Extended Events is a powerful tool with plenty of ease of use and flexibility. This flexibility allows the DBA to better service the needs of the developers when the developers need access to the trace data.
Easy Open Event Log Files
Tag: Extended Events
Implicit Conversion Insights with XE
Seldom does a DBA have the opportunity to get out in front of infrequent or random errors such as implicit conversions. More often than not, it is the privilege of the DBA to find out about the problem after the fact from a developer or, worse yet, an end-user.
Mass Backup All Sessions
Migrating Extended Event Sessions from one server to another should be a simple task. So simple, one would think there was no need to give it a second thought, right?
Event Log File Paths
How does one consistently find the correct path to the Extended Event Log file (XEL file)? This article shows a thorough method to capture that information for all sessions on the server.
Database Recovery Monitoring with XE
Database recovery (crash recovery) is a nerve wrenching situation under the wrong conditions. It can be as bad as a root canal and just as necessary to endure that pain at times. When the business is waiting on you waiting on the server to finish crash recovery, you feel nervous at best. If you can be of some use and provide some information back to the business, that anxiety dissipates and the business becomes more calm as well. While the previous script can help you get that information easily enough, I want to introduce the easiest method to capture that information currently available.
An Experiment with Deadlocks
There seems to be a myth out there that when deadlocks come a-knocking, then just throw this little directive (ROWLOCK) at it and all will be well. This is total fiction and we will explore that in this article.
Audit SQL Agent Jobs
One probably seldom thinks of the SQL Agent jobs scheduled on the SQL Server instance – unless they fail. What if the job failed because something was changed in the job? Maybe you knew about the change, maybe you didn’t.
Short Circuiting Your Session
It isn’t very often that one would consider a short circuit to be a desired outcome. In SQL Server we have a cool exception to that rule – Extended Events (XE).
Automatic Tuning Monitoring and Diagnostics
Thanks to Extended Events (XE), we have access to a guide of sorts that will help us better understand if our shiny new tool (automatic tuning) is operating as desired.
Event Tracing for Windows Target
There are many useful targets within SQL Server’s Extended Events. Of all of the targets, the most daunting is probably the Event Tracing for Windows (ETW) target. The ETW target represents doing something that is new for most DBAs which means spending a lot of time trying to learn the technology and figure out the little nuances and the difficulties that it can present.