Question 41 of 144
SK0-005 troubleshooting Practice Question
A database administrator notices that the primary SQL Server instance has been experiencing severe performance degradation over the past hour. The server is a virtual machine with 8 vCPUs and 64 GB of RAM, and it normally operates with around 40% CPU utilization. Currently, Task Manager shows 100% CPU usage, with the sqlservr.exe process consuming nearly all cycles. The database response times have increased tenfold, and some queries are timing out. There are no scheduled maintenance jobs running, and the transaction log backup completed successfully earlier. The DBA checks active sessions and finds one long-running ad-hoc query from a new reporting tool that was deployed this morning. The query is performing a cross join on two large tables with missing WHERE clauses, causing a Cartesian product. Ending the session will roll back the query and free resources.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Identify and kill the offending long-running query using the SQL Server management tools.
Option A is the correct immediate action. Identifying and terminating the specific offending query is the fastest way to restore normal operation without disrupting other database activities. Option B (adding vCPUs) is not a quick fix and doesn't address the root cause. Option C (restarting the SQL service) will disconnect all users and cause unnecessary downtime. Option D (increasing the VM's memory) won't help a CPU-bound problem caused by an inefficient query.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Increase the virtual machine's memory allocation from 64 GB to 128 GB to reduce paging.
Why it's wrong here
The issue is CPU starvation, not memory pressure. More memory will not stop the Cartesian product from consuming CPU cycles.
- ✗
Immediately add more vCPUs to the virtual machine to handle the increased load.
Why it's wrong here
Adding vCPUs is a hardware resource change that requires VM downtime and licensing adjustments, and it does not fix the inefficient query that caused the spike.
- ✓
Identify and kill the offending long-running query using the SQL Server management tools.
Why this is correct
Terminating the problematic query releases the consumed CPU and brings performance back to normal quickly, with minimal impact on other users.
- ✗
Restart the SQL Server service to clear all active connections and start fresh.
Why it's wrong here
Restarting the service will cause a complete outage for all databases and users, which is disproportionate to the problem when a single query can be killed.
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Last reviewed: Jul 26, 2026
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