Could not enable tracing because SQL Express is installed

Category: Troubleshooting & error messages
Date: 02 Feb 2011
Product: ANTS Performance Profiler
When profiling an application and using the IO and SQL tracing option, it is possible that no SQL tracing is collected and an informative message is shown indicating that you have installed SQL Express.

As stated in the documentation, Event Tracing cannot be performed when your application makes requests to a SQL Express instance. This is because SQL Express does not ship with the required MOF libraries.

Please note that this is an informational message, and may not be the actual cause of the missing trace information. Some other causes include corrupt or missing MOF files and passing queries to another SQL Server that is not on the local computer.

If you do not believe you have installed SQL Express and believe the warning is in error, please check the "HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Microsoft SQL Server\InstalledInstances" registry key, as this is the source of installed instance information that ANTS Performance Profiler uses.

To check that the required MOF is installed, you may use the "xperf" command from a command prompt.
>xperf -providers | find /I "SQL2008R2 Trace"
Note: In the above command, SQL2008R2 is the name of the SQL Instance to trace. For the default instance, use "MSSQLSERVER Trace"

...this should return output similar to the following...
fbd367d1-642f-47cf-b79b-9be48fb34007 : SQL2008R2 Trace

If the "<instance name> Trace" entry is not reported, you may need to recompile the SQL Server MOF according to these instructions:
http://www.red-gate.com/supportcenter/Content?p=ANTS%20Performance%20Profiler&c=ANTS_Performance_Profiler\knowledgebase\app_etwcls.htm

To further test the trace provider, you may try a sample trace from the command prompt as well:
>xperf -start SqlSession -on "SQL2008R2 Trace" -f SqlSession.etl
...at this point, query the SQL Server using Management Studio and then...
>xperf -stop SqlSession
>xperf SqlSession.etl

The xperf user interface should open and it should show events in the timeline. If any errors are reported in starting or viewing the trace, pelase consult the Windows documentation.