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ddavis avatar image
ddavis asked

What does the Net Address in Activity Monitor represent?

In Management Studio's Activity Monitor, (Current Activity > Process Info if using Enterprise Manager on SQL2000), there's a column labeled Net Address. One source I found says its the host's MAC address, though this doesn't seem right, as currently my three connections are represented with two different Net Addresses. Books Online says it's an:

Assigned unique identifier for the network interface card on each user's workstation. When the user logs in, this identifier is inserted in the Network Address column.

Is this some value that SQL Server assigns to a connection, or can I trace it back to a specific machine on the network (in this case, the Host field is empty)?

sql-serverssmsactivity-monitornet-address
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Steve Jones - Editor avatar image
Steve Jones - Editor answered

I see this mapped to client_net_address in sys.dm_exec_connections in some searches. I'm not sure, but my guess is that this is a socket of some sort for network routing. It combines the MAC Or IP with some port to get a socket that allows it to be sure the correct results go to the correct connection. Possibly through a hash of some sort.

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Kev Riley avatar image
Kev Riley answered

How many network cards do you have in your machine?

Can you compare your multiple MACs with the net_address values you are seeing?

I have 2 (one wired, one wireless) and I see 2 different net_addresses on my connections. This then ties up with what Steve said about client_net_address in sys.dm_exec_connections, as I have 2 IP addresses too.

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