The Activity Monitor is a new feature in SQL Server 2008 that provides a central view of activity on the server. It is located in the Management Studio under the “Tools” menu. To open the Activity Monitor, click on the “Tools” menu and then select “Activity Monitor”.
The Activity Monitor has three panes:
- The “Overview” pane shows a summary of activity on the server. This includes the number of active sessions, the number of active transactions, the number of blocked processes, and the number of locks.
- The “Processes” pane shows a list of all the processes that are currently running on the server. This includes the process ID, the database name, the user name, the host name, the start time, the status, and the command.
- The “Locks” pane shows a list of all the locks that are currently held on the server. This includes the lock mode, the lock type, the object name, the database name, the user name, the host name, and the lock time.
The Activity Monitor is a valuable tool for troubleshooting performance issues on the server. It can be used to identify which processes are taking the most resources, and it can also be used to identify which locks are causing blocking issues.