Active Administrator 8.8.1 - User Guide

Setting service monitoring policy

Setting service monitoring policy

The Service Monitoring feature monitors and reports on all core Active Administrator® services, and if a service stops, there is an attempt to restart it.

To set the service monitoring policy

1	Select Configuration | Service Monitoring Policy.

2

By default, the maintenance service monitors the selected services, and restarts the service if it stops. There is a check box for each service: Notification, Data Services, Audit Agent, and Advanced Agent. By default, all check boxes are checked. To stop monitoring of a service, clear the check box.

The bottom pane displays the status of the services.

3

By default, the audit agent monitor checks the database for the last time an event is written to verify that the audit agent has a valid connection to the database. If the auditing agent has not written a heartbeat flag to the database within the minutes specified, a notification is sent to the recipients listed on the Notification page.

▪	To stop audit agent monitoring, clear the check box.

▪	To change the number of minutes, type a value in the box.

4	Click Notification.

5	By default, details about the service configuration, such as the service startup account, the database server name, and the state of the service are included in the notification email. You may want to turn it off if you have security concerns.

6	To add email addresses to the list of recipients, click Add.

 

NOTE: You can also manage the Service Monitoring Policy email address list from the Settings menu. See Managing email addresses.

7	By default, only one notification is sent. If you want to send more notifications, select Notification frequency, and type the frequency notifications are sent. By default, notifications are sent every 4 hours until the problem is resolved.

8	Click Delivery Options.

9	For each service, type a new custom subject line or accept the default. Use the variables listed as needed. To reset the message to the default, click Reset.

 

Table 116. Variables for the custom subject line

Variable	Description
%ServerName%	Inserts the name of the server on which the service is running.
%ServiceName%	Inserts the name of the service that is either stopped or started.
%ServiceStatus%	Inserts the status of the service that is either stopped or started.

10	Select the priority of the email: Normal (default), High, or Low.

11	Click Save.

Managing archive databases

Managing archive databases

You can add or remove archive databases.

Topics 

•	Creating an archive database

•	Modifying archive database settings

To manage archive databases

1	Select Configuration | Archive Databases.

2	Use the tool bar options to manage the listed archive databases.

 

Table 117. Archive databases tool bar

Option	Description
Refresh	Refresh the selected archive databases.
New	Create a new archive database. See Creating an archive database.
Properties	Modify the selected archive database. See Modifying archive database settings.
Make Active	Set the selected database to Active status.
Remove	Remove the selected databases.

Creating an archive database

Creating an archive database

To create a new archive database

1	Select Configuration | Archive Databases.

2	Click New.

3	Type the target SQL Server or Azure SQL Managed instance.

You can either type the instance name or browse to it. If you browse, you will see all SQL servers in your subnet that are configured to advertise their presence. If you do not see your server on the list, you must type the name.

4	Type a name for the archive database.

5	Select the encryption to use for all data sent from the named server to the Active Administrator archive database.

Strict: Select this option for SQL Server 2022 and Azure SQL Managed Instance or when the instance has Force Strict Encryption enabled.

Mandatory: Select this option when the instance has Force Encryption enabled. It can also be used when no encryption is configured for the instance, but Trust server certificate is enabled. While this method is less secure than installing a trusted certificate, it does support an encrypted connection.

Optional

6	Enabling Trust server certificate, when 'Optional' or 'Mandatory' encryption is selected, or if the server enforces encryption, means that SQL Server will not validate the server certificate on the client computer when encryption is enabled for network communication.

NOTE: If the Trust Server Certificate check box is not selected, Active Administrator will walk the validation chain until it finds a valid authority.

7	Under Host name in the certificate, you can provide an alternate, yet expected, Common Name (CN) or Subject Alternative Name (SAN) in the server certificate. You would use this option when the server name does not match the CN or SAN, for example, when using DNS aliases.

Leaving this option blank allows certificate validation to confirm that the CN or SAN matches the server name.

8	If using an Azure SQL Managed instance, select SQL Server Authentication, enter a SQL user ID that has login privilege for the SQL Managed instance, and enter the password for the SQL account.

The characters in the password will be hidden. Each character will be represented by a displayed dot. Select Show Password to display the password.

9	Type a name for the archive.

10	Select to make this new archive database active.

If you do not select the check box, you can make it active at a later time.

11	Type a description.

12	Click Advanced.

13	If necessary, adjust the database size or file paths.

14	Select the security group type for the SQL groups.

Using the default group types is recommended.

15	If you want to override the default file locations, select the check box and locate paths for the database and log files.

16

Click OK.

Modifying archive database settings

Modifying archive database settings

To modify an archive database

1	Select Configuration | Archive Databases.

2	Select an archive database from the list.

3	Click Properties.

4	You can change the Archive Name, encryption settings, Description, and the Active/Inactive status.

5	Click Test to check if the server can connect to the selected archive database and to verify that the selected archive database is an Active Administrator® database.

6

Click OK.