The DataServer for Microsoft SQL Server is enhanced with the ability to form a connection pool. A connection pool is a set of database connections that are available for an application to use and reuse without having to be reestablished. Connection pooling significantly improves the cursor management associated with no-lock queries, particularly multi-table joins. Creating and tearing down connections can be resource intensive. Using a pooled connection to keep existing connections alive results in significant performance gains because the DataServer avoids the overhead of making a connection for each request. ABL applications that open multiple no-lock queries and handle their results simultaneously experience the best cumulative performance gains from connection pooling.
