SQL Server Solutions GETTING STARTED WITH. SQL Diagnostic Manager

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1 SQL Server Solutions GETTING STARTED WITH SQL Diagnostic Manager

2 Purpose of this document Due to its depth and potential for customization, there are often features of SQL Diagnostic Manager that are overlooked during the initial trial period. This document is designed to highlight areas that may be missed or that can be modified to give you fuller control over management and reporting in your SQL Server environment. Introduction SQL Diagnostic Manager is a powerful performance monitoring and diagnostics solution that proactively alerts administrators to health, performance and availability problems within the SQL Server environment. Why use SQL Diagnostic Manager? Immediate feedback Once you add an instance, best practice performance data will be fed back in seconds Reach out to other monitoring tools Connect directly to SCOM, or use , SMTP, or SNMP for additional services Mobile management Use a web browser to stay connected, manage & collaborate with other staff members Use Diagnostic Manager as your eyes and ears Diagnostic Manager watches and alerts on your environment so you can be more efficient Granular retrospective analysis Drill in to a point-in-time snapshot and see what was causing system issues Analyze patterns of poor performance Utilize reports and past activity to iron out repetitive issues Wait Stat analysis Forensic-level investigation of query and server waits that impact overall performance Session detail analytics Find out who s blocking, locking, and causing waits as well as where they re coming from Identify the impact of slow running code Identify, group, filter, and dissect slow-running queries Immediate feedback and automated responses Alert when there are issues, as well as automate responses to common problems Historical trending and management information Use pre-built reports in console or by web via SSRS, and even add your own custom reports Flexibility Adapt Diagnostic Manager for your specific needs Customize dashboards, reports, and even choose additional areas to monitor Management segmentation Easily group and manage your large environment Manage large estates Comfortably manage in the region of 300 instances per deployment

3 System Requirements Management Console Windows XP SP2+, Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows Server 2008 SP1+, Windows Vista SP1+, Windows 7, Windows 2008 R2, Windows 8 & 8.1, Windows 2012.Net 4.0+ and MDAC 2.8 Monitor resolution of 1280x800 with small text resolution. Web Console Windows XP SP2+, Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows Server 2008 SP1+, Windows Vista SP1+, Windows 7, Windows 2008 R2, Windows 8 & 8.1, Windows 2012.Net 4.0 Browsers: Internet Explorer IE 9.x+, Chrome, Firefox. Services and Data Repository Windows 2000 SP4, Windows XP SP2+, Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows Server 2008 SP1+, Windows Vista SP1+, Windows 7, Windows 2008 R2, Windows 8 & 8.1, Windows 2012.Net 2.0 SP2+ and MDAC 2.8 Repository: SQL Server 2005 SP1+, SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2012, SQL Server 2014 Supported Monitored SQL servers SQL Server 2000 SP4, SQL Server 2005 SP1+, SQL Server 2008 SP1, SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2012, SQL Server 2014, SQL Express (2005+) SQL diagnostic manager does not install any components, DLLs, scripts, stored procedures or tables on the SQL Server instances being monitored. Mobile Requirements Services and Web Server OS: Windows Server 2003 SP2, Windows XP SP2+, Windows Server 2008 RTM+, Windows Vista SP1+, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 8 & 8.1..Net Framework:.Net 4.0 Repository: SQL Server 2005 SP1+, SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 R2, SQL Server 2012, SQL Server 2014 Web Server: IIS 7.2+ Mobile and Desktop Devices Mobile device: Android v2.1+, ios v3.2+, RIM v6.0+, Windows Phone 7+ Desktop Browsers: IE 9.x+, Chrome, Firefox Permissions The SQL DM Mobile & Newsfeed Service account requires the following permissions. By default, setup program assigns the Local System account to the SQL DM Mobile & Newsfeed Service. During install, you can enter credentials for a Windows user account or SQL Server login. PERMISSION Log on as Service Read and write privileges on the SQL DM Mobile Repository database SQL Server Privileges WHY IT S REQUIRED Allows the SQL DM Mobile & Newsfeed Service account to run as a service. Allows the SQL DM Mobile & Newsfeed Service to receive and maintain performance and configuration data in the SQL DM Mobile Repository. Either a Windows user account or SQL Server login that includes System Administrator privileges on the monitored SQL Server instances.

