Sean, thanks for the message - I completely and utterly agree with you! I am not to discourage the author of this attempt to give us an elaborate tutorial on how to use .NET to report with SQL Server. I will definitely read the rest of the posts.
When it comes to the reports, here are several hints. (Remember: One of the most valuable human qualities is that we can classify, de-classify, sort and measure by applying different criteria!)
1. it is very important to fit your intentions in manageable and proper categories - what would you like to monitor, how often do you want to / need to monitor, what points of view would like to get
2. certain assets you want to monitor oce a day, others, once a month
3. you want to see resources, security and performance points of view
4. gather a list of counters / events / statuses which you want to monitor
5. write a SSIS package which collects data
6. write reports which show you the data that is important
sean hawkes (4/20/2009)
Great start to a topic I've been considering for a few weeks myself. I find it very interesting that the first reply post was to use SSIS and SSRS, because that’s the way I was considering. I agree that its a noble idea, and encourage you to finish, writing this in .NET, but I have to agree with sibir1us about using existing SQL Server tools. On the flip side, I am going to use this as an excuse to get back into coding so I really can't wait.sibir1us, you mention that you can't share code but could you at least share a list what reports you have written. I would find that to be useful without the liability of sharing intellectual property. I know that GrumpyOldDBA has posted several of his reports which were quite useful as a starting point, but I'm curious what reports others have done.
Again Thanks and can't wait for Part x, y, z,
Sean
Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.
Albert Einstein