SELECT sp_WhoIsActive into Table - sql-server

Question

I'm trying to script sp_WhoIsActive into a table. The goal is feed the table with an Agent Job every 10 seconds.
I followed this guide and I tried to feed the table this way:
--Log activity into table.
DECLARE #destination_table VARCHAR(4000) =
'[Monitoring].[dbo].[WhoIsActive] '
EXEC sp_WhoIsActive
#get_plans = 1,
#get_transaction_info = 1,
#destination_table = #destination_table;
But as result I receive the error:
Warning: The join order has been enforced because a local join hint is used.
Msg 50000, Level 16, State 1, Procedure sp_WhoIsActive, Line 1111 [Batch Start Line 0]
Destination table not properly formatted.
On Google I found many guides talking about a solution that could help me execute a Stored Procedure into a temp table and from there I could create a table:
sp_configure 'Show Advanced Options', 1
GO
RECONFIGURE
GO
sp_configure 'Ad Hoc Distributed Queries', 1
GO
RECONFIGURE
GO
SELECT * INTO #MyTempTable FROM OPENROWSET('SQLNCLI', 'Server=localhost;Trusted_Connection=yes;',
'EXEC sp_WhoIsActive')
SELECT * FROM #MyTempTable
But this process too is failing with error:
Msg 11526, Level 16, State 1, Procedure sys.sp_describe_first_result_set, Line 1 [Batch Start Line 12]
The metadata could not be determined because statement 'INSERT #sessions
(
recursion,
session_id,
request_id' in procedure 'sp_WhoIsActive' uses a temp table.
I tried following Kendra Little blog but that too is not working.
In the end I scripted out the table manually:
CREATE TABLE [dbo].[WhoIsActive](
[dd_hh_mm_ss_mss] [nvarchar](50) NOT NULL,
[session_id] [tinyint] NOT NULL,
[sql_text] [nvarchar](max) NOT NULL,
[sql_command] [nvarchar](400) NOT NULL,
[login_name] [nvarchar](50) NOT NULL,
[wait_info] [nvarchar](50) NOT NULL,
[tran_log_writes] [nvarchar](50) NOT NULL,
[CPU] [smallint] NOT NULL,
[tempdb_allocations] [smallint] NOT NULL,
[tempdb_current] [smallint] NOT NULL,
[blocking_session_id] [nvarchar](50) NOT NULL,
[reads] [int] NOT NULL,
[writes] [float] NOT NULL,
[physical_reads] [tinyint] NOT NULL,
[query_plan] [nvarchar](50) NOT NULL,
[used_memory] [tinyint] NOT NULL,
[status] [nvarchar](50) NOT NULL,
[tran_start_time] [datetime2](7) NOT NULL,
[implicit_tran] [nvarchar](50) NOT NULL,
[open_tran_count] [tinyint] NOT NULL,
[percent_complete] [nvarchar](50) NOT NULL,
[host_name] [nvarchar](50) NOT NULL,
[database_name] [nvarchar](50) NOT NULL,
[program_name] [nvarchar](100) NOT NULL,
[start_time] [datetime2](7) NOT NULL,
[login_tine] [datetime2](7) NOT NULL,
[request_id] [tinyint] NOT NULL,
[collection_time] [datetime2](7) NOT NULL
) ON [PRIMARY] TEXTIMAGE_ON [PRIMARY]
GO
But that too is failing and I cannot feed the table with a job.
sp_WhoIsActive is so popular, I cannot believe I'm the only one trying to insert the results into a table.

Answer 1

You need to create a table suitable to use with the output of the procedure, the schema of which can vary depending on the options you use.
SP_WhoIsActive will actually give you the create script, so to capture the default options just do
declare #definition varchar(max)
exec sp_WhoIsActive #return_schema = 1, #schema = #definition output
print #definition
This returns the appropriate T-SQL:
CREATE TABLE < table_name > (
[dd hh:mm:ss.mss] VARCHAR(8000) NULL
,[session_id] SMALLINT NOT NULL
,[sql_text] XML NULL
,[login_name] NVARCHAR(128) NOT NULL
,[wait_info] NVARCHAR(4000) NULL
,[CPU] VARCHAR(30) NULL
,[tempdb_allocations] VARCHAR(30) NULL
,[tempdb_current] VARCHAR(30) NULL
,[blocking_session_id] SMALLINT NULL
,[reads] VARCHAR(30) NULL
,[writes] VARCHAR(30) NULL
,[physical_reads] VARCHAR(30) NULL
,[used_memory] VARCHAR(30) NULL
,[status] VARCHAR(30) NOT NULL
,[open_tran_count] VARCHAR(30) NULL
,[percent_complete] VARCHAR(30) NULL
,[host_name] NVARCHAR(128) NULL
,[database_name] NVARCHAR(128) NULL
,[program_name] NVARCHAR(128) NULL
,[start_time] DATETIME NOT NULL
,[login_time] DATETIME NULL
,[request_id] INT NULL
,[collection_time] DATETIME NOT NULL
)
Edit and run with the required target table name, then you can run sp_whoisactive with the destination table option
exec sp_WhoIsActive #destination_table='Monitoring.dbo.WhoIsActive'
See the docs