4 Port Requirements By default, the SQL DM Mobile components use the following ports. PORT # WHERE WHAT USES IT WHY 25 Mail Server SQL DM Mobile & Newsfeed Service 80 Web Server hosting the SQL DM Mobile Web site SQL DM Mobile Web application 135 Monitored instance Collection Service Gather WMI data 5166 & 5167 Computer running the SQL DM services SQL DM services Allows the SQL DM Mobile & Newsfeed Service to send notification s. Allows access to the SQL DM Mobile screens via a mobile device inside or outside your corporate firewall. By default, IIS uses port 80 for the local virtual directory, so check your Web Server settings to pick an appropriate port for SQL DM Mobile. You can specify a different port during install, or later when you need to change this configuration. Allow communications between SQL DM and the Idera Newsfeed Platform for signup and login authentication Computer running the SQL DM Mobile & Newsfeed Service SQL DM Mobile & Newsfeed Service Allows communications between the Idera Newsfeed and SQL DM for server status updates. Architecture SQL DM consists of a light, unobtrusive architecture that easily runs in your SQL Server environment with minimal configuration. All SQL DM components run outside and separate from SQL Server processes and nothing is installed on the instances we monitor. 1. SQL DM Console The SQL DM Console retrieves historical information directly from the SQL DM Repository. All real-time requests use the SQL DM services to poll the monitored SQL Server. 2. SQL DM Services SQL DM has three centralized services: the Management Service, the Collection Service, and the Predictive Service. These three services reside on the same computer. 3. SQL DM Repository The SQL DM Repository is a centralized SQL Server database that stores collected metrics on a scheduled basis, historical data, and alerts information. The SQL DM Repository also stores configuration information, such as the credentials used to monitor a registered SQL Server instance.

5 SQL Diagnostic Manager s Capabilities When a monitored instance is added to the SQL Diagnostic Manager, key performance metrics will be polled in order to start identifying which areas of your estate need attention the soonest. Within seconds you can be made aware of areas of your environment causing you pain: areas you may not have even known where connected to issues you have experienced. Register a SQL Server instance: To add an instance, you can click File > Manage Servers and follow the instructions in the wizard as shown below. Information will begin to be fed back in almost real time and alert to Microsoft best practices and standards. The speed at which data is returned can be set in the Tools > Console options. Connect to Other Monitoring Tools Diagnostic Manager has the scope to interact with multiple other management tools and to provide our in-depth granular diagnostic information to generic management tools currently on the market. Out of the box, we have a direct link-in to Systems Center Operations Manager (SCOM) via a management pack we provide with the tool download. This extends management information from Diagnostic Manager to a new custom node within SCOM. There is also the usage of SNMP traps and writing to Windows event logs for tools such as Nagios to collect and interpret directly, as well as SMTP for direct communication for internal ticket and fault tracking applications. s can be sent directly to workflow engines for intelligent routing and automated interaction.

6 Mobile Management SQL DM Mobile is a Web-based application that includes the Idera Newsfeed technology and several dashboard views that define your server health and expose critical alerts. You can access the SQL DM Mobile Web site from most smartphones and mobile devices and use it for general management information and internal collaboration. It also includes the administrative powers to kill blocked sessions, restart agent jobs, and run free-form SQL scripts to assist with any issues while you re away from your desk or out of the office.

