SQL Server Trace – Who Is Running It and How to Stop It?

Follow the steps outlines in How to use the DBCC MEMORYSTATUS command to monitor memory usage on SQL Server. The remedy action will depend on your findings. You can also read How to Identify Microsoft SQL Server Memory Bottlenecks which is more accessible.

One word of caution though: is unlikely you will find individual queries to blame. Tracking downs memory problems is more subtle than that. Keep in mind that when you're running out of resources and a query throws an out-of-memory error it may well be that the query that throws the error is just the victim, not the culprit.

The object ID is actually a partition id. This question over on SO provides a simple query to retrieve the needed information.

A side note, since you are using SQL Server 2008 R2 I would highly suggest taking a look into the System Health session that contains the recent deadlocks that have occurred, among other things. Depending on the activity of your instance you may need to pull this information out on a scheduled basis since it is buffer memory so does not stay there long. It is much more efficient to pull this information out than trying to setup a trace and waiting for it to occur again.

I actually wrote up a blog post on this area that includes a script to parse out the information where it is a bit more readable. The blog post is here, the script is below:

;WITH xDeadlock (Contents)
AS
(
select CAST(XEventData.XEvent.value('(data/value)[1]', 'varchar(max)') as xml) as DeadlockGraph
FROM
    (select CAST(target_data as xml) as TargetData
    from sys.dm_xe_session_targets st
    join sys.dm_xe_sessions s on s.address = st.event_session_address
    where name = 'system_health') AS Data
CROSS APPLY TargetData.nodes ('RingBufferTarget/event[@name="xml_deadlock_report"]') AS XEventData (XEvent)
), Victims AS
(
SELECT    ID = Victims.List.value('@id', 'varchar(50)')
FROM xDeadlock
CROSS APPLY xDeadlock.Contents.nodes('//deadlock/victim-list/victimProcess') AS Victims (List)
), Locks AS
(
SELECT  --xDeadlock.DeadlockID,
        MainLock.Process.value('@id', 'varchar(100)') AS LockID,
        OwnerList.Owner.value('@id', 'varchar(200)') AS LockProcessId,
        REPLACE(MainLock.Process.value('local-name(.)', 'varchar(100)'), 'lock', '') AS LockEvent,
        MainLock.Process.value('@objectname', 'sysname') AS ObjectName,
        OwnerList.Owner.value('@mode', 'varchar(10)') AS LockMode,
        MainLock.Process.value('@dbid', 'INTEGER') AS Database_id,
        MainLock.Process.value('@associatedObjectId', 'BIGINT') AS AssociatedObjectId,
        MainLock.Process.value('@WaitType', 'varchar(100)') AS WaitType,
        WaiterList.Owner.value('@id', 'varchar(200)') AS WaitProcessId,
        WaiterList.Owner.value('@mode', 'varchar(10)') AS WaitMode
FROM    xDeadlock
        CROSS APPLY xDeadlock.Contents.nodes('//deadlock/resource-list') AS Locks (list)
        CROSS APPLY Locks.List.nodes('*') AS MainLock (Process)
        CROSS APPLY MainLock.Process.nodes('owner-list/owner') AS OwnerList (Owner)
        CROSS APPLY MainLock.Process.nodes('waiter-list/waiter') AS WaiterList (Owner)
), Process AS 
(
-- get the data from the process node
SELECT  --xDeadlock.DeadlockID,
        [Victim] = CONVERT(BIT, CASE WHEN Deadlock.Process.value('@id', 'varchar(50)') = ISNULL(Deadlock.Process.value('../../@victim', 'varchar(50)'), v.ID) 
                                     THEN 1
                                     ELSE 0
                                END),
        [LockMode] = Deadlock.Process.value('@lockMode', 'varchar(10)'), -- how is this different from in the resource-list section?
        [ProcessID] = Process.ID, --Deadlock.Process.value('@id', 'varchar(50)'),
        [KPID] = Deadlock.Process.value('@kpid', 'int'), -- kernel-process id / thread ID number
        [SPID] = Deadlock.Process.value('@spid', 'int'), -- system process id (connection to sql)
        [SBID] = Deadlock.Process.value('@sbid', 'int'), -- system batch id / request_id (a query that a SPID is running)
        [ECID] = Deadlock.Process.value('@ecid', 'int'), -- execution context ID (a worker thread running part of a query)
        [IsolationLevel] = Deadlock.Process.value('@isolationlevel', 'varchar(200)'),
        [WaitResource] = Deadlock.Process.value('@waitresource', 'varchar(200)'),
        [LogUsed] = Deadlock.Process.value('@logused', 'int'),
        [ClientApp] = Deadlock.Process.value('@clientapp', 'varchar(100)'),
        [HostName] = Deadlock.Process.value('@hostname', 'varchar(20)'),
        [LoginName] = Deadlock.Process.value('@loginname', 'varchar(20)'),
        [TransactionTime] = Deadlock.Process.value('@lasttranstarted', 'datetime'),
        [BatchStarted] = Deadlock.Process.value('@lastbatchstarted', 'datetime'),
        [BatchCompleted] = Deadlock.Process.value('@lastbatchcompleted', 'datetime'),
        [InputBuffer] = Input.Buffer.query('.'),
        xDeadlock.[Contents],
        [QueryStatement] = Execution.Frame.value('.', 'varchar(max)'),
        TranCount = Deadlock.Process.value('@trancount', 'int')
FROM    xDeadlock
        CROSS APPLY xDeadlock.Contents.nodes('//deadlock/process-list/process') AS Deadlock (Process)
        CROSS APPLY (SELECT Deadlock.Process.value('@id', 'varchar(50)') ) AS Process (ID)
        LEFT JOIN Victims v ON Process.ID = v.ID
        CROSS APPLY Deadlock.Process.nodes('inputbuf') AS Input (Buffer)
        CROSS APPLY Deadlock.Process.nodes('executionStack') AS Execution (Frame)
)
-- get the columns in the desired order
SELECT  p.Victim,
        p.LockMode,
        LockedObject = NULLIF(l.ObjectName, ''),
        l.database_id,
        l.AssociatedObjectId,
        LockProcess = p.ProcessID,
        p.KPID,
        p.SPID,
        p.SBID,
        p.ECID,
        p.TranCount,
        l.LockEvent,
        LockedMode = l.LockMode,
        l.WaitProcessID,
        l.WaitMode,
        p.WaitResource,
        l.WaitType,
        p.IsolationLevel,
        p.LogUsed,
        p.ClientApp,
        p.HostName,
        p.LoginName,
        p.TransactionTime,
        p.BatchStarted,
        p.BatchCompleted,
        p.InputBuffer
FROM    
    Locks l
    JOIN Process p ON p.ProcessID = l.LockProcessID
--WHERE p.TransactionTime > '2013-10-01'
ORDER BY p.Victim DESC,
        p.ProcessId;