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SQL Server 2012 : Consolidating Data Capture with SQLdiag - The Data Collection Dilemma, An Approach to Data Collection

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THE DATA COLLECTION DILEMMA

One of the biggest issues a SQL Server professional faces when troubleshooting a complex SQL Server problem is the data collection task. The classic catch-22 situation always presents itself: installing data collection utilities on the server versus not collecting all the required data to address the root cause of the problem at hand.

The most common dilemma encountered is using a single tool to capture the required set of data simultaneously when faced with a critical production issue. Unless and until there are tools that enable quick configuration capabilities, we are left gambling with the prospect of continued service unavailability and missing service-level agreements while trying to configure the data collection tools. Seasoned SQL Server professionals have their own toolset handy, which they consider to be their equivalent of a superhero’s utility belt and which serves them well at the time of a crisis situation.

Once you have successfully fought the demons inside your SQL Server environment that were wreaking havoc and causing the problems, you will be tasked with identifying the root cause of the issue. Identifying the root cause in itself is not a bad thing. However, this noble task may soon take an ill-fated turn when you realize that the data required to perform a complete post-mortem analysis is missing. When battling with a critical production service-related issue, it is possible that the data necessary for post-mortem analysis is not collected, as the need of the moment is to restore service as soon as possible. This makes it highly pertinent to have a data collection utility in place, one which not only collects all the necessary data required given a particular situation but also is easily configurable at the drop of a hat!

The SQLdiag, which started shipping with SQL Server 2005, is a utility used to collect diagnostic data from a SQL Server instance. It is a general-purpose diagnostics utility that can be run as a console application or a service. SQLdiag can help you collect SQL Server Profiler traces, Windows Performance Monitor logs, and outputs of various VBScript, T-SQL, and DOS scripts through an extensible interface exposed by the SQLdiag Configuration Manager. This close knit integration of data collection capabilities makes SQLdiag a “must have” tool in the SQL Server professional’s repertoire.

The data that is collected by the SQLdiag utility can be imported into a SQL Server database using SQL Nexus, a GUI tool for providing an aggregated view of the data collected in a report format. 

AN APPROACH TO DATA COLLECTION

In this section, we will delve into specifics of how data can be collected to analyze the performance of your SQL Server instance. Basically, SQL Server data analysis can be done in the following ways:

  • Baseline Analysis — A baseline of your SQL Server instance will tell you what the resource usage for the SQL Server instance in question looks like on an average at a particular time of the day. You will know if the delta difference that you see for a particular set of data has a positive or a negative connotation only if you the appropriate baselines established for your SQL Server instance. When you have an existing baseline available, then it makes sense to capture data during the problem period for a short period of time in order to establish a comparative study between the current start and an established baseline. This enables you to look for seemingly innocuous patterns in the data that might prove to be the root cause of your SQL Server troubles. This is what is referred to as a baseline analysis.
  • Bottleneck Analysis — The second option, bottleneck analysis, is the approach to which most SQL Server professionals are accustomed. This is used when a baseline is not readily available or an available baseline is not pertinent to the current state of the environment. In such a situation, you need to collect data both for a period when the issue is not occurring and during the period when the problem manifests itself. Then the two sets of data are compared to weed out the difference and the symptoms that were exhibited when the problem occurred. The ideal scenario for a bottleneck analysis is to start data collection a little before the problem manifests itself, capturing the transition period from a serenely functional SQL Server environment to an environment that raises all sorts of red lights on service-level scorecards. Sometimes, we have to be content with a comparative analysis and compare two sets of data collection, which may not even belong to the same environment. This may sound appalling but is a harsh reality in the production world scenario where it is not always feasible to add additional workload or bring in new executables to collect diagnostic data. Bottleneck analysis helps you arrive at the top N bottlenecks that your SQL Server instance is experiencing by identifying the road-blocks which are preventing the smooth functioning of your SQL Server instance.

This requires some precise data collection capabilities, along with various other requirements like knowing which system catalogs to query, what tools to run to collect the required data, etc.

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