Other diagnostic tools and techniques

In addition to Profiler, a variety of other diagnostic tools and techniques are available to help you analyze and monitor the current performance of your database.

Other methods for analyzing performance data included:

Tool	Details
Diagnostic tracing	Database tracing Database tracing provides the ability to customize the type of performance data gathered. You can use this tool to monitor the performance of specific users or activities. Index Consultant This feature analyzes the indexes in the database and provides recommendations for improvement. You can access this tool through the Profiler or through Interactive SQL. Procedure profiling You can also use SQL statements to perform procedure profiling.
Other tools	Request logging Request logging logs to a text file individual requests received from, and responses sent to, an application. It is most useful for determining what the database server is being asked to do by the application. Request logging is also a good starting point for performance analysis of a specific application when it is not obvious whether the database server or the client is at fault. You can use request logging to determine the specific request to the database server that might be responsible for problems. The request log provides a subset of the information that is provided by diagnostic tracing and event tracing. Event tracing Event tracing is recommended for production environments and provides fine-grained control over the information that is logged. You can log both user- and system-defined trace events for both the database server and your application and customize the trace events to identify performance issues. Execution plans This feature allows you to examine the execution plan to access information in the database related to a statement. You can view the execution plan in Interactive SQL or use SQL functions. You can retrieve an execution plan in several different formats and the plan can be saved.

Tool

Details

Diagnostic tracing

Database tracing
Database tracing provides the ability to customize the type of performance data gathered. You can use this tool to monitor the performance of specific users or activities.
Index Consultant
This feature analyzes the indexes in the database and provides recommendations for improvement. You can access this tool through the Profiler or through Interactive SQL.
Procedure profiling You can also use SQL statements to perform procedure profiling.

Other tools

Request logging
Request logging logs to a text file individual requests received from, and responses sent to, an application. It is most useful for determining what the database server is being asked to do by the application. Request logging is also a good starting point for performance analysis of a specific application when it is not obvious whether the database server or the client is at fault. You can use request logging to determine the specific request to the database server that might be responsible for problems. The request log provides a subset of the information that is provided by diagnostic tracing and event tracing.
Event tracing
Event tracing is recommended for production environments and provides fine-grained control over the information that is logged. You can log both user- and system-defined trace events for both the database server and your application and customize the trace events to identify performance issues.
Execution plans
This feature allows you to examine the execution plan to access information in the database related to a statement. You can view the execution plan in Interactive SQL or use SQL functions. You can retrieve an execution plan in several different formats and the plan can be saved.