Using SQL Server Profiler
SQL Server Profiler shows how SQL Server resolves queries internally. This allows administrators to see exactly what Transact-SQL statements or Multi-Dimensional Expressions are submitted to the server and how the server accesses the database or cube to return result sets.
Using SQL Server Profiler, you can do the following:
- Create a trace that is based on a reusable template
- Watch the trace results as the trace runs
- Store the trace results in a table
- Start, stop, pause, and modify the trace results as necessary
- Replay the trace results
Use SQL Server Profiler to monitor only the events in which you are interested. If traces are becoming too large, you can filter them based on the information you want, so that only a subset of the event data is collected. Monitoring too many events adds overhead to the server and the monitoring process, and can cause the trace file or trace table to grow very large, especially when the monitoring process takes place over a long period of time.
Note
In SQL Server 2005, trace column values greater than 1 GB return an error and are truncated in the trace output.
In This Section
| Topic | Description |
|---|---|
Contains information about the predefined trace templates that ship with SQL Server Profiler. |
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Contains information about the permissions that are required to run SQL Server Profiler. |
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Contains information about saving trace output and about saving trace definitions into a template. |
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Contains information about modifying trace templates by using SQL Server Profiler or by using Transact-SQL. |
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Contains information about what happens when you start, pause, or stop a trace. |
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Contains information about correlating Windows performance log data with a trace by using SQL Server Profiler. |
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Contains information about using traces to troubleshoot data, displaying object names in a trace, and finding events in a trace. |
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Contains information about using SQL Server Profiler to identify the cause of a deadlock. |
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Analyzing Queries with SHOWPLAN Results in SQL Server Profiler |
Contains information about using SQL Server Profiler to collect and display Showplan and Showplan Statistics results. |
Contains information about setting filters on data columns to filter trace output by using SQL Server Profiler. |
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Contains information that explains what replaying a trace means and what is required to replay a trace. |
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Contains descriptions of typical scenarios where you can use SQL Server Profiler to analyze SQL Server performance. |
See Also
Other Resources
SQL Server Profiler Reference
Starting SQL Server Profiler