SQL Server Performance Monitor

Free, open-source SQL Server performance monitoring in two editions. Built for DBAs, consultants, and developers who want real insight without enterprise complexity.

Supported: SQL Server 2016, 2017, 2019, 2022, 2025 | Azure SQL Managed Instance | AWS RDS for SQL Server | Azure SQL Database (Lite only)

Screenshots

Full Dashboard — Landing Page

Full Dashboard — Resource Overview

Lite Edition — Query Performance

Alert Notifications

MCP Server — AI-Powered Analysis

Support & Professional Services

This project is free and open source. If you find it valuable, consider supporting continued development:


Sponsor on GitHub	Become a sponsor to fund new features, ongoing maintenance, and SQL Server version support.
Consulting Services	Need help analyzing the data this tool collects? Want expert assistance fixing the issues it uncovers? Hire me for hands-on consulting.

Neither is required — use the tool freely. Sponsorship and consulting keep this project alive.

Two Editions

Full Edition (Server-Installed)

Installs a PerformanceMonitor database with 30 collector stored procedures and SQL Agent jobs directly on each monitored server. A separate WPF Dashboard application connects to view the data.

Best for: Production 24/7 monitoring, long-term baselining, maximum data fidelity.

Requirements: sysadmin on target server (or equivalent on managed platforms), SQL Server Agent running.

Lite Edition (Desktop Application)

A single WPF desktop application that monitors SQL Server instances remotely. Queries DMVs directly over the network and stores data locally in DuckDB with automatic Parquet archival. Nothing is installed on the target server.

Best for: Quick triage, Azure SQL Database, locked-down servers, consultants, firefighting.

Requirements: VIEW SERVER STATE on target server (VIEW DATABASE STATE for Query Store).

Comparison

Capability	Full	Lite
Target server installation	Required	None
SQL Server Agent	Required	Not needed
Azure SQL Managed Instance	Supported	Supported
AWS RDS for SQL Server	Supported	Supported
Azure SQL Database	Not supported	Supported
Multi-server from one seat	Per-server install	Built-in
Collectors	30	20
Agent job monitoring	Duration vs historical avg/p95	Duration vs historical avg/p95
Data storage	SQL Server (on target)	DuckDB + Parquet (local)
Execution plans	Collected and stored	Download on demand
Community tools (sp_WhoIsActive, sp_BlitzLock)	Installed automatically	Not needed
Alerts (tray + email)	Blocking, deadlocks, CPU	Blocking, deadlocks, CPU
Dashboard	Separate app	Built-in
Portability	Server-bound	Single executable
MCP server (LLM integration)	Built into Dashboard (27 tools)	Built-in (31 tools)

Quick Start — Full Edition

Install

Windows Authentication:

PerformanceMonitorInstaller.exe YourServerName

SQL Authentication:

PerformanceMonitorInstaller.exe YourServerName sa YourPassword

Clean reinstall (drops existing database and all collected data):

PerformanceMonitorInstaller.exe YourServerName --reinstall
PerformanceMonitorInstaller.exe YourServerName sa YourPassword --reinstall

The installer automatically tests the connection, executes SQL scripts, downloads community dependencies, creates SQL Agent jobs, and runs initial data collection. A GUI installer (InstallerGui/) is also available with the same functionality.

CLI Installer Options

Option	Description
`SERVER`	SQL Server instance name (positional, required)
`USERNAME PASSWORD`	SQL Authentication credentials (positional, optional)
`--reinstall`	Drop existing database and perform clean install
`--encrypt=optional\|mandatory\|strict`	Connection encryption level (default: mandatory)
`--trust-cert`	Trust server certificate without validation (default: require valid cert)

Environment variable: Set PM_SQL_PASSWORD to avoid passing the password on the command line.

Exit Codes

Code	Meaning
`0`	Success
`1`	Invalid arguments
`2`	Connection failed
`3`	Critical file failed (scripts 01-03)
`4`	Partial installation (non-critical failures)
`5`	Version check failed
`6`	SQL files not found

Post-Installation

Ensure SQL Server Agent is running — the collection job executes every minute
Verify installation:

SELECT * FROM PerformanceMonitor.config.current_version;

SELECT TOP (20) *
FROM PerformanceMonitor.config.collection_log
ORDER BY collection_time DESC;

Launch the Dashboard (Dashboard/ folder — build with dotnet build or use the release package). The Dashboard is a separate WPF application that runs on your workstation and connects to any SQL Server where the PerformanceMonitor database is installed. Add your server, enter credentials, and data appears immediately.

