SQL Cluster Connection Test

This test emulates a user executing a query on the cluster, and in the process, captures the availability of the cluster service and the responsiveness of the cluster.

Target of the test : A Microsoft SQL Cluster

Agent deploying the test : An external agent; if you are running this test using the external agent on the eG manager box, then make sure that this external agent is able to communicate with the port on which the virtual cluster server is listening. Alternatively, you can deploy the external agent that will be running this test on a host that can access the port on which the virtual cluster server is listening.

Outputs of the test : One set of results for the cluster being monitored

Configurable parameters for the test
TEST PERIOD – How often should the test be executed Host – The IP address of the SQL cluster Port – The port on which the cluster is listening User – A database user name. Password- The password associated with the above user name (can be ‘NULL’). Here, ‘NULL’ means that the user does not have any password. Confirm password – Confirm the password (if any) by retyping it here. database - The name of the database to connect to. The default is “master”. query – The select query to execute. The default is “select * from master.dbo.spt_monitor”. case – Takes the value “upper” or “lower” depending upon the case-sensitivity of the SQL server installation. instance – The name of a specific Microsoft SQL instance to be monitored. The default value of this parameter is “default”. To monitor a Microsoft SQL instance named “CFS”, enter this as the value of the “instance” parameter. DOMAIN - By default, none is displayed in the DOMAIN text box. If the ‘SQL server and Windows’ authentication has been enabled for the server being monitored, then the DOMAIN 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 managed Microsoft SQL server exists. Also, in such a case, the USER name and PASSWORD that you provide should be that of a user authorized to access the monitored SQL server. SSL - If the Microsoft SQL server being monitored is an SSL-enabled server, then set the SSL flag to Yes. If not, then set the SSL flag to No.

Measurements made by the test
Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
SQL availability:	Indicates the availability of the cluster service	Percent	The availability is 100% when the cluster is able to respond to a request. This can happen if any one server in the cluster is currently ‘active’ and is responding to client requests. This measure will report the value 0, if the cluster service is not up and running. Such an eventuality can be caused by the non-availability of active nodes in the cluster to handle the emulated query.
SQL response time:	Indicates the time taken by the cluster to respond to a user query	Seconds	A sudden increase in response time is indicative of a bottleneck in query processing on the ‘active’ server of the cluster.
Database 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 SQL 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.
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.
Database connection time:	Indicates the time taken by the database connection.	Secs	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 cluster.
Query execution time:	Indicates the time taken for query execution.	Secs	A high value could indicate that one/more queries to the cluster are taking too long to execute. Inefficient/badly designed queries 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 cluster to suffer.
Records fetched:	Indicates the number of records fetched from the database.	Number	The value 0 indicates that no records are fetched from the database.