765 results found

1. Control Alerts Using Metadata

   CONTEXT: We have a maintenance and backup solution which uses SQL Server as a backend to determine what databases to perform the tasks against, and at what time.

   PROBLEM: Some databases do not have maintenance tasks running against them, but still have alerts which appear in SQL Monitor for them (e.g. Index Fragmentation). I don't want to manually exclude these from SQL Monitor, as the number of databases fluctuates, particularly on our testing and development environments.

   EXAMPLE SOLUTIONS:
   - Provide a means of easily enabling/disabling/changing alerts dynamically using a stored procedure.

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   Daniel Rothig responded

   For your usecase I recommend modifying the maintenance window metadata instead:

   UPDATE s SET MW_IsEnabled = 1, —or 0 to enable alerts again MW_Start=0, —midnight MW_Duration=864000000000, —24 hours MW_Monday = 1, MW_Tuesday =1, MW_Wednesday=1, MW_Thursday=1, MW_Friday=1, MW_Saturday=1, MW_Sunday=1 FROM [settings].[SqlServers] s INNER JOIN [settings].[Clusters] c ON c.Id = s.ParentId WHERE c.Name = ‘hostname’ AND s.Name = ’’ —Set to SQL Server name or leave empty for unnamed instances

   A restart of the base monitor service will be required after the change

2. Baseline machine metrics across cluster failovers

   CONTEXT: Using the Analysis graph for historical performance analysis of machine metrics on a cluster that failed over at least once

   PROBLEM: Machine metrics are collected per node. Baselines of only one node can be shown at a time, and so no baseline view of performance on the "active" component can be synthesised.

   EXAMPLE SOLUTIONS:
   • Enable multiple simultaneous baselines
   • Implement synthetic (bimodal) baselines across cluster nodes
   • Provide synthetic metrics for entites on the "active" component of a cluster

   What do you think about these solutions? Got another idea? Let us know in the comments!

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3. Drop markers on the graphs and add annotations

   While working on performance tweaks it is customary to consult the analysis reports on a regular basis to see if our changes moved the needle. More often than not the tweaks are released one small batch at a time and it'd be nice to drop markers and custom annotations directly on the charts. I'd like to use that feature to add short phrases describing what was changed that led to the improvement, or degradation for that matter, of performance.

   This would be by server (cluster/node) and by metric with the same retention period as the base data for that chart.

   This will help us with analysis immensely.

   While working on performance tweaks it is customary to consult the analysis reports on a regular basis to see if our changes moved the needle. More often than not the tweaks are released one small batch at a time and it'd be nice to drop markers and custom annotations directly on the charts. I'd like to use that feature to add short phrases describing what was changed that led to the improvement, or degradation for that matter, of performance.

   This would be by server (cluster/node) and by metric with the same retention period as the base data for that chart.

   … more

   61 votes

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4. Simpler Upgrade \ Patch Process

   The upgrade process is a bit long winded. It would be great if the system could be upgraded or patch with a single click. Ideally within SQL Monitor but if not, downloading the file and just selecting upgrade would be great.

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   Daniel Rothig responded

   Thanks Phil – we are considering reworking the upgrade process. If this suggestions gains more traction, we’ll prioritise it higher

5. Analysis parsing of dates and multiple baselines using a text input search

   Allow the analysis and other date filters to provide the option to paste and try parsing the date based on matching common patterns (maybe even allowing user to define options in config file).

   For example, the standard SQL datetime2(0) of yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss pasted would convert to the date it parses.

   Maybe even consider taking a page from the freaking great design Simple Bank has started applying which is a text based filter applying friendly syntax. I have found this incredibly useful.

   They let you type in the search filter

   "last 3 months"
   "last week"
   "date:1/1/2015-1/15/2015"
   "date:1/1/15-1/15/15"

   and it immediate updates the reports. This is incredibly intuitive after the initial few minutes curve of playing around. Could make the urls even easy to share. :-)

   Expanding this:

   "1/1/2015 1pm-2pm" VS "1/15/2015 4pm-6pm" for example would let you possibly do a baseline comparison quickly without a lot of effort.

   Will to expand and provide some examples if this seems promising.

   Allow the analysis and other date filters to provide the option to paste and try parsing the date based on matching common patterns (maybe even allowing user to define options in config file).

   For example, the standard SQL datetime2(0) of yyyy-MM-dd HH:mm:ss pasted would convert to the date it parses.

   Maybe even consider taking a page from the freaking great design Simple Bank has started applying which is a text based filter applying friendly syntax. I have found this incredibly useful.

   They let you type in the search filter

   "last 3 months"
   "last week"
   "date:1/1/2015-1/15/2015"
   "date:1/1/15-1/15/15"

   and it immediate updates… more

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6. Use extended events instead of trace when trace initialized due to alert

   I have seen a related idea https://sqlmonitor.uservoice.com/forums/91743-suggestions/suggestions/5717202-use-extended-events-for-deadlock-tracing-instead

   However, I'm expanding this. If the SQL version is high enough the trace of current activity should be using extended events instead of a trace, this would reduce the total impact to the server performance while also expanding the available information.

