Seeking free ODBC database optimization tool for non-experts

Question

I'm a database n00b and am reading as many books as I can. I have been given responsibility for an ODBC tool where the databases were designed by a hardware engineer with some VB experience - which made him a s/w guru in the small firm at that time.

Things are running slowly and I suspect that the db could have been designed better. I hope to learn enough to use Explain/Describe, etc maybe add some indices, but, in the meantime, is there any free for commercial use tool which can examine an ODBC database and suggest improvements.

I'm just talking about db schema here, but maybe I should also be looking at optimizing Selects with Joins? Is there a tool for that?

ODBC compliant.

Answer 1

Optimization generally requires understanding of the internal implementation of the the DBMS kernel. It would be astonishing if there were a generic tool which could do this for every database in your list, and even more astonishing if this marvel were given away free for commercial use.

Having said all that, you should have a look at SQL Squirrel . This is a "universal SQL client", basically a Java IDE framework which comes with a set of DBMS specific plugins. Its range of offerings include support for Oracle and MySQL but not MS Access or SqlLite.

I think you will be very lucky to discover a single tool, free or licensed, which diagnoses performance for both Oracle and MS Access. Fingers crossed.