February 1, 2002 at 10:49 am
I try to monitor each SQL server daily using PerfMon. I watch CPU utilization, pagefile size, data/log growths, values exceeding threshold values. I'm also interested in the historical values of those parameters on each machine. I'm finding that PerfMon is less than an ideal candidate for these activites. Can you recommend any "monitoring" software that is useful from a DBA's perspective?
TIA,
Bill
February 1, 2002 at 2:36 pm
We're still pretty much using Performance Monitor (Windows 2000 version) for most of what we need to do. However, two of the other tools we have in place are Argent Guardian and Compaq Insight Manager.
K. Brian Kelley
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/bkelley/
K. Brian Kelley
@kbriankelley
February 1, 2002 at 3:18 pm
Perfmon works ok, but it's not scriptable. Most software, like NetIQ, is too $$ for me. Testing a piece called MRTG, but not sure if it will work for me.
Steve Jones
February 1, 2002 at 3:23 pm
Our network guys are using MRTG. They like it a lot. We may end up expanding its use since it is fairly straight forward. As for scripting, there's always the option of using WMI in Window2000. The performance counters are exposed. They aren't, so far as I can tell, in the NT implementation.
K. Brian Kelley
http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/bkelley/
K. Brian Kelley
@kbriankelley
February 2, 2002 at 6:21 pm
Hi
I use SQL*Probe and have also used Spotlight. Both are excellent products and well worth looking at. In the end you need to clearly define the type of monitoring you are after and the extend of the drill down. Is it 24x7 with historical tracking over NT and SS? or simply point in time detailed analysis? or mainly NT (many servers)?
I push for GUI tools where possible for monitoring. I hate writing queries and running scripts by hand or even scheduling them myself apart from basic dianostics and error checking. When people pay $10'ks+ for applications running on a DB, and they have major performance problems and perfmon isnt telling them the whole story, I get very frustrated that a gui tool (like sql*probe) for $2k was not purchased.
Anyhow, there are heaps around, get a copy and evaluate.
Cheers
Chris
Chris Kempster
www.chriskempster.com
Author of "SQL Server Backup, Recovery & Troubleshooting"
Author of "SQL Server 2k for the Oracle DBA"
February 4, 2002 at 7:46 am
I too have used Sql Probe and did find that it really hurt performance on my machine. We run a compaq quad 700 with 2 gig ram. Not really hit that hard but while running Sql Probe and certain Sp's performance would drop off the map, literally. A 3 second stored procedure turned into a mammoth that returned in 13 minutes. Turned off sql probe and it came back in 3 seconds again.
I did however love the tool, just too costly. I now do everything with performance monitor and traces.
IMHO
Tom Goltl
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