from: http://www.sqllion.com/2009/05/monitoring-tempdb-in-sql-server-2005/

As the tempdb database is the common global resource for all the operations going on in SQL Server, so the DBA has to be bit cautious about the use of it. Because any unexpected operations by the applications running under the SQL Server instance or any uneven query by the user can eat all the space available to thetempdb resulting decrease in the performance of all other applications running under the same instance.

So it is necessary to keep track the usage of tempdb database by various applications and processes and to take necessary actions when the size falls down below the threshold limit. Monitoring tempdb over time will help in determining the optimal size of the tempdb.

Check my earlier post for more details on performance regarding tempdb:

http://www.sqllion.com/2009/05/optimizing-tempdb-in-sql-server-2005/
Use the below query to check the current tempdb size:

Output:

To get a brief info on the space used by tempdb database, use the below query:

Output:

Luckily SQL Server provides a rich set of DMVs (dynamic management views) to keep track of some performance counters that will help in managing disk usage by tempdb database.

So in order to properly manage tempdb, the below performance factors can be tracked:

• Total Data File Size (in KB)
• Total Log File Size (in KB)
• Used data file size (in KB)
• Used Log File size (in KB)
• Free space left in tempdb (in KB)
• Space utilized by user objects (in KB)
• Space utilized by Internal objects (in KB)
• Space utilized by Version Store (in KB)

There is one more major factor influencing the performance of tempdb i.e. I/O. If you have a slow I/O subsystem, then your I/O requests are queued up resulting in I/O bottleneck. When a user connects to a database, a session is created. And the DMV tracks all the events like allocation or deallocation of pages in tempdb for each active session. The session will remain active till the user disconnects.
[Note: Details about I/O performance will be posted soon.]
To achieve the above performance factors, the below DMVs can be used:

• Sys.dm_db_file_space_usage
• Sys.dm_db_session_file_usage
• Sys.dm_db_task_space_usage
• sys.dm_exec_requests
• sys.dm_tran_active_snapshot_database_transactions
• sys.dm_exec_query_stats
• sys.dm_tran_version_store
• sys.dm_io_virtual_file_stats

By using the above DMVs, the tempdb usage can be easily tracked.

• Total Data File Size (in KB)

Space used by different components in tempdb database.sys.sysfiles: Returns information for each file in the database.sys.dm_io_virtual_file_stats: Returns I/O statistics for data and log files. It takes two parameters out of which one is Database ID (show all databases if NULL is provided) and File ID (show all files if NULL is provided).

Output: