A database workload pattern characterized by high-frequency, short-duration transactions, including inserts, updates, and deletes, that support day-to-day operational business processes.
- OLTP workloads prioritize transaction throughput, low latency, and concurrency: They typically involve simple queries that access a small number of rows.
- SQL Server is optimized for OLTP through row-based storage, tight locking semantics, and In-Memory OLTP: In-Memory OLTP is particularly beneficial for workloads requiring extreme throughput.
- OLTP databases are typically normalized using Third Normal Form (3NF): Normalization minimizes data redundancy and supports efficient transactional writes.
- DBAs managing OLTP systems focus on several key areas: These include index design for fast point lookups, lock contention management, TempDB tuning, and maintaining strict Recovery Point Objective (RPO) and Recovery Time Objective (RTO) service level agreements.
- Mixing OLAP and OLTP workloads on the same database can degrade performance for both: To isolate workloads, organizations can use readable Always On Availability Group replicas, columnstore indexes, or dedicated reporting instances.
- Related terms: OLAP, In-Memory OLTP, Latch Wait, Columnstore Index, Always On Availability Groups.
