Version 9.5.2
Release Notes
Wednesday, 14 August 2013
| New in This Release | Resolved Issues and Minor Enhancements | Known Issues | Upgrade and Compatibility | |
| System Requirements | Global Operations | Getting Started | For More Information |
Spotlight on SQL Server is a powerful database diagnostic and resolution tool. Its unique user interface provides you with an intuitive, visual representation of the activity on a SQL server. Graphical flows illustrate the rate at which data is moving between server components. Icons display the value of key statistics and alarms. Alarms inform you of bottlenecks and other potential problems. Drilldowns show detailed information on all parts of your SQL Server.
Spotlight integrates data from various sources into a single display. It seamlessly combines data from SQL Server system tables, SQL commands, performance monitor counters, and the Windows registry. Spotlight diagnoses not just your SQL Server, but also the Windows machine that SQL Server is running on.
With Spotlight, diagnostic data is served continuously, even when Spotlight is not open on the desktop.
Business benefits include:
Spotlight on SQL Server 9.1 is built on Spotlight on SQL Server Desktop Edition 9.0 with the following additional features
In Spotlight on SQL Server 9.1, Quest Diagnostic User Groups have been renamed to Spotlight Diagnostic User Groups. The process names for the Diagnostic Server, service and collector, have changed from QuestDiagnosticServerDesktop to SpotlightDiagnosticServerStandard and QuestDesktopCollector to SpotlightStandardCollector.
The following is a list of issues addressed in this release.
| Feature | Resolved Issue / Enhancement | Defect ID |
|---|---|---|
| Data Collections |
Further cleanup of the data folder following upload to Project Lucy. |
JR1984 |
| Fixed a problem that prevented the analysis of some data uploaded to Project Lucy. | JR1982 |
The following is a list of issues addressed in release 9.5.1.
| Feature | Resolved Issue / Enhancement | Defect ID |
|---|---|---|
| Windows Connections |
Enhanced connections to Windows systems, whereby if WMI queries fail a Windows Connection Failure alarm is raised on the third successive failed attempt, not on every failed attempt. |
PT51525963 |
| Alarms |
When running jobs on a SQL Server 2000 instance, fixed a problem where the Job Failed alarm would not be raised. The problem showed up as an error on the Support Service > SQL Agent Jobs drilldown. |
PT51206353 |
| Drilldowns |
When monitoring SQL Server 2008 and later, fixed a problem on the Sessions drilldown for sessions with a Plan Handle where the last executed SQL is not shown and the SPID is incorrect. |
PT51206473 |
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Corrected a problem with the calculation of the data file used percentage on the SQL Server home page. |
PT51692649 | |
| Data Collections | Fixed a problem where some large uploads to Project Lucy were truncated in the zip archive. | PT46786319 |
The following is a list of issues addressed in release 9.5.
