(SQL) Tip of the Day: Where's SQL Profiler?

Today’s (SQL) Tip…

As you know from previous tips, performance issues drive a lot of the Windows Azure SQL Database case volume.  Customers who are accustomed to doing some of their own troubleshooting almost instantly ask, “Where is SQL Profiler?” 

In all reality, SQL Profiler is deprecated, and no deprecated features were enabled in the cloud based version of SQL Server.  Therefore, we sometimes have to rethink  how we approach situations and troubleshoot problems.  The good news is that nearly all of the information typically presented by Profiler is readily available in Dynamic Management Views or Functions that are enabled in the cloud. 

For a full list of the supported DMVs as well as a description of the information that can be found within, check out this page:

https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windowsazure/ee336238.aspx

As DMVs can sometimes be confusing to new customers, one of my coworkers wrote a publicly available tool that displays some common information in a clear, easy-to-understand interface.  Check it out here:

https://blogs.msdn.com/b/psssql/archive/2011/04/25/css-sql-azure-diagnostics-tool-released.aspx