Microsoft SQL server monitoring

Slow database performance is at the heart of most application issues. Identify whether it is slow queries, improper configuration, or the need for index tuning.

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Proactive monitoring
of Microsoft SQL server

According to a recent Explore Group survey, Microsoft SQL server is one of the top database servers in use today. Services in most industries - healthcare, manufacturing, finance and more - rely on SQL database servers for data storage and access. Any performance degradation or unavailability of these servers can severely impact the performance of the entire service, often causing customer dissatisfaction and lost revenue. To prevent such situations, database administrators are tasked with making sure that their database servers are tuned well and responding as fast as possible to application requests. Performance monitoring can help database administrators:

Proactively detecting problems before they become user complaints;
Accurately diagnosing the cause of slowdowns: is it due to poor queries, missing indexes, insufficient memory, or storage latency?
Identify areas where the database subsystem can be optimized to deliver better performance to the application

Troubleshoot slow database
queries with detailed analytics

Monitor transactions to all the databases on a server
Identify top queries by I/O activities, CPU usage, memory usage
See execution plan for slow queries
Identify which queries are executing for a long time; highlight user name, application and query
Track missing and unused indexes and identify ways to optimize the database for best performance
Monitor fragmentation level of database tables and indexes, and be proactively alerted to situations when online/offline tuning of the database is required

Get comprehensive insights into
database space usage and file activity

Monitor space usage by file groups; determine when the free space in a file group drops below acceptable limits
Track usage of the tempDB; determine if it is running out of space
Monitor the transaction logs of each of the databases. Report on databases that are using excessive transaction log space. Alert when a transaction log is reaching the maximum configured size limit.
Be notified when reserved space, data space and index space utilization of any database is nearing capacity

Track activity of each of the data files. Monitor I/O stalls on the data files. Identify if the I/O activity is not balanced across all data files and if additional data files are required to balance the I/O activity

Supported SQL server configurations:

eG Enterprise supports Microsoft SQL 2005, 2008, 2012, 2014, 2017 and 2019 versions; development and express editions. Support is available on Microsoft Windows and Linux platforms.
Support is also available for both named and port-based Microsoft SQL server installation.

Active/active and active/passive Microsoft SQL clusters are also supported
Choose between agent-based and agentless monitoring

eG Enterprise has been incredibly useful and has far exceeded our expectations. Metrics relating to SQL and missing indexes have provided critical information that we had long suspected were performance issues. Now
we have the information to address specific performance challenges.

Pejman Farahi Applications Specialist, Aird Berlis

Audit accesses to the SQL database server

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Track the workload to the database server. Monitor transaction rates to each of the databases
Report on all active application/user connections to the database server and queries being processed
Identify which application/user is imposing the most load on the database server. Track if there is a database connection leak that is leaving orphaned connections to the database server
Report on top queries to the database server by application/client, categorized by CPU, memory and I/O time used

Identify lock and wait events that can slow query performance

Track all connections to the database server by state and identify connections that are waiting for other connections
Report on root-blockers - i.e., queries that are blocking other queries. Provide historical insights, so administrators can trace back in time and determine if inefficient queries are causing unnecessary locks. Identify root-blockers by SPID, programs running them and queries issued
Get alerted to deadlocks during query processing and identify the queries responsible for this
Monitor all types of waits happening on the database server. Differentiate between waits due to insufficient memory and due to slow I/O activities

Monitor data cache hit ratio and procedure cache ratio and be notified of specific objects that are consuming too much memory in the cache

Monitor database
server health

Track the key parameters that can affect database server performance:

Does the server have sufficient CPU, memory and disk resources?
Is one of the disk drives seeing more I/O than others?
Is there excessive disk queueing that can affect response times?
Is the disk heavily fragmented and is defragmentation required?
Are there any I/O errors during disk access that may indicate a faulty disk that is affecting database access?

