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Use Performance Objects

SQL Server Agent includes performance objects and counters to monitor how the service is performing. These performance objects allow you to use Performance Monitor, a Windows tool, to identify what the SQL Server Agent service is doing in the background. For example, you can identify how many active jobs the SQL Server Agent service is currently running to identify those jobs that are blocked.

The SQL Server Agent service performance objects and counters exist for each instance of SQL Server that is installed on a computer. Performance objects are named according to the instance of SQL Server that each object represents.

The following table shows how the SQL Server Agent service performance objects are named:

Instance type Object name
Default SQLAgent: object:counter
Named SQLAgent$
instance_name : object:counter

SQL Server includes the following performance objects for SQL Server Agent.

Object name Description
SQLAgent:Jobs Performance information about jobs that have been started, success rates, and current status
SQLAgent:JobSteps Status information about job steps
SQLAgent:Alerts Information about number of alerts and notifications
SQLAgent:Statistics General performance information

See Also

Monitor and Tune for Performance
Start System Monitor (Windows)