Tracking Applications

Andy Levy explains how to use connection strings to track which application is hogging database resources:

Fortunately, the .NET SqlClient (and other ODBC drivers as well) has a built-in solution. Your application’s connection string has quite a few parameters available to provide configuration and information, and one that seems to get overlooked is Application Name. This one does exactly what it says on the tin – it lets you specify a name that will be displayed to anyone looking for it in SQL Server, including sp_whoisactive. Anyplace you have the ability to write a connection string, you can use this. It costs you nothing!

You can also start getting fancy with resource governor as well, segmenting pools based on application name.