SQL Server : Setting up Server Side Trace

For a DBA, SQL profiler is a great tool to trouble shoot performance issues. It is a pain to configure a  trace and analyse it using the profiler GUI . I usually use server side trace which can be configured by running set of scripts. Server side traces are much lighter as it does not need to transfer data over the network.In this post, let us discuss about configuring server side trace.

There are three steps in creating server side trace. 

1. Defining a trace.
2. Defining the events and columns to captured.
3. Defining the filter condition.
4. Start the trace.

Please find below the script used to configure a server side trace.Refer BOL for more option about adding events,columns and filter condition.

   /****************************************************************************************
    STEP 1 : DEFINING THE TRACE    
   ***************************************************************************************/
   SET NOCOUNT ON;
   DECLARE @rc INT
   DECLARE @TraceID INT
   DECLARE @MaxFileSize BIGINT
     DECLARE @OutputFileName NVARCHAR(256)
   SET @MaxFileSize = 1024


   --Replace The H:\MyTraces with a valid folder in your environment
   SET @OutputFileName = 'D:\MyTraces\FileTrace' +     CONVERT(VARCHAR(20), GETDATE(),112) +REPLACE(CONVERT(VARCHAR(20), GETDATE(),108),':','')


   --sp_trace_create @traceid,@options,@tracefile,@maxfilesize,@stoptime ,@filecount 
   EXEC @rc = sp_trace_create @TraceID OUTPUT, 2, @OutputFileName, @MaxFileSize, NULL,5
 
   /****************************************************************************************
    STEP 2 : DEFINING THE EVENT AND COLUMNS
   *****************************************************************************************/

   DECLARE @Status bit
   SET @Status = 1

   --sp_trace_setevent @traceid ,@eventid ,@columnid,@on 

   --RPC:Completed event

   EXEC sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 10, 16, @Status 
   EXEC sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 10, 1,  @Status
   EXEC sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 10, 17, @Status
   EXEC sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 10, 14, @Status
   EXEC sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 10, 18, @Status
   EXEC sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 10, 12, @Status
   EXEC sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 10, 13, @Status
   EXEC sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 10, 8,  @Status
   EXEC sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 10, 10, @Status
   EXEC sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 10, 11, @Status
   EXEC sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 10, 35, @Status



   --SQL:BatchCompleted event




   EXEC sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 12, 16, @Status
   EXEC sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 12, 1,  @Status
   EXEC sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 12, 17, @Status
   EXEC sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 12, 14, @Status
   EXEC sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 12, 18, @Status
   EXEC sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 12, 12, @Status
   EXEC sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 12, 13, @Status
   EXEC sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 12, 8,  @Status
   EXEC sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 12, 10, @Status
   EXEC sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 12, 11, @Status
   EXEC sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 12, 35, @Status

   /****************************************************************************************
    STEP 3 : DEFINING THE Filter condition
   *****************************************************************************************/
   --sp_trace_setfilter @traceid ,@columnid,@logical_operator,@comparison_operator,@value
   EXEC sp_trace_setfilter @TraceID,8,0,0,N'MyAppServer'  --Hostname
   EXEC sp_trace_setfilter @TraceID,35,0,0,N'MyDB' --Database name
   EXEC sp_trace_setfilter @TraceID,11,0,0,N'MyAppUser' --SQL login
   /****************************************************************************************
    STEP 4 : Start the trace
   *****************************************************************************************/
   EXEC sp_trace_setstatus @TraceID, 1
   /****************************************************************************************
     Display the trace Id and traceFilename
   *****************************************************************************************/
   SELECT @TraceID,@OutputFileName



Now the trace is running and you can verify the currently running trace using the below query

SELECT * FROM ::fn_trace_getinfo(NULL)

Once it ran for the desired time , you can stop the trace using the below script

   --sp_trace_setstatus [ @traceid = ] trace_id , [ @status = ] status
    DECLARE @traceid INT
    DECLARE @status INT
    SET @traceid =2
    SET @status =0
    EXEC sp_trace_setstatus @traceid,@status
    SET @status =2
    EXEC sp_trace_setstatus @traceid,@status

To view the content of the trace file. If you have added more column in the trace , add that column in the below select statement also.You can insert the output into a table for further analysis of the trace.

SELECT 
TextData, Duration/1000, Reads, Writes, CPU, StartTime,HostName,ApplicationName,LoginName,DatabaseName
FROM fn_trace_gettable('D:\MyTraces\FileTrace20120929023408.trc',1)

  
Below query will help us to list the events and columns capturing as part of a trace.

SELECT 
t.EventID, 
t.ColumnID, 
e.name AS Event_Description, 
c.name AS Column_DescriptionFROM ::fn_trace_geteventinfo(2) t   --Change the trace id to appropriate one 
JOIN sys.trace_events e ON t.eventID = e.trace_event_id
JOIN sys.trace_columns c ON t.columnid = c.trace_column_id