This one isn’t bad, but imagine a multi-statement deadlock, or a server with several deadlocks in an hour – how do you easily see if there were other errors on the server at the same time?
With SQL Server 2012+, we have a better tool to see when deadlocks occur – and the deadlock graphs are saved by default, so we don’t have to read the text version to figure it out, or run a separate trace to capture them.
In SSMS, open Object Explorer and navigate to Extended Events > Sessions > system_health > package0.event_file. Double-click to view the data.
Click through for the entire process.