Protecting the encryption keys used to store monitoring credentials securely

More information about how to manage the encryption keys can be found in Managing the encryption keys file. It includes advice on protecting the encryption keys which it is strongly recommended that you follow.

Protecting the configuration file

The configuration file might contain password information in plain text if you specify SQL Server Authentication as part of the connection string. In this case, ensure unauthorized users can't view the file's contents; for example, you could deny access to the folder.
The monitoring service account needs access to the configuration file.
We recommend using Windows Authentication or gMSA instead of SQL Server Authentication.

Encryption between the Base Monitor and the web server

The communication between the Base Monitor and the web server is encrypted with a self-signed certificate.

Encryption between the web server and the user

It is recommended that HTTPS be configured on the web server. See here for more information on how to set up Redgate Monitor in IIS and here on how to set up in the default web server (Kestrel). When using IIS, application initialization should also be configured as described here.

Log files

The Redgate Monitor log files contain information about your estate. This information includes items such as the names of monitored servers, the names of databases, the names of accounts used to access servers and the names of users attempting to log into Redgate Monitor. The log files are stored locally on your estate and are not automatically shared with Redgate. However, they are an important tool for troubleshooting and will commonly be requested by Redgate's support team, in which case they will be handled in line with our Privacy policy.

Authentication

We recommend configuring OpenID Connect (OIDC) in Redgate Monitor to manage user access. See Authenticating with OpenID Connect for more details.

Redacting query plan parameter values

By default, values of query plan parameters are visible to users in the Administrator role and redacted for Standard and Read-Only roles. Since version 13.0.30, it's possible to redact query plan parameters for all users (incl. administrators), by setting the SQLMONITOR_AlwaysRedactQueryPlanParameters  environment variable on the Website to true.

Sensitive data

Some monitoring data may be considered sensitive. Dependent on the workloads being run against monitored servers, such data may include (but is not necessarily limited to) information about the text of executed queries, query plans, or the names of users with access to monitored systems. This data is stored in Redgate Monitor's database repository, which should be protected accordingly. Additionally, indexed query text information is stored separately to the repository on disk as described in Configuring Top Query Search, and should protected.