What Gets Installed

PerformanceMonitor database with collection tables and reporting views
30 collector stored procedures for gathering metrics (including SQL Agent job monitoring)
Delta framework for calculating per-second rates from cumulative DMVs
Community dependencies: sp_WhoIsActive, sp_HealthParser, sp_HumanEventsBlockViewer, sp_BlitzLock
SQL Agent jobs: Collection (every 1 minute), Data Retention (daily at 2:00 AM), and Hung Job Monitor (collection job watchdog, every 5 minutes)
Version tracking in config.installation_history

Data Retention

Default: 30 days (configurable per table in config.retention_settings).

Storage estimates: 5-10 GB per week, 20-40 GB per month.

Managed Platform Support

The Full Edition supports Azure SQL Managed Instance and AWS RDS for SQL Server with some limitations:

Feature	On-Premises	Azure SQL MI	AWS RDS
All core collectors	Yes	Yes	Yes
Default trace collectors	Yes	Disabled automatically	Yes
System health XE (file target)	Yes	Disabled automatically	Yes
SQL Trace collectors	Yes	Disabled automatically	Yes
SQL Agent jobs	Yes	Yes	Yes
Running jobs collector	Yes	Yes	Disabled automatically
Blocked process threshold	Auto-configured	Auto-configured	Configure via RDS parameter group
sp_configure	Yes	Yes	Not available

Azure SQL MI: The installer automatically detects Engine Edition 8 and disables 4 collectors that require file system access or SQL Trace (default_trace, trace_management, trace_analysis, system_health). All other collectors work normally.

AWS RDS: The installer automatically detects the rdsadmin database and disables the running_jobs_collector (requires msdb.dbo.syssessions which is restricted on RDS). It also gracefully handles restricted sp_configure and limited msdb permissions. SQL Agent jobs are created and owned by the installing login. The RDS master user is automatically enrolled in SQLAgentUserRole; for other logins, add them to SQLAgentUserRole in msdb before running the installer.

AWS RDS Parameter Group Configuration

sp_configure is not available on AWS RDS for SQL Server. Features that depend on server-level configuration must be set through AWS RDS Parameter Groups instead.

Blocked process threshold — Required for blocked process report collection. Without this, blocked process reports will not fire on RDS.

Open the AWS RDS Console and navigate to Parameter groups
Create a new parameter group (or modify the one attached to your instance):
- Family: sqlserver-ee-16.0 (or your edition/version)
- Type: DB Parameter Group
Search for blocked process threshold (s) and set it to 5 (seconds)
Apply the parameter group to your RDS instance (may require a reboot if the parameter is static)

Verify it took effect:

SELECT
    c.name,
    c.value_in_use
FROM sys.configurations AS c
WHERE c.name = N'blocked process threshold (s)';

Deadlocks — No parameter group configuration is required. The SQL Server deadlock monitor runs automatically on all platforms, and the xml_deadlock_report Extended Event fires without any threshold setting.

Azure SQL Database — The blocked process threshold is fixed at 20 seconds and cannot be changed. The blocked_process_report event fires automatically when blocking exceeds this duration.

Quick Start — Lite Edition

Install

Download and extract PerformanceMonitorLite
Run PerformanceMonitorLite.exe
Click + Add Server, enter connection details, test, save
Double-click the server in the sidebar to connect

Data starts flowing within 1-5 minutes depending on collector schedules.

Lite Collectors

20 collectors run on independent, configurable schedules:

Collector	Default	Source
query_snapshots	1 min	`sys.dm_exec_requests` + `sys.dm_exec_sessions`
blocked_process_report	1 min	XE ring buffer session
waiting_tasks	1 min	`sys.dm_os_waiting_tasks`
wait_stats	1 min	`sys.dm_os_wait_stats` (deltas)
query_stats	1 min	`sys.dm_exec_query_stats` (deltas)
procedure_stats	1 min	`sys.dm_exec_procedure_stats` (deltas)
cpu_utilization	1 min	`sys.dm_os_ring_buffers` scheduler monitor
file_io_stats	1 min	`sys.dm_io_virtual_file_stats` (deltas)
memory_stats	1 min	`sys.dm_os_sys_memory` + memory counters
memory_grant_stats	1 min	`sys.dm_exec_query_memory_grants`
tempdb_stats	1 min	`sys.dm_db_file_space_usage`
perfmon_stats	1 min	`sys.dm_os_performance_counters` (deltas)
deadlocks	1 min	`system_health` Extended Events session
memory_clerks	5 min	`sys.dm_os_memory_clerks`
query_store	5 min	Query Store DMVs (per database)
running_jobs	5 min	`msdb` job history with duration vs avg/p95
server_config	On connect	`sys.configurations`
database_config	On connect	`sys.databases`
database_scoped_config	On connect	Database-scoped configurations
trace_flags	On connect	`DBCC TRACESTATUS`

