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Live Activity

Use Live Activity to see the sessions of one database now, find who blocks whom, and kill a session.

Live Activity of SALESPRD on the Sessions tab, with the four blocked sessions first

Before you begin

  • You need the View Live Activity permission. Open the page with Live Activity in the database bar, or click Active sessions or Blocked on the Dashboard.
  • To kill a session, you need Kill sessions, and the monitoring account needs the ALTER SYSTEM privilege (see Database user privileges).

Find a session

The Sessions tab lists the user sessions now, the busiest first.

  1. Select a filter: All, Active (the default), Inactive, Blocked or, during a rollback, Killed.

  2. To find a user, program, machine, module or service, type in the search field.

  3. To group the sessions, click SQL IDs, Users, Programs or Machines. SQL IDs puts the statement with the most active sessions first. Click a group to show its sessions. All Sessions shows the flat list again.

  4. To add columns, such as Blocked By, click Columns. Click Save to keep your choice.

The Sessions tab grouped by Users, with ORDERS_APP open on its active sessions

What the marks mean

Mark before the SIDThe session is
Green dotActive: it runs a call.
Hollow ringIdle: connected, but it does nothing.
Amber triangleIdle in an open transaction, with its locks and undo. Or killed, and its rollback continues.
Red diamondBlocked: it waits on a lock of another session. Or idle in a transaction for more than 15 minutes.

The same marks on a group mean blocked sessions, or sessions idle in a transaction.

Refresh the data

Each tab shows the time of its data (Sampled). To refresh the open tab automatically, open the menu at the right of the tab bar. Select Every 5 s, Every 15 s or Every 60 s. The default is Off.

Open the session details

Click a Sid. The details show the SQL and plan, the wait and the blocker, the open transaction, the undo and temp, and the Session statistics.

  • Show gives the name of the object that the session waits on.
  • Open Blocker opens the session that holds the lock. Open SQL opens the SQL details.
The details of SID 932, which waits on a row lock that SID 1847 holds

Open a parallel query

A parallel query counts as one session. Its coordinator shows PX and the number of servers. Click it to list the servers.

Session 1563 open on PX 8, with its eight parallel servers on two RAC instances

Look back with History

  1. Click History.

  2. Set the start and the end, one hour apart at most. The default is the last 15 minutes.

  3. Click Run.

Each row is one session in one sample. To see who was busiest, group by SQL IDs, Users, Programs, Machines or Sample Time. To go back to now, click Real Time.

History mode from 14:15 to 14:30, with the samples newest first

Blocking

The Blocking tab shows each lock wait as a chain. The root holds the lock, and the sessions under it wait.

One blocking chain: SID 1847 at the root, idle in a transaction, and three sessions that wait on it
The root is idle in a transaction, but it holds the lock. Kill it to release the four sessions behind it.
ColumnWhat it shows
Waiting OnFor the root: its wait, On CPU, or "Idle in a transaction, no call for" a time.
ForHow long the session waits, or how long the root is in its state.
Behind ItThe sessions that wait behind it, also further down the chain.
ObjectThe object id of the row. The session details give its name.

To release the chain, right-click the root and select Kill Blocker. A waiter has no kill item, because its kill does not remove the cause.

Kill a session

A kill stops the call of the session and rolls back its open transaction.

  1. Right-click the session and select Kill Session, or Kill Blocker on the root of a chain.

  2. Examine the confirmation. For a root, it shows how many sessions it releases.

    The Kill Session confirmation for the root blocker SID 1847

  3. Click Kill.

Scops runs ALTER SYSTEM KILL SESSION 'sid,serial#,@inst_id' IMMEDIATE. Without the privilege, the kill fails with ORA-01031. The session shows under Killed while it rolls back.

Kill more than one session

  1. In the flat list, right-click a row and select Select Sessions to Kill.

  2. Select the sessions, then click the kill button in the footer, for example Kill 3.

  3. Confirm.

Temp & Undo

The Temp & Undo tab shows who fills TEMP or holds undo. To show one tablespace, click it at the left.

The Temp and Undo tab, with the tablespaces, two charts and the sessions that hold temp or undo
ItemWhat it shows
The tab badgeThe fullest temp tablespace or the active undo tablespace. Amber from 70%, red from 85%.
Temp used, Undo usedCharts over 4h, 12h or 1d. They can be later than the live numbers.
Held by running workThe sessions that hold temp or undo. Open a row for its segments and transaction, with Details and Kill.
Held ForAmber after 10 minutes, red after 30.
What It RisksOnly real effects, for example "blocks 3 sessions".

Long Ops

The Long Ops tab lists the long operations that still run, the next to finish first. Oracle tracks only the operations that it expects to take more than six seconds. Click a row to open the session details.

Three long operations, each with its progress, elapsed time and remaining time
DashboardActive sessions over time, the busiest statements and sessions. SQL detailsAll about the statement that a session runs. PermissionsWho can open Live Activity and kill sessions.

Updated November 3, 2026