Automate collection of sp_whoisactive on a schedule

This post is part of the September 2020 edition of #tsql2sday. Thanks to Elizabeth Noble for hosting (blog|twitter) and for coming up with a great topic. SQL Server has a great tool for scheduling repeatable tasks called SQL Agent. SQL Server also has a great community, who have written SQL Scripts so established and well known that some might think they come with SQL Server (or at least should). This post combines using SQL Agent with one of those invaluable community scripts, to help solve a real world problem.

When I took over a fairly troublesome SQL Server, I was always being asked what was running when the SQL Server was slow. That was fine when it was during the day and I could look. But often I would be asked, why was the server slow at 9pm last Friday? Or some other time. It’s not always the easiest thing to do as SQL Server doesn’t natively keep this information for you.

A quick but effective way to automate this is to download and schedule Adam Machanic’s sp_whoisactive stored procedure. I run this every 10 minutes but I have seen it scheduled as often as every 30-60 seconds. It depends on your system and your needs.

How to automate running sp_whoisactive on a schedule

1. Download sp_whoisactive from GitHub if you don’t have it already
2. Run the code to create the stored procedure on your SQL Server
3. Use my t-sql below to create an agent job that collects the data (and deletes older rows)
4. Change any of the parameters to suit your own needs
5. Review data next time you are asked “What was running at X time”? by simply querying the table

Create SQL Agent Job

! Important ! I use a utility database called DBA for stored procedures such as sp_whoisactive. If you don’t have a database called DBA, please either create one or change the reference to the name of the database you want to create your table in.

USE [msdb]

GO

BEGIN TRANSACTION
DECLARE @ReturnCode INT
SELECT @ReturnCode = 0

IF NOT EXISTS (SELECT name FROM msdb.dbo.syscategories WHERE name=N'[Uncategorized (Local)]' AND category_class=1)
BEGIN
EXEC @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_add_category @class=N'JOB', @type=N'LOCAL', @name=N'[Uncategorized (Local)]'
IF (@@ERROR <> 0 OR @ReturnCode <> 0) GOTO QuitWithRollback

END

DECLARE @jobId BINARY(16)
EXEC @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_add_job @job_name=N'sp_whoisactive_log_to_table',
@enabled=1,
@notify_level_eventlog=0,
@notify_level_email=0,
@notify_level_netsend=0,
@notify_level_page=0,
@delete_level=0,
@description=N'Log output of sp_whoisactive every x minutes',
@category_name=N'[Uncategorized (Local)]',
@owner_login_name=N'sa', @job_id = @jobId OUTPUT
IF (@@ERROR <> 0 OR @ReturnCode <> 0) GOTO QuitWithRollback

EXEC @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_add_jobstep @job_id=@jobId, @step_name=N'Write output to table',
@step_id=1,
@cmdexec_success_code=0,
@on_success_action=3,
@on_success_step_id=0,
@on_fail_action=2,
@on_fail_step_id=0,
@retry_attempts=0,
@retry_interval=0,
@os_run_priority=0, @subsystem=N'TSQL',
@command=N'IF NOT EXISTS ( SELECT 1 FROM dba.sys.tables WHERE NAME = ''sp_whoisactive_log'')
BEGIN
CREATE TABLE dba.dbo.sp_whoisactive_log
(
id INT IDENTITY(1,1) PRIMARY KEY,
[dd hh:mm:ss:mss] VARCHAR(20) NULL,
session_id SMALLINT NOT NULL,
sql_text XML NULL,
login_name sysname NULL,
wait_info NVARCHAR(4000) NULL,
CPU VARCHAR(30) NULL,
tempdb_allocations VARCHAR(30) NULL,
tempdb_current VARCHAR(30) NULL,
blocking_session_id SMALLINT NULL,
blocked_session_count VARCHAR(30) NULL,
reads VARCHAR(30) NULL,
writes VARCHAR(30) NULL,
physical_reads VARCHAR(30) NULL,
query_plan XML NULL,
locks XML NULL,
used_memory VARCHAR(30) NULL,
[status] VARCHAR(30) NULL,
open_tran_count VARCHAR(30) NULL,
percent_complete VARCHAR(30) NULL,
[host_name] sysname NULL,
[database_name] sysname NULL,
[program_name] sysname NULL,
start_time datetime NULL,
login_time datetime NULL,
request_id SMALLINT NULL,
collection_time datetime NULL
)
CREATE INDEX idx_collection_time ON dba.dbo.sp_whoisactive_log (collection_time)
END

/* Load data into table.
If you want to change parameters, you will likely need to add columns to table
*/
EXEC sp_whoisactive @get_locks = 1, @find_block_leaders = 1, @get_plans = 1, @destination_table = ''sp_whoisactive_log''',
@database_name=N'DBA',
@flags=0
IF (@@ERROR <> 0 OR @ReturnCode <> 0) GOTO QuitWithRollback

EXEC @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_add_jobstep @job_id=@jobId, @step_name=N'Delete old rows',
@step_id=2,
@cmdexec_success_code=0,
@on_success_action=1,
@on_success_step_id=0,
@on_fail_action=2,
@on_fail_step_id=0,
@retry_attempts=0,
@retry_interval=0,
@os_run_priority=0, @subsystem=N'TSQL',
@command=N'DELETE dba.dbo.sp_whoisactive_log
WHERE collection_time < DATEADD(MONTH,-1,GETDATE())',
@database_name=N'master',
@flags=0
IF (@@ERROR <> 0 OR @ReturnCode <> 0) GOTO QuitWithRollback
EXEC @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_update_job @job_id = @jobId, @start_step_id = 1
IF (@@ERROR <> 0 OR @ReturnCode <> 0) GOTO QuitWithRollback
EXEC @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_add_jobschedule @job_id=@jobId, @name=N'Every x minutes',
@enabled=1,
@freq_type=4,
@freq_interval=1,
@freq_subday_type=4,
@freq_subday_interval=10,
@freq_relative_interval=0,
@freq_recurrence_factor=0,
@active_start_date=20200209,
@active_end_date=99991231,
@active_start_time=0,
@active_end_time=235959
IF (@@ERROR <> 0 OR @ReturnCode <> 0) GOTO QuitWithRollback
EXEC @ReturnCode = msdb.dbo.sp_add_jobserver @job_id = @jobId, @server_name = N'(local)'
IF (@@ERROR <> 0 OR @ReturnCode <> 0) GOTO QuitWithRollback
COMMIT TRANSACTION
GOTO EndSave
QuitWithRollback:
IF (@@TRANCOUNT > 0) ROLLBACK TRANSACTION
EndSave:
GO

This job will run sp_whoisactive on a schedule every 10 minutes and record the output in the table dba.dbo.sp_whoisactive_log. It also deletes any rows older than 1 month.

Hope this helps
John