sp_HumanEvents @event_type = N'blocking' and logging job help needed

Question

Those who use excellent sp_HumanEvents, maybe the author himself, please help me understand something I am missing (cause of my stupidity).

#1

When monitoring blocking, blocked process threshold must be set (in seconds), otherwise the blocked_process_event would not be fired. How this correlates with @blocking_duration_ms parameter?

Example: blocked process threshold id set to 10 seconds @blocking_duration_ms is left default = 500 ms

#2

When I want to log results into the table continuously and independently on the server restarts I am advised to use a Agent Job with an example that sets a schedule with a name sp_HumanEvents: 10 second Check In but runs recurringly on Sundays midnight. Wouldn't be starting it automatically when SQL Server Agent starts more appropriate?

Answer 1

First

The blocked process report seconds is how many seconds blocking has to go on for before it makes it into the report. I don't have a specific recommendation here, but 10 or higher is usually a good choice.

The parameter for sp_HumanEvents is the threshold for what gets shown to you or logged to a table. You are free to set either value to what makes sense based on local factors. It's probably set artificially low as a default because it made it easier for me to test during development.

Second

Presumably you're talking about the Agent Job example from the repository, which is just that: an example. You're free to modify it to whatever meets your needs. I believe I set it up that way to check in case something happened to a session between restarts.