04 July 2012

Sort warnings (last hour)

by Fabiano Amorim

8,899 0 Memory, Performance

This example custom metric measures the number of sort warnings events per hour.

Metrics install automatically if you have Redgate Monitor installed.

If you are using Redgate’s SQL Server monitoring tool, Redgate Monitor, you can instantly install and run this metric on your servers.

This metric measures the number of sort warning events that occurred in the last hour. Sort warning operations that do not fit into memory can degrade query and server performance because multiple passes over the data are required to sort the data. It is important to optimize queries by removing them.

For more information, see http://www.simple-talk.com/sql/learn-sql-server/showplan-operator-of-the-week—sort/.

Note: This metric relies on SQL Server default trace. If this is not enabled, the metric will not work.

Metric definition

Name

Sort warnings (last hour)

Description

This metric measures the number of sort warnings events that occurred in the last hour. Sort warning operations that do not fit into memory can degrade query and server performance because multiple passes over the data are required to sort the data. It is important to optimize queries by removing them.

For more information, see http://www.simple-talk.com/sql/learn-sql-server/showplan-operator-of-the-week---sort/.

Note: This metric relies on SQL Server default trace. If this is not enabled, the metric will not work.

The T-SQL query that will collect data


		
			
			
Transact-SQL
			
			DECLARE @Str NVARCHAR(MAX);

SELECT @Str = CONVERT(NVARCHAR(MAX), Value)
  FROM :: FN_TRACE_GETINFO(DEFAULT) AS Tab
  WHERE Tab.Property = 2
    AND Traceid = 1;
 
SELECT COUNT(*) AS Cnt
  FROM FN_TRACE_GETTABLE(@Str, DEFAULT) AS trace 
  INNER JOIN sys.trace_events te
  ON te.trace_event_id = trace.EventClass
  WHERE te.name LIKE 'Sort Warnings'
    AND trace.StartTime >= DATEADD(hh, -1, GETDATE());
			
				
					
				
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						DECLARE @Str NVARCHAR(MAX);
 
SELECT @Str = CONVERT(NVARCHAR(MAX), Value)
  FROM :: FN_TRACE_GETINFO(DEFAULT) AS Tab
  WHERE Tab.Property = 2
    AND Traceid = 1;
 
SELECT COUNT(*) AS Cnt
  FROM FN_TRACE_GETTABLE(@Str, DEFAULT) AS trace 
  INNER JOIN sys.trace_events te
  ON te.trace_event_id = trace.EventClass
  WHERE te.name LIKE 'Sort Warnings'
    AND trace.StartTime >= DATEADD(hh, -1, GETDATE());

Instances to collect from

Select all

Databases to collect from

master

Collection frequency

3600

Use collected or calculated values

Leave the Use a calculated rate of change between collections check box unchecked

Metric collection

Enabled

Alert definition

Alert name

Sort warnings

Description

This alert is raised when the number of sort warnings events that occurred in the last hour goes above a specified threshold. Sort warning operations that do not fit into memory can degrade query and server performance because multiple passes over the data are required to sort the data. It is important to optimize queries by removing them.

For more information, see http://www.simple-talk.com/sql/learn-sql-server/showplan-operator-of-the-week---sort/.

Raise an alert when the metric value goes

Above the defined threshholds

Default threshold values

High:	50
Medium:	10
Low:	0

Note: These thresholds are intended as guideline values. If they seem too high or too low for your environment, replace them with values more suited to your server performance.

Raise an alert when the threshold is passed for

1 collection

Alert is

Enabled

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Sort warnings (last hour)

Metric definition

Name

Description

The T-SQL query that will collect data

Instances to collect from

Databases to collect from

Collection frequency

Use collected or calculated values

Metric collection

Alert definition

Alert name

Description

Raise an alert when the metric value goes

Default threshold values

Raise an alert when the threshold is passed for

Alert is

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