After Adam and Linchi posted their queries for analyzing performance, I thought I'd show you one I run. I'm sure you run it, too. It's the Processes query from the Activity Monitor. Usually I run it from Activity Monitor, but sometimes the Activity Monitor UI just doesn't do what I want. I ran SQL Profiler to find out exactly what is executed behind the scenes. Executing the Processes query in a query window is great for when you need to persist the results.
/* ACTIVITY MONITOR */
/* Processes */
SELECT
[Session ID] = s.session_id,
[User Process] = CONVERT(CHAR(1), s.is_user_process),
[Login] = s.login_name,
[Database] = ISNULL(db_name(r.database_id), N''),
[Task State] = ISNULL(t.task_state, N''),
[Command] = ISNULL(r.command, N''),
[Application] = ISNULL(s.program_name, N''),
[Wait Time (ms)] = ISNULL(w.wait_duration_ms, 0),
[Wait Type] = ISNULL(w.wait_type, N''),
[Wait Resource] = ISNULL(w.resource_description, N''),
[Blocked By] = ISNULL(CONVERT (varchar, w.blocking_session_id), ''),
[Head Blocker] =
CASE
-- session has an active request, is blocked, but is blocking others
WHEN r2.session_id IS NOT NULL AND r.blocking_session_id = 0 THEN '1'
-- session is idle but has an open tran and is blocking others
WHEN r.session_id IS NULL THEN '1'
ELSE ''
END,
[Total CPU (ms)] = s.cpu_time,
[Total Physical I/O (MB)] = (s.reads + s.writes) * 8 / 1024,
[Memory Use (KB)] = s.memory_usage * 8192 / 1024,
[Open Transactions] = ISNULL(r.open_transaction_count,0),
[Login Time] = s.login_time,
[Last Request Start Time] = s.last_request_start_time,
[Host Name] = ISNULL(s.host_name, N''),
[Net Address] = ISNULL(c.client_net_address, N''),
[Execution Context ID] = ISNULL(t.exec_context_id, 0),
[Request ID] = ISNULL(r.request_id, 0),
[Workload Group] = N''
FROM sys.dm_exec_sessions s LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.dm_exec_connections c ON (s.session_id = c.session_id)
LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.dm_exec_requests r ON (s.session_id = r.session_id)
LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.dm_os_tasks t ON (r.session_id = t.session_id AND r.request_id = t.request_id)
LEFT OUTER JOIN
(
-- In some cases (e.g. parallel queries, also waiting for a worker), one thread can be flagged as
-- waiting for several different threads. This will cause that thread to show up in multiple rows
-- in our grid, which we don't want. Use ROW_NUMBER to select the longest wait for each thread,
-- and use it as representative of the other wait relationships this thread is involved in.
SELECT *, ROW_NUMBER() OVER (PARTITION BY waiting_task_address ORDER BY wait_duration_ms DESC) AS row_num
FROM sys.dm_os_waiting_tasks
) w ON (t.task_address = w.waiting_task_address) AND w.row_num = 1
LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.dm_exec_requests r2 ON (r.session_id = r2.blocking_session_id)
ORDER BY s.session_id;