   98 votes

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   Daniel Rothig responded

   Thanks for the suggestion – we’ll monitor how popular it gets

7. comment markdown

   CONTEXT: I use comments on alerts raised by SQL Monitor to document root cause of the triggered condition and resolution action.

   PROBLEM: Comments only support plain-text. When creating/reviewing comments, it's often useful to add links for more detailed descriptions of the cause of the alerts, and links to ticketing systems for resolution steps. Simplified bulleting/numbering and bold/italicized text would also be helpful for breaking up monotonous text.

   EXAMPLE SOLUTIONS: Add Markdown (http://daringfireball.net/projects/markdown/) support to addition/review of comments. A couple implementations for examples of usage:

   • StackOverflow (http://stackoverflow.com/editing-help)
   • GitHub (https://help.github.com/articles/github-flavored-markdown/)
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8. Install SQL Monitor without needing to provision a (large) SQL Server database

   CONTEXT: One challenge with installing SQL Monitor is that we need to provide a connection to a SQL Server database.

   PROBLEM: This can be costly or complicated. It would be better if SQL Monitor had an alternative backend.

   EXAMPLE SOLUTIONS:
   • Offer a hosted data store
   • Automatically deploy a free backend alternative such as mongoDB or PostgreSQL
   • Reduce data collection so that SQL Express can be used for small deployments
   • Provide greater granularity over data retention policies

   What do you think about these solutions? Got another idea? Let us know in the comments!

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   Adam responded

   We’ve made some improvements in this area but will leave it open so you can continue to give us your suggestions

9. Make alert configuration levels more discoverable

   CONTEXT: In SQL Monitor, you can configure alert behaviour down to the object level (such as the Database or the Job level). This is useful e.g. when we have specific databases with different backup policies to our global configuration, since we can specifiy "special rules" for individual databases.

   PROBLEM: It is counterintuitive how to do so, and many people don't spot the left-hand drilldown navigation - this makes you think that you can only configure on the global and the server level! Also, when we have created an override, it's easy to forget so causes surprise when we change the global configuration and the "special" database's behabviour doesn't change.

   EXAMPLE SOLUTIONS:
   • Autoexpand the left-hand side navigation, draw attention to it
   • Add Disks, Jobs and Databases as child-elements to the left-hand navigation
   • show the configuration hierarchy when editing alert settings. Highlight levels where overrides exist. Allow to apply new configuration to multiple levels simultaneously

   What do you think about these solutions? Got another idea? Let us know in the comments!

   CONTEXT: In SQL Monitor, you can configure alert behaviour down to the object level (such as the Database or the Job level). This is useful e.g. when we have specific databases with different backup policies to our global configuration, since we can specifiy "special rules" for individual databases.

   PROBLEM: It is counterintuitive how to do so, and many people don't spot the left-hand drilldown navigation - this makes you think that you can only configure on the global and the server level! Also, when we have created an override, it's easy to forget so causes surprise when we… more

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   under review  ·  Daniel Rothig responded

   currently under investigation

10. Select and store a static baseline for future reference

    CONTEXT: When comparing server performance over longer periods of time or across deployments, the baseline functionality in SQL Monitor's analysis section is useful.

    PROBLEM: SQL Monitor creates a dynamic baseline based on previous data. While this baseline is a realistic idea of what's "normal" it requires us to keep a lot of data in SQL Monitor

    EXAMPLE SOLUTIONS:
    • Aggregate data in SQL Monitor so that it can be retained for longer without using much space
    • Allow us to "freeze" a baseline so that the data doesn't get deleted.

    What do you think about these solutions? Got another idea? Let us know in the comments!

    CONTEXT: When comparing server performance over longer periods of time or across deployments, the baseline functionality in SQL Monitor's analysis section is useful.

    PROBLEM: SQL Monitor creates a dynamic baseline based on previous data. While this baseline is a realistic idea of what's "normal" it requires us to keep a lot of data in SQL Monitor

    EXAMPLE SOLUTIONS:
    • Aggregate data in SQL Monitor so that it can be retained for longer without using much space
    • Allow us to "freeze" a baseline so that the data doesn't get deleted.

    What do you think about these solutions? Got another… more

    41 votes

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11. Develop SQL Server Agent Job Status Alert

    Add a new SQL Server Agent alert to monitor the status of a job. The ability to alert when a job is running longer than a specified time or has not run within a specified time. The current alert will only notify you after the job has stopped. This does not help when a job is hung.

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12. allow analysis graphs to update with realtime data without having to manually refresh them

    We have SQLmonitor analysis graphs running on wallboards to show us data that is useful to us, but we continually need to click the button to "jump to present", as the timeline does not update as more data is collected to show the most recent history. We want the graph to move automatically to match the current time of day.
    Maybe a "play" button that would allow thye display to automatically refresh the graph along the timeline and a pause button should you want to drill deeper into a certain time period when investigating issues. Having the graph update automatically to see new data seems like such an obvious request, I can't understand why it's not there already.

