Sitecore server performance depends a lot on underlying SQL server performance. If SQL server performance decreases, Sitecore server performance will decrease too. That's why its important to have SQL server maintenance plans. Maintenance plans create a workflow of the tasks required to make sure that your database is optimized, regularly backed up, and free of inconsistencies. You can learn more about maintenance plans here . We observed that a poor maintenance plan can lead to SQL timeout errors in application and the high fragmentation level in the SQL indexes can have major role to play in it. Sitecore recommends keeping index fragmentation below 10% If you see error in your logs which read something like below, its time for you to check your index fragmentation levels and revisit your SQL server maintenance plans - Execution Timeout Expired. The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding. How to know if index fragmentation is
This blog is created to serve as a repository of quick tips for Sitecore developers. I have learnt a lot from the programming community and this is my attempt to give back to the community.