SQL Performance Reports - but for a date range - sql

SQL Server comes with very handy "performance" reports: in SSMS - right-click the server - "reporting" - "Standard" - you see many useful reports, like "Top queries by Total CPU time", "Top queries by average I/O" etc.
These reports aggregate the data since last restart or since last query stats reset.
Is there any way to see these reports for a date range? Like "Top queries by total CPU time from 10pm to 11pm"? Maybe there's an SQL Server addon on or service that should be installed or something, that would allow this kind or research?
Real life use case: a DBA wakes up and sees there were some "timeout" errors during the night. He wants to see which queries were running at the moment and eating up performance.

You can download the SSMS Performance Dashboard Reports from here and use as Custom reports with SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2012, SQL Server 2014. Having access to the rdl file you can customize it however you want.
Also worth reading this.

Found this series of blog posts at SQLShack that advises installing "Data Collectors" that continuously record performance data, so you can analyse it later: SQL Server performance monitoring with Data Collector

Related

IIS takes longer to run queries than SMSS

I'm completely stumped on this one.
We're running a pretty usual intranet app here, classic ASP frontend and SQL Server 2005 backend.
Occasionally, once/twice a week, a certain stored proc takes ~50x longer to run when I run it in the Management Studio. This slowness lasts the entire day and it inexcplicably goes away the next day.
So essentially what's happening is this: once/twice a week, when I fire up the intranet page that runs the stored procedure and displays the results, it takes roughly 115secs to run.
I then fire up SQL Server Management Studio and run the same query, which this time around takes only 3-4secs to run.
The next day, the intranet page is taking as long as SSMS to run the very same stored procedure, with nothing having been changed in the interim (not to my knowledge anyway).
Other details:
the IIS connects to SQL Server 2005 using Provider=sqloledb as the driver
the slowdown lasts the entire day, regardless of the number of active users
I can replicate the slowness by running the same query from Excel, using the same driver/connection string
I've ran a trace on the SQL server and it turns out that on those particularly slow days, the duration of the stored proc is actually longer when executed via IIS than direct query
As such, I was wondering whether any of you has encountered any similar behaviour before, if you've fond a solution to it and what would your advice be in tackling/solving it?
Thanks for your help,
Please find Trace results in .csv format below:
EventClass,TextData,ApplicationName,CPU,Reads,Writes,Duration (s),ClientProcessID,SPID,StartTime,EndTime
12,exec spStubbornProc,Internet Information Services,"106,016","7,059,999",1,115.80,5476,85,18/04/2013 08:17:15,18/04/2013 08:19:11
12,exec dbo.spStubbornProc,Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio - Query,"3,141","146,051",0,3.40,5876,84,18/04/2013 08:20:45,18/04/2013 08:20:48
12,exec dbo.spStubbornProc,Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio - Query,"2,563","147,387",0,2.93,5876,84,18/04/2013 08:21:04,18/04/2013 08:21:07
12,exec spStubbornProc,Internet Information Services,"103,156","7,083,365",7,118.73,5476,80,18/04/2013 09:39:41,18/04/2013 09:41:40
12,exec dbo.spStubbornProc,Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio - Query,"2,406","175,029",1,2.57,5876,84,18/04/2013 10:08:58,18/04/2013 10:09:01
12,exec spStubbornProc,Internet Information Services,"112,218","7,103,267",7,114.72,5476,75,18/04/2013 14:06:26,18/04/2013 14:08:21
12,exec spStubbornProc,Internet Information Services,"93,515","7,101,229",3,93.60,6092,60,18/04/2013 19:37:02,18/04/2013 19:38:35
12,exec spStubbornProc,Internet Information Services,"2,500","148,775",1,3.42,5160,75,19/04/2013 09:16:01,19/04/2013 09:16:04

SQL Server activity monitor show all queries

I'm using SQL Server 2005, and I'd like to know if there is any possibility to watch every query sent to SQL server?
SQL Server Management Studio has a built-in tool called the Activity Monitor which gives me nearly what I am searching for in the "Recent Expensive Queries Pane"
This pane shows information about the most expensive queries that have been run on the instance over the last 30 seconds.
I need exactly this for all recent queries, not just the expensive ones...
Can anyone help me?
Name a tool, or give me a hint what to search for...
To watch every query sent to SQL server using SQL profiler, you can use one of SQL Profiler predefined templates. It's TSQL_Duration.
It's designed to track completed stored procedures and TSQL code.
The trace will show you exactly the batch executed.
You can expand the events tracked and columns shown.You can find more information here: How To: Use SQL Profiler
The same feature is also available in ApexSQL Comply, an auditing tool that uses SQL traces to capture the events, then stores them in a central repository database, and provides built-in and custom reports where you can easily filter the transactions, and export them as Excel, Word, or PDF files.
Disclaimer: I work for ApexSQL as a Support Engineer
You're looking for SQL Profiler, it's usually installed along with SSMS.

Limit resources available to query in SQL Server

I want to limit the system resources available to queries run by specific users in SQL Server 2008.
Some queries are seemingly running away with all the resources of the machine causing the server to become unresponsive.
My thought process is that if there is a way to cap the amount of resources (mem/cpu cycles/bw) a query can grab, this problem would go away.
Is this possible? Are there better techniques to accomplish this?
This is MS Sql Server 2008,
If you're running the Enterprise Edition, you could take a look at the Resource Governor.

Displaying heavy SQL query intermediate results

I am using SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server Management Studio.
I need to run a heavy SQL query looking through a large number of rows and doing XQuery selection. I have had to stop the execution because it ran for over 30 minutes and it apparently causes timeouts in the software system using the database.
Is there any way of showing the results as they are found instead of in the end, or can I even get some live statistics on the load?
Yes, the WITH FAST query hint allows this kind of behaviour.... it gives you a start, but the overall run time may be longer.
Andy Warren's videos are always worth watching: http://www.sqlshare.com/UsingtheOPTIONFASTQueryHint_819.aspx
Some old guidance from 2006: http://blogs.msdn.com/b/queryoptteam/archive/2006/05/03/589529.aspx

Logging ALL Queries on a SQL Server 2008 Express Database?

Is there a way to tell SQL Server 2008 Express to log every query (including each and every SELECT Query!) into a file?
It's a Development machine, so the negative side effects of logging Select-Queries are not an issue.
Before someone suggests using the SQL Profiler: This is not available in Express (does anyone know if it's available in the Web Edition?) and i'm looking for a way to log queries even when I am away.
SQL Server Profiler:
File → New Trace
The "General" Tab is displayed.
Here you can choose "Save to file:" so its logged to a file.
View the "Event Selection" Tab
Select the items you want to log.
TSQL → SQL:BatchStarting will get you sql selects
Stored Procedures → RPC:Completed will get you Stored Procedures.
More information from Microsoft: SQL Server 2008 Books Online - Using SQL Server Profiler
Update - SQL Express Edition:
A comment was made that MS SQL Server Profiler is not available for the express edition.
There does appear to be a free alternative: Profiler for Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Express Edition
There is one more way to get information about queries that has been executed on MS SQL Server Express described here.
Briefly, it runs smart query to system tables and gets info(text, time executed) about queries(or cached query plans if needed). Thus you can get info about executed queries without profiler in MSSQL 2008 Express edition.
SELECT deqs.last_execution_time AS [Time], dest.TEXT AS [Query]
FROM sys.dm_exec_query_stats AS deqs
CROSS APPLY sys.dm_exec_sql_text(deqs.sql_handle) AS dest
ORDER BY deqs.last_execution_time DESC
…Late answer but I hope it would be useful to other readers here…
Using SQL Server Express with advanced auditing requirements such as this is not really optimal unless it’s only in development environment.
You can use traces (www.broes.nl/2011/10/profiling-on-sql-server-express/) to get the data you need but you’d have to parse these yourself.
There are third party tools that can do this but their cost will be quite high. Log explorer from ApexSQL can log everything but select and Idera’s compliance manager will log select statements as well but it’s cost is a lot higher.
You can log changes. SQL Server 2008 will make this especially easy with Change Data Capture. But SQL Server isn't very good at logging SELECTs.
It is theoretically possible with the profiler, but it will kill your performance. You might "get away with it" on your desktop, but I think you'll notice your machine acting slow enough to cause problems. And it definitely won't work after any kind of deployment.
One important point a couple others have missed already: unless they changed something for 2008 I didn't hear about, you can't trigger a SELECT.
Just for the record, I'm including the hints to use DataWizard's SQL Performance Profiler as a separate answer since it's really the opposite to the answer pointing at SQL Server Profiler.
There is a free trial for 14 days, but even if you need to buy it, it's only $20 for 3 servers (at the moment of writing, 2012-06-28). This seems more than fair to me considering the thousands everybody using SQL Server Express edition has saved.
I've only used the trial so far and it offers exactly what the OP was looking for: a way to trace all queries coming in to a specific database. It also offers to export a trace to an XML file. The paid version offers some more features but I haven't tried them yet.
Disclaimer: I'm just another developer messing with DBs from time to time and I'm in no way affiliated with DataWizard. I just so happened to like their tool and wanted to let people know it existed as it's helped me out with profiling my SQL Server Express installation.
I would either use triggers or use a third party software such as Red Gate to check out your SQL log files.
Seems that you can create traces using T-SQL
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/283790/
That might help.
The SQL query below can show simple query logs:
SELECT last_execution_time, text
FROM sys.dm_exec_query_stats stats
CROSS APPLY sys.dm_exec_sql_text(stats.sql_handle)
ORDER BY last_execution_time
This is how it looks like below: