Tracing with XEvents in Azure SQL Database

Being Developer, Administrator or simply Support for an Azure SQL Database based Application, there are those moments when the Azure-provided Dashboard-capabilities are not sufficient and you need to conduct a throughout trace of certain statements occurring.

The new SQL Server Master-Class in – why SQLSentry Bootcamp

First off, the most important information in a nutshell: From 26-28 June, I am conducting a new SQL Server Master-Class: The Performance Troubleshooting Bootcamp with SQLSentry (shorthand: PSS*). For those in a hurry, the link for registration right below: http://sql-server-master-class.com/#PSS

Where is that Preemptive Wait coming from?

In this article I will bring together several techniques for troubleshooting a performance- and security-related “phenomenon” I recently noticed when doing some tests with Natively Compiled Stored Procedures.

Sessions submitted for major conferences 2016. Topics: Security – Performance – In-Memory

After the great success of the German SQLKonferenz in February, where I had the honor of presenting the new security features of SQL Server 2016 together with Joachim Hammer, the Program Manager of the security teams of the relational SQL Engines at Microsoft in Redmond (more info), I finally found time to go about the […]

My conference sessions in 2015: from Extended Events over In-Memory to Security

Finally I get to write about my conference-talks in 2015. The year started really great with the German SQL Server Konferenz in Darmstadt with 2 sessions on In-Memory OLTP in SQL Server 2014 – one of them being even a full-day PreCon, which I co-presented with Niko Neugebauer, who was talking about Clustered ColumnStore Indexes.

How to import Extended Events session event_file target and parse deadlock-graph

This time it’s about one of the things that Extended Events do better and more easily than all techniques before: Saving of deadlock-events that occurred and analyzing the respective deadlock-graph.

Free SQL Deadlock Collector & Parser published at codeplex

Today I redeemed a promise made long ago: To provide the deadlock-collector framework, which I developed for use at my customers’, as a Codeplex project. Until now I have only given it out to attendees of my SQL Server Master-Classes and a few fellow Microsoft Certified Masters. From today on it is freely available to […]

New Extended Events for Tracing in SQL Server 2014

This article contains a list of new Extended Events, the tracing framework in SQL Server in the new 2014 release.

Comparing Extended Events vs SQL Trace – or why SQL Trace & Profiler are just a thing of the past :-)

As a reminder: Extended Events have been integrated in SQL Server since SQL Server 2008. And since SQL Server 2012 SP1, all events existing in SQL Trace have been available. In addition, Extended Events have also been available for Analysis Services since SQL Server 2012 Tracing Analysis Services (SSAS) with Extended Events – Yes it […]

Performance overhead of tracing with Extended Event targets vs SQL Trace under CPU Load

Inspired by the Blog Post “Measuring Observer Overhead of SQL Trace vs. Extended Events” by Jonathan Kehayias, I was curious to do some more benchmarking. I have already presented the results in my SQL Server Master-Class workshops on XEvents as well as at the PreCon of the SQLSaturday #230. Now I am finally sharing them […]