Activity Monitor always Paused in SSMS 17.8.1

Question

Whenever I open the Activity Monitor in SQL Server Management Studio 17.8.1(14.0.17277) the overview always switches to (paused). Even if I choose resume, it quickly changes back to paused.

This happens on a variety of SQL Servers and SQL Server versions (2005 through 2016) so I don't believe it is a conflict with old vs new SQL Setups.

I can run Activity Monitor in SSMS 2012 (11.0.2100.60) on the same servers with no error which confirms that the service is actually running and functional.

Any help or insights would be appreciated. I'm not a fan of switching back and forth between two management studios if I can help it. (I uses 17 so I can have context menus when right clicking on items in SSMS which wont work on 2016 servers in older versions of the studio).

Answer 1

I setup a basic SQL login and found that activity monitor was permanently paused for this login. Then I granted this login the "View server state" permission and activity monitor now works. To do this, open up the Security and Logins folders for the relevant server instance, right click a login and choose properties. Choose Securables and you should see all Permissions listed in the bottom pane. Put a tick in the grant column next to "View server state".

Answer 2

Run as administrator helps, but I only see this happen on SQL clusters

However I have found the following somewhere, can't remember where. And I added the AD group with Sysadmin rights using these steps 1-5

1. Click Start, click Run, type DCOMCNFG, and then click OK.
2. In the Component Services dialog box, expand Component Services, expand Computers, and then right-click My Computer and click Properties.
3. In the My Computer Properties dialog box, click the COM Security tab.
4. Under Launch and Activation Permissions, click Edit Limits.
5. In the Launch Permission dialog box, select your user and group in the Group or user names box. In the Allow column under Permissions for User, select Remote Launch and select Remote Activation, and then click OK.

Seems I don't need to follow step 6-8, so I have not tried these.

6. Under Access Permissions, click Edit Limits and give Remote Access to your user.
7. Go to DCOM Config(Expand My Computer), find "Windows Management Instrumentation", right-click and select Properties
8. In the Security tab, click on Edit under Launch and Activation Permissions, and give your user Remote Launch and Remote Activation.