SQL Server Profiler causing CPU spike

Question

Is it possible for SQL Profile to cause issues for SQL Server?

We noticed an issue with one of the CPU at full capacity and we decided to turn SQL profiler off and the spike was gone!

Has anyone experienced this and how does it happen?

How can you use SQL profiler if it causes this issue?

Answer 1

SQL Profiler will impact performance to some degree as it is effectively subscribing to events and transactions that are being processed by the SQL engine. Profiler will be performing tracing and filtering of events to produce output that will require CPU usage, to what degree is dependant on what the load is like on the server and what the configuration is like.

Here's an article I've found that provides some tips: http://weblogs.sqlteam.com/dang/archive/2007/12/16/Avoid-Causing-Problems-with-Profiler.aspx

Summary Points - SQL Trace performance guidelines:

• Run Profiler remotely instead of directly on server
• Avoid including events that occur frequently (e.g. Lock:Acquired) unless absolutely needed
• Include only event classes needed
• Specify limiting filters to reduce the number of events
• Avoid redundant data (e.g. SQL:BatchStarting and SQL:BatchCompleted)
• Avoid running large traces with Profiler; consider a server-side SQL
• Trace instead Limit server-side trace file size and manage space usage