Monitor Blocking in SQL Server 2000 – Part 1

Part of Database
Administrator’s job is to monitor blocking in SQL Server. By taking advantage
of the Microsoft
Knowledge Base article 271509
, we can
monitor the blocking and capture the SQL statements that are involved in the blocking
to a file. This can be accomplished by updating the procedure from KB Article
271509 in such a way that it writes the output directly to a file.

Step 1

Create the procedure usp_writetofile,
as shown in the figure Fig 1.1

Source Code


set quoted_identifier off
go
use master
go
if exists (select * from dbo.sysobjects where id = object_id(N’[dbo].[Usp_WriteToFile]’) and
OBJECTPROPERTY(id, N’IsProcedure’) = 1)
drop procedure [dbo].[Usp_WriteToFile]
GO
CREATE PROCEDURE Usp_WriteToFile
(@FileName varchar(1000), @Text1 varchar(1000)) AS
–Objective: To Write a given string on to a given file
–Created by: MAK
–Date: Sep 25, 2004
DECLARE @FS int, @OLEResult int, @FileID int

EXECUTE @OLEResult = sp_OACreate ‘Scripting.FileSystemObject’, @FS OUT
IF @OLEResult <> 0 PRINT ‘Error: Scripting.FileSystemObject’

–Open a file
execute @OLEResult = sp_OAMethod @FS, ‘OpenTextFile’, @FileID OUT,
@FileName, 8, 1
IF @OLEResult <>0 PRINT ‘Error: OpenTextFile’

–Write Text1
execute @OLEResult = sp_OAMethod @FileID, ‘WriteLine’, Null, @Text1
IF @OLEResult <> 0 PRINT ‘Error : WriteLine’

EXECUTE @OLEResult = sp_OADestroy @FileID
EXECUTE @OLEResult = sp_OADestroy @FS

Download code here.

Step 2

Create the procedure usp_blockmonitor,
by executing the below SQL statement [Fig 1.2]. Download Code from here.



[Fig 1.2]

Step 3

Create a job Job_BlockMonitor
by using Job_BlockMonitor.SQL as shown in Fig 1.3 and Fig 1.4. This job creates
a schedule that causes this job to run every 5 minutes.



[Fig 1.3]



[Fig 1.4]

Source Code to create the
job Job_blockmonitor


— Script generated on 9/24/2004 10:37 PM
— By: MAK
— Server: SQL

BEGIN TRANSACTION
DECLARE @JobID BINARY(16)
DECLARE @ReturnCode INT
SELECT @ReturnCode = 0
IF (SELECT COUNT(*) FROM msdb.dbo.syscategories WHERE name = N’[Uncategorized (Local)]’) < 1
EXECUTE msdb.dbo.sp_add_category @name = N’[Uncategorized (Local)]’

— Delete the job with the same name (if it exists)
SELECT @JobID = job_id
FROM msdb.dbo.sysjobs
WHERE (name = N’Job_BlockMonitor’)
IF (@JobID IS NOT NULL)
BEGIN
— Check if the job is a multi-server job
IF (EXISTS (SELECT *
FROM msdb.dbo.sysjobservers
WHERE (job_id = @JobID) AND (server_id <> 0)))
BEGIN
— There is, so abort the script
RAISERROR (N’Unable to import job ”Job_BlockMonitor” since there is
already a multi-server job with this name.’, 16, 1)
GOTO QuitWithRollback
END
ELSE
— Delete the [local] job
EXECUTE msdb.dbo.sp_delete_job @job_name = N’Job_BlockMonitor’
SELECT @JobID = NULL
END

BEGIN

— Add the job
EXECUTE @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_add_job @job_id = @JobID OUTPUT ,
@job_name = N’Job_BlockMonitor’, @owner_login_name = N’sa’,
@description = N’No description available.’, @category_name = N’[Uncategorized (Local)]’,
@enabled = 1, @notify_level_email = 0,
@notify_level_page = 0, @notify_level_netsend = 0, @notify_level_eventlog = 2, @delete_level= 0
IF (@@ERROR <> 0 OR @ReturnCode <> 0) GOTO QuitWithRollback

— Add the job steps
EXECUTE @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_add_jobstep @job_id = @JobID, @step_id = 1,
@step_name = N’JOb_BlockMonitor’, @command =
N’usp_blockmonitor 1,0,”d:\BLOCKING.LOG”
‘, @database_name = N’master’, @server = N”, @database_user_name = N”,
@subsystem = N’TSQL’, @cmdexec_success_code = 0, @flags = 0,
@retry_attempts = 0, @retry_interval = 1, @output_file_name = N”,
@on_success_step_id = 0, @on_success_action = 1, @on_fail_step_id = 0,
@on_fail_action = 2
IF (@@ERROR <> 0 OR @ReturnCode <> 0) GOTO QuitWithRollback
EXECUTE @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_update_job @job_id = @JobID, @start_step_id = 1

IF (@@ERROR <> 0 OR @ReturnCode <> 0) GOTO QuitWithRollback

— Add the job schedules
EXECUTE @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_add_jobschedule @job_id = @JobID, @name = N’Job_BlockMonitor’,
@enabled = 1, @freq_type = 4,
@active_start_date = 20040923, @active_start_time = 0, @freq_interval = 1,
@freq_subday_type = 4,
@freq_subday_interval = 5,
@freq_relative_interval = 0, @freq_recurrence_factor = 0, @active_end_date = 99991231,
@active_end_time = 235959
IF (@@ERROR <> 0 OR @ReturnCode <> 0) GOTO QuitWithRollback

— Add the Target Servers
EXECUTE @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_add_jobserver @job_id = @JobID, @server_name = N'(local)’
IF (@@ERROR <> 0 OR @ReturnCode <> 0) GOTO QuitWithRollback

END
COMMIT TRANSACTION
GOTO EndSave
QuitWithRollback:
IF (@@TRANCOUNT > 0) ROLLBACK TRANSACTION
EndSave:

Download Code here.

Get the Free Newsletter!

Subscribe to Cloud Insider for top news, trends & analysis

Latest Articles