SQL Plan Execution FlameGraphs with Loop and Row Counts
Back in 2018 I wrote about how to apply Brendan Gregg’s FlameGraphs for visualizing SQL plan execution time 1, using the plan node-level context and timing data that some database engines provide.
This approach is not designed to replace the traditional plan display methods that are packed with lots of additional metrics and details. Nevertheless, in case of large execution plans, SQL plan flamegraphs give you a quick overview of both the plan structure, tables and operations involved and where (in which plan subtrees) most of the plan execution time is spent.
In the previous article I didn’t add any more interesting metrics to the graph, other than the plan node level total execution time consumption that was visualized as the “flame bar” width itself. I queried these values from the database, with additional useful context, like execution plan node ID, plan operation type and table/index names when relevant.
But this doesn’t give you an answer to the immediately following question, when troubleshooting time or resource consumption:
