How to find out why the status of a spid is suspended? What resources the spid is waiting for?

Question

I run EXEC sp_who2 78 and I get the following results:

How can I find why its status is suspended?

This process is a heavy INSERT based on an expensive query. A big SELECT that gets data from several tables and write some 3-4 millions rows to a different table.

There are no locks/ blocks.

The waittype it is linked to is CXPACKET. which I can understand because there are 9 78s as you can see on the picture below.

What concerns me and what I really would like to know is why the number 1 of the SPID 78 is suspended.

I understand that when the status of a SPID is suspended it means the process is waiting on a resource and it will resume when it gets its resource.

How can I find more details about this? what resource? why is it not available?

I use a lot the code below, and variations therefrom, but is there anything else I can do to find out why the SPID is suspended?

select * 
from sys.dm_exec_requests r
join sys.dm_os_tasks t on r.session_id = t.session_id
where r.session_id = 78

I already used sp_whoisactive. The result I get for this particular spid78 is as follow: (broken into 3 pics to fit screen)

Answer 1

SUSPENDED: It means that the request currently is not active because it is waiting on a resource. The resource can be an I/O for reading a page, A WAITit can be communication on the network, or it is waiting for lock or a latch. It will become active once the task it is waiting for is completed. For example, if the query the has posted a I/O request to read data of a complete table tblStudents then this task will be suspended till the I/O is complete. Once I/O is completed (Data for table tblStudents is available in the memory), query will move into RUNNABLE queue.

So if it is waiting, check the wait_type column to understand what it is waiting for and troubleshoot based on the wait_time.

I have developed the following procedure that helps me with this, it includes the WAIT_TYPE.

use master
go

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[sp_radhe] 

AS
BEGIN

SET TRANSACTION ISOLATION LEVEL READ UNCOMMITTED

SELECT es.session_id AS session_id
,COALESCE(es.original_login_name, '') AS login_name
,COALESCE(es.host_name,'') AS hostname
,COALESCE(es.last_request_end_time,es.last_request_start_time) AS last_batch
,es.status
,COALESCE(er.blocking_session_id,0) AS blocked_by
,COALESCE(er.wait_type,'MISCELLANEOUS') AS waittype
,COALESCE(er.wait_time,0) AS waittime
,COALESCE(er.last_wait_type,'MISCELLANEOUS') AS lastwaittype
,COALESCE(er.wait_resource,'') AS waitresource
,coalesce(db_name(er.database_id),'No Info') as dbid
,COALESCE(er.command,'AWAITING COMMAND') AS cmd
,sql_text=st.text
,transaction_isolation =
    CASE es.transaction_isolation_level
    WHEN 0 THEN 'Unspecified'
    WHEN 1 THEN 'Read Uncommitted'
    WHEN 2 THEN 'Read Committed'
    WHEN 3 THEN 'Repeatable'
    WHEN 4 THEN 'Serializable'
    WHEN 5 THEN 'Snapshot'
END
,COALESCE(es.cpu_time,0) 
    + COALESCE(er.cpu_time,0) AS cpu
,COALESCE(es.reads,0) 
    + COALESCE(es.writes,0) 
    + COALESCE(er.reads,0) 
    + COALESCE(er.writes,0) AS physical_io
,COALESCE(er.open_transaction_count,-1) AS open_tran
,COALESCE(es.program_name,'') AS program_name
,es.login_time
FROM sys.dm_exec_sessions es
    LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.dm_exec_connections ec ON es.session_id = ec.session_id
    LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.dm_exec_requests er ON es.session_id = er.session_id
    LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.server_principals sp ON es.security_id = sp.sid
    LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.dm_os_tasks ota ON es.session_id = ota.session_id
    LEFT OUTER JOIN sys.dm_os_threads oth ON ota.worker_address = oth.worker_address
    CROSS APPLY sys.dm_exec_sql_text(er.sql_handle) AS st
where es.is_user_process = 1 
  and es.session_id <> @@spid
ORDER BY es.session_id

end 

This query below also can show basic information to assist when the spid is suspended, by showing which resource the spid is waiting for.

SELECT  wt.session_id, 
    ot.task_state, 
    wt.wait_type, 
    wt.wait_duration_ms, 
    wt.blocking_session_id, 
    wt.resource_description, 
    es.[host_name], 
    es.[program_name] 
FROM  sys.dm_os_waiting_tasks  wt  
INNER  JOIN sys.dm_os_tasks ot ON ot.task_address = wt.waiting_task_address 
INNER JOIN sys.dm_exec_sessions es ON es.session_id = wt.session_id 
WHERE es.is_user_process =  1 

Please see the picture below as an example: