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Extended Event Comfort

I saw an interesting thread recently in the SQL Server Community Slack where someone posted about extended events (XE). They were asking about whether XE would have a problem with a situation. The problem wasn't so interesting, but a quote from one of the responders was. The quote was:

The best time to have learned Extended Events was ten years ago. The second best time is today.

I love that, and I tend to agree. If you need to trace what is happening inside your SQL Server, you need to learn how to capture information with Extended Events. That's the best way to dig into the details of how queries affect your system.

It's also hard. I know that whenever I need to use it, which is rare, I have to dig through some articles and docs to understand what thing I need to do. Even having some scripts hasn't helped because it's a sufficiently complex system that unless I use it regularly, I forget how all the filters, targets, events, etc. work.

On one hand, I think it's amazing, and on the other, it's too hard to use. Even when I try the Extended Events profiler, it's so different from Profiler that I find myself getting frustrated at times trying to dig through the information.

I am curious how many of you think XE is easy to configure and if you use it often. What are the places it works well? For those of you that don't use XE or haven't learned, why not? Do you not have to trace what's happening with queries in some detail? Or do you have another way that you dive deep into your system? Or do you not have the need?

If you do want to learn more, we have a short Stairway Series on Extended Events to help you get started, as well as a few other articles. If you're an expert, we'd love a few more on using XE in specific situations.

Steve Jones - SSC Editor

Join the debate, and respond to today's editorial on the forums

 
  Featured Contents
SQLServerCentral Article

SQL Database Project in Azure Data Studio

Daniel Calbimonte from SQLServerCentral

Learn how to create and modify a database project in Azure Data Studio.

Technical Article

Dark Mode in SSMS 21 and overall first impressions

Additional Articles from SQLServerCentral

Let me cut to the chase. If you are like me, you may have been searching for: How to turn on Dark Mode in SSMS V21. Searching for that very thing today inspired me to write this blog to help others do the same thing because I couldn’t seem to find an easy answer.

Technical Article

Navigating the Database Landscape in 2025 Livestream on Feb 12

Press Release from SQLServerCentral

Join us on February 12th for the livestream: Navigating the Database Landscape in 2025: Simplifying Complexity. Discover the latest trends and insights from our 2025 report, learn new approaches for professional development, and gain valuable knowledge to stay ahead in your career.

Blog Post

From the SQL Server Central Blogs - Using T-SQL Snapshot Backup - Multi-Array Database Snapshots

aen from Anthony Nocentino Blog

In this post, the fourth in our series, I want to share an example demonstrating SQL Server 2022’s T-SQL Snapshot Backup feature in a scenario where a database spans...

Blog Post

From the SQL Server Central Blogs - Common Issues When Using Change Tracking for Data Warehouse Incremental Loads

Meagan Longoria from Data Savvy

I have a few clients that incrementally load tables from a SQL Server source into their data warehouse or lakehouse by using change tracking. Lately, they encountered some issues...

Microsoft Power BI Quickstart Guide cover

Microsoft Power BI Quick Start Guide: The ultimate beginner's guide to data modeling, visualization, digital storytelling, and more, 3rd Edition

Site Owners from SQLServerCentral

Bring your data to life with this accessible yet fast-paced introduction to Power BI, now in color.

 

  Question of the Day

Today's question (by Steve Jones - SSC Editor):

 

AG Rules for Databases

Which of these is not a requirement for a database to be added to an Availability Group (AG)?

Think you know the answer? Click here, and find out if you are right.

 

 

  Yesterday's Question of the Day (by Steve Jones - SSC Editor)

Counting Bits II

What is the result of this query in SQL Server 2022+?

select bit_count('7')

Answer: An error

Explanation: This returns an error as the parameter must be an integer or binary value. Ref: BIT_COUNT - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/t-sql/functions/bit-count-transact-sql?view=sql-server-ver16

Discuss this question and answer on the forums

 

 

 

Database Pros Who Need Your Help

Here's a few of the new posts today on the forums. To see more, visit the forums.


