SQL Server Bulk Trace .
One of my many roles at Sagittarius is to manage our clients databases on SQL Server 2012. Keeping everything running in tip top performance is always a battle. One of the many tools I use for analysing the databases performance at a server level is a custom tracing database set up.
You can use the SQL Profiler tool for watching the data on the server in real time. But sometimes it’s good to collect a ton of data over a period. It’s nice to do this by recording that data to disk without using SQL Profilers UI hogging system resources.
So what I did is to create a database called TraceImporter. We would then record data to disk for a time period and then import this data into the TraceImporter database for mining. To build this I create a table called TraceResults.
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
SET ANSI_PADDING ON
GO
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[TraceResults](
[TextData] [varchar](max) NULL,
[Duration] [int] NULL,
[Reads] [int] NULL,
[Writes] [int] NULL,
[CPU] [int] NULL,
[StartTime] [datetime] NULL,
[ProcedureName] [varchar](max) NULL
) ON [PRIMARY]
GO
SET ANSI_PADDING OFF
This is going to be used as a store for the data to be added to so we can analyse it. Then a stored procedure called ImportTraceResults whose job it is to read a trace file and put the data into the above TraceResults table.
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
-- =============================================
-- Author: Richard Brisley
-- Create date: 20/11/2014
-- Description: Imports a sql server trace file into a table for analysis
-- =============================================
CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[ImportTraceResults]
@TraceFile VARCHAR(8000)
AS
BEGIN
-- SET NOCOUNT ON added to prevent extra result sets from
-- interfering with SELECT statements.
SET NOCOUNT ON;
-- Import the trace results to the database
INSERT INTO TraceResults
(TextData, Duration, Reads, Writes, CPU, StartTime)
SELECT TextData, Duration/1000, Reads, Writes, CPU, StartTime
FROM fn_trace_gettable(@TraceFile,1)
-- Populate the procedure name column where applicable
UPDATE TraceResults
SET ProcedureName =
LEFT
(
RIGHT(TextData, LEN(TextData) - CHARINDEX(' ',TextData, CHARINDEX('Exec',TextData))),
CHARINDEX(' ', RIGHT(TextData, LEN(TextData) - CHARINDEX(' ',TextData, CHARINDEX('Exec',TextData))) + ' ')
)
WHERE TextData like '%exec%' AND ProcedureName IS NULL
END
When we are running traces its good to have a quick and simple way to return a list of them. So this is a simple wrapper for fn_trace_getinfo called RunningTraces.
SET ANSI_NULLS ON
GO
SET QUOTED_IDENTIFIER ON
GO
-- =============================================
-- Author: Richard Brisley
-- Create date: 20/11/2014
-- Description: Returns a list of running traces
-- =============================================
CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[RunningTraces]
AS
BEGIN
SET NOCOUNT ON;
SELECT * FROM :: fn_trace_getinfo(default)
END
This is the big piece of the puzzle, it uses a stored procedure to start a new trace. You simply pass it the Output file name, so the default will create C:\Databases\Data\Traces\Trace20141120-1847.trc using the current date and time. The second parameter is the amount of time you want the trace to run. If no parameter is provided the default is 30 minutes. On timeout this procedure will automatically call ImportTraceResults to import the data into the table for analysis.
-- =============================================
-- Author: Richard Brisley
-- Create date: 20/11/2014
-- Description: Record a trace file to disk for analysing later on
-- =============================================
CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[StartTrace]
@OutputFileName NVARCHAR(256) = 'C:\Databases\Data\Traces\Trace',
@EndTime DATETIME = NULL
AS
BEGIN
-- SET NOCOUNT ON added to prevent extra result sets from
-- interfering with SELECT statements.
SET NOCOUNT ON;
IF @EndTime IS NULL BEGIN
SET @EndTime = DATEADD(mi,30,getdate())
END
PRINT 'Ending at'
PRINT @EndTime
DECLARE @rc INT
DECLARE @TraceID INT
DECLARE @MaxFileSize BIGINT
SET @MaxFileSize = 500
SET @OutputFileName = @OutputFileName +
CONVERT(VARCHAR(20), GETDATE(),112) +
REPLACE(CONVERT(VARCHAR(20), GETDATE(),108),':','')
exec @rc = sp_trace_create @TraceID output, 0, @OutputFileName, @MaxFileSize, @EndTime
-- Set the events and columns
declare @on bit
set @on = 1
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 10, 16, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 10, 1, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 10, 17, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 10, 18, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 10, 12, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 10, 13, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 10, 14, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 12, 16, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 12, 1, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 12, 17, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 12, 14, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 12, 18, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 12, 12, @on
exec sp_trace_setevent @TraceID, 12, 13, @on
-- Set the trace status to start
exec sp_trace_setstatus @TraceID, 1
PRINT 'TraceID'
PRINT @TraceID
SET @OutputFileName = @OutputFileName + '.trc'
PRINT 'Trace File'
PRINT @OutputFileName
DECLARE @Count INT
SELECT @Count = COUNT(*) FROM :: fn_trace_getinfo(default) WHERE TraceID = @TraceID
WHILE @Count > 0
BEGIN
WaitFor Delay '00:00:10'
SELECT @Count = COUNT(*) FROM :: fn_trace_getinfo(default) WHERE TraceID = @TraceID
END
PRINT 'Importing Results'
EXEC dbo.ImportTraceResults @TraceFile = @OutputFileName
END
Here at Sagittarius everything is run through stored procedures. So these two Views let us separate out the stored procedures from the ad hoc sql. Which makes it easier to spot the major speed and resource offenders.
SETANSI_NULLSON
GO
SETQUOTED_IDENTIFIERON
GO
CREATEVIEW[dbo].[v_NonStoredProcedures]
AS
SELECTTextData,SUM(DURATION)ASTimeImpact,SUM(reads)ASIOImpact,SUM(CPU)ASCpuImpact,COUNT(*)ASExecutionCount
FROMTraceResults
WHEREProcedureNameISNULL
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