| Executive Summary: You can use SQL Server 2008 Extended Events Manager to quickly and easily create, modify, delete, start, and stop Extended Events sessions and metadata files. Extended Events Manager requires SQL Server 2008 and can run on Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP as well. |
SQL Server 2008 includes a powerful new
troubleshooting and diagnostic feature,
Extended Events, that’s designed to support the correlation
of SQL Server data, OS data, and database application
data using Event Tracing for Windows (ETW).
This month’s free tool, SQL Server 2008 Extended
Events Manager, which was created by enterprise DBA
Jonathan Kehayias, gives you full control over Extended
Events. This is no small feat—working with Extended
Events is quite difficult without thorough insight into
the metadata from applicable SQL Server Dynamic
Management Views (DMVs).
Extended Events Manager is an easy to use, multipledocument
interface–style utility that you can use to
create, modify, and delete all the objects and metadata
used by the Extended Events engine in SQL
Server 2008. Furthermore, Extended Events
Manager can save information in an XML
document through a custom library. You can
also use the custom library programmatically
in development projects and PowerShell scripts to call
Extended Events Manager.
Managing Extended Events
To create or modify Extended Events, first connect to
a SQL Server 2008 instance using Extended Events
Manager, which is shown
in Web Figure 1. Once you’re
connected to the SQL
Server instance, you can
create new event sessions
or view the XEvent metadata
within the Extended Events engine on the server
by selecting either the New Event option or the View
XEvent Metadata option from the File menu.
Once you’ve selected an Extended Events session
on the server, you can drop, start, stop, and script out
the session by right-clicking it. Dropping, starting, or
stopping a session immediately executes the appropriate
Extended Events command against the server.
Starting or stopping the session enables or disables
Extended Events on the SQL Server instance, respectively.
If you want to script a session, you’re provided
with a GUI that’s similar to SQL Server Management
Studio (SSMS) and have the option of scripting to a
file, the clipboard, a message box, or directly to a new
SSMS window. You can define and alter all the properties
of objects used in Extended Events management,
including events, sessions, targets, and predicates, via
the Event Editor.
Extended Events Manager also includes the ability to
check for new releases of it.
In addition, you can use Extended Events Manager
via PowerShell. You can load it into PowerShell using
a command similar to the following:
[reflection.assembly]::LoadWithPartialName
(“ExtendedEventsManager.Library”)
The tool’s documentation describes how to integrate
Extended Events Manager into your PowerShell
scripts, as well as how to perform several activities
using it in PowerShell. The Extended Events Manager
library includes a navigational provider that lets you
use Extended Events as a drive, similar to how the SQL
Server 2008 provider works in PowerShell.
System Configurations
Extended Events Manager runs on all editions of
SQL Server 2008 (Extended Events aren’t available in
SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server 2000), as well as both
32-bit and 64-bit systems. It also runs on Windows
Server 2008, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003,
and Windows XP.
SQL Server 2008 Extended
Events Manager
Benefits: This tool takes the pain out of
creating and managing Extended Events,
sessions, and metadata files.
System Requirements and Notes: SQL
Server 2008; Windows Server 2008, Windows
Vista, Windows Server 2003, and Windows XP
How to Get It: You can download Extended
Events Manager from www.codeplex.com/ExtendedEventManager.