Extended Events - Pro SQL Server Internals - page 542

Figure 28-4. Extended Events packages in SQL Server 2014

Events
Events correspond to well-known points in SQL Server code, for example completion of a SQL Statement, acquiring
and releasing lock, deadlock conditions, and others.
Different versions of SQL Server expose a different number of events. Moreover, the number of events may
increase with service pack releases. For example, SQL Server 2008 SP2 exposes 253 events, SQL Server 2012 RTM
exposes 617 events, SQL Server 2012 SP1 exposes 625 events, and SQL Server 2014 RTM exposes 870 events.

■ even though every sQL trace event in sQL server 2012 and above has a corresponding extended event,
the opposite is not true. sQL trace is deprecated in sQL server 2012, and the new sQL server features do not expose
troubleshooting capabilities through sQL trace, using extended events instead.

Important

You can analyze available events with the sys.dm_xe_objects view, as shown in Listing 28-2. Figure 28-5 shows
the partial output of a query from SQL Server 2012.

Listing 28-2. Examining Extended Events

select
xp.name as [Package]
,xo.name as [Event]
,xo.Description
from
sys.dm_xe_packages xp join sys.dm_xe_objects xo on
xp.guid = xo.package_guid
where
(xp.capabilities is null or xp.capabilities & 1 = 0) and
(xo.capabilities is null or xo.capabilities & 1 = 0) and
xo.object_type = 'event'
order by
xp.name, xo.name