The housekeeper task provides important background tasks.
The housekeeper wash, housekeeper garbage collection, and housekeeper chores tasks. sp_who displays all three tasks in its output as HK WASH, HK GC, and HK CHORES:
sp_who
fid spid status loginame origname hostname blk_spid dbname tempdbname cmd block_xloid threadpool ---- ----- ---------- ---------- --------- ---------- -------- ------- --------- ------------- --------- ------------- 0 8 sleeping NULL NULL luv2work 0 master tempdb HK WASH 0 syb_default_pool 0 9 sleeping NULL NULL NULL 0 master tempdb HK GC 0 syb_default_pool 0 10 sleeping NULL NULL NULL 0 master tempdb HK CHORES 0 syb_default_pool
The general automatic restart of housekeeper-related system tasks: you need not restart the server if these system tasks quit unexpectedly.
A system administrator can change all housekeeper task priorities.
sp_showpsexe, as well as sp_who, recognizes all three housekeeper names.
For more information about sp_who and sp_showpsexe, see the Reference Manual: Procedures.