Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2008 All-In-One Desk Reference For Dummies®

VII.2.2. Getting a Complete Picture with Windows Task Manager

Chances are, if you spend any time administering a Windows-based computer, you've probably gotten to know the Windows Task Manager and its ability to give you an overview of everything that's happening on your computer. What you might not realize, however, is that this tool is also helpful in determining high-level causes of SQL Server performance degradation. Take a brief look at this beneficial utility.

Launch the Windows task manager by simply right-clicking the taskbar and choosing the Task Manager option. As shown in Figure 2-2, it features several tabs of statistics and details of interest to SQL Server administrators:

• Applications: This tab informs you which programs (usually launched by a user) are running on the server.

• Processes: Unlike the relatively few user-launched programs that are typically active at one time, this tab shows you a full list of specific processes that are currently running. Pay special attention to this tab. Of ten, many more processes are running than you might have realized.

  Windows servers are notorious for having extraneous, memory-draining processes hanging around.

  NOTE

  If you don't see the SQL Server processes within the Windows Task Manager, you might need to check the box (or button, depending on the version of Windows you're running) that tells the utility to display all running processes.

• Performance: Here, you find a collection of helpful statistics about the overall load on your ...