SQL Server 2017 - Development
Execution Timeout Expired Error while executing an SQL query - Following error comes while executing an SQL query. Execution Timeout Expired. The timeout period elapsed prior to completion of the operation or the server is not responding. This happens after 30 seconds, even though I have set the Command Timeout property to 300 seconds. Here’s what I’ve already verified: The connection is working fine. I've […]
SQL Server 2016 - Development and T-SQL
Data Joining technique help - Hey All, I'm wondering if there is a different/better way to join the data from these two tables. Please see my sample data and example query below. Cart_id is unique #mytable_main and not in #mytable_Krb2. I need the Field_name and field_values from #mytable_krb2 joined to #mytable_main. Hopefully, what I'm trying to do makes sense to […]
SQL Server 2019 - Development
IF then Else statement not exiting - I have an always on availability group of 3 servers (1 primary and 1 secondary (both on primary site) and the other secondary on DR site, as the only read-only secondary). A scheduled job runs every day that should only execute the tsql if the server is the primary derived from the 'sys.dm_hadr_availability_replica_states',  here's my […]
SSIS Connection Manager Errors - issue resolved
SQL Azure - Administration
Replication from SQL Managed Instance to RDS - Is transactional replication from SQL MI to RDS SQL server supported. There isn't any documentation available from Microsoft. There are a few articles about replicating from Onprem SQL server to RDS or Azure SQL DB to RDS, I couldn't find anything for SQL Managed Instance. If not replication, are there any other options available for […]
Microsoft's comparison to Azure DB vs Managed Instance - I'm migrating to the cloud from SQL Server 2016 to the cloud. On the list of differences between Azure DB and a Managed Instance, there are several features listed, such as DBCC, and DML Triggers where they say that Azure DB has "Yes, most". How can anyone find this as an acceptable answer. Any idea […]
Storage Cost - What will be the storage cost 1 Managed Disk – S15; 256 GB HDD in Azure for DISK it costs around $11.33 per month in addition to that I want to know exact cost for 100IOPs for S15. Also it would be great one can share cost for E15 too.    
General Cloud Computing Questions
Text search emails and other json items - Problably SQL Server is not the best solution What would you use for searching lots of emails / jsons on specific terms? We're trying to provide a solution to business to allow to search if a specific mail is sent Like subject contains X sent around interval. Body contains Y
Reporting Services
Having issues with backing up SSRS for SQL Server 2008 - We have an old server running SQL Server 2008 SSRS. We are in the planning stages of upgrading the Windows Server OS as well as the SQL Server version and need to backup the SSRS database and encryption keys so we can upgrade (same hardware, just in-place upgrades). When I run this rskeymgmt command I […]
Integration Services
"External table is not in the expected format" - Good Afternoon. I have been manually running an SSIS package on an adhoc basis, which populates an Excel file from a SQL Server Table. There is no apparent issue with the package, but often I get the following error: "External table is not in the expected format" And it resolves when I Shut Down and […]
Convert Project model back to package model - What started out as an attempt to use the SSIS Project-model combined with deployment using the SSISDB catalog has been superseded by the requirement to use devops+pipeline to deploy packages from dev to production. This means using direct deployment at file level and converting everything build from project to package. Are there any best practices […]
Backups
Hyper-V VM / Google Drive syncing issue - Hi everyone, I have a server running **Windows Server 2022**, named **"DATA SERVER"**. This server has two drives: **C and D**. What I Did: 1. **Enabled Hyper-V** and created a virtual machine (VM) called **"DATA VM"**. 2. Used **Disk2VHD.exe** to create **VHDX files** of the host machine's **C and D drives** and attached them to […]
SQL Server 2022 - Administration
error when trying to change replication settings - We have three servers that use SQL replication; PROD, BI, and PARTS. We have one database that replicates from PARTS to PROD and we have a around five databases that replication from BI to various Azure servers. We used to have a database called IRES that replicated from PROD to Azure - but we deleted […]
windows services monitor - With no budget for some paid tools to monitor sql server service and sql agent service ; how can we send an email alert when they go down etc..what are the options ? I do not want processes where I have to run some piece of code(t-sql/powershell--I can set this up but is there a […]
SQL Server 2022 - Development
what happens to ssis and ssrs whenb we migrate to sql saas - Hi we know (or believe)  ssas saas gets stood up separately when a company migrates to sql saas. But what happens to ssis and ssrs?  from what i remember there is no such thing as ssis in azure.   And the recommendation on sssrs is to move all those objects to pbi as paginated reports.  we […]
 

 

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