Queries & analysis

This area helps you find and understand expensive or unusual queries.

Active Queries

Performance → Active Queries shows live from sys.dm_exec_requests what is running right now – with runtime, wait type and resource usage. Ideal for attributing an acute bottleneck to its cause. A deep link leads straight into query analysis from here.

Top queries

Performance → Queries ranks queries by cost (CPU, reads, duration) over a time range, so you see not just the current outlier but the consistently most expensive queries.

Deep query analysis

Query Analysis shows a query's execution plan, statistics, missing indexes and concrete tuning hints. The plan is preferably fetched by plan hash from the plan cache (dm_exec_query_plan), with SHOWPLAN_XML as a fallback.

Order in practice: wait statistics narrow the resource type, Active Queries reveal the culprit, query analysis provides the plan and fix. Missing indexes from the plan lead on to index health.