Azure SQL Network Test

This test monitors the availability and response time from clients by a Microsoft Azure SQL database server from an external perspective.

Target of the test : A Microsoft Azure SQL database

Agent deploying the test :A remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for the Microsoft Azure SQL database that is configured for monitoring

Configurable parameters for the test
Parameters Description

Test Period

How often should the test be executed.

Host

The host for which the test is to be configured.

Port

The port at which the specified Host listens.

Database Name

Specify the name of the Azure SQL database that is to be monitored.

User Name and Password

Against the User Name and Password parameters, specify the credentials of the user who is vested with DBOWNER rights to the configured Database Name.

Confirm Password

Confirm the specified Password by retyping it here.

SSL

If the Azure SQL database service being monitored is SSL-enabled, then set the SSL flag to Yes. If not, then set the SSL flag to No.

Domain

By default, none is displayed in this text box. If the ‘SQL server and Windows’ authentication has been enabled for the Azure SQL database being monitored, then the Domain parameter can continue to be none. On the other hand, if ‘Windows only’ authentication has been enabled, then, in the Domain text box, specify the Windows domain in which the monitored database exists. Also, in such a case, the User Name and Password that you provide should be that of a 'domain user' with DBOWNER rights to the configured Database Name.

IS NTLMv2

In some Windows networks, NTLM (NT LAN Manager) may be enabled. NTLM is a suite of Microsoft security protocols that provides authentication, integrity, and confidentiality to users. NTLM version 2 (“NTLMv2”) was concocted to address the security issues present in NTLM. By default, this flag is set to No, indicating that NTLMv2 is not enabled by default for the target Microsoft Azure SQL database. Set this flag to Yes if NTLMv2 is enabled for the target database.

Query

Specify the select query that this test should execute on the target Azure SQL database to determine its availability and responsiveness. The default is “select @@version”. If the target database is installed as case sensitive, then the value of query parameter must be case sensitive.

Azure AD Authentication

This parameter indicates whether Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) authentication should be used to connect to the Azure SQL Database.

If this parameter is set to Yes, the agent will authenticate to the Azure SQL Database using an Azure AD user / domain-based credentials. In this case, the Truststore File Name and Truststore Password parameters must also be configured. If this parameter is set to No, standard SQL authentication will be used.

By default, this parameter is set to No.

Truststore File Name

This parameter is applicable only when Azure AD authentication is set to Yes. If not, set this parameter to none. When Azure AD authentication is used, the server certificate presented by the Azure SQL database during TLS connection establishment must be trusted. For this purpose, the agent must have access to the truststore that contains the CA certificates required to authenticate the Azure SQL server. In this text box, specify the name of the truststore file that contains these trusted CA certificate entries. For example: combinedTrustStore.jks. By default, none is displayed against this text box. To know more, refer to How Does eG Enterprise Monitor a Microsoft Azure SQL Database?.

Truststore Password

This parameter is applicable only when Azure AD authentication is set to Yes. If not, set this parameter to none. If a truststore file is provided in the Truststore File Name text box, then specify the password that is required to access the certificate entries stored in that truststore file. This password is used by the agent to open the truststore and retrieve the certificates for validating the Azure SQL server during authentication. By default, this parameter is set to none.

Detailed Diagnosis

To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option.

The option to selectively enable/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled:

  • The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability

  • Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.

Measurements made by the test
Measurement Description Measurement Unit Interpretation

Server availability

Indicates the availability of the server.

Percent

The availability is 100% when the server is responding to a request and 0% when it is not. Availability problems may be caused by a misconfiguration/malfunctioning of the database server, or because the server has not been started. The availability is 100% when the instance is responding to a request and 0% when it is not. Availability problems may be caused by a misconfiguration/malfunctioning of the database instance, or because the instance is using an invalid user account. Besides the above, this measure will report that the server is unavailable even if a connection to the database instance is unavailable, or if a query to the database fails. In this case, you can check the values of the Connection availability and Query availability measures to know what is exactly causing the database instance to not respond to requests - is it owing to a connection unavailability? or is it due to a query failure?

Using the detailed diagnosis of this measure, you can easily find out unavailability of the server.

Connection time to database server

Indicates the time taken by the database connection.

Seconds

A high value could indicate a connection bottleneck. Whenever the SQL response time of the measure soars, you may want to check the value of this measure to determine whether a connection latency is causing the poor responsiveness of the server.

Connection availability

Indicates whether the database connection is available or not.

Percent

If this measure reports the value 100, it indicates that the database connection is available. The value 0 on the other hand indicates that the database connection is unavailable. A connection to the database may be unavailable if the database is down or if the database is listening on a port other than the one configured for it in the eG manager or owing to a poor network link. If the Server availability measure reports the value 0, then, you can check the value of this measure to determine whether/not it is due to the unavailability of a connection to the server.

Connection response time

Indicates the time taken by the database to respond to a user query. This is the sum total of the connection time and query execution time.

Seconds

A sudden increase in response time is indicative of a bottleneck at the database server.

Query processor availability

Indicates whether the database query is executed successfully or not.

Percent

If this measure reports the value 100, it indicates that the query executed successfully. The value 0 on the other hand indicates that the query failed. In the event that the SQL availability measure reports the value 0, check the value of this measure to figure out whether the failed query is the reason why that measure reported a server unavailability.

Query execution time

Indicates the time taken for query execution.

Seconds

A high value could indicate that one/more queries to the database are taking too long to execute. Inefficient/badly designed queries to the database often run for long periods. If the value of this measure is higher than that of the Connection time measure, you can be rest assured that long running queries are the ones causing the responsiveness of the server to suffer.