    We have SQLmonitor analysis graphs running on wallboards to show us data that is useful to us, but we continually need to click the button to "jump to present", as the timeline does not update as more data is collected to show the most recent history. We want the graph to move automatically to match the current time of day.
    Maybe a "play" button that would allow thye display to automatically refresh the graph along the timeline and a pause button should you want to drill deeper into a certain time period when investigating issues. Having the graph update… more

    19 votes

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13. In the Analysis tab, it would be better to have an option to change the font from grey (very hard to see) to black/dark blue or something

    In the Analysis tab, it would be better to have an option to change the font from grey (very hard to see) to black/dark blue or something

    6 votes

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14. More options for Custom Metric Frequency

    Would it be possible to have a custom option for the Custom metric gathering, as it stands the data can be collected at intervals of 1,5,10,30,60,1440 minutes

    it would be nice to be able to select a custom value and values less than a minute, the standard metrics that are gathered appear to be gathered every 20 seconds which isn't an option here

    Thanks for your time and concideration
    Ste

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    Daniel Rothig responded

    Note that you can currently hack an arbitrary “seconds” value into the SQL Monitor database – but changing the Custom metric configuration via the UI will reset the collection interval to one of the default values.

15. Custom metric: alert when value changed

    I want to be alerted if someone creates or deletes a database. The metric itself is easy (select count(*) from sys.databases - executed for the master DB on all servers).

    But in the alert setting I can only define that it should trigger if the new result is abover or below a set value but not for value changed (compared eigther to the previous value or the "baseline").

    So I have to create two metrics / alerts for DB drop (below) and create (above) AND have to define / modify the number of databases as alert threshold for each server / instance separat.

    I want to be alerted if someone creates or deletes a database. The metric itself is easy (select count(*) from sys.databases - executed for the master DB on all servers).

    But in the alert setting I can only define that it should trigger if the new result is abover or below a set value but not for value changed (compared eigther to the previous value or the "baseline").

    So I have to create two metrics / alerts for DB drop (below) and create (above) AND have to define / modify the number of databases as alert threshold for… more

    19 votes

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    Daniel Rothig responded

    related: https://sqlmonitor.uservoice.com/forums/91743-suggestions/suggestions/3403483-save-dmv-snapshots-for-analyzing-and-monitoring-ch

16. Search through (closed) alerts for a string.

    It would be great if we could search closed alerts for a string. For example I want to see all the alerts that have included a particular view in the query text.

    (Also include comments in the search)

    69 votes

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    Daniel Rothig responded

    We’re looking into this – no ETA at the moment

17. Allow Fractional Alert Thresholds.

    When you use the "Calculated rate of change" functionality on a custom metric, the results come back in fractional values and you should be able to alert on these values. In my case, I want to monitor number of orders for the last 10 minutes. There are always relatively few orders at night and many during the day, but if order flow drops off drastically in a short period of time, I want to know about it.

    Unfortunately, I can't just alert when the rate of change drops by 25% (-.25) because alerts can only happen on integer values. 100% drop is my only option and that would mean that orders stopped completely. In which case, the rate of change is a useless option since I could have just alerted that there were 0 orders in the last 10 minutes.

    When you use the "Calculated rate of change" functionality on a custom metric, the results come back in fractional values and you should be able to alert on these values. In my case, I want to monitor number of orders for the last 10 minutes. There are always relatively few orders at night and many during the day, but if order flow drops off drastically in a short period of time, I want to know about it.

    Unfortunately, I can't just alert when the rate of change drops by 25% (-.25) because alerts can only happen on integer values. 100%… more

    4 votes

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    Daniel Rothig responded

    A current workaround is to multiply the result by a factor, eg. 100 to make the result a percentage.

18. Add an analysis metric for Total bytes sent/received over the network interfaces

    There is an analysis metric that currently exists for Network Utilization, which I believe is calculated based on the total bytes sent/received over the network interfaces divided by the bandwidth of the network interface. It would be great to add the raw delta bytes/megabytes sent/received/total as a metric on the analysis and overview pages of Sql monitor.

    14 votes

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19. Capture cursor SQL for long running queries

    It would be great if SQL Monitor would capture the SQL statement being executed for long-running cursors. Currently it shows "FETCH CURSORNAME001"

    Cursor SQL can be found with this query when the cursor is still open:
    SELECT c.sessionid,
    c.cursorid,
    c.properties,
    c.creationtime,
    c.isopen,
    c.fetchstatus,
    c.dormantduration,
    s.logintime,
    t.text
    FROM sys.dmexeccursors (0) c
    JOIN sys.dmexecsessions s
    ON c.sessionid = s.sessionid
    CROSS APPLY sys.dmexecsqltext(c.sql_handle) t

    •  

    14 votes

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20. Ability to change the width of list of metrics at analysis page

    The small width of list of metrics makes difficult to read list of metric if it has metrics with names over 20 chars. See attached screenshot.

    •  

    5 votes

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