sp_monitor (Transact-SQL)

Applies to: SQL Server

Displays statistics about SQL Server.

Transact-SQL syntax conventions

Syntax

sp_monitor
[ ; ]

Arguments

None.

Return code values

0 (success) or 1 (failure).

Result set

Column name Description
last_run Time sp_monitor was last run.
current_run Time sp_monitor is being run.
seconds Number of elapsed seconds since sp_monitor was run.
cpu_busy Number of seconds that the server computer's CPU has done SQL Server work.
io_busy Number of seconds that SQL Server spent doing input and output operations.
idle Number of seconds that SQL Server was idle.
packets_received Number of input packets read by SQL Server.
packets_sent Number of output packets written by SQL Server.
packet_errors Number of errors encountered by SQL Server while reading and writing packets.
total_read Number of reads by SQL Server.
total_write Number of writes by SQL Server.
total_errors Number of errors encountered by SQL Server while reading and writing.
connections Number of logins or attempted logins to SQL Server.

Remarks

SQL Server keeps track, through a series of functions, of how much work was done. Executing sp_monitor displays the current values returned by these functions and shows how much they have changed since the last time the procedure was run.

For each column, the statistic is printed in the form number(number)-number% or number(number). The first number refers to the number of seconds (for cpu_busy, io_busy, and idle) or the total number (for the other variables) since SQL Server was restarted. The number in parentheses refers to the number of seconds or total number since the last time sp_monitor was run. The percentage is the percentage of time since sp_monitor was last run. For example, if the report shows cpu_busy as 4250(215)-68%, the CPU was busy 4,250 seconds since SQL Server was last started up, 215 seconds since sp_monitor was last run, and 68 percent of the total time since sp_monitor was last run.

Permissions

Requires membership in the sysadmin fixed server role, or execute permission directly on this stored procedure.

Examples

The following example reports information about how busy SQL Server has been.

USE master;
GO

EXEC sp_monitor;

Here's the result set.

last_run                   current_run                seconds
-----------------------    -----------------------    ---------
2024-05-01 15:27:51.287    2024-08-21 17:20:34.097    9683563

cpu_busy           io_busy         idle
---------------    -------------   --------------------
14452(14451)-0%    2555(2554)-0%   4371742(4371629)-45%

packets_received       packets_sent    packet_errors
----------------       ------------    -------------
18032(17993)           64572(64533)    0(0)

total_read     total_write   total_errors    connections
-----------    -----------   -------------   --------------
1593(1593)     4687(4687)    0(0)            155625(155557)