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Data Collection Templates

JosephPilov-MSFT edited this page Apr 25, 2026 · 5 revisions

SQL Server log collection for SQL Nexus

SQL Nexus requires diagnostic data collected from your SQL Server instance. This page describes the supported data collection methods.

Recommended: SQL LogScout (Modern Tool)

SQL LogScout is the recommended tool for collecting SQL Server diagnostic data on both Windows and Linux. It collects Extended Events (XEL), DMV output, Performance Monitor logs, and more — all of which SQL Nexus can import and analyze.

  1. Download SQL LogScout from https://github.com/microsoft/sql_logscout
  2. Run it against your SQL Server instance to collect diagnostic data
  3. Point SQL Nexus at the output folder to import and analyze

SQL LogScout supports SQL Server 2012 and later, including SQL Server on Linux.

Legacy: PSSDIAG / DiagManager (SQLDiag-based)

For older environments or specific scenarios, DiagManager/PSSDIAG can be used to generate SQLDiag-based collection configurations. This method uses sqldiag.exe, which ships as part of the SQL Server installation.

Note: SQL Server Profiler trace (.trc) collection via SQLDiag has been deprecated since SQL Server 2012. Extended Events (.xel) is the recommended replacement and is fully supported by SQL Nexus.

See the DiagManager wiki for instructions on how to configure and run data collection.

What SQL Nexus Can Import

Once data is collected, SQL Nexus automatically detects and imports the following:

Data Type File Format Notes
DMV / rowset output .out text files Produced by SQL LogScout or SQLDiag
Extended Events .xel SQLDiag XEL, Always On health, System Health sessions
SQL Trace .trc Processed via RML Utilities / ReadTrace
Performance Monitor .blg Windows Perfmon logs
Linux performance data .tsv / converted .blg IO stats, CPU, memory, networking, process stats

Tutorials

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