Reading Extended Events File...Suggestions ?

  • Per another thread, I created an Extended Event to capture SQL activity. But now I want to read the file and find specific event.

    I ran "SP_WHO2", then wanted to find it. I found this code.

    select * from sys.fn_xe_file_target_read_file('D:\SQL Server 2016 SP2\TraceFiles\SQL_Activity_EE_0_132368306610620000.xel', null, null, null)
    where event_data like '%sp_who2%'

     

    For some reason I get 21 results looking for SP_WHO2, even though I ran it once. And it's not very readable.

    Is there a way to format it, similar to how I would look at Trace results, when I would run this ?

    SELECT  tr.starttime   ,name as 'DB_Name', *
    FROM fn_trace_gettable('D:\SQL Server 2016 SP2\TraceFiles\MyDMLtrace_SQL_x200612_x109_2.trc', 1) tr
    join master.sys.databases on tr.databaseid = database_id
    where textdata  like '%sp_who2%'

    • This topic was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by  homebrew01.
    • This topic was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by  homebrew01.
    • This topic was modified 4 years, 5 months ago by  homebrew01.
  • My Extended event is below. I was originally including "sp_statement_completed", but that seemed to grow the file about 1 gig every few minutes. Obviously new at E.E.

    CREATE EVENT SESSION [SQL_Activity] ON SERVER 
    ADD EVENT sqlserver.cursor_execute(
    ACTION(package0.callstack,package0.collect_system_time,sqlserver.client_app_name,sqlserver.client_hostname,sqlserver.database_name,sqlserver.nt_username,sqlserver.session_nt_username,sqlserver.sql_text,sqlserver.tsql_stack,sqlserver.username)),
    ADD EVENT sqlserver.login(
    ACTION(package0.callstack,package0.collect_system_time,sqlserver.client_app_name,sqlserver.client_hostname,sqlserver.database_name,sqlserver.nt_username,sqlserver.session_nt_username,sqlserver.sql_text,sqlserver.tsql_stack,sqlserver.username)),
    ADD EVENT sqlserver.login_event(
    ACTION(package0.callstack,package0.collect_system_time,sqlserver.client_app_name,sqlserver.client_hostname,sqlserver.database_name,sqlserver.nt_username,sqlserver.session_nt_username,sqlserver.sql_text,sqlserver.tsql_stack,sqlserver.username)),
    ADD EVENT sqlserver.sql_batch_completed(
    ACTION(package0.callstack,package0.collect_system_time,sqlserver.client_app_name,sqlserver.client_hostname,sqlserver.database_name,sqlserver.nt_username,sqlserver.session_nt_username,sqlserver.sql_text,sqlserver.tsql_stack,sqlserver.username)),
    ADD EVENT sqlserver.sql_statement_completed(
    ACTION(package0.callstack,package0.collect_system_time,sqlserver.client_app_name,sqlserver.client_hostname,sqlserver.database_name,sqlserver.nt_username,sqlserver.session_nt_username,sqlserver.sql_text,sqlserver.tsql_stack,sqlserver.username))
    ADD TARGET package0.event_file(SET filename=N'D:\SQL Server 2016 SP2\TraceFiles\SQL_Activity_EE.xel')
    WITH (MAX_MEMORY=4096 KB,EVENT_RETENTION_MODE=ALLOW_SINGLE_EVENT_LOSS,MAX_DISPATCH_LATENCY=30 SECONDS,MAX_EVENT_SIZE=0 KB,MEMORY_PARTITION_MODE=NONE,TRACK_CAUSALITY=OFF,STARTUP_STATE=OFF)
    GO
  • How do I parse the "Event_Data" column so I can query it based on user, date, text string search etc ?

     

  • It's just a question of using XQuery to pull it out. Here's an example from my blog on how to do it. Here's another example doing the same thing a little differently. Parse out the XML and you can do anything you like. Another option is to open the data in the Live Data Explorer window and use that tool. Here are several posts that show how to use it.

    "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
    - Theodore Roosevelt

    Author of:
    SQL Server Execution Plans
    SQL Server Query Performance Tuning

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