SQL Alert when stored procedure executes for too long - sql-server

Question

I would like to set up a SQL Server 2008 Alert to notify me when any procedure executes for 1 second or longer (just an example).
Any ideas?
EDIT:
Okay, it seems this is not possible. But, just to nudge you in another direction, I know that there are statistics tables in the master database which hold compilation counts, number of calls and other various statistics. Could I maybe periodically query them and then report on it, somehow?

Answer 1

no there are no notifications for this.
you'll have to set up a trace and poll it every now and then.

Answer 2

I'd like to add to Mladen Prajdic's correct answer and to improve upon kevchadders' answer from SQL Server Central. The solution I propose below uses DBMail instead of SQLMail (which is used by SQLServerCentral's solution by way of the xp_sendmail call). Essentially, SQLMail uses MAPI and is harder to setup and DBMail uses SMTP and is easier to setup. Here's more information about the difference between the two.
I could not get SQL Server Central's solution to work in SQL 2005 and the solution below has only been tested on my installation of SQL 2005 - YMMV based on version.
First, you'll need a new UDF, which will translate the job id into the process id for a JOIN:
CREATE FUNCTION dbo.udf_SysJobs_GetProcessid(#job_id uniqueidentifier)
RETURNS VARCHAR(8)
AS
BEGIN
RETURN (substring(left(#job_id,8),7,2) +
substring(left(#job_id,8),5,2) +
substring(left(#job_id,8),3,2) +
substring(left(#job_id,8),1,2))
END
And then the sproc:
CREATE PROC sp_check_job_running
#job_name char(50),
#minutes_allowed int,
#person_to_notify varchar(50)
AS
DECLARE #minutes_running int,
#message_text varchar(255)
SELECT #minutes_running = isnull(DATEDIFF(mi, p.last_batch, getdate()), 0)
FROM master..sysprocesses p
JOIN msdb..sysjobs j ON dbo.udf_sysjobs_getprocessid(j.job_id) = substring(p.program_name,32,8)
WHERE j.name = #job_name
IF #minutes_running > #minutes_allowed
BEGIN
SELECT #message_text = ('Job ' + UPPER(SUBSTRING(#job_name,1,LEN(#job_name))) + ' has been running for ' + SUBSTRING(CAST(#minutes_running AS char(5)),1,LEN(CAST(#minutes_running AS char(5)))) + ' minutes, which is over the allowed run time of ' + SUBSTRING(CAST(#minutes_allowed AS char(5)),1,LEN(CAST(#minutes_allowed AS char(5)))) + ' minutes.')
EXEC msdb.dbo.sp_send_dbmail
#recipients = #person_to_notify,
#body = #message_text,
#subject = 'Long-Running Job to Check'
END
This sproc can be easily scheduled as a SQL Server Agent job or any other method necessary. It takes no action if the job is not running or it is running within specified parameters. It sends the email if the job has run longer than specified.
e.g.
EXEC sp_check_job_running 'JobNameGoesHere', 5, 'admin#mycompany.com'
HT: http://www.sqlserverspecialists.co.uk/blog/_archives/2008/11/26/3996346.html

Answer 3

If found this on sqlservercentral (it probably for an older version of SQL Server, but still might be relevant to 2008)
Alert Procedure for Long-Running Job
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/scripts/Lock+and+Connection+Management/30144/
Text below if you cant access it.
For jobs that run periodically and should take only a short time to run, a DBA may want to know when the job has been running for an excessive time. In this case, just checking to see IF the job is running won't do; the ability to make sure that it hasn't been running for a long period is needed. Matching the job id to a process id in sysprocesses requires some re-arranging of the job id to do the match. This script creates a stored procedure that will accept a job name, maximum run time allowed, and email address to notify. It will then use the job name to re-string the job number and check sysprocesses (based on the process id being part of the program name) to determine the amount of time the job has been runing, then alert if that time is over the "time allowed" parameter.
CREATE proc sp_check_job_running
#job_name char(50),
#minutes_allowed int,
#person_to_notify varchar(50)
AS
DECLARE #var1 char(1),
#process_id char(8),
#job_id_char char(8),
#minutes_running int,
#message_text varchar(255)
select #job_id_char = substring(CAST(job_id AS char(50)),1,8)
from msdb..sysjobs
where name = #job_name
select #process_id = substring(#job_id_char,7,2) +
substring(#job_id_char,5,2) +
substring(#job_id_char,3,2) +
substring(#job_id_char,1,2)
select #minutes_running = DATEDIFF(minute,last_batch, getdate())
from master..sysprocesses
where program_name LIKE ('%0x' + #process_id +'%')
if #minutes_running > #minutes_allowed
BEGIN
select #message_text = ('Job '
+ UPPER(SUBSTRING(#job_name,1,LEN(#job_name)))
+ ' has been running for '
+ SUBSTRING(CAST(#minutes_running AS char(5)),1,LEN(CAST(#minutes_running AS char(5))))
+ ' minutes, which is over the allowed run time of '
+ SUBSTRING(CAST(#minutes_allowed AS char(5)),1,LEN(CAST(#minutes_allowed AS char(5))))
+ ' minutes.')
EXEC master..xp_sendmail
#recipients = #person_to_notify,
#message = #message_text,
#subject = 'Long-Running Job to Check'
END
-- Typical job step syntax for job to do the checking
execute sp_check_job_running
'JobThatSHouldBeDoneIn5Minutes',
5,
'DBAdmin#mycompany.com'

Answer 4

You could use a monitoring software like Nagios to periodically count the number of slow queries in your database.
I personally use the following query with the excellent PRTG. I set it to send me an email each time I have more than 5 queries with an execution time greater than 3 seconds each, or when the slowest query takes longer than 10 seconds:
SELECT total_elapsed_time / execution_count / 1000000 avg_elapsed_time, execution_count, creation_time, last_execution_time,
SUBSTRING(st.text, (qs.statement_start_offset/2) + 1, ((CASE statement_end_offset WHEN -1 THEN DATALENGTH(st.text) ELSE qs.statement_end_offset END - qs.statement_start_offset)/2) + 1) AS statement_text
FROM sys.dm_exec_query_stats AS qs
CROSS APPLY sys.dm_exec_sql_text(qs.sql_handle) st
WHERE total_elapsed_time / execution_count / 1000000 >= 3 -- filter queries that takes > 3 seconds
AND CHARINDEX('dm_exec_query_stats', st.text) = 0 -- In case this query is slow, we don't want it in the result set!
ORDER BY total_elapsed_time / execution_count DESC;
Disclaimer: this query is based on https://stackoverflow.com/a/820252/638040
Now if you want to monitor your Stored Procedures, then just use sys.dm_exec_procedure_stats instead of sys.dm_exec_sql_text (also remove the field creation_time from the selection and tweak the SUBSTRING on st.text)

Answer 5

You can log slow running queries use SQL Profiler, but that won't help you with an alert, specifically. (I suppose you could log to a File or to a database table, and have something else "listen" and raise an alert).
In case you are not familiar with SQL Profiler here are the steps:
You should run SQL Profiler on something other than the server itself.
Start with the SQLProfilerTSQL_Duration template
Set the Filter : Duration : "Greater than" to 1000 (milliseonds)
In the filters you can restrict the Database, Login, or similar if necessary.
In the Events you can restrict to just SProcs (default also includes SQL statements)

Answer 6

If you are not looking for a free solution, you could take a look at SQL Sentry. It does what you ask for and more.