SQL Server Profiler is the optional front-end user interface for SQL Trace. The two are different components and technologies. SQL Trace runs on the server, is lightweight, and collects data points to be passed to Profiler or written to a file. Collectively, they have the following features and benefits: SQL Trace is a lightweight, but powerful, technology that can run on SQL Server; it collects performance data selected from hundreds of possible performance data points ranging from locks, to connections, to SQL DML statements, to recompiles.
SQL Server Profiler is a separate application that can configure, start, and stop SQL Trace as well as capture and display data from SQL Trace.
Profiler data can scroll on the screen or be saved to a file or table for further analysis.
Data can be filtered in numerous ways, including viewing only events related to a specific database, excluding events from a specific application, or capturing only the queries that exceed a specified duration.
Profile configurations can be saved and reused later.
Profile event data can be merged with server counter data collected by Perfmon/SysMon for a great visual representation of what's happening on the server.
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