Summary

This appendix focused on two essential tools that developers use to monitor SQL Server. The SQL Profiler has helped me for over a decade to understand how the data access interfaces interact with SQL Server. As each new interface arrived, I was able to tell exactly what was working and what was not by monitoring the SQL Profiler traces.

Performance counters have been around for some time as well. Now that Microsoft has the ADO.NET connection pool counters working, these can play a pivotal role in ensuring that your application is not leaking connections.