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Server Performance and Activity Monitoring

The goal of monitoring databases is to assess how a server is performing. Effective monitoring involves taking periodic snapshots of current performance to isolate processes that are causing problems, and gathering data continuously over time to track performance trends. Microsoft SQL Server and the Microsoft Windows operating system provide utilities that let you view the current condition of the database and to track performance as conditions change.

The following section contains topics that describe how to use SQL Server and Windows performance and activity monitoring tools. It contains the following topics:

In This Section

To perform monitoring tasks with Windows tools

To create SQL Server database alerts with Windows tools

To perform monitoring tasks with SQL Server Management Studio

To perform monitoring tasks with SQL Trace by using Transact-SQL stored procedures

To create and modify traces by using SQL Server Profiler

To start, pause, and stop traces by using SQL Server Profiler

To open traces and configure how traces are displayed by using SQL Server Profiler

To replay traces by using SQL Server Profiler

To create, modify, and use trace templates by using SQL Server Profiler

To use SQL Server Profiler traces to collect and monitor server performance