In this article, we will explore SQL Server Profiler and its various use cases. We will also discuss the tools that are integrated with it, as well as its deprecation plans and the alternatives available.

Introduction to SQL Server Profiler

SQL Server Profiler is a tracing tool provided by Microsoft since SQL Server 2000 version. It allows you to trace activities and operations executed on a specific SQL Server database engine or Analysis Service for later analysis. The tool is responsible for two main operations:

• Tracing: It can monitor all operations executed over an instance.
• Replay: It can rerun all operations logged in a trace later.

Profiler is a standalone tool that can be accessed from Windows Explorer or SQL Server Management Studio. In Windows 10, you can simply search for “SQL Server Profiler” in the Start menu to access it. Alternatively, you can find a shortcut to the tool under the Tools menu in SQL Server Management Studio.

How to Use Profiler?

When you open Profiler, you will be prompted to select whether you want to connect to an Analysis Service instance or a Database Engine. After selecting the appropriate option, you need to enter the instance name, authentication type, and credentials to establish the connection.

Once the connection is established, a new trace form will be displayed. This form consists of two tabs: General and Events Selection.

In the General tab, you can enter the trace name and choose whether to save the trace results into a table or an external file. You can also specify if you want to pause the trace at a specific date and time. Additionally, you can select a trace template from a drop-down list based on your requirements. Templates are sets of tuning events that can be captured by the profiler trace. There are various predefined templates available, such as T-SQL, Tuning, or you can start from scratch by selecting the Blank template.

In the Events Selection tab, you can choose the events that you want to include in the trace. You can also add filters to narrow down the trace results. For example, if you only want to trace operations executed in a specific database, you can add a filter based on the database name property. It’s important to note that even if you select a template in the General tab, you can still customize the event selection.

Database Engine Tuning Advisor

In addition to SQL Server Profiler, there is another tool provided by SQL Server called Database Engine Tuning Advisor. This tool can read and analyze the traces created by Profiler. It takes a profiler trace as input and provides recommendations, such as missing indexes or partitioning, to improve the performance of the Database Engine based on the operations captured in the trace.

You can access Database Engine Tuning Advisor from SQL Server Management Studio. For more information about this tool, you can refer to the official documentation: Database Engine Tuning Advisor.

Deprecation and Alternatives

It’s important to note that SQL Server Profiler for Database Engine is deprecated and may be removed in a future version. Microsoft recommends avoiding the use of this feature. However, tracing workloads in Analysis Services is not deprecated.

After deprecation, Microsoft introduced separate features for each operation previously handled by Profiler. They recommend using Extended Events to create traces over a Database Engine and using distributed replay to perform replay operations. However, they still recommend using SQL Server Profiler for creating traces and performing replays over Analysis Services instances.

Conclusion

In this article, we have explored SQL Server Profiler, a tracing tool that allows you to monitor and analyze operations executed on a SQL Server database engine or Analysis Service. We have also discussed Database Engine Tuning Advisor, a tool that can read and analyze traces created by Profiler to provide performance improvement recommendations.

While SQL Server Profiler for Database Engine is deprecated, it is still important to learn and understand its features. This knowledge will help you become familiar with tracing and replay concepts, making it easier to transition to the recommended alternatives.