Microsoft’s SQL Server is an extremely popular relational database management system (RDBMS) that is used by hundreds of thousands of corporations as part of their IT environment. It is one of the platforms with which database administrators need to be familiar when searching for employment. They are very likely to be called upon to work with SQL Server in the multi-platform installations that have been implemented by many companies.
The essential role played by databases in the modern business world has put additional focus on maintaining and optimizing their functionality. This fact heightens the importance of an organization’s database team who are relied upon to keep things running smoothly. Without competent DBAs, a company risks losing the ability to make productive use of the information that is their most valuable asset. Poorly performing or unavailable databases can quickly cripple an enterprise.
Managing an SQL Server environment is not a trivial task and demands a mixture of the right personnel and exceptional software tools. Many things can go wrong with SQL Server systems that can have a detrimental effect on the operation and financial health of a business. One of the ways a database team can maintain high availability and performance is through monitoring the environment and being alerted about potential issues before they become real problems. They need a flexible and effective tool with which to accomplish this goal.
The Right Tool for Managing Your SQL Servers
IDERA’s SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server provides database administrators with the solution they require to keep their company’s critical information resources running at peak efficiency. The tool furnishes monitoring and alerting capabilities that make it possible to keep complex SQL Server environments running whether they are implemented on physical, virtual or cloud instances.
The application’s monitoring features allow the team to be constantly apprised of the availability and current performance metrics of their systems. Users can start and stop jobs on the servers and keep track of what’s running as well as job history. Various aspects of tempdb can be monitored to help track down bottlenecks related to a lack of storage or problematic wait states. Monitoring can be customized with monitors based on specific SQL queries that are important to particular systems.
It cannot be denied that the ability of a monitoring platform to provide alerts is one of its most important attributes. Generating the right kind of warnings enables an IT staff to proactively address issues before they begin to affect performance and impact user satisfaction. Conversely, too many alerts can be dangerous as the condition known as alert fatigue sets in.
A Versatile Alerting Platform
Researchers suggest that receiving a single false alarm can reduce the fear reaction generated by the next such warning by up to 50%. It’s part of human nature captured in tales such as the boy who cried wolf. Our brains are hardwired to learn from experience, and repeatedly responding to false alarms makes it more likely that subsequent similar warnings will be ignored. This can prove to be extremely dangerous, as was discovered when the wolf finally did make an appearance.
One of the most useful features of SQL Diagnostic Manager for SQL Server is its capacity to deliver informative and useful alerts. The tool provides over 100 pre-defined alert settings that are fully configurable to suit the specific requirements of any organization’s SQL Server environment. Alerts can be tailored to be sent to specific groups based on when the warning was generated and why it was triggered. Maintenance mode enables alerts to be disabled when necessary to avoid the possibility of false positives.
The flexibility afforded by this application enables a database team to fully customize the alerts generated by their SQL Servers and received by support teams. It offers the type of granularity that can focus on thresholds reached by specific servers and disks while ignoring the same conditions on other servers in the farm. Your team can focus on alerts that matter while filtering out the excessive noise that accompanies too many false warnings. They can be confident that when the app indicates the wolf is nearby, they need to take it seriously. And that’s what you need to keep your SQL Servers doing their job.