SQL SERVER – Activity Monitor – Active Expensive Queries

Recently during Comprehensive Database Performance Health Check, I had a fascinating conversation. SQL Server has introduced Activity Monitor many version earlier. I think everybody is now pretty familiar with this tool and use it frequently. However, during my consulting work, I use different scripts which are much more efficient than Activity Monitor. However, it is alright to use it once in a while.

During our consulting work, while I shared my screen with to explain some concept to my customers they were bit surprised to see my screen. I had Activity Monitor open on the screen. One of the Sharp DBA noticed that I have one more additional option which they did not have on their machine.

Here is the screenshot for the SSMS version which was installed for SQL Server 2014.

Here is the screenshot for the SSMS version which was installed for SQL server 2017.

You can clearly see that there is an additional option for Active Expensive Queries in Activity Monitor. This tab was long requested for a while and was introduced in the earlier version of SSMS. You can install the latest version of SSMS and can connect SQL Server 2012 / 2014 / 2016 / 2017 and can take advantage of this feature.

Reference: Pinal Dave (https://blog.sqlauthority.com)