It is easy to get database monitoring wrong. There are several common-sense rules that can make all the difference between a monitoring system that works for you and helps to avoid database problems, and one that just creates a distraction. Adam Machanic spells out the rules, based on his considerable experience with database monitoring.  Read more...

This SQL Monitor custom metric tells you if a specific SQL Server Agent job that runs at the same time every day has overrun. The metric is useful when a job can have negative effects on other processes if it overruns.  Read more...

Our major goal in terms of log maintenance for all databases under our care is to optimize for write performance, in order to support all activities that require SQL Server to write to the log, including data modifications, data loads, index rebuilds, and so on. However, it's also important to keep an eye on possible log fragmentation, which, as described previously, can affect the performance of processes that need to read the log, such as log backups and the crash recovery process.  Read more...

SQL Monitor comes with plenty of metrics, but there are always going to be things that you want to measure that can't be done 'out of the box'. Taking database mirroring as an example, Grant shows that custom metrics can be used to monitor and alert whatever aspect of SQL Server or database that you need.  Read more...

dbWarden is a comprehensive monitoring and alerting solution for SQL Server 2005 or newer. It features an emailed Health Report and includes email and text notifications with customizable metrics for alerts such as Blocking, Long Running Queries and SQL Jobs, CPU %, Log file and TempDB growth.  Read more...

There can be more to managing a SQL Server instance than just examining the performance metrics. There are times when understanding how your system is performing for the application is important.  Read more...

SQL Monitor’s Job duration unusual alert is a powerful tool for keeping track of most jobs in your SQL Server environment. It works by comparing the running time of any job instance against the median for that job, and identifying when a variation in the job duration could hint at a performance problem. However, if your environment contains big jobs whose durations vary by several orders of magnitudes, it can be tricky to specify what kind of variation is expected and what would be unusual. For these cases, it is possible to go beyond the functionality of the built-in alert with a custom metric.  Read more...

In this session, Grant Fritchey, Microsoft MVP, drills down into a few of the more obscure monitoring metrics that can give you very precise information about exactly what's happening within your server. He'll also show you how you can use custom metrics to enable these metrics in Red Gate's SQL Monitor.  Read more...

This is the method that Geoff Albin has used for years to monitor the CPU on his SQL Servers.  Read more...

Most common monitoring metrics are important and useful, especially over time, but they can fall short. How do you gather information to determine, for example, if you have buffer cache pressure? Register now for the free webinar. Wednesday, October 17 2012 4:00pm - 5:00pm BST  Read more...

This article will demonstrate a method of creating an Excel-based CPU/scheduler performance dashboard for SQL Server 2005+.  Read more...

Most common monitoring metrics are important and useful, especially over time, but they can fall short. How do you gather information to determine, for example, if you have buffer cache pressure? Register now for the free webinar. Wednesday, October 17 2012 4:00pm - 5:00pm BST  Read more...

Most common monitoring metrics are important and useful, especially over time, but they can fall short. How do you gather information to determine, for example, if you have buffer cache pressure? Register now for the free webinar. Wednesday, October 17 2012 4:00pm - 5:00pm BST  Read more...

Most common monitoring metrics are important and useful, especially over time, but they can fall short. How do you gather information to determine, for example, if you have buffer cache pressure? Register now for the free webinar. Wednesday, October 17 2012 4:00pm - 5:00pm BST  Read more...

SQL Agent stores duration in HHMMSS format - not always useful. Discover how to use Powershell, some basic math, and T-SQL to tame these unruly values.  Read more...

Why would you ever need to automatically monitor the SQL Servers in your care? What is the business value of doing so? What are the important features that a DBA should look for in a performance-monitoring tool? Rodney Landrum gives answers based on long experience.   Read more...

Learn how you can get alerts when you centralize the Event log. This is part 2 of the previous article "How to centralize your SQL Server Event Logs."  Read more...

Database administrators tend to perform a lot of routine checks, referred to as sanity checks, on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. Rob Gravelle shows you how to write some PowerShell scripts to automate a couple of fairly common sanity checks.  Read more...

Using Powershell to create color coded backup reports for all servers in your environment.  Read more...

At some point you are going to need a notification system for a range of events that occur in your servers. Laerte Junior shows how you can even set up temporary or permanent alerts for any WMI events to give you a system that fits your server environment perfectly.  Read more...