Activity Monitor in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) displays information about SQL Server processes and how these processes affect the current instance of SQL Server. We recommend that you download and install the latest version of SSMS.
Activity Monitor is a tabbed document window with the following expandable and collapsible panes: Overview, Processes, Resource Waits, Data File I/O, Recent Expensive Queries, and Active Expensive Queries. When any pane is expanded, Activity Monitor queries the instance for information. When a pane is collapsed, all querying activity stops for that pane. You can expand one or more panes at the same time to view different kinds of activity on the instance.
Customize columns
For columns included in the Processes, Resource Waits, Data File I/O, Recent Expensive Queries, and Active Expensive Queries panes, customize the display as follows:
To rearrange column order, select the column heading and drag it to another location in the heading ribbon.
To sort a column, select the column name.
To filter on one or more columns, select the dropdown arrow in the column heading, and then select a value.
Administer an SQL Server database infrastructure for cloud, on-premises and hybrid relational databases using the Microsoft PaaS relational database offerings.
Learn how to open Activity Monitor in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). Activity Monitor queries the monitored instance to obtain information to display.
Learn how to view the live execution plan of an active query in SQL Server Management Studio. Use the execution statistics to debug query performance issues.
Use Performance Monitor to measure the performance of SQL Server objects, performance counters, and the behavior of other objects, such as processors and memory.