The first part of our stairway series on SQL Trace examines the overview of this subsystem in SQL Server, it's architecture and the kind of information it returns.  Read more...

Compares and contrasts tracing using Profiler with server-side tracing, illustrating important performance differences so that one can choose the right tool for the task at hand.  Read more...

In this level you will see how to employ the Data Collector feature of SQL Server to automate management of SQL Traces among multiple servers.  Read more...

Level 8 of this stairway series looks at the automation of your tracing using Integration Services.  Read more...

A customer provides an SQL Server Analysis Services trace file to analyze. You save this file into a trace table and execute T-SQL code to analyze the results. Rather than getting descriptive values for the EventClass and EventSubclass data, you get numerical values. How do you resolve these numerical values to meaningful descriptive names? Check out this tip to learn more.  Read more...

How to use SQL Jobs, scripts and SSIS to manage traces and trace data collection.  Read more...

How to import a trace file into a table using T-SQL and the Profiler tool, for subsequent ad-hoc analysis.  Read more...

An introduction to the SQL Trace catalog views and functions used to view existing trace definitions targeted at DBAs and Developers. The article discusses T-SQL queries to view defined traces, query trace status and start/stop/delete traces.  Read more...

In this third article of our Stairway Series on tracing, Dan Guzman goes into the method of using Profiler to help you create a custom trace of the events that you need to monitor.  Read more...

Since the introduction of SQL Server 2005, there is a simple lightweight trace that is left running by default on every SQL Server. This provides some very valuable information for the DBA about the running server, but it isn't well-documented. Feodor Georgiev reveals many of the secrets of this facility and shows how to get reports from it.  Read more...

This is the second article in our Stairway Series on SQL Tracing. Learn how to build traces in code with T-SQL.  Read more...

The first part of our stairway series on SQL Trace examines the overview of this subsystem in SQL Server, it's architecture and the kind of information it returns.  Read more...

This is the second article in our Stairway Series on SQL Tracing. Learn how to build traces in code with T-SQL.  Read more...

In this third article of our Stairway Series on tracing, Dan Guzman goes into the method of using Profiler to help you create a custom trace of the events that you need to monitor.  Read more...

The first part of our stairway series on SQL Trace examines the overview of this subsystem in SQL Server, it's architecture and the kind of information it returns.  Read more...

An introduction to the SQL Server default and black box traces targeted at DBAs who are new to these specialized traces. The article shows how to enable and disable the default trace feature and create a black box trace. The captured events are discussed along with how to view current and historical trace data of these traces.  Read more...

This article describes a method of gathering and analyzing performance data using SQL Trace.  Read more...

I would like the option on some servers of having a profiler trace running 24x7 in the background. I could then access and read these trace files to investigate issues after the fact - much like the default trace that came out with SQL 2005.   Read more...

The Trace File Source adapter is a useful addition to your SSIS toolbox. It allows you to read 2005 and 2008 profiler traces stored as .trc files and read them into the Data Flow. From there you can perform filtering and analysis using the power of SSIS  Read more...

In SQL Server 2008, Microsoft introduced SQL Server Audit. This is much better than anything we had before, and is likely to meet the needs of all but the largest, or most highly-regulated industries. SQL Server 2008 Enterprise Edition includes all of the features, whereas SQL Server 2008 Standard Edition only provides a subset. What is most attractive about it, is that it is easy to administer, as Thomas LaRock explains.  Read more...