Stairway to Server-side Tracing - Step 1 - Overview of Tracing (Stairway Series)

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Stairway to Server-side Tracing - Step 1 - Overview of Tracing (Stairway Series)

Dan Guzman

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February 14, 2011 at 10:37 am

#233542

Comments posted to this topic are about the item Stairway to Server-side Tracing - Step 1 - Overview of Tracing (Stairway Series)

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sammesel Old Hand Points: 358 More actions · Answer 1

Great article, looking forward for next step.

I had a little problem when running the query - but it was easy to spot where the problem was.

SELECT

t.id AS TraceId ,

path AS TraceFilePath ,

tcat.name AS EventCategory ,

tevent.name AS EventClassName ,

tcolumn.name AS ColumnName

FROM sys.traces AS t

CROSS APPLY fn_trace_geteventinfo(t.id) AS tdef

JOIN sys.trace_events AS tevent ON tdef.eventid = tevent.trace_event_id

JOIN sys.trace_categories AS tcat ON tcat.category_id = tevent.category_id

JOIN sys.trace_columns AS tcolumn ON tcolumn.trace_column_id = tdef.columnid

WHERE t.is_default = 1 --default trace

AND t.status= 1 --running

ORDER BY TraceFilePath ,

EventCategory ,

EventClassName ,

ColumnName ;

thanks

MysteryJimbo SSC-Insane Points: 24203 More actions · Answer 2

A good start to an overview to SQL trace.

It'd be useful if the next one detailed the difference between profiler and server side tracing where one uses rowset and the other file provider (guaranteed to be loss less).

rony.aj SSC Journeyman Points: 91 More actions · Answer 3

Good article. Interested to read the next step. I expect you will include those sp_trace* procedures as well.

A quick question on this, if the server side operation is to just dump the events collected into the client side application like profiler, then how would the server be affected in performance ? Won't that be an issue only at the client side (comparing the client side & server side traces)?

Thanks,

Rony

UMG Developer SSChampion Points: 13482 More actions · Answer 4

UMG Developer

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Points: 13482

February 23, 2011 at 3:19 pm

#1290662

Looking forward to the rest of this series, thanks!

Dan Guzman SSCommitted Points: 1506 More actions · Answer 5

Rony, I'll cover the sp_trace* procs in detail in the next Stairway level, How to Create a SQL Trace Using T-SQL.

With client-side traces, a SQL Trace rowset provider runs on the server to handle returning trace results to the client application. If the client doesn't consume trace data as fast as it is generated, the trace buffers fill on the server and server threads sending event data will wait for free buffers. Consequently, a slow trace consumer can slow down queries and overall server performance. The rowset provider waits up to 20 seconds before dropping trace events.

Anipaul SSC-Insane Points: 24681 More actions · Answer 6

Good article... Looking forward to read the next part of the series...

phatdogpromos@googlemail.com SSC Veteran Points: 246 More actions · Answer 7

sammesel (2/23/2011)
Great article, looking forward for next step.
I had a little problem when running the query - but it was easy to spot where the problem was.
SELECT
t.id AS TraceId ,
path AS TraceFilePath ,
tcat.name AS EventCategory ,
tevent.name AS EventClassName ,
tcolumn.name AS ColumnName
FROM sys.traces AS t
CROSS APPLY fn_trace_geteventinfo(t.id) AS tdef
JOIN sys.trace_events AS tevent ON tdef.eventid = tevent.trace_event_id
JOIN sys.trace_categories AS tcat ON tcat.category_id = tevent.category_id
JOIN sys.trace_columns AS tcolumn ON tcolumn.trace_column_id = tdef.columnid
WHERE t.is_default = 1 --default trace
AND t.status= 1 --running
ORDER BY TraceFilePath ,
EventCategory ,
EventClassName ,
ColumnName ;
thanks

Even using this modified code my server will still not parse?

Msg 102, Level 15, State 1, Line 8

Incorrect syntax near '.'.

Seems to be failing at the parameter (t.id) ?

Dan Guzman SSCommitted Points: 1506 More actions · Answer 8

The Server-side Tracing stairway is targeted at SQL 2005 and later versions. Since the error message refers to the CROSS APPLY line, I suspect you are either running this on a SQL 2000 server or from a user database in SQL Server 2000 compatibility mode (80).

phatdogpromos@googlemail.com SSC Veteran Points: 246 More actions · Answer 9

Hah! You're absolutely correct! The DB is indeed running in (80) compatibility mode :pinch:

Thanks for the quick response...

grokmann Valued Member Points: 59 More actions · Answer 10

sammesel is right, but this code should be corrected in the article. Please and thank you. 😛

Dan Guzman SSCommitted Points: 1506 More actions · Answer 11

I corrected the script in the article shortly after Sammesel brought this to my attention. As I mentioned in my other response, the other issue is that the script is intended for databases in 90 and later compatibility mode.

Thanks,

Dan

grokmann Valued Member Points: 59 More actions · Answer 12

Hi Dan,

First, thanks for the article, it's been very helpful.

I saw your earlier reply regarding the versioning, and I should have been clearer. I was referring to the missing spaces in the FROM section, which should be corrected to:

FROM sys.traces AS t

CROSS APPLY FN_TRACE_GETEVENTINFO(t.id) AS tdef

JOIN sys.trace_events AS tevent ON tdef.eventid = tevent.trace_event_id

JOIN sys.trace_categories AS tcat ON tcat.category_id = tevent.category_id

JOIN sys.trace_columns AS tcolumn ON tcolumn.trace_column_id = tdef.columnid

It's simple to correct, but the original doesn't parse in SSMS as is.

Thanks for the quick response,

Mike

Dan Guzman SSCommitted Points: 1506 More actions · Answer 13

Thanks for pointing out the missing spaces in the script. The edit tool didn't preserve the original spaces so I added them back. The revision is awaiting appoval.