Using SQL Server 2008 Profiler: A Practical Guide

SQL Server 2008 Profiler (Hands‑on)

This article teaches how to use the SQL Server 2008 Profiler, a tool that helps compare system speed and performance before and after optimization.

To open Profiler, go to Start → Programs → SQL Server 2008 → Performance Tools → SQL Server Profiler, click “New Trace”, and enter the sa user name and password. If the credentials lack sufficient rights, an error will appear stating that you must be a member of the sysadmin fixed server role or have ALTER TRACE permission.

Important column explanations:

CPU – total CPU time used by the event (ms). Duration – total time the event took (ms). Reads – logical disk reads performed by the event (bytes). Writes – physical disk writes performed by the event (bytes). loginName – SQL login user. SPID – session identifier. starttime – time the event started. endtime – time the event ended. TEXTDATA – the statement that was executed.

To obtain the current session ID (SPID), open a new query window in SQL Server Management Studio and run SP_WHO ; the first column of the result set lists each process’s SPID.

To filter the Profiler trace by a specific SPID, stop the trace, right‑click the grid below, choose Properties → Event Selection → Column Filters, select “spid”, and enter the desired value. This limits the trace to operations performed by that session only.