SQL Server 2005 Performance Dashboard Reports - Professional SQL Server 2005 Performance Tuning - page 477

--Display the current filename
SELECT @default_trace_current_filename

--Display the base filename
SELECT @default_trace_filename

--Show the contents of the current default trace file
SELECT * FROM fn_trace_gettable(@default_trace_current_filename, 1)

--Get the maximum file count for the default trace
SELECT @max_files = [max_files]
FROM sys.traces
WHERE is_default = 1

--Show the contents of all default trace files
SELECT * FROM fn_trace_gettable(@default_trace_filename, @max_files)

Difficulties
Each of these catalog views, DMVs, and the default trace exposes an enormous amount of
useful information. There is no longer a problem of the data not being available. The toughest part now
is to sift through the mountains of data and combine them into something meaningful and actionable.
Educational resources such as topics, tutorials, and other miscellaneous training will help you find your
way through the management data available. After a short while of hands-on experience, you will
probably amass dozens of scripts in a personal script library that take advantage of a few of the 80

+
dynamic management views and functions. Your scripts give you easier access to the data, but there is
still a steep learning curve in making you more effective. Microsoft has taken another step in making you
more effective and addressed precisely this pain point by releasing the SQL Server 2005 Performance
Dashboard Reports.

Performance Dashboard Reports
The Performance Dashboard Reports give you an interactive way to diagnose performance-related
problems on a SQL Server instance. The reports take data from the dynamic management and catalog
views and give you a graphical overview of the current state of your SQL Server instance.

Prerequisites
The Performance Dashboard Reports leverage new features introduced in SQL Server 2005 Service
Pack 2. Thus, your SQL Server components must be from at least SQL Server 2005 Service Pack 2 or later.

Service Pack 2 needs to be applied to the Management Tools as well as each SQL Server relational
database engine instance that you want to monitor using the Performance Dashboard Reports.