When inserting rows into a heap, SQL Server must sometimes update the PFS page which can PFS contention and affect performance. In this article, Uwe Ricken demonstrates how to measure PFS contention.

After looking at the internal structures and the selection of data in heaps in the previous articles, the next articles will describe how DML operations can be optimized on a heap.

Demo set up

I use data from a demo database for all demos for demonstration purposes in articles and conferences. You can download the database [CustomerOrders] here.

In this article, I’ll use an additional database, demo_db. Run the following script to create the demo_db database, a heap to test inserts, and a view pointing to [CustomerOrders].

#heaps #pfs contention #sql prompt #sql server #sql