7 Use Diagnostic Manager as Your Eyes & Ears SQL DM allows you to configure alerts to inform and warn you about impending issues within your SQL Server instances. You can view these alerts using the SQL DM Console, the Idera Newsfeed, or SQL DM Mobile. When an alert threshold is reached, SQL DM can: Send an notification Pop up an alert message from your Windows taskbar Write an event to the Windows Event log Generate an event on the Timeline Send the alert message to the Idera Newsfeed Action Provider, which publishes the alert message as a status update on the server wall in the Idera Newsfeed interface and in the Active Alerts view in SQL DM Mobile Alert configuration can be set per instance, but you also have the ability to configure a template that can be applied to multiple instances in bulk. Values related to the metric we have selected. There are multiple ways we can stipulate the conditions, depending on the metrics we select. List of metrics we can alert on. Checking or unchecking them will decide if they are active Additional options we can apply to alerts, including filtering & alert suppression.

8 A slider gives a graphical representation of when we alert on a metric, as well as a baseline (hatched bar below slider) to indicate the average performance range of a metric. Note: Custom metrics can be added to the system in the form of system counters or SQL script. This allows the extension of Diagnostic Manager s functionality, ensuring you have the ability to monitor, alert on, and manage all areas of your environment that are important to you. Granular Retrospective Analysis Diagnostic Manager will periodically take a snapshot of the collected information and store it in your repository database. You can then later refer to this information for the benefit of retrospective diagnostics. A classic example of this hearing from a user that the system was slow for a while yesterday but resolved itself so they didn t want to bother you. Using the facilities shown below will assist in resolving those phantom levels of rogue utilization. Then, select the snapshot frequency (among others) in the General options We can get to the properties of an instance by right clicking on it.

9 Show the history browser by clicking here Selecting a date from the calendar will show all snapshots for that day listed below. A snapshot can in turn be selected to freeze the console as of that point in time. Note: Once a snapshot is selected, the console will display the data as of that time. Meaning, you can select other tabs and view data from all over the tool to correlate issues and fully diagnose problems that have passed. Analyze Alert Patterns of Poor Performance Outside of historical snapshots, we can choose to locate alerts that were generated over a period of time with the added benefit of being able to group or filter the results. This is really useful in quickly identifying and triaging alerts and issues before they have the chance to escalate, as well as, of course, pinpointing groups of alerts that happen over a period of time. Results can be grouped or filtered. Choose to show all current active alerts, grouped or filtered. Or alternatively choose a timeframe for issue analysis.

10 Note: Right-clicking on a historical event allows you to jump directly to the correct snapshot and show the details in the console Wait Stat Analysis The Query Waits view displays the queries on your SQL Server instance with the longest wait times. By default, the chart at the bottom of the view displays the query waits over time and allows you to further investigate based on Statements, Applications, Databases, Clients, Sessions, and Users. By analyzing these waits, you can better determine where your biggest bottlenecks are occurring and what changes could potentially have the biggest performance boost on your SQL Server instance. Note: Using the history browser as shown above, in conjunction with wait stats, allows for a very granular level of root-cause analysis when identifying performance bottlenecks in the past. To utilize query waits, you must first enable the feature in the configuration Different tabs can be selected to identify types, origin of and also instigators of query based waits. We re looking at query waits over time in this example, which displays a timeline on the x axis and the duration in milliseconds on the y axis. As an example we have selected the user tab to show all users that created waits in this timeframe, giving an insight into which accounts, including application service accounts, that could be adding otherwise unnoticed weight to the system.

11 Waits can also be shown by duration, and where we see hyperlinks, such as the session id below, we can click to filter on those parameters. Session Detail Analytics The Sessions Details view provides an in-depth analysis of sessions running on your monitored SQL Server instance. You can view a wide range of information from performance details to open transactions and configured options. You can also track process activity at the statement level. Individual sessions appear in the top portion of the window. Right-click any session in the list to view locks, show your query history, trace the session, kill the session, print the associated statistics, or export statistics to Excel. Note: Use session detail to cross-reference information gathered from the query waits to build full and forensic picture of root cause analysis. Details can be grouped by column heading to help identify activity. Enable here and drag a column heading to the grouping panel below