Get complete details of the wait events to figure out which process initiated the event

What Microsoft SQL monitoring
with
eG Enterprise reveals

With its ability to automatically determine baselines for every metric collected in the IT infrastructure, the eG Microsoft SQL monitor provides proactive alerts to administrators. In-depth snapshots of the Microsoft SQL server's usage are also provided periodically to assist with real-time and post-mortem diagnosis. Hourly, daily, and monthly trends are automatically computed, so administrators can effectively plan the utilization and capacity of their Microsoft SQL infrastructure.

SQL Server Performance Monitoring	Is the Microsoft SQL database server available for servicing requests? What is the response time for a typical query? How many logins/logouts are happening on the Microsoft SQL server? Which applications/users are accessing the Microsoft SQL server and what is their respective resource usage? What queries are each of the applications currently executing?
SQL Server Engine Monitoring	What is the CPU utilization of the SQL database server engine? How much time is the SQL server spending on processing vs. I/O? What is the typical workload on the database server? Which databases are imposing most load on the database server engine? How many processes are running, and what queries are they executing? Which user(s) are executing these queries?
Lock Activity Monitoring	What is the typical locking activity on the database? Which processes are being blocked and by whom? Which are the root-blocker processes, and what queries are they executing? Are any deadlocks happening?
Database Activity and Space Monitoring	What databases are hosted on the SQL server? Is any of the databases reaching capacity? Which of the databases is seeing more transaction activity? How many active transactions are currently happening to each of the database server?
SQL Memory Monitoring	Is there sufficient memory available for the SQL server? How much memory is the server consuming and how much is it willing to consume? How much memory is used for connections, how much for locks, and how much for query optimizations? What is the server's cache hit ratio? How many pages are available in the server's buffer pool? How many of these are free pages? Is Page life expectancy very low or are there many memory grants pending, indicating a memory shortage?
Operating System Monitoring	Is there sufficient disk capacity? Is there excessive contention for CPU or memory resources? Are the disks unusually busy? If so, which files are being read or being written to? Is the fragmentation level of the disks very high? Which processes are taking up most resources (CPU, memory, disk, etc.)?

Monitor SQL server performance from an application perspective

eG Enterprise application performance monitoring allows database performance to be monitored in the context of the applications using the database server.

Without requiring any agents on the database servers, eG Enterprise APM traces all application accesses and reports on slow queries and exceptions during database processing.
When a specific web page or URL is slow, you don't have to wonder any more as to what is causing the slowdown. eG Enterprise APM gives you the answers at your fingertips.

This eliminates finger-pointing between application development, application operations and database admin teams.

How eG Enterprise monitoring for SQL server helps

Generates proactive alerts based on a variety of SQL database server statistics that are collected and analyzed in real-time
Beyond the capabilities of siloed SQL server monitoring tools, eG Enterprise automatically correlates end-to-end service performance with database, server, and network performance, so you can quickly determine where the hot-spots in the infrastructure are
Provides trending and service level reports so you can assess the current capacity of your infrastructure and plan for future expansion
Eliminates finger-pointing among IT administrators by ensuring that problems are easily and rapidly isolated to specific application tiers, so only specific administrators need to be involved in fire-fighting

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Suitable for monitoring cloud applications, digital workspaces and IT infrastructures

Microsoft SQL server monitoring

Proactive monitoring of Microsoft SQL server

Troubleshoot slow database queries with detailed analytics

Get comprehensive insights into database space usage and file activity

Supported SQL server configurations:

Audit accesses to the SQL database server

Identify lock and wait events that can slow query performance

Monitor database server health

What Microsoft SQL monitoring with eG Enterprise reveals

Monitor SQL server performance from an application perspective

How eG Enterprise monitoring for SQL server helps

Related blogs

Bridging the gap: overcoming communication challenges between helpdesk, sres, it teams, and database administrators

Database trends 2024: the power of cloud, consumption models, and the popularity of postgresql

Planning and baselining a migration to Azure SQL

Start your free trial or schedule a custom demo with an engineer

Proactive monitoring
of Microsoft SQL server

Troubleshoot slow database
queries with detailed analytics

Get comprehensive insights into
database space usage and file activity

Monitor database
server health

What Microsoft SQL monitoring
with
eG Enterprise reveals