How to check the progress of the Shrink Database task in SQL Server
Wed, Feb 1, 2012
1-minute read
When compacting large databases in SQL Server, whether or not its done via the DBCC SHRINKDATABASE command or done via the SQL Server Management Studio, you will experience a very long delay in the command returning.
To check how the process is going, you cannot simply look at a progress bar or se a percentage some nice place.
But you can use the system views in SQL Server to see how its going.
Simply open up a new query window in your SQL Server Management Studio and issue the following SQL:
SELECT
percent_complete,
start_time,
status,
command,
estimated_completion_time,
cpu_time,
total_elapsed_time
FROM
sys.dm_exec_requests
WHERE
command = 'DbccFilesCompact'
That will give you a nice little table where you can see your compact task and how far it has gone in its progress.
But prepare to be disapointed - it is very slow to compact databases.