'cmd' Field Definitions sysprocesses MS SQL Server

Question

I am looking at doing some profiling of connections types and volumes across the day.

I am using the sys.sysprocesses to gather the information I require, looking specifically at the 'cmd' field to categorize connections. Does anyone have a good comprehensive list of definitions for the values in this field? I can figure out what a lot of them represent, but I can't find online any definitions for some of them, for example 'XE TIMER'

Many thanks,

Answer 1

As suggested in comment sys.sysprocesses is deprecated and Microsoft does not recommends it to use further. Its just there for backward compatibility

The above view has been replaced by sys.dm_exec_requests. You would see cmd column from sys.sysprocesses is now command column in sys.dm_exec_requests and this column tells you

Identifies the current type of command that is being processed. Common command types include the following:

• SELECT

• INSERT

• UPDATE

• DELETE

• BACKUP LOG

• BACKUP DATABASE

• DBCC

• FOR

The text of the request can be retrieved by using sys.dm_exec_sql_text with the corresponding sql_handle for the request. Internal system processes set the command based on the type of task they perform. Tasks can include the following: • LOCK MONITOR

• CHECKPOINTLAZY

• WRITER

Is not nullable.

Instead I suggest you to focus on column sql_handle which is present in sys.dm_exec_requests. Below code would give you query behind sql_handle

select er.session_id,
er.command,
t.text --gives query behind sql_handle
from sys.dm_exec_requests er
cross apply sys.dm_exec_sql_text(er.sql_handle) t