Hey,
I'm trying to make a transition from using SQL Trace to the new extended events model, but I'm finding that reading the resulting data from a file target is extremely slow. I'm using the methods outlined here to query my .XEL file directly:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/extended_events/archive/2010/03/09/reading-event-data-101-what-s-up-with-the-xml.aspx
...and I have near 2 GB of data from a specific session that I would like to analyze. This session was set up to track the sp_statement_complete event, filter on anything containing a 'RETURN%', and include the object_name field. Basically I'm looking for a profile of how often various functions are called in a stored proc.
I tried reading in the first of the two files produced by this session using sys.fn_xe_file_target_read, but found that it was extremely slow - as in it ran for over an hour and fifteen minutes before I gave up. Is this normal performance for the function? And is there anything that can be done to improve the performance, or are there any alternatives to this function for reading the event data?
Note: I have tried opening the data directly in SSMS, but it appears there is just too much data for it to process. I'm also open to alternatives on collecting the data - it's mainly the grouping of the object_name and aggregate of reads/writes/cpu/duration that I'm interested in, but I haven't had time yet to investigate whether there are any other targets that would provide this.