analysis

Abstract

In the previous chapter, we discussed what information should be collected when monitoring indexes. All of that information is necessary for the next piece of indexing your databases, which is determining which indexes to apply. In this chapter, we will take all the information gathered while monitoring and use it to analyze the state of performance and the value of the existing indexes. The end goal of the index analysis is to build a list of indexes to create, modify, and, potentially, drop from the databases. In many cases, the analysis of the indexes will appear to border on art. There are many decisions in which you will use previous performance to anticipate future indexing needs. In the end, though, with every change proposed, there will be supporting evidence before and after the indexing solutions to statistically support or disprove the value of the index which makes index analysis more science than art.