Wednesday, November 14, 2018

Foxhound Consulting Done Remotely

SQL Anywhere performance and tuning consulting by a real person (me) is now available remotely, via email. Here's how it works:

  1. You run the Foxhound 4 Database Monitor to gather samples from your SQL Anywhere database,

  2. then you send me a copy (or a subset) of your Foxhound database

  3. which I look at for one hour

  4. and then I send you my observations and suggestions.



Yes, the first hour of consulting is free... and you can send me your entire foxhound4.db file if it fits in an email or dropbox.

But . . . if your Foxhound database is huge . . .


If your foxhound4.db file is too big to send by email, you can use Foxhound's Adhoc Query feature to unload a smaller subset which will fit in an email:
  1. Download this SQL script to make this process easier: unload_samples.txt

  2. and save it in a folder like C:\ProgramData\RisingRoad\Foxhound4.

  3. Modify Foxhound to allow the script to run. To do this, add the dbsrv -gl all option to one of the Foxhound shortcut command files.

    For example, here's how to add -gl all to the $start_foxhound4_default_browser.bat file in C:\ProgramData\RisingRoad\Foxhound4:
    ...
    "!SDIR!\!BIN!\dbspawn.exe"^
      -f "!SDIR!\!BIN!\!SPGM!"^
      -c 25p^
      -ch 50p^
      -cr-^
      -gk all^
    -gl all^
    -gn 220^ -gna 0^ -n foxhound4^ -o foxhound4_debug.txt^ -oe foxhound4_debug_startup.txt^ -on 1M^ -sb 0^ -ufd restart^ -x tcpip^ -xd^ -xs http(port=8080;maxsize=0;to=600;kto=600)^ foxhound4.db^ -n f ...

  4. Run: Foxhound4 - Stop Foxhound Engine

  5. Run: Foxhound4 - Start Foxhound via default browser to put -gl all into effect.

  6. Run: Foxhound4 - Adhoc Query Foxhound Database via ISQL

  7. Run the unload_samples.txt script to gather a subset.

    For example, the following statements unload all the samples recorded since May 1 and write the files into C:\temp:
    READ unload_samples.txt;
    CALL unload_samples ( '2018-05-01' ); -- for more examples look inside unload_samples.txt
    

  8. Attach the files from C:\temp to a covering email and send it to me: Breck.Carter@gmail.com

That's it! ...you'll hear back from me soon.