Lite Data Storage

Hot data in DuckDB (7-90 days, configurable)
Archive to Parquet with ZSTD compression (~10x reduction, 30-180 days configurable)
Typical size: ~50-200 MB per server per week

Lite Configuration

All configuration lives in the config/ folder:

File	Purpose
`servers.json`	Server connections (passwords in Windows Credential Manager)
`settings.json`	Retention, MCP server, startup behavior, alert thresholds, SMTP configuration
`collection_schedule.json`	Per-collector enable/disable and frequency
`ignored_wait_types.json`	144 benign wait types excluded by default

Dashboard Tabs

Full Edition Dashboard

Tab	Contents
Overview	Resource overview, daily summary, critical issues, server config changes, database config changes, trace flag changes, collection health
Performance	Performance trends, expensive queries, active queries, query stats, procedure stats, Query Store, Query Store regressions, query trace patterns
Resource Metrics	Server trends, wait stats, TempDB, file I/O latency, perfmon counters, default trace events, trace analysis, session stats, latch stats, spinlock stats
Memory	Memory overview, grants, clerks, plan cache, memory pressure events
Locking	Blocking chains, deadlocks, blocking/deadlock trends
System Events	Corruption events, contention, errors, I/O issues, scheduler issues, memory conditions

Plus a NOC-style landing page with server health cards (green/yellow/red severity indicators).

Lite Edition Dashboard

Tab	Contents
Active Queries	Running queries with session details, wait types, blocking, DOP, memory grants
Wait Stats	Filterable wait statistics chart with delta calculations
CPU	SQL Server CPU vs Other Processes over time
Memory	Physical memory overview, SQL Server memory trend, memory clerk breakdown
Queries	Performance trends, top queries and procedures by duration, Query Store integration
File I/O	Read/write I/O trends per database file
TempDB	Space usage breakdown and TempDB file I/O
Blocking	Blocking/deadlock trends, blocked process reports, deadlock history
Perfmon	Selectable SQL Server performance counters over time
Configuration	Server configuration, database configuration, scoped configuration, trace flags

Both editions feature auto-refresh, configurable time ranges, right-click CSV export, system tray integration, and dark theme.

Alerts & Notifications

Both editions include a real-time alert engine that monitors for performance issues and sends notifications via system tray balloons and email.

Alert Types

Metric	Default Threshold	Description
Blocking	30 seconds (Full), 5 seconds (Lite)	Fires when the longest blocked session exceeds the threshold
Deadlocks	1	Fires when new deadlocks are detected since the last check
High CPU	90% (Full), 80% (Lite)	Fires when total CPU (SQL + other) exceeds the threshold
Connection changes	N/A	Fires when a monitored server goes offline or comes back online

All thresholds are configurable in Settings.

Notification Channels

System tray — balloon notifications with 5-minute per-metric cooldown
Email (SMTP) — styled HTML emails with 15-minute per-metric cooldown, configurable SMTP settings (server, port, SSL, authentication, recipients)

Email Alerts

Alert emails include:

Metric summary — what triggered the alert, current value vs threshold
Detail section — recent blocking chains or deadlock participants with query text, wait times, lock modes, database names, and client application
XML attachment — full blocked_process_report.xml or deadlock_graph.xml for offline analysis

Alert Behavior

Resolved notifications — when a condition clears (e.g., blocking ends), a "Cleared" notification fires
Server silencing — right-click a server tab to acknowledge alerts, silence all alerts, or unsilence
Always-on — the Dashboard alert engine runs independently of which tab is active, including when minimized to the system tray. The Lite edition's alert engine also runs regardless of tab visibility.
Alert history — Dashboard keeps an in-memory alert log (accessible via MCP). Lite logs alerts to DuckDB (config_alert_log).

Agent Job Monitoring

Both editions monitor currently running SQL Agent jobs and flag jobs that are running longer than expected.

Metric	How It Works
Current duration	Elapsed time since the job started
Average duration	Historical mean from successful completions in `msdb.dbo.sysjobhistory`
p95 duration	95th percentile from historical completions
Running long flag	Set when current duration exceeds the p95 threshold

The Full Edition collects this data via the collect.running_jobs_collector stored procedure (every 5 minutes). The Lite Edition queries msdb directly on each collection cycle. Both editions expose this data through the MCP get_running_jobs tool.

Gracefully skipped on Azure SQL Database, AWS RDS for SQL Server, and environments without SQL Server Agent.

MCP Server (LLM Integration)

Both editions include an embedded Model Context Protocol server that exposes monitoring data to LLM clients like Claude Code and Cursor.

Setup

Enable the MCP server in Settings (checkbox + port, default 5151)
Register with Claude Code:

claude mcp add --transport http --scope user sql-monitor http://localhost:5151/

Open a new Claude Code session and ask questions like:
- "What servers are being monitored?"
- "What are the top wait types on my server?"
- "Are there any blocking or deadlock issues?"
- "Show me CPU utilization for the last 4 hours"
- "What are the most expensive queries by CPU?"

Available Tools

Full Edition exposes 27 tools, Lite Edition exposes 31. Core tools are shared across both editions.

Category	Tools
Discovery	`list_servers`
Health	`get_server_summary`, `get_daily_summary`*, `get_collection_health`
Alerts	`get_alert_history`, `get_alert_settings`
Waits	`get_wait_stats`, `get_wait_types`, `get_wait_trend`, `get_waiting_tasks`
Queries	`get_top_queries_by_cpu`, `get_top_procedures_by_cpu`, `get_query_store_top`, `get_expensive_queries`*, `get_query_duration_trend`, `get_query_trend`
CPU	`get_cpu_utilization`
Memory	`get_memory_stats`, `get_memory_trend`, `get_memory_clerks`, `get_memory_grants`
Blocking	`get_blocking`*, `get_deadlocks`, `get_deadlock_detail`, `get_blocked_process_reports`, `get_blocked_process_xml`, `get_blocking_deadlock_stats`*, `get_blocking_trend`, `get_deadlock_trend`*
I/O	`get_file_io_stats`, `get_file_io_trend`
TempDB	`get_tempdb_trend`
Perfmon	`get_perfmon_stats`, `get_perfmon_trend`
Jobs	`get_running_jobs`*

* Lite only | ** Full only

Most tools accept optional server_name and hours_back parameters. If only one server is configured, server_name is auto-resolved.

The MCP server binds to localhost only and does not accept remote connections.

Credential Storage

Both editions use Windows Credential Manager to store SQL Server passwords:

Credentials are never saved to disk in plain text
Windows Credential Manager provides OS-level encryption (DPAPI)
Credentials persist across application sessions
Manage stored credentials in Control Panel > Credential Manager (look for PerformanceMonitor_ entries)

Performance Impact

On Monitored Servers

All queries use READ UNCOMMITTED isolation
Configurable collection intervals
Full Edition: typical overhead <1% CPU, <100 MB memory
Lite Edition: max 7 concurrent SQL connections, 30-second command timeout

Local Resources (Lite)

DuckDB: ~50-200 MB per server per week
Parquet archives: ~10x compression with ZSTD
ScottPlot charts use hardware-accelerated rendering

Troubleshooting

Full Edition

Two diagnostic scripts in the install/ folder:

Script	Purpose
`99_installer_troubleshooting.sql`	Quick health checks: collection log errors, schedule status, Agent job status, table row counts
`99_user_troubleshooting.sql`	Comprehensive diagnostics: runs collectors with `@debug = 1`, detailed timing and row counts

SELECT
    collection_time,
    collector_name,
    error_message
FROM PerformanceMonitor.config.collection_log
WHERE collection_status = 'ERROR'
ORDER BY collection_time DESC;

Lite Edition

Application logs are written to the logs/ folder. Collection success/failure is also logged to the collection_log table in DuckDB.

Common issues:

No data after connecting — Wait for the first collection cycle (1-5 minutes). Check logs for connection errors.
Query Store tab empty — Query Store must be enabled on the target database (ALTER DATABASE [YourDB] SET QUERY_STORE = ON).
Blocked process reports empty — Both editions attempt to auto-configure the blocked process threshold to 5 seconds via sp_configure. On AWS RDS, sp_configure is not available — you must set blocked process threshold (s) through an RDS Parameter Group (see "AWS RDS Parameter Group Configuration" above). On Azure SQL Database, the threshold is fixed at 20 seconds and cannot be changed. If you still see no data on other platforms, verify the login has ALTER SETTINGS permission.
Connection failures — Verify network connectivity, firewall rules, and that the login has VIEW SERVER STATE.

Folder Structure

Monitor/
│
│   Full Edition (server-installed collectors + separate dashboard)
├── install/          # 55 SQL installation scripts
├── upgrades/         # Version-specific upgrade scripts
├── Installer/        # CLI installer for Full Edition database (C#)
├── InstallerGui/     # GUI installer for Full Edition database (WPF)
├── Dashboard/        # Full Edition dashboard application (WPF)
│
│   Lite Edition (standalone desktop app, nothing installed on server)
├── Lite/             # Lite Edition desktop application (WPF)
│
│   Shared
└── README.md         # This file

Building from Source

All projects target .NET 8.0.

# Full Edition Dashboard
dotnet build Dashboard/Dashboard.csproj

# Lite Edition
dotnet build Lite/PerformanceMonitorLite.csproj

# CLI Installer (self-contained)
dotnet publish Installer/PerformanceMonitorInstaller.csproj -c Release

# GUI Installer
dotnet publish InstallerGui/InstallerGui.csproj -c Release -r win-x64 --self-contained

Third-Party Components

sp_WhoIsActive

Author: Adam Machanic | License: GPLv3
Repository: https://github.com/amachanic/sp_whoisactive

DarlingData

Author: Erik Darling (Darling Data, LLC) | License: MIT
Repository: https://github.com/erikdarlingdata/DarlingData

SQL Server First Responder Kit

Author: Brent Ozar Unlimited | License: MIT
Repository: https://github.com/BrentOzarULTD/SQL-Server-First-Responder-Kit

See THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md for complete license texts.

License

Author

Erik Darling — erikdarling.com — Darling Data, LLC

Name		Name	Last commit message	Last commit date
Latest commit History 2 Commits
.github		.github
Dashboard		Dashboard
Installer		Installer
InstallerGui		InstallerGui
Lite		Lite
Screenshots		Screenshots
install		install
upgrades		upgrades
.gitignore		.gitignore
CHANGELOG.md		CHANGELOG.md
CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md		CODE_OF_CONDUCT.md
CONTRIBUTING.md		CONTRIBUTING.md
LICENSE		LICENSE
README.md		README.md
SECURITY.md		SECURITY.md
THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md		THIRD_PARTY_NOTICES.md
build-all.cmd		build-all.cmd
build-dashboard.cmd		build-dashboard.cmd
build-lite.cmd		build-lite.cmd
package-release.cmd		package-release.cmd

License

erikdarlingdata/PerformanceMonitor

Folders and files

Latest commit

History

Repository files navigation

SQL Server Performance Monitor

Screenshots

Full Dashboard — Landing Page

Full Dashboard — Resource Overview

Lite Edition — Query Performance

Alert Notifications

MCP Server — AI-Powered Analysis

Support & Professional Services

Two Editions

Full Edition (Server-Installed)

Lite Edition (Desktop Application)

Comparison

Quick Start — Full Edition

Install

CLI Installer Options

Exit Codes

Post-Installation

What Gets Installed

Data Retention

Managed Platform Support

AWS RDS Parameter Group Configuration

Quick Start — Lite Edition

Install

Lite Collectors

Lite Data Storage

Lite Configuration

Dashboard Tabs

Full Edition Dashboard

Lite Edition Dashboard

Alerts & Notifications

Alert Types

Notification Channels

Email Alerts

Alert Behavior

Agent Job Monitoring

MCP Server (LLM Integration)

Setup

Available Tools

Credential Storage

Performance Impact

On Monitored Servers

Local Resources (Lite)

Troubleshooting

Full Edition

Lite Edition

Folder Structure

Building from Source

Third-Party Components

sp_WhoIsActive

DarlingData

SQL Server First Responder Kit

License

Author

About

Resources

License

Code of conduct

Contributing

Security policy

Uh oh!

Stars

Watchers

Forks

Releases 1

Packages 0

Contributors 2

Languages

Packages