| Feature | Resolved Issue | Defect ID |
|---|---|---|
| General | Log files now support UTF-8 encoding. | PT32645481 |
| SQL Analysis now uses wide strings. | PT48210737 | |
| Support to monitor disks that are mapped to network drives. | PT45737723 | |
| Enhanced cleanup of failed uploads to Project Lucy. | PT47244175 | |
| Fixed a problem where SQL Analysis trace failed to close completely when stopped. | PT41365527 | |
| Improvements to Spotlight's handling of traces. | PT35000421 | |
| Alarms |
Fixed a problem where the Monitored Server - SQL Server Collection Execution Failure alarm was raised unnecessarily. |
PT42448947 |
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Improved handling of jobs that are designed to run continuously. The SQL Agent - Jobs Failed alarm will not be raised for failed jobs that are currently running. It will be raised if the job is not running and the last execution is a failure. |
PT46429483 | |
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Following acknowledgement of a job failed alarm the alarm is not re-raised for the same job failure. |
PT48967981 | |
| Improvements to the handling of the High Availability "Quorum Failure Imminent" alarm. | PT46158021 | |
| In the Alarms Dialog increased the number of Keys that can be added to the Severities panel to 500. | PT31259467 | |
| Fixed a problem of false alarms raised on High Availability Group State collection. | PT46508877 | |
| Drilldowns |
Resolved an issue where for monitored servers hosted on a VMware ESX server Spotlight sometimes showed negative spike values. This is a sign of counter values being reset. Resolved the issue by suppressing negative values. |
PT31261555 |
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Resolved an issue on the Spotlight on Analysis Services | Activity | Connections page. It may have shown the wrong time in the GMT Time Zone by incorrectly adjusting for DST. |
ST10433 | |
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Enhancement to the SQL Activity | Sessions drilldown - Can now see the entire SQL query when click on the SPID in SQL Activity. |
PT46351513 | |
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Removed the Command Text column from the Analysis Services Activity drilldown Connections grid. |
PT39234219 | |
| Enhancement of the Memory drilldown for SQL Server 2012. | PT31036473 | |
| Enhancement to the Spotlight on Windows home page handling of invaliding floating point errors | PT45466963 | |
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On the SQL Server Home Page there have been improvements to the SQL that counts the number of sessions to count actual sessions and not threads within sessions. |
PT44438315 | |
| No blocking data shows in playback (Sub Case 1070037-1) | PT37219277 | |
| Data Collections | Project Lucy will not upload data when the disk drive space is less than 500MB. | PT44175093 |
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For SQL Server 2008, fixed a potential performance problem with the QS_JobAlerts.sql collection. |
PT43995937 |
The following is a list of issues known to exist at the time of this release.
| Feature | Known Issue | Defect ID |
|---|---|---|
| General |
SQL Server 2012 - Spotlight does not support Analysis Services in Tabular and Sharepoint modes. |
ST16516 |
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Internet Explorer error on Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration enabled - When Spotlight is installed on a server which has Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration enabled, an Internet Explorer error will popup repeatedly while using Spotlight. Refer to the following URL for information to prevent this error:http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/confirmation.aspx?FamilyID=d41b036c-e2e1-4960-99bb-9757f7e9e31b&DisplayLang=en Note that your system administrator may need to provide you with access to the local web content used within Spotlight. |
ST12009 | |
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Top SQL Statements drilldown - Query Plan returns a duplicate attribute error - This is a Microsoft bug. Workaround: Restrict the grid by getting fewer records or sorting on a different variable. |
ST11179 | |
| Manual refresh is required on some drilldowns. Right click the data in the grid and select Restore Default Settings | Restore. The grid shows "Loading". Click Refresh to populate the grid. |
ST11333 ST11406 | |
| Specifying less than one day in the 'Days since last backup' alarm. The alarm message can be edited to display {value}, in order to show the fraction of a day if desired. | ST9543 | |
| Errors in the Windows Security Log. Specifying OS Connection Details on Windows connections can cause WMI connection errors to be reported in the Windows Security Log of the machine being monitored. This does not affect Spotlight's monitoring capabilities. | ST6722 | |
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Monitoring SQL Server 2008 RTM. The Deadlocks page (SQL Activity drilldown) may not show data when monitoring a SQL Server 2008 RTM database. Workaround: Upgrade to SQL Server 2008 SP1. |
ST7495 | |
| Error collecting data. The collection used to populate the Top SQL drilldown is unable to run when some databases on the instance are in restricted states of access (for example, Single User Mode, Offline). | ST7584 | |
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Unusually large values displayed in Spotlight. Spotlight may display unusually large values on some components and charts. These values are incorrect and are due to inaccurate raw performance counter values returned by Microsoft Windows. The following components and charts are affected:
