SQL Server performance and activity monitoring
Published 21 October 2021
These sections explain how SQL Monitor metric and alert data is presented in various sections of the SQL Monitor Web Interface, and how to use it to triage problems on your SQL Servers, identify their root causes, understand the performance patterns that your instances and databases exhibit when under load, and review trends, anomalies and errors.
It covers:
- The Underground map of SQL Monitor – instantly find all the key stops on every line.
- Dashboards and Overviews – using these pages you can review and analyze the health and activity of your monitored SQL Servers.
For example:- Investigate which expensive processes and queries are running, and on which databases, which resources are limiting performance (I/O, memory, CPU), if any, whether blocking is occurring and more.
- View alerts directly within the context of the performance metrics, wait statistics and query activity that describe exactly was happening on the server at the time.
- Analyzing metrics – using the Analysis page you can plot relevant performance counters for each instance, as a set, to understand their baselines and patterns of behavior, and to illuminate any gradual trends or sudden changes, such as a sudden drop in available memory, or increase in the file sizes for certain databases.
- Responding to alerts – using the Alerts page to understand the main sources of problems on your SQL Server, triage the underlying cause, and respond.
- Estate information and Reports – for oversight and reporting across all your monitored servers:
- Estate – review information collated from across all your monitored SQL Servers, to understand which versions and editions are installed on which servers, including licensing implications, and to review and analyze trends in certain important metrics (such as disk space use) and critical database tasks (such as backups), across all servers on the estate.
- Reports – to create, configure and schedule reports to share with others in your organization.