Use SQL Server Extended Events (XEvents) to Monitor Analysis Services
Analysis Services provides tracing capabilities through the usage of Extended Events.
Extended Events is an event infrastructure that is highly scalable and configurable for server systems. Extended Events is a light weight performance monitoring system that uses very few performance resources.
All Analysis Services events can be captured and target to specific consumers, as defined in Extended Events, through XEvents.
Initiating Extended Events in Analysis Services
Extended Event tracing is enabled using a similar XMLA create object script command as shown below:
<Execute …>
<Command>
<Batch …>
<Create …>
<ObjectDefinition>
<Trace>
<ID>trace_id</ID>
<Name>trace_name</Name>
<ddl300_300:XEvent>
<event_session …>
<event package="AS" name="AS_event">
<action package="PACKAGE0" …/>
</event>
<target package="PACKAGE0" name="asynchronous_file_target">
<parameter name="filename" value="data_filename.xel"/>
<parameter name="metadatafile" value="metadata_filename.xem"/>
</target>
</event_session>
</ddl300_300:XEvent>
</Trace>
</ObjectDefinition>
</Create>
</Batch>
</Command>
<Properties></Properties>
</Execute>
Where the following elements are to be defined by the user, depending on the tracing needs:
trace_id
Defines the unique identifier for this trace.trace_name
The name given to this trace; usually a human readable definition of the trace. It is a common practice to use the trace_id value as the name.AS_event
The Analysis Services event to be exposed. See Analysis Services Trace Events for names of the events.data_filename
The name of the file that contains the events data. This name is suffixed with a time stamp to avoid data overwriting if the trace is sent over and over.metadata_filename
The name of the file that contains the events metadata. This name is suffixed with a time stamp to avoid data overwriting if the trace is sent over and over.
Stopping Extended Events in Analysis Services
To stop the Extended Events tracing object you need to delete that object using a similar XMLA delete object script command as shown below:
<Execute xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xml-analysis">
<Command>
<Batch …>
<Delete …>
<Object>
<TraceID>trace_id</TraceID>
</Object>
</Delete>
</Batch>
</Command>
<Properties></Properties>
</Execute>
Where the following elements are to be defined by the user, depending on the tracing needs:
- trace_id
Defines the unique identifier for the trace to be deleted.