Presents your  
SQL SERVER E-NEWSLETTER for September 9, 2003 
 
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COLLECT INFORMATION FROM SQLDIAG BEFORE CALLING PRODUCT SUPPORT   
  
No matter how hard you try, occasionally, something goes wrong and you 
have to call Microsoft Product Support. A good example is if you receive
an access violation.   
  
One thing you can do to make this call go much smoother is to collect 
information about your system before you place your call. This is where a 
command utility called sqldiag comes in handy.   
  
The sqldiag command utility was installed in your x:\Program 
Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL\Binn when you installed SQL Server
2000. Sqldiag collects information about your system (and potentially about your 
problem), and creates a single text file that's stored in a \MSSQL\log
directory. This file can be printed and saved, or, in extreme cases, support 
experts may actually ask you to run the utility and send them the file. 
 
  
The sqldiag utility can be run any time, regardless of whether SQL 
Server is started. If the server is running, you'll get information on the 
following: error logs text, registry information, DLL version information, 
output from sp_configure and sp_who, deadlock information, and a 
diagnostic server report. (If the server isn't running, you won't get quite as 
much information since some of the stored procedures won't be able to run.)  
  
Sqldiag has a number of switches that you can use to gain more control 
over the utility, for example:   
  
sqldiag   
    [-?] |   
    [-I instance_name]   
    [ [-U login_ID] [-P password] | [-E] ]   
    [-O output_file]   
    [-X] [-M] [-C]   
  
  
* -? allows you to display usage information   

* -I specifies the instance of SQL Server   
  
* -U is the login ID   
  
* -P is the password (Note: If sqldiag is being run from a Win98 server,

you must use the MS-DOS window and the -U and -P options.)   
  
* -E uses a trusted connection   
  
* -O allows you to print the file to an output file other than the 
sqldiag.txt default   
  
* -X excludes the error logs   
  
* -M performs DBCC stackdump   
  
* -C retrieves cluster information   
  
NOTE: Sqldiag must be run on the server itself and not on a client 
workstation.   
  
J.E. Harvey, MCSD, MCDBA, has been tinkering with and writing about 
technology for more than two decades.   
  
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