Interface & Features — SQL Monitor
Walk through the main screens, tabs, and controls you will use day to day.
Overview Dashboard
The Overview tab provides a high-level snapshot of server health:
- CPU Usage % — Current processor utilization
- Memory Usage — Buffer cache, plan cache, and total consumption
- Active Sessions — Current user sessions and system sessions
- Blocked Processes — Number of processes waiting on locks
- Page Life Expectancy — How long data pages stay in memory
- Batch Requests/sec — Server throughput indicator
All metrics refresh automatically based on your configured interval (default: 10 seconds).Active Requests
Shows all currently running queries on the server with rich detail:
| Column | Description |
|---|---|
| Session ID (SPID) | Unique session identifier |
| Status | Running, Sleeping, Suspended, etc. |
| SQL Text | The currently executing query (click to expand) |
| Duration | How long the request has been running |
| CPU Time | Total CPU consumed by this request |
| Reads / Writes | Logical reads and writes |
| Wait Type | What the request is waiting on (if suspended) |
| Blocking SPID | Session that's blocking this request (if any) |
| Login / Host / App | Who's running it and from where |
Blocked sessions are highlighted in red. You can identify blocking chains by following the Blocking SPID references.
Top CPU Queries
Surfaces the queries consuming the most CPU over the monitoring period. Each entry shows:
- Total and average CPU time
- Execution count
- Query text (with Copy button)
- Database name
Use this to identify CPU-heavy queries that could benefit from index optimization or query rewrite.
Wait Statistics
Aggregated wait stats since last server restart, sorted by total wait time:
- Wait Type — Name of the wait category
- Total Wait Time — Cumulative time all sessions spent waiting
- Average Wait Time — Mean wait per occurrence
- Wait Count — How many times this wait occurred
- Signal Wait Time — Time waiting for CPU after resource became available
Common actionable wait types:
| Wait Type | Typical Cause | Action |
|---|---|---|
| CXPACKET/CXCONSUMER | Parallelism overhead | Review MAXDOP, Cost Threshold |
| PAGEIOLATCH_* | Disk I/O bottleneck | Add indexes, add memory, faster disks |
| LCK_M_* | Lock contention | Review locking queries, add indexes |
| SOS_SCHEDULER_YIELD | CPU pressure | Optimize queries, add CPUs |
| WRITELOG | Transaction log I/O | Faster log disk, batch transactions |
Database Sizes
Visual breakdown of every database on the server:
- Data file size and used space
- Log file size and used space
- Growth settings (auto-grow configuration)
- Recovery model
Connection Monitoring
Track connection distribution across your server:
- Connections grouped by application, host, or login
- Active vs. sleeping session breakdown
- Connection pool monitoring
60-Second History
A rolling 60-second chart showing real-time trends:
- CPU usage over time
- Batch requests per second
- Active sessions count
This helps identify bursts and correlate performance dips with specific time windows.
Auto-Refresh Settings
Configure the monitoring refresh interval:
- 5 seconds — Real-time incident investigation
- 10 seconds — Default monitoring
- 30 seconds — Low-overhead background monitoring
- Manual — Refresh only when clicked
Azure Auto-Detection
DBLense SQL Monitor automatically detects Azure environments and adapts:
- Azure SQL Database — Uses Azure-specific DMVs
- Azure SQL Managed Instance — Full monitoring with MI-compatible queries
- Server-level metrics that don't apply to Azure are automatically hidden