12 Identify the Impact of Slow-Running Code We can use SQL Diagnostic Manager to assist in identifying slow-running code: one of the main reasons for performance bottlenecks in SQL Server. The Query Monitor is a standard SQL Server trace that collects all the events that occur on your SQL Server instance over a period of time. You can enable this option if you experience query timeouts or other performance issues. The Query Monitor window allows you to enable or disable the Query Monitor. If you enable the Query Monitor, you can select the settings that are used. The Query Monitor can be enabled automatically by using an alert action, meaning you don t have to utilize it all the time only for the periods you need it. Note: Poorly performing code can be assessed by SQL Doctor (a separate Idera tool,) which can give best practice analysis and optimization advice to reduce the transaction times as well as offer index and search optimization settings. Filters can be applied to refine the results to a specific area such as a slow application Query monitor and its associated thresholds can be enabled here Detail can be drilled to show the content of any slow running code

13 Immediate Feedback & Automated Responses SQL Diagnostic Manager allows you to not only be informed very quickly to issues of health and performance, but also implement steps to automatically minimize and resolve issues and problems it finds. Within the Tools > Alert actions and responses option, we will find a list of current rules used to assist in the management of our estate. New rules can be added and modified at any time and allow for unparalleled extension of your eyes and ears. This rule is monitoring all of my production servers and running a script to re-index when the severity is in a critical condition (based on the metric we collect) and also send me an to tell me it s happened.

14 Select the conditions, including filters to apply alerts to only certain metrics, instances, tag groups and time frames Apply actions to take place, such as run a script, job, send an and log to various locations via multiple protocols Refine the actions and selections made previously such as dictate the metric severity ensuring you can have multiple levels of response based on issue Multiple alerts can be generated for different levels of severity, metric, and time frame. Even custom counters (which we ll discuss later) can be alerted and reported on, meaning the breadth of alerting and management capabilities is limitless.

15 Historical Trending & Management Information In-console reports The Reports view lets you to create reports that allow you to analyze current and historical performance and statistical data. SQL DM provides three types of comprehensive reports: Monitor, Analyze, and Plan, along with the ability to create custom reports. URL-Based Reports (via SSRS) In addition to the included reports, SQL DM also allows you to generate reports using Microsoft Reporting Services. Microsoft Reporting Services allows you to build powerful custom reports to deploy for a comprehensive auditing solution.

16 Adapt DM for your specific needs Custom counters SQL Diagnostic Manager, by default, displays a wide variety of the most common SQL Server and Operating System performance metrics. In addition to providing these common metrics, custom counters provide the ability to add additional performance metrics to the SQL DM console to be used for historical trending, on-demand monitoring, and schedule refresh alerting. Show what you want in the user interface The Dashboard view is customizable per monitored SQL Server instance by allowing you to select the panels that you deem to be the most important to display in each instance. You can customize your Dashboard view for the selected SQL Server instance or as the default for all SQL Server instances added to SQL DM.

17 Build your own reports The Custom Reports wizard allows you to create or edit custom reports. Custom Reports can include any metric collected by SQL Diagnostic Manager, including custom counters. This wizard allows you to choose the counters you want to include in your report, order the way the metrics appear, and specify the aggregation method used on each of your metrics. Management Segmentation After an instance has been tagged, it belongs to a group, as shown below. Selecting that group displays all members in a dashboard-style view that can be used to monitor and segment departments, locations, versions and for each thumbnail in the list, the display can be changed to show an overall view or details specific to any of the key performance indicators. Tag groups can be selected to give a dashboard view for a certain department, customer or location

18 Managing Large Estates Idera SQL Diagnostic Manager can comfortably manage about three hundred instances, each of which can in turn have its own management requirements. The first step we re going to look at is the Tagging facility. Instances can have one or more text-based labels applied to it to ensure ease of management for reporting and user management, as well as for creating an additional dashboard for each department, geographical location, and hosted customer to name just a few. To access the instance properties, right-click the name in the navigation pane on the left and select properties Text based tags can be added to group instances. Each instance can belong to multiple tag groups