SQL Server Standard Reports – Top Transactions by Age: [DatabaseName]

In this continuing series on the Standard Reports in SQL Server Management Studio, we’re now up to the database-level reports. To get to this report, navigate from the server object in Object Explorer, move down to the Databases object, and then right-click any database. From the menu that appears, select Reports, then Standard Reports, and then this one.

At the server-level, I explained a lot of these kinds of reports. This report has much of the same information on transactions, but it is scoped to a single database. I often use the server reports to locate any issues, and if I find some I use this report (and the ones that follow) to narrow the search.

Here are the major parts of the report. The first band shows the Top Oldest Transactions, and the bands that follow have the same information but in other chronological arrangements:

Column	Description
Tran. ID	A unique number that identifies the transaction – you can use this as a key to join to other meta-data tables and views.
Tran. Name	If the transaction has been named by the developer, that name shows up here. Otherwise, you will see “user_transaction”
State	Whether the transaction is Active or not.
Tran. Type	Whether this is a full transaction or part of another.
Start Time	The time the transaction started.
First Update Time	The first updated record stamp in this transaction.
Isolation Level	The Transaction Isolation Level deals primarily with how SQL Server will handle locking for this transaction. The developer can set this level or leave it at the default. You can read more about the Isolation Levels here.
# Locks	How many locks this transaction is taking.
Session ID	A unique number assigned to this session, which you can use to join with other meta-data tables or views.
Login Name	The login name (Windows or SQL Server) that is running this transaction.
Currently Executing SQL Statement	A portion of the text the server is running in this transaction.