The Batch Requests/sec counter of the SQL Statistics performance object increases one time for each RPC in SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2

This article describes a design change in Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 (SP2). In SQL Server 2005 SP2, the Batch Requests/sec counter of the SQL Statistics performance object increases one time for each remote procedure call (RPC).

In SQL Server 2000, the Batch Requests/sec counter of the SQL Statistics performance object increases one time for each RPC. This behavior occurs even if RPC calls are batched together in a single batch. In the original release version of SQL Server 2005 and in SQL Server 2005 SP1, this behavior was changed so that the counter increases one time for each batch. Therefore, if multiple RPCs arrive in the same batch, the counter increases only one time.

In the original release version of SQL Server 2005 and in SQL Server 2005 SP1, the name of the Batch Requests/sec counter corresponds better to the behavior of the counter. However, the change in the original release version of SQL Server 2005 and in SQL Server 2005 SP1 has been less useful than expected. Usually when you want to evaluate performance, it is important to know the RPC throughput. You cannot use the counter to discover the RPC throughput in a simple way. Therefore, in SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 (SP2), the counter works in the same manner as in SQL Server 2000. The counter increases one time for each RPC, even if the RPCs are batched together.

In the original release version of SQL Server 2005 and in SQL Server 2005 SP1, the Batch Requests/sec counter may have much smaller values than in other versions of SQL Server if batched RPCs are used. This does not indicate that the performance of the server decreases. This is only the result of the change in the performance counter.