Auto-growth
What exactly are auto-growth events? An auto-growth event is the process by which the SQL Server engine expands the size of a database file when it runs out of space. The amount by which a database file grows is based on the settings that you have for the file growth options for your database.
Each database file that is associated with your database has an auto-growth setting. There are three different settings you can use to identify how your database files will grow. They can grow by a specific size, a percentage of the current size, or not grow at all. Additionally you can set your files to unrestricted growth, which means they will keep growing as they need more space or you run out of disk space. Or you can restrict the growth of a database file to grow no larger than a specified size. Each one of these different auto-grow setting have defaults, or you can set them for each database file.
If you are not properly managing your auto-growth setting for a database, then your database might experience many auto-grow events, or very few. Auto-growth events. Each time an auto-growth event is performed SQL Server holds up database processing while an auto-growth event occurs. This means that processing against that database will be held up while the auto-growth event completed. This equates to slower response time for those SQL commands that are being processing against the database that is growing.
When an auto-growth event occurs SQL Server needs to find additional disk space in which the database can grow. Most likely this disk space will not be physically right next to the existing database space, but instead will be somewhere else on the disk. This causes your database file to be physically fragmented on the disk. The more auto-growth events you have the more physical fragmentation you will have. When your database is physically fragmented it takes longer for SQL Server to read that databases, because it has to move the disk head around to all the different fragmented pieces to read your database. To avoid the issues associated with auto-growth events you need to minimize the number of auto-growth events that occur.
The default auto-growth settings for a database are rarely the ideal settings for how your database should grow. If you have an idea of the growth profile of your database when you first build it then you should set your auto-growth properties based on those growth projections. If you don’t have any idea of how fast your database will grow then you should be monitoring for auto-growth events. Knowing how often your database grows will give you some ideas of the growth rate of your database.
Don’t let your Auto-growth Events Run Wild
Auto-growth events are expensive operations that slow down the performance of your database. Take the following preventive steps to ensure your auto-growth events do not run wild:
- Pre-Size your databases and establishing appropriate auto-growth settings for your databases based on their growth profile.
- Minimize future auto-growth events by monitoring the growth of your databases, and re-establishing auto-growth settings when a database growth profile changes.
- Monitor auto-growth events so you can be alerted when your databases grow.
- Consider defragmenting your database file system if you have let your auto-growth run wild.
Taking these preventive and proactive measures will help improve your database performance and better manage your disk space utilization.
Sources:
https://www.inflectra.com/support/knowledgebase/kb55.aspx
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