what caused the previous CPU spike

Question

Good Morning,

We got a CPU spike alert. When I went to the server and checked, CPU was fine. I want to know what caused the previous spike. Could you please let me know.

Answer 1

There is no way to look into the past. You would have to see it when it happens.

However, it is perfectly normal for SQL Server to use 100% CPU for short periods of time. This is not something you should be alerting on instantly.

Answer 2

Hi @Chaitanya Kiran ,

Here are two articles to help you troubleshoot:
Troubleshooting High CPU Issues in SQL Server (Part 1)
Troubleshooting High CPU issues in SQL Server (Part 2)
I believe that if it is not useful now, it could be useful later.

Best regards,
Seeya

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Answer 3

I will have to disagree with Tom. If you have Query Store active for the databases on the server, you can find information there, although it is a bit of work. First of all, Query Store is per database, so you need to compile it to a single set of table to work with.

Also, by default, Query Store stores performance data be the hour, so if the spike was only for five minutes, it is not that easy to discern. You can change the interval down to one minute, but that is not a very good idea, and certainly not to determine the cause for a five-minute spike. After all, as Tom says, that is pretty normal.

If the spike keeps on for several hours, there may be more reason to look into it, but in that case Query Store should quickly show which is the monster query.