SQL Server Profiler

This graphical tool captures a continuous record of server activity in real-time. SQL Server Profiler monitors many different server events and event categories, filters these events with user-specified criteria, and outputs a trace to the screen, a file, or another SQL Server.

SQL Server Profiler can be used to:

• Monitor the performance of SQL Server.
• Debug Transact-SQL statements and stored procedures.
• Identify slow-executing queries.
• Troubleshoot problems in SQL Server by capturing all the events that lead up to a particular problem, and then replaying the events on a test system to replicate and isolate the problem.
• Test SQL statements and stored procedures in the development phase of a project by single-stepping through statements, one line at a time, to confirm that the code works as expected.
• Capture events on a production system and replay those captured events on a test system, thereby re-creating what happened in the production environment for testing or debugging purposes. Replaying captured events on a separate system allows the users to continue using the production system without interference.

SQL Server Profiler provides a graphical user interface to a set of extended stored procedures. You can also use these extended stored procedures directly. Therefore, it is possible to create your own application that uses the SQL Server Profiler extended stored procedures to monitor SQL Server.