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Welcome to the Redgate SQL Monitor feature suggestions list. Tell us how we can improve SQL Monitor by voting on these suggestions or by submitting your own ideas.

This is the easiest way to make an impact on SQL Monitor’s roadmap. Check out the completed suggestions to see how your ideas have influenced us in the past. Please note that this list is one of multiple sources that drive our development, meaning that we will not always implement the highest-ranking suggestions.

To give your idea the greatest possible impact, please follow these guidelines:

  • Describe the goal you’re trying to accomplish, rather than a specific solution to get there
  • If you have a favoured solution, add it as a comment to your suggestion
  • Give us as much context as possible
  • Only make one suggestion per post. If you have multiple ideas, submit them in separate posts
  • Comment and vote on existing posts to develop the ideas — often the SQL Monitor team will initially stay quiet about new suggestions to see what you have to say!

If you have any questions visit the SQL Monitor forum.


207 results found

  1. Identify head blocker in a blocking chain

    It would be quite useful and timesaving if one could identify the head blocker for a blocked process (as done in SSMS's Activity Monitor, Processes tab). Otherwise when get a lot of blocked process alerts, you have to manually figure out the head blocker by analysing all the alerts.

    79 votes
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    completed  ·  Adam responded

    This work was completed in version 5 – apologies for the delay in updating.

    If you view a “Blocking process” alert, clicking on the ‘Processes’ tab (next to the details tab) will show the head blocking process, followed by any blocked processes.

    If this doesn’t meet your requirements, please let us know how we can improve this alert.

    Kind regards
    Adam

  2. Regarding Custom Metrics - allow us to either have the "Description" inserted into the email or give us another text field for annotating.

    We have solution documents in a help desk application. I would like to have my error message emailed with a suggestion that the recepient reference the solution document for steps in resolving the problem.

    4 votes
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    completed  ·  Priya Sinha responded

    SQL Monitor V 3.3. has now released. This release contains improved subject lines and message bodies of alert emails to help you quickly understand problems before logging in to SQL Monitor. For custom alert, emails now include description.

    Thanks,
    SQL Monitor Development Team

  3. Licensing Clusters

    Since only one SQL server is active in an Active\Passive cluster, you should not require multiple Monitor licenses.

    50 votes
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    completed  ·  Daniel Rothig responded

    Currently, we are offering a 50% discount for passive cluster nodes. We’ll continue to review our pricing structure over time.

    Why do we charge money for passive nodes at all? Covering your passive nodes with monitoring is necessary to ensure that when a failover occurs, the passive node is in a healthy state, and the failover will be able to succeed. However, passive nodes don’t (usually) have complex performance characteristics, hence the discount.

  4. Create an Iphone app with a heatmap for the alerts. As well as an improved Analysis screen where you can select/combine/mix multiple metrics

    Create an Iphone/android app with a heatmap for the alerts. As well as an improved Analysis screen where you can select/combine/mix multiple metrics

    31 votes
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  5. Identifiy the failed job steps when a job has failed

    CONTEXT: When looking at a job failed alert, we would like to pinpoint why it has failed.

    PROBLEM: SQL Monitor doesn't indentify the failed steps - we have to go to SSIS to get that information.

    EXAMPLE SOLUTIONS:
    • Add this information to the "Job failed" alert
    • Provide a query to make retrieving this data more convenient

    136 votes
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    completed  ·  Adam responded

    Thanks for this suggestion. Failed job steps are now listed in failed job alerts – this feature was completed in Version 7.1.6, released October 4th 2017 (apologies for not updating sooner).

    We have marked this as completed – please let us know if you believe this needs to be reopened, or add a new suggestion if you would like to see a particular improvement.

    Thanks,
    SQL Monitor Development Team

  6. Identify if virtualization hosts are congested

    CONTEXT: We are monitoring virtual servers that share a VM host.

    PROBLEM: If host resources are overallocated, the physical resources can be contended even if the virtual resources aren't. This is not easy to spot in SQL Monitor.

    EXAMPLE SOLUTIONS
    • Add virutal host counters for VMware and Hyper-V to the analysis graph: CPU, Memory, disk...
    • Integrate with a Virtualisation monitoring solution to connect the dots more easily

    100 votes
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    completed  ·  Adam responded

    We have now released version 7.1.0. The collection of VMware metrics is out of beta.

    https://documentation.red-gate.com/display/SM7/Adding+a+VMWare+host

    If you have suggestions for any improvements you would like to see, please begin a new suggestion with as much detail as possible, so we can consider where best to focus our efforts.

    Thanks,
    SQL Monitor Development Team

  7. Custom Metric Order

    Either allow an order to be defined for custom metrics on the analysis tab or at least order them alphabetically rather than in the order created.

    3 votes
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    completed  ·  Adam responded

    We’ve alphabetically ordered the custom metrics on the Analysis tab and this will go in the next release which we hope to have available later next month.

    Thanks again for the suggestion.

  8. Allow drilldrown capability for different resource areas

    It would be nice to be able to see which sql statements or db users were generating the most CPU usage, RAM usage, and Disk IO. This would help us quickly identify bottlenecks on the system.

    CLR statistics would be nice to have too since we have found that it can account for locking issues in certain circumstances.

