How do you monitor real-time activity and resource use on your SQL Server instance? Enter Activity Monitor

If you want to see what's happening inside your SQL Server right now, the built-in Activity Monitor is your friend. The Activity Monitor can see which queries are running, how much CPU each session uses, and which processes are waiting for something to complete.

You can open Activity Monitor from SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) by right-clicking your server in the Object Explorer and choosing Activity Monitor, or by pressing Ctrl+Alt+A.

The dashboard has several live views:

• Overview: CPU usage, number of user requests, and I/O activity.
• Processes: current sessions, status, login names, and resource consumption.
• Resource Waits: where SQL Server is waiting (CPU, I/O, locks, etc.).
• Recent Expensive Queries: top queries by CPU, I/O, or duration.
• Data File I/O: read/write throughput per database file.

You can right-click a process to kill it, or right-click a query to open its execution plan. It's an easy way to diagnose slowdowns without touching Performance Monitor or DMVs directly.

For more detail, you can always query sys.dm_exec_requests or sys.dm_exec_query_stats objects manually, but Activity Monitor gives a clear real-time overview at a glance.

Happy monitoring!