How is Activity Monitor Pulling processes specific memory information?

Question

How is SQL Server Management Studio's Activity Monitor pulling the following memory by processes information?

The screen I am talking about is... Log into the database, right click on the server in the tree on the left and select activity monitor. Expand out processes. The Memory Use column - where is it coming? Is there an internal database table that it is pulling from?

I ask because I am trying to figure what all goes into this metric so I can determine if one of the processes is growing without bound or growing as expected due to design.

Answer 1

The Memory Use column - where is it coming?

It corresponds to memory_usage column in sys.dm_exec_sessions.

As a friendly note, I would suggest not to use Activity Monitor.

Use Adam Machanic‘s free procedure, sp_WhoIsActive (uses DMVs). You can even log into a table for post analysis.

Kendra Little talks about Activity monitor limitations :

• It groups wait types
• Leaves out wait types
• Dont leave it open ... else it will boil down your server :-)