    5 votes
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    1 comment  ·  Admin →
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    completed  ·  Daniel Rothig responded

    Resource utilisation per query can be seen in the top 10 queries view on the SQL Instance overview

  9. When using "Back" browser function PLEASE put me back at the same place in the LONG list!

    Although http://sqlmonitor.uservoice.com/forums/91743-suggestions/suggestions/2022999-add-previous-next-navigation-to-alert-details talks about previous/next, buried in it is the problem of wading through PAGES, AGAIN of stuff I've hunted through.

    I'd like to add this separate request to deal with the simple issue of "put me back at the same place in the list as I was when I clicked an Alert to view".

    I should not be forced to clear younger Alerts just so the Alert I'm on appears on page 1, either (not an elegant workaround).

    Thanks.

    5 votes
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    1 comment  ·  Admin →
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    completed  ·  Adam responded

    We ran a series of usability sessions which included the new work we have completed adding previous/next (well, newer/older) and making filters persist, to understand how we should adapt this.

    Now, when you work through a number of alerts using the newer/older navigation, clicking on the inbox will take you to the inbox at the point you would be – i.e. you will ‘emerge’ at that point. Hopefully this will solve the problem as you will not ‘be forced to clear younger alerts’.

    We hope this solution works for you and we’d be interested to hear how you find the new features.

  10. Have ability to sort list of machines on the Analysis page and anywhere databases/machines are listed on SQL Instance overview

    Have ability to sort list of machines on the Analysis page and anywhere databases/machines are listed

    2 votes
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  11. Add more information to alert email

    It would be nice to have more information sent into the alert email, instead of having to login into the monitor to check details. I am not sure if there is a way to do this already. If there isn't - this would be nice to have.

    For e.g: This doesn't divulge which query. If the query was mentioned, it would help.

    ID: 59

    SQL Server: (local)
    Machine: (Machine Name)
    Alert type: Long-running query
    Level: None
    Time raised: 8 Mar 2012 12:44 PM (UTC-05)
    Time ended: 8 Mar 2012 12:50 PM (UTC-05)
    View full alert detail

    147 votes
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    completed  ·  Priya Sinha responded

    SQL Monitor V 3.3. has now released. This release contains improved subject lines and message bodies of alert emails to help you quickly understand problems before logging in to SQL Monitor.

    Thanks,
    SQL Monitor Development Team

  12. add the ability to specify a default filter. I'm getting tired of having to re-select my custom filter each time I click on the Alerts tab.

    When working through a huge list of alerts, if I don't remember to click on the "back" button I am forced to re-select my custom filter from the Filter dropdown list.

    If would save some time if a custom filter could be specified as the default Alerts filter.

    4 votes
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    completed  ·  Adam responded

    In v3.1 the filters now persist on the Alert inbox until they are manually cleared, so you can navigate away and always return to the filtered alerts without having to reselect the filter from the dropdown list.

    We hope this fixes the root of the problem that your workaround was a suggestion for. We’re interested to hear your feedback on this feature so please let us know at usability@red-gate.com. Thanks again for the suggestion and comments.

  13. Do other tasks than send email on new alert

    It would be nice if it was possible to allow other tasks when a alert is raised. Other tasks which could be called: Script file, url, exe file.

    96 votes
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    completed  ·  19 comments  ·  Admin →
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  14. create a function to allow clearing of all alerts on a given server, instance, database.

    Currently i can only find a way to clear 100 alerts at a time, or to purge information from the SQL monitor. It would a nice easy feature to be able to clear all alerts in one go.

    3 votes
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  15. Ability set working hour for analysis graph

    ability set working to compare last x day for only working hour

    2 votes
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    completed  ·  Daniel Rothig responded

    You can already do that – just specify what your working hours are in the time selector boxes

  16. Invistigate v3.0 EAP Base Service CPU utilization

    I first installed v2.3 and then switched to v3.0 EAP. It seems that the base service is maxing out CPU utilization which was not the case with 2.3.

    1 vote
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  17. It would be grand if I could change the time format.. 12 hour clocks just don't sit right with me.

    It would be grand if I could change the time format.. 12 hour clocks just don't sit right with me.

    35 votes
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    completed  ·  Adam responded

    We have just released version 6.0.7 and this update means the clock can now be displayed in either 12 or 24 hour format – this can be toggled at Configuration > Display settings.

    Thanks for your patience.

    SQL Monitor Development Team

  18. Show the database name not just dbid in the Lock Details of a Deadlock alert

    I've got to do the extra step of:

    SELECT name,dbid
    FROM master..sysdatabases

    to figure out which database the deadlock is referring to... shouldn't have to do this.

    71 votes
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    completed  ·  Adam responded

    Database name is now shown for 2005+ deadlock alerts following the v4 release.

    Thanks again for the suggestion and votes.

  19. Preserve advanced filter settings when page size is changed

    When viewing alerts and changing page size, a predefined filter setting is preserved, but any other advanced settings appear to be reset.

    4 votes
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    completed  ·  Adam responded

    In v3.1 the filters now persist on the Alert inbox until they are manually cleared, so you can change the page size or navigate away and always return to the filtered alerts without having to reselect the filter.

    We’re interested to hear your feedback on this feature so please let us know at usability@red-gate.com.

    Thanks again for the suggestion and comments.

  20. Report average page life expectancy

    The "page life expectancy" performance counter can be a good indicator of an impending performance problem. It's in the "Buffer Manager" performance object.

    http://sqlserverpedia.com/blog/sql-server-bloggers/sql-server-%E2%80%93-what-is-page-life-expectancy-ple-counter/

    1 vote
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    completed  ·  2 comments  ·  Admin →
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