When you use SQL Aliases (something that most people believe to be a good practice as it’s a locally controlled link to the database, and unlike DNS it updates instantly, and Microsoft recommend it here http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc298801.aspx#Section6_3) and you have installed SPDiag from the SharePoint Administrator Toolkit, you also need to ensure the Alias name resolves to the IP Address of the cluster / DB Server. These guys hit the same issue – http://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/en/sharepoint2010setup/thread/4b397f6c-249a-43f0-aa91-ff210e4e132b and this guy mentions it in his “Least Privilege” build documentation – http://craighumphrey.blogspot.com/2010/06/sharepoint-2010-rtm-least-privledge.html – as an extra bonus SQL Step 
What happens is that the timer jobs that the SPDiag application creates in SharePoint make an RPC call to start up a Performance / logging Trace on the SQL Server; however while local SQL Servers, Remote SQL Servers and SQL Clusters addressed by their DNS name and instance work fine, SQL Aliases confuse SPDiag into thinking that you have a Database Server out there somewhere with the Alias name.
The errors we saw were:
The Execute method of job definition Microsoft.SharePoint.Diagnostics.SPDatabaseServerDiagnosticsPerformanceCounterProvider (ID 4fc4e5b8-c7ab-4b51-b5e7-57f40038dc81) threw an exception. More information is included below.
SPNL_Prod:The network path was not found.
Please ensure that the database server is available and that the SharePoint Timer service account is a member of the Performance Monitor Users group on the database server.
And
The Execute method of job definition Microsoft.SharePoint.Diagnostics.SPSqlBlockingReportDiagnosticProvider (ID d26d4741-0244-4e6a-b4ff-b78c3421ca8c) threw an exception. More information is included below.
The blocking query diagnostics provider could not set the ‘blocked process threshold’ for the sql instance SPNL_Prod. Blocking queries will not be captured in this instance. Error Code: User does not have permission to perform this action.
You do not have permission to run the RECONFIGURE statement.
User does not have permission to perform this action.
You do not have permission to run the RECONFIGURE statement.
And
The Execute method of job definition Microsoft.SharePoint.Diagnostics.SPSqlDeadlockDiagnosticProvider (ID 8d638793-8aa8-4f55-ae04-0efa42b679ee) threw an exception. More information is included below.
You do not have permission to run ‘SP_TRACE_CREATE’.
And
The Execute method of job definition Microsoft.SharePoint.Diagnostics.SPSqlBlockingReportDiagnosticProvider (ID d26d4741-0244-4e6a-b4ff-b78c3421ca8c) threw an exception. More information is included below.
You do not have permission to run ‘SP_TRACE_CREATE’.
And
The Execute method of job definition Microsoft.SharePoint.Diagnostics.SPIOIntensiveQueryDiagnosticProvider (ID 0b0f8d31-08d5-4592-96ef-05e84a2f33a6) threw an exception. More information is included below.
You do not have permission to run ‘SP_TRACE_CREATE’.
Phew! Also we saw these every 5 minutes, which appear if you have Event Log Flooding protection enabled in the SharePoint Settings…
Event 6398 (SharePoint Foundation) of severity ‘Critical’ occurred 22 more time(s) and was suppressed in the event log
Easy to fix: Uninstall the Admin toolkit or (if you must have it) set up entries in your DNS system or Host File.
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