Open Activity Monitor (SQL Server Management Studio)

  • Article

This topic describes how to open the Activity Monitor to obtain information about SQL Server processes and how these processes affect the current instance of SQL Server. It also describes how to set the refresh interval of the Activity Monitor.

In This Topic

  • Before you begin:

    Security

  • To open the Activity Monitor using:

    SQL Server Management Studio

  • To set the refresh interval using: SQL Server Management Studio

Before You Begin

Activity Monitor runs queries on the monitored instance to obtain information for the Activity Monitor display panes. When the refresh interval is set to less than 10 seconds, the time that is used to run these queries can affect server performance

Security

Permissions

To view the Activity Monitor, a user must have VIEW SERVER STATE permission. To view the Data File I/O section of Activity Monitor, you must have CREATE DATABASE, ALTER ANY DATABASE, or VIEW ANY DEFINITION permission in addition to VIEW SERVER STATE.

To KILL a process, a user must be a member of the sysadmin or processadmin fixed server roles.

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Using SQL Server Management Studio

To open Activity Monitor in SQL Server Management Studio

  1. On the SQL Server Management Studio standard toolbar, click Activity Monitor.

  2. In the Connect to Server dialog box, select the server name and authentication mode, and then click Connect.

You can also open Activity Monitor at any time by pressing CTRL+ALT A.

To open Activity Monitor in Object Explorer

  • In Object Explorer, right-click the instance name, and then select Activity Monitor.

To open Activity Monitor when opening SQL Server Management Studio

  1. On the Tools menu, click Options.

  2. In the Options dialog box, expand Environment, and then select General.

  3. In the At startup box, select Open Object Explorer and Activity Monitor.

  4. To activate the changes, close and reopen SQL Server Management Studio.

To Set the Activity Monitor Refresh Interval

  • Open the Activity Monitor.

  • Right-click Overview, select Refresh Interval, and then select the interval in which Activity Monitor should obtain new instance information.

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