Correlating Performance Monitor and SQL Server Profiler Data
Written By: Greg Robidoux -- 3/30/2007
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Problem
Just about all SQL Server performance related tips talk about using data from Performance Monitor and data from SQL Profiler. The big draw back has always been that they are two totally separate tools, with different interfaces and therefore you need to figure out a way to correlate the data between the two applications on your own. This was the old way of doing things, but with SQL Server Profiler for SQL 2005 this has changed.
Solution
The version of SQL Server Profiler that comes with SQL Server 2005 allows you to load both performance counter data and trace data. The bonus here is that this works for both SQL Server 2000 and SQL Server 2005 trace data.
The first thing you need to do is collect performance data and trace data. This can be done either manually or by using an automated approach such as was shown in this tip Collecting Performance Statistics for Scheduled Jobs and this tip SQL Server Performance Statistics Using a Server Side Trace.
Once you have the data collected you need to launch SQL Server Profiler for SQL 2005 and load your trace file.
After you load your trace file you need to import your performance data.
After you load the trace data, you now need to select the performance counters you want to see along with the trace data. Don't be tempted to select everything, because the performance metric graphs will be hard to read.
As you navigate through the trace data or the performance data the corresponding data will also be shown. The following screen shows you the corresponding SQL statement along with the performance counters during that time frame.
As you can see this is pretty easy and also can give you added insight by looking at both sets of data at the same time. The only thing to keep in mind is that you need to make sure you collect the StartTime and EndTime in the trace file, so this tool can correlate the times when displaying the data.
Next Steps
- If you haven't started using the new SQL Server 2005 tools, take a look at them to take advantage of some of the new features. Both Profiler and Management Studio work with both SQL 2000 and SQL 2005.
- Take a look at these other performance related tips
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