pcarroll-626929 (6/24/2011)

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I totally disagree. The added functionality is far outweighed by what was stripped out.

- The task manager like graphs at the top of summary values for the whole instance. This isn't very useful for me.
- Expanding out one column causes the other columns to be 'resized' so they all fit within the screen, whereas before I had a scroll bar. Trying to expand out several columns makes others unreadable.
- The Processes list does not give me details on the cpu and physical io that each SPID is consuming.
- You can't filter on multiple column values, you can only select single values from the column drop-down lists.
- The Recent Expensive Queries section looked promising, but is nearly useless because it there isn't an easy way to tie it back to the SPID (now called Session ID).
- The Data File I/O, and Resource Waits sections only provide you with summary information on a per instance, or per database.

I have to manage a multi-database environment, and previously used the SQL 2005 activity monitor for an at-a-glance view of what was going on. The lack of flexibility and granularity in the new SQL 2008 Activity manager is going to make my job a lot more difficult.

Does anyone know if there is another dashboard type tool that Microsoft provides to get this information?