Workaround: Reboot the machine returning large values. |
ST5796 | |
| Negative values in Wait Statistics drilldown. Negative values may be shown in the Waits Details grid. | ST3757 | |
| Data sourced from SQL Server 2000 performance counters may be incorrect. Spotlight may display an incorrect size or procedure cache hit rate for SQL Server 2000. This does not apply to SQL Server 2005 or 2008. | ST3057 | |
| SQL Analysis grid. The Text Data column in the SQL Analysis grid may occasionally display blank rows. This is due to SQL Server not returning any data in the Text Data column from the trace. | CR219577 | |
| Virtual PC. Running Spotlight on SQL Server on a Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 virtual machine is not recommended. There are a number of issues with Microsoft Virtual PC 2004 that may cause Spotlight to display data incorrectly. | CR218911 | |
| SQL Analysis and filtering. When default filters are set in a mixed environment of SQL Server 2000, SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008, if the filter uses a column that does not exist in one of the versions of SQL Server then the filter is ignored for that version. | CR211872 | |
| Installation & upgrades | Installing other Spotlights. Do not install other Spotlights into the Spotlight on SQL Server folder. You will be unable to run Spotlight on SQL Server if you do this. When installing other Spotlights you must install them into a different folder. | N/A |
| Installing for multi-user access. If multiple users of a system install Spotlight for use, the additional users must be local administrators. | N/A | |
| When upgrading from Spotlight on SQL Server Desktop Edition to Spotlight on SQL Server 9.1, the config file may be lost if it was installed in the 64 bit folder. Contact support if required. | PT41574999 | |
| Diagnostic Server | Diagnostic Server not available. When you first install the product, there may be a short delay while the Diagnostic Server starts up. This can lead to a message in the Spotlight client indicating that the Diagnostic Server is not available - this error will automatically clear when the Diagnostic Server completes its initialization. | ST11243 |
| System time changes. Stop the Diagnostic Server service before changing the system time on the Diagnostic Server machine. | N/A | |
| Diagnostic Server user privileges. The minimum Windows privilege level required to run the Diagnostic Server is Power User. During runtime, the Diagnostic Server requires write access to folders in the install directory. Without the appropriate privileges, the Diagnostic Server cannot run. | ST206558 | |
| Connections |
If the following alarm is raised:
Perhaps only .Net 4.0 is installed on the Diagnostic Server host. Workaround: Install .Net 3.5 on the Diagnostic Server host and then restart the Diagnostic Server service. |
PT36288541 |
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Access errors when connecting to SQL Server 2005. If an access error related to xp_cmdshell occurs and the user changes the SQL Server configuration to allow access to xp_cmdshell, the SQL Server documentation states that you must disconnect and reconnect. To disconnect in Spotlight on SQL Server, you must disable monitoring and enable monitoring for that SQL Server. In the Spotlight Browser, right-click the SQL Server connection and select Properties. On the Monitoring page, clear the Monitor this server option and click OK. Open the Monitoring page again and select Monitor this server and then click OK. |
N/A | |
| WMI access denied alarm messages. A large number of WMI access denied alarm messages usually indicates a network problem such as a malfunctioning domain controller or DNS server. When the network problem is resolved, restart the Diagnostic Server service. | N/A | |
| Microsoft Cluster Services and Windows Server 2012. Monitoring of Cluster Services does not work for Windows Server 2012 instances. | ||
| Microsoft Cluster Server connection problem. If you are connecting to a Microsoft Cluster Server system that does not have control of all disk resources, the uncontrolled disks may display a value of zero for space in total and space available in Spotlight. To rectify this problem customize your disk view to not show this disk. (Do this by right-clicking the disk and choosing Disk Options). | N/A | |
| Playback mode | History Browser and Playback mode. Playback data is collected at scheduled intervals, in response to some alarms, and also while viewing a drilldown using the Spotlight client. This means that history data may not be available for a drilldown in Playback mode. To change the rate at which data is collected, go to Configure | Scheduling. | N/A |
| Spotlight on Windows |
Missing data on the CPU drilldown when monitoring a Windows 2008 R2 Server with more than 32 processors. Workaround: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-au/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa393067(v=vs.85).aspx |
ST14493 |
| Open Sessions grid. Values displayed in the Elapsed Time and Idle Time columns in the Open Sessions grid (Network drilldown > Sessions tab) may not be accurate if the session has been running for more than 18 hours. | N/A | |
| Time stamp in Event Log drilldown. When monitoring a Windows Vista 64-bit or Windows Server 2008 64-bit machine, the time shown for events in the Event Log drilldown is in GMT, not local time. | ST4625 | |
| Disk Queue length metric. Due to a bug in WMI, the Disk Queue length metric can briefly show a false high value when returning from a (valid) Disk Queue Length alarm. | ST13227 |
You can upgrade from Spotlight on SQL Server Desktop Edition 9.0 or Spotlight on SQL Server Standard 9.1 or 9.2.
For more information about upgrading, see the Spotlight on SQL Server Getting Started Guide.
The Getting Started Guide is available as a separate download from www.quest.com and after install, from the Windows Start menu.
Ensure your system meets the following minimum hardware and software requirements:
| Platform | 2 GHz Pentium Dual Core |
| Memory | 2 GB RAM |
| Hard Disk Space |
500 MB This space should exist on a local disk drive rather than a network drive. If the Diagnostic Server’s connection to the playback database is interrupted, the Diagnostic Server will cache data to the local disk. In this event, an extra 2 MB per hour, per monitored server is required. |
| Operating System |
Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 or later (32-bit and 64-bit) Microsoft Windows Vista (32-bit and 64-bit) Microsoft Windows 7 (32-bit and 64-bit) Microsoft Windows 8 (32-bit and 64-bit) Microsoft Windows Server 2003 (32-bit and 64-bit) Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (32-bit and 64-bit) Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 (64-bit) Microsoft Windows Server 2012 (64-bit) |
| Additional Software | .NET 3.5 or later must be installed. |
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SQL Server Client Tools To use the Discovery Wizard to locate SQL Servers on your network the SQL Server Client Tools must be installed. The SQL Server Client Tools are on the installation disk for Microsoft SQL Server 2000, 2005, 2008 and 2012. To use Spotlight on Analysis Services the Client Connectivity tools must be installed. | |
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SQL Server Management Tools To use Spotlight on Analysis Services, Session Trace and SQL Analysis in Spotlight on SQL Server, SQL Server Management Tools must be installed. The SQL Server Management Tools are available from any SQL Server 2005 or SQL Server 2008 edition except SQL Server Express and SQL Server Compact. The version required corresponds to the latest version of SQL Server that you are monitoring. Note, if you are monitoring SQL Server 2000 servers, you need the Management Tools from SQL Server 2005. | |
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Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or later. | |
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Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) MDAC includes the ODBC and other components that enable a connection to be established to a SQL Server database. The database may be local or remote. Your client machine must have MDAC 2.7 (or later) installed. MDAC is available from the Microsoft website: www.microsoft.com/downloads To find out the version of MDAC that you are currently running, you can download an application from the Microsoft website called the Component Checker Tool. Review the following Microsoft Knowledge Base article for more information: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/301202 | |
| Other Requirements |
CD-ROM drive or Internet connection (required for installation only). A monitor capable of supporting a resolution of 1280 x1024 or greater. |
| SQL Server |
Spotlight can diagnose SQL Server instances of the following versions:
Spotlight on SQL Server also supports MSDE (2000), SQL Express (2005) and SQL Server 2008 Express Edition. Spotlight cannot diagnose earlier versions of SQL Server (version 7.x and earlier). Spotlight supports all SQL Server sort orders, including case-sensitive and binary sort orders. Spotlight cannot connect to SQL Server instances where the instance name contains non-US ASCII characters. |
| Database Cloud Service | Spotlight supports SQL Azure. |
| Operating Systems |
Spotlight can diagnose the following operating systems:
Note: On each monitored instance, