How can I monitor the executed sql statements on a SQL Server 2005 - sql

In a project of mine the SQL statements that are executed against a SQL Server are failing for some unknown reason. Some of the code is already used in production so debugging it is not an easy task. Therefore I need a way to see in the database itself what SQL statements are used, as the statements are generated at runtime by the project and could be flawed when certain conditions are met.
I therefore considered the possibility to monitor the incoming statements and check myself if I see any flaws.
The database is running on a SQL Server 2005, and I use SQL server management studio express as primary tool to manipulate the database. So my question is, what is the best way to do this?

Seeing how you use the Management Studio Express, I will assume you don't have access to the MSSQL 2005 client tools. If you do, install those, because it includes the SQL profiler which does exactly what you want (and more!). For more info about that one, see msdn.
I found this a while ago, because I was thinking about the exact same thing. I have access to the client tools myself, so I don't really need to yet, but that access is not unlimited (it's through my current job). If you try it out, let me know if it works ;-)

Best way is to fire up profiler, start a trace, save the trace and then rerun the statements

Related

What's the best version neutral method for deploying a SQL Server database?

On my development box, I always run the latest version of SQL Server. I often deploy databases from my dev box to a live/staging area for review or testing. I've done this many times and it has always been a painful process, but I am realizing that I need to find an easier, more reliable and consistent way of performing this basic operation.
I normally use WebMatrix purely for deployment and it's worked fine, but I've been having problems getting it to work on my server for some reason. Consequently, I am seeking an alternative solution.
Creating a SQL dump file would probably work, but it's not an acceptable solution a database contains images and easily exceeds 2 gigs of data which would take forever.
The Import/Export utility fails due to issues with incomplete schema copies, identity inserts and checks. The solutions offered for these issues has failed to work in my particular case.
The Backup and Restore method also fails due to some strange incompatibilities between SQL Server 2008 and 2012. SQL Server 2008 Management Studio throws exceptions during the restore process of a 2012 database. It's odd that this happens, even though I set the compatibility of the database to version 2008.
I haven't tried the Detaching, copying and reattaching files method, but I haven't bothered trying since it would probably fail for the same reasons the backup and restore method did.
Are there other alternatives out there? Also, why is this so unbelievable hard for a task that is so common and important, especially in this day in age of 2013? Get real Microsoft!
We changed our method of deploying and moving databases between servers, instances and versions by adopting the tools from RedGate. They are expensive, but worth it IMHO.
My team creates scripts for ~everything.
Database Creation, Alter, Inserts, etc, etc.
And we write all scripts that check for the existence of things before trying to create them.
Aka, we can run the scripts over and over and get the same results.
And we deploy to different environments by using SqlCmd.exe.
EDIT
See:
http://odetocode.com/blogs/scott/archive/2008/02/02/versioning-databases-views-stored-procedures-and-the-like.aspx
and
http://odetocode.com/blogs/scott/archive/2008/01/30/three-rules-for-database-work.aspx
=============
If that is "too much" then I agree with the other poster, RedGate is your friend.
Points below aside, have you considered the Database Projects within VS2012? they allow you to script off the tables, sp's, triggers, users etc you want, generate sql cmd scripts, make changes and schema compare and version control your database code, I'd certainly recommend it
"Creating a SQL dump file would probably work, but it's not an
acceptable solution a database contains images and easily exceeds 2
gigs of data which would take forever."
Why is this a problem? where are you transferring the file from and to and over what connection?
"The Backup and Restore method also fails due to some strange
incompatibilities between SQL 2008 and 2012. SQL 2008 Management
Studio throws exceptions during the restore process of a 2012
database. It's odd that this happens, even though I set the
compatibility of the database to version 2008"
This shouldn't be an issue if file is created in 2008 prior to restoring. If you create a new DB in your 2008 instance, then take a backup from that and restore it to a 2012 instance with 2008 compatiblity, then you should be able to use it there, back it up from the 2012 instance and restore to 2008 again afterwards.

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.

See queries that hit SQL

Is there a way using sql 2008 Management Studio to look at the queries that hit the server? I'm trying to debug a program and I get messages like "Incorrect syntax near the keyword 'AND'". Since the queries are being dynamically generated it's a hassle to figure out what is going to the server.
Any help is appreciated!
There is a tool called Profiler that will tell you all information that you'll need. MSDN: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187929.aspx
I'm not aware of any method to do this using SQL Server Management Studio, but if you installed SSMS then you probably also installed the SQL Profiler. If you fire that up and run the TSQL_SPs profiler template, you can see every statement that's hitting the database.
Since the queries are being dynamically generated it's a hassle to figure out what is going to the server.
Why not just put the query that's generated into a message box, or print it to the console, or webpage, etc. ??
Trying to catch it at the DB server seems to be the long-way-around to debugging some simple ad-hoc queries.
Go to Management...Activity Monitor in the object explorer.
It's not live though, you will have to refresh it manually.
start up profiler from SSMS (Tools-->SQL Server Profiler), run a trace and select the T-SQL events
One option is to use SQL Server Profiler to run a trace. However, in some shops SQL Server permissions are set so only DBAs can run traces.
If you don't have sufficient rights to run a trace, then another option is to view the network traffic between the application that generates the SQL and box SQL Server is running on. WireShark works great for that.

Is there a way to track all the queries that has been executed by the server?

I want to be able to see all the queries that has been executed on the server last 2 days etc.
see the script, date of execution, sender etc.
is there any way?
I am using SQL X 2005.
I don't believe it's possible without SQL Server Profiler running.
Yes you can use SQL-Trace to log each command submitted to the server. It's the same mechanism used by the profiler, but you do not have to have the profiler or any other tool to use it.
There are two modes in which SQL Trace can run - in-memory buffer and disk file. The former is only used by profiler, is not documented and should not be used. Use the disk-file mode. The file can later on be opened on the same or different machine and even loaded into a table for analysis.
To learn more go to this page: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms191511.aspx and search for section titled "To perform monitoring tasks with SQL Trace by using Transact-SQL stored procedures"
Here is a free, open-source Profiler tool that might help.
Profiler for Microsoft SQL Server 2005/2008 Express Edition

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: