Foglight for SQL Server (Cartridge) 5.7.5.30


	NOTE: The Status Indicators section filters the Databases Group table to display only instances that meet a criterion set in this section. For details, see Filtering the Display by Severity.

The User Level Access screen displays all users and groups as they appear in the Foglight User & Security dashboard. By default each user is assigned to view All instances monitored in the Foglight Management Server.

To assign instances to a specific user or group:

On the main Database dashboard, click Settings and select User Level Access from the menu.

The Users and Groups panes appear.

To assign instances to a specific user or group, locate the user name in the table. Click the relevant value under the required domain in the Assigned instances column. You can also click Configure in the right column.

Select one of the 3 options:

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Manage — allows you to manage which instances or groups to view

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All Instances — set the user to view All monitored instances

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None — block the user from viewing any monitored instances

Select Manage the instances to display the Assign Instances view.

Select the instances or the pre-defined groups of instances.

Click the arrow button to move the instances from the Assigned Instances box to the Available instances box.

Click Set save your choices and exit.


	NOTE: A Reset button is available in the Users table toolbar. This button allows you to reset user level access to the default behavior. All users will be assigned to view all instances.

Selecting an Instance to Monitor

Because the Databases dashboard displays by default all the currently monitored databases, customize the dashboard’s view to display only the relevant instances, and then preview such instances to decide which to monitor.

To select an instance to monitor:

Display only instances relevant for your needs, using one of the following methods:

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Filter by database type — if multiple database types are being monitored, click the database type tile that represents the requested type (in this case, SQL Server).

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Filter by severity — use the status indicators to display only instances of a specific database type that share a specific health state severity. For further details, see Filtering the Display by Severity.

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Create user-defined groups — use the Databases area to create groups that contain only the databases that need to be monitored for a specific need. For further details, see Creating Custom Database Groups.

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Assign Instances to specific users — When accessing a Database dashboard, non-administrative users view only instances which have been assigned to them. For details, see Assigning Instances to Users or Groups.

View the selected instances’ severity level, using the status indicators.

Click the requested instance to view a cue card with a preview of the instance’s most significant performance indicators. For details, see Previewing the Requested Instance.

Click Home Page on the cue card to open a full-screen view of the requested instance.


	IMPORTANT: Launching a full-screen view of the requested database by clicking the Home Page link can be carried out only for instances monitored in Foglight for SQL Server mode.

Currently Selected Database Group

This Databases table displays the group that is selected from the available database groups under the Databases section of the navigation pane.

The Databases table contains the following columns:


	NOTE: Because the currently selected group can contain instances of types of database monitored by Foglight, the table describes instances in general.

Table 1. Databases Table

The instance’s highest severity alarm, which determines the instance’s health state.

Name

The name of the instance.

Version

The version number of the instance.

Up Since

The date and time when the instance was last restarted.

Workload

Displays the workload chart for the instance.

Alarms

The number of warnings, critical, and fatal alarms for the instance.

Shows the most recent alarms invoked for the specific instance displayed in the row. The alarms are displayed by their severity levels, with the aggregated number for each severity.

Clicking the alarm’s severity icon displays the Alarm pop-up, which provides in-depth information about the alarm, its causes and implications.

System Utilization

Host

The name of the computer that hosts the instance.

CPU Load (%)

The overall operating system CPU usage (including CPU usage by the database).

Memory (%)

The percentage, within the total memory, of memory consumed by all operating system processes (including the database). This value includes both RAM resident memory and swapped memory.

Disk (% Busy)

The percentage of time the busiest device spent serving system-wide input and output requests. This metric serves as a measure for the system I/O load.

Monitoring Status

Agent

The operational status of the monitoring agent.

When the agent instance is running, hovering over the Stat icon displays the status message Collecting Data.

When the agent instance is running but not collecting data, hovering over the State icon displays one of the following status messages:

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The state of OS-related data retrieval by the database cartridge, the Infrastructure cartridge, or both.

Diagnostic

Indicates whether SQL Performance Investigator (SQL PI) is configured. SQL PI can be installed as part of the Foglight for SQL Server installation.

Filtering the Display by Severity

The Status Indicators section can be used for filtering the Databases Group table to display only instances that meet a criterion set in this section.

To filter the display by severity:

Click a specific type of severity within a specific database type (for example, SQL Server instances whose severity level is Fatal).

The selected filter is shown in the table title.

To select another filter, click the required status indicator (for example, SQL Server > Normal severity). To display the entire list of databases, click Clear filters.

Creating Custom Database Groups

While all existing and newly discovered instances are added to the All list, the Databases area of the navigation pane allows creating, editing, and removing sub-groups of database instances, by that means serving as a filter that allows displaying only a specific, user-defined group of instances.

The Databases area includes the following components, which can be selected from a drop-down list:

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Database Groups — includes by default the All list, and the Database Groups list, which serves as the parent group for creating user-defined sub-groups of database instances. Such sub-groups are recognized as Foglight services.

The Database Groups section also displays the highest severity level of the database groups, under the column Sev.

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Services — displays the configured services, which contain at least one object (database topology) that y Foglight for SQL Server uses.

All the Foglight for SQL Server sub-groups, which were created using the Database Groups section, are displayed also under Services. In addition, Services displays groupings of monitored resources that were created using the Service Builder dashboard, and contain Foglight for SQL Server database topology.

The Services section also contains the column SLC (Service Level Compliance), which indicates the current availability of the selected service over a given period.

For details about the Service Builder dashboard, see the Foglight Online Help.

To create a database group:

Select the parent database instance group, Database Groups, under Databases in the navigation pane.

Click the

button.

The Add Sub Group dialog box appears.

Type a name for the group in the Name field.

Type a description for the group (optional).

Select an instance in the Available column, and click [>] to move the instance to the Selected column.

Alternatively, click [>>] to move all the databases to the Selected column.

Click OK.

The sub-group name appears in the Database Groups list.

The database instances are listed in the Databases dashboard.

After adding one or more user-defined sub-groups, it is possible to add sub-groups to these sub-groups.

To remove a database sub-group:

Select the sub group to remove.

Click the

button.

The verification dialog box appears.

Click Remove.

The sub-group is removed from the Database Groups list.

To edit a database sub-group:

Select the requested sub group.

Click the

button.

The Edit Group dialog box appears.

To add an instance to the sub group, select the requested instance in the Available column and click [>].

The selected instance moves to the Selected column.

To remove an instance from the sub-group, select the requested instance in the Selected column, and click [<].

The selected instance moves to the Available column.

Click OK.

Previewing the Requested Instance

Clicking the eye icon next to the instance name opens the quick view panel. The quick view provides a preview of the instance’s most significant indicators, using the following sections:

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General — identical to the home page’s Instance pane.

This section provides the following details:

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DB Type — identifies whether the database type of the monitored instance is SQL Server, Sybase, DB2, or Oracle.

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Version — identifies the database version number, along with the most recently installed service packs.

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Up Since — identifies the date and time when the SQL Server instance was last started.

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Host — identifies the host’s name.

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OS Cluster — indicates whether the instance is part of an OS cluster.

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Alarms — displays the number of warning, critical, and fatal alarms for the instance.

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SQL Performance — opens the History drilldown, which displays SQL performance-related data, either at a high-level or in-depth. This option is available only for instances that have SQL PI configured.

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HADR — indicates whether one or more of the following services are configured:

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Mirroring — points out whether one or more databases within the monitored instance take part in a mirroring operation, either as a principal database whose exact copy is mirrored on a different instance, or as a mirror database. For details, see Tracking the Status of the Mirroring Operation.

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Log shipping — used for setting up back-up databases to take the place of a current “live” database if that database goes down. For details, see Tracking the Status of the Mirroring Operation.

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Replication — for details, see Configuring the On Demand Data Port on the Agent Manager Concentrator.

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Always On — for details, see Reviewing the Always On Availability Groups.

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Cluster Aware — indicates whether the instance is part of a SQL Server cluster.

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Host — displays the following indicators about the operating system’s performance:

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CPU load

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Memory utilization

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Disk utilization

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Storage — displays the storage’s total percentage of used space, and the following indicators:

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Total number of file groups

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Total number of files

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Total volume of occupied disk space, in gigabytes

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Workload — the workload (average active sessions) graph for the SQL Server instance, plotted over the specified time range (by default: last 60 minutes).

The Workload section also contains the following buttons:

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Overview — allows accessing the Foglight for SQL Server Overview page.

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Replication — this button, which is enabled only when the monitored instance is detected as a distributing instance, allows accessing the Replication home page. For more information, see Configuring the On Demand Data Port on the Agent Manager Concentrator.

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SQL Performance — opens the SQL Performance drilldown, which displays performance-related data, either at a high-level data for all instances or in-depth data, available only for databases which are configured with SQL Performance Investigator. For details, see Monitoring SQL Performance.

Components Shared by all Foglight for SQL Server Screens

The tables’ Customizer button and the In-context action button are common to all Foglight for SQL Server screens, drilldowns, and panels.

Figure 1. Customizer button

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The Customizer button — found on the upper right corner of most tables. This button allows inserting additional fields to grids and creating a custom filter. The filter is created by clicking Customizer and specifying the criteria that the various values should meet to be displayed in the table. For example, having a specific name, or exceeding a certain size. For detailed instructions and examples, see Foglight User Guide > Working with Dashboards > Working with Tables.

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In-context actions button — found on the upper right corner of all screens. On selecting it a menu displays allowing actions such as refresh of the viewed screen, quick access to the Agent Admin dashboard and shortcuts to documentation info and support."