As every DBA knows, the one question you want to be able to answer affirmatively is “Can you recover that data?” Monitoring is critical, but monitoring methods can be imperfect. Traditional methods are difficult to set up and maintain across your entire environment, resulting in incomplete monitoring and missed alerts, so that it’s difficult to be sure of your answer to that all important question. This presentation will: • Show you how to implement a better way to monitor your database environment that is more efficient, easier to maintain, and guarantees that you never miss an alert. • Share the methodology, framework, and key syntax, so that you are certain the databases you are responsible for are always up, always backed up, and never run out of disk/file space. So that your answer to that all important question is always YES!

1. Smarter Technology
for Better Business
How to Build a
Centralized Monitoring Solution:
Never Miss a Backup

2. Building a Centralized Monitoring Solution
Agenda
Introductions
Today’s Goals
The Traditional Method
New Centralized Method
The Approach
Aspect Solution

3. Introductions and Qualifications:
Presenting Today…
• Over 20 years of solid project leadership and technical experience in
Data Management, Data Integration, Database Administration.
• Extensive expertise with logical and physical DBA activities with both
SQL Server and Oracle.
• Currently providing remote database administration and monitoring
services for multiple clients across industries.
John Abrams
Senior DBA/Data Architect
Mike McDonnell
Senior DBA/Data Architect

4. Building a Centralized Monitoring Solution
Today’s Goals
Outline a Better Approach to Monitoring to Ensure:
Databases Available
Backups Occurring as Scheduled
No Issues with Disk Space Usage/File Size
And… Achieve All This in the Most
Efficient Way Possible

5. Building a Centralized Monitoring Solution
Traditional Maintenance and
Alerting Methods
Utilize Maintenance Plans
Utilize Third-Party Backup Agents
Utilize Custom Scripts with Alert Notifications
Or….no maintenance/monitoring at all

6. Building a Centralized Monitoring Solution
Typical Alert Generating Activities:
Check Frequency
DB Integrity
Daily
(At least weekly)
Reorganize Index
Weekly
(Daily if time)
Rebuild Index
Weekly
(Daily if time)
Update Statistics
Weekly
(Daily if time)
Execute Agent Job Depends
Backup DB (Full) Weekly
Backup DB (Diff) Daily
Backup DB (Transaction) Hourly
Maintenance Cleanup Daily
Clean Up History Weekly

7. Building a Centralized Monitoring Solution
Pitfalls with Traditional Methods:
Missed Backups:
• Maintenance Plans are modified from All User to selected
databases, potentially leaving new databases without backup.
No Notice of Failed Jobs:
• SQL Agent does not restart, no jobs run-without your knowledge.
Missed Alerts:
• Too many alerts: Multiple success/failure emails buried in inbox.
Undetected Unavailable Database Instance:
• Monitoring not centralize; difficult to detect.

8. Building a Centralized Monitoring Solution
Pitfalls:
Missed Backups
Too Many Alerts
No Notice of Failed Jobs
Undetected offline DB
instances
Resolution:
Proactive
Centralized
Monitoring
…that pulls data out of
the environment.

9. Building a Centralized Monitoring Solution
A Better Method:
What is
Centralized
Monitoring?
All Monitoring Components
Run on a Centralized Server:
 Monitoring Jobs to collect and store
critical info.
 Connection information used to link
to monitored servers.
 Procedures to run jobs and generate
notifications.

10. Building a Centralized Monitoring Solution
A Better Method:
Why
Centralized
Monitoring is
Better
 Scalable and Less Labor Intensive: Single set
of monitoring jobs, rather than deploying the same
set of jobs across 100 servers.
 Nothing Slips Through the Cracks: You do not
miss when jobs do not run.
 One Single Email: Email displays results across
entire environment-rather than multiple emails lost
in your inbox.
 Historical Data Readily Available: Data can be
used for trending and alerting.

11. Building a Centralized Monitoring Solution
A Better Method:
Why
Centralized
Monitoring is
Better
 Proactive, Not Reactive: Trend and forecast
collected data so you can predict issues before
they occur.
 Discover Opportunities for Consolidation:
Easy to collect data that allows you to
 Retire inactive databases
 Consolidate servers
 Reclaim disk space
 Flexible Framework: The sky is the limit—you
can easily expand & extend monitoring & trending.

12. Single Tier
Approach
Components Running on
One centralized DB Server:
• Meta Data to hold info
about servers, connection
strings, jobs to send alerts,
results tables, etc.
• Linked servers to connect
to all destination
databases.
• Dynamic SQL
Generating Procedure to
run jobs, store results, and
send alerts.
Building a Centralized Monitoring Solution
Two Approaches: Single-Tier

13. Multi-Tier
Approach
Adds App Server and
Additional Components:
• Same Data Model:
adds additional tables for
scheduling jobs to run on
instances.
• Utilizes Windows
Service Agent to
connect, execute SQL,
and send alerts.
• Adds Front End to
manage job maintenance,
view alerts and reports.
Building a Centralized Monitoring Solution
Two Approaches: Multi-Tier

14. Building a Centralized Monitoring Solution
Key Tables
Included in Data Model
Server
Holds server configuration information.
DB Instance
Stores database connection string information for each instance.
Jobs
Stores job description and SQL.
Job Schedule
Stores scheduling information.
Results Tables
Multiple tables store results gathered from each job.

15. Create
Multiple
Data Gather
Jobs
Sends Single
Alert Email
Generates
• Trends
• Forecasts
• Consolidation
Opportunities
Stored
Procedures
Analyze
Data
Building a Centralized Monitoring Solution
Centralized Monitoring Components:
Data
Stored in
Results
Tables

16. Building a Centralized Monitoring Solution
Implement Key Queries to Detect:

17. Building a Centralized Monitoring Solution
SQL Query: Gather Database Backup Info

18. Building a Centralized Monitoring Solution
SQL Query: Gather Database Failed Jobs

19. Building a Centralized Monitoring Solution
SQL Query: Gather Database File Size

20. Building a Centralized Monitoring Solution
SQL Procedure: Gather Disk Free Space
Utilize SQL Hidden Procedure:
EXEC master..xp_fixeddrives

21. Building a Centralized Monitoring Solution
SQL Procedure: Gather Access Information

22. Building a Centralized Monitoring Solution
Detect and Alert SP: Failed Backups/Jobs
 SELECT Last Set of Records from Data Results
Table.
 Use MAX(LASTMOD) value to select
records.
 IF detects SOME records (i.e., where backup
date is older than 24 hours OR where job
status indicates failure)
 THEN
 Generate alert email.
 Write records to an Alert table.
Alerting
Stored
Procedure
Detects failures,
sends alert, and
stores alert history

23. Building a Centralized Monitoring Solution
Detect and Alert SP: Disk Space/File Size
 SELECT Current Set of Records from Data
Results Table AND Set of Records inserted X
hours (e.g. 24 hours) ago.
 Use MAX(LASTMOD) value to select both sets
of records.
 COMPARE file size/disk space against rolling
average (specified time period, yesterday, per
month)
 IF detects SOME records where size increased
by X%...
 THEN
 Generate alert email.
 Write records to alert table.
Alerting
Stored
Procedure
Detects out of range
conditions, sends alert,
and stores alert history

24. Building a Centralized Monitoring Solution
Detect and Report Inactivity
 SELECT Current Set of Records from Data
Results Table.
 COMPARE today’s date with last access date
from current record.
 IF date is more than X days ago...
 THEN
 Add to report.
 Write records to history table.
Reporting
Stored
Procedure
Detects inactivity,
sends report, and
stores history

25. Building a Centralized Monitoring Solution
Trending and Forecasting
Forecasting
Stored
Procedure
Collects trending data,
analyze over time, and
forecasts to prevent
issues from occurring
 SELECT
 Data Set (Time Period-Value) for analysis.
 Metric:
 Free Disk Space
 Data File Size
 Record Counts
 Table Size
 ANALYZE:
 Determine: # of Periods to Analyze
 Determine: # of Periods to Forecast
 CALCULATE & FORECAST:
 Calculate & apply historical slope to create
forecast.

26. Building a Centralized Monitoring Solution
Add Jobs to Assist with Tuning
For Example:
Monitor Index Usage
Monitor Memory Utilization
Monitor Distribution of Data within Tables
Monitor Fact Table Record Count Growth
Utilize PowerShell to collect Server Metrics
Flexible Framework Lets You Easily Extend Monitoring

27. Building a Centralized Monitoring Solution
The Aspect Solution: Prodative® WatchDog EMS
WatchDog
EMS
Centralizes
the Right Info
& Alerts Across
Platforms
Capture Key
Data for
Trending &
Forecasting
Easy to
Configure
and Use
Displays info and alerts (e.g.
availability, backup, and file size)via
a web portal; no need to go to the
server for info.
Solution is simple to configure and
use for immediate impact; no need
for full-time staff for support.
Enables you to analyze, predict,
prepare, and address issues before
users are impacted.

28. Monitor Critical Information and Alerts:
 Database Availability
 Missed Backups
 Critical Disk Space & File System Usage
(at both the device and subdirectory level)
 Problematic Indexing and Queries
Monitor
Info & Alerts
Introducing Prodative® WatchDog EMS
Features

29.  View Trending Data, Analyze
and Generate Reports
 Track Server and Job Statistics
 Track Disk Space and Database
Growth Over Time
Analyze &
Report
Introducing Prodative® WatchDog EMS
Features

30.  Maintain and Extend Monitoring
using Flexible Controls:
 Extend and Add Monitoring Jobs
 Set Alerting Parameters
 Add Reports
 Maintain Users
Maintain &
Extend
Introducing Prodative® WatchDog EMS
Features

31. Building a Centralized Monitoring Solution
Questions…