Using SQL Server Objects

SQL Server provides objects and counters that can be used by System Monitor to monitor activity in computers running an instance of SQL Server. An object is any SQL Server resource, such as a SQL Server lock or Windows XP process. Each object contains one or more counters that determine various aspects of the objects to monitor. For example, the SQL Server Locks object contains counters called Number of Deadlocks/sec and Lock Timeouts/sec.

Some objects have several instances if multiple resources of a given type exist on the computer. For example, the Processor object type will have multiple instances if a system has multiple processors. The Databases object type has one instance for each database on SQL Server. Some object types (for example, the MemoryManager object) have only one instance. If an object type has multiple instances, you can add counters to track statistics for each instance, or in many cases, all instances at once. Counters for the default instance appear in the format SQLServer:<object name>. Counters for named instances appear in the format MSSQL$<instance name>:<counter name> or SQLAgent$<instance name>:<counter name>.

By adding or removing counters to the chart and saving the chart settings, you can specify the SQL Server objects and counters that are monitored when System Monitor is started.

You can configure System Monitor to display statistics from any SQL Server counter. In addition, you can set a threshold value for any SQL Server counter and then generate an alert when a counter exceeds a threshold. For more information about setting an alert, see Creating a SQL Server Database Alert.

Note

SQL Server statistics are displayed only when an instance of SQL Server is installed. If you stop and restart an instance of SQL Server, the display of statistics is interrupted and resumes automatically. Also note that you will see SQL Server counters in the System Monitor snap-in even if SQL Server is not running. On a clustered instance, performance counters only function on the node where SQL Server is running.

This table describes SQL Server objects.

Performance object Description

SQLServer:Access Methods

Searches through and measures allocation of SQL Server database objects (for example, the number of index searches or number of pages that are allocated to indexes and data).

SQLServer:Backup Device

Provides information about backup devices used by backup and restore operations, such as the throughput of the backup device.

SQLServer:Buffer Manager

Provides information about the memory buffers used by SQL Server, such as freememory and buffer cache hit ratio.

SQLServer:Buffer Partition

Provides information about how frequently SQL Server requests and accesses free pages.

SQLServer:CLR

Provides information about CLR.

SQLServer:Cursor Manager by Type

Provides information about cursors.

SQLServer:Cursor Manager Total

Provides information about cursors.

SQLServer:Database Mirroring

Provides information about database mirroring.

SQLServer:Databases

Provides information about a SQL Server database, such as the amount of free log space available or the number of active transactions in the database. There can be multiple instances of this object.

SQLServer:Exec Statistics

Provides information about execution statistics.

SQLServer:General Statistics

Provides information about general server-wide activity, such as the number of users who are connected to an instance of SQL Server.

SQLServer:Latches

Provides information about the latches on internal resources, such as database pages, that are used by SQL Server.

SQLServer:Locks

Provides information about the individual lock requests made by SQL Server, such as lock time-outs and deadlocks. There can be multiple instances of this object.

SQLServer:Memory Manager

Provides information about SQL Server memory usage, such as the total number of lock structures currently allocated.

SQLServer:Plan Cache

Provides information about the SQL Server cache used to store objects such as stored procedures, triggers, and query plans.

SQLServer:SQL Errors

Provides information about SQL Server errors.

SQLServer:SQL Statistics

Provides information about aspects of Transact-SQL queries, such as the number of batches of Transact-SQL statements received by SQL Server.

SQLServer:Transactions

Provides information about the active transactions in SQL Server, such as the overall number of transactions and the number of snapshot transactions.

SQLServer:User Settable

Performs custom monitoring. Each counter can be a custom stored procedure or any Transact-SQL statement that returns a value to be monitored.

SQLServer: Wait Statistics

Provides information about Waits.

The table below lists the performance objects provided for Service Broker.

Performance object Description

SQLServer:Broker Activation

Provides information about Service Broker activated tasks.

SQLServer:Broker Statistics

Provides general Service Broker information.

SQLServer:Broker Transport

Provides information on Service Broker networking.

The table below lists the performance objects provided for SQL Server Agent:

Performance object Description

SQLAgent:Alerts

Provides information about SQL Server Agent alerts.

SQLAgent:Jobs

Provides information about SQL Server Agent jobs.

SQLAgent:JobSteps

Provides information about SQL Server Agent job steps.

SQLAgent:Statistics

Provides general information about SQL Server Agent.

The table below lists the performance objects provided for SQL Server replication:

Performance object Description

SQLServer:Replication Agents

SQLServer:Replication Snapshot

SQLServer:Replication Logreader

SQLServer:Replication Dist.

SQLServer:Replication Merge

For more information, see Monitoring Replication with System Monitor.

Provides information about replication agent activity.

Other Counters

For the SSIS Pipeline counter, see Monitoring Performance of the Data Flow Engine.

Required Permissions

Use of the SQL Server objects depends on Windows permissions, except SQLAgent:Alerts. Users must be a member of the sysadmin fixed server role to use SQLAgent:Alerts.

See Also

Concepts

Using Performance Objects

Other Resources

sys.dm_os_performance_counters

Help and Information

Getting SQL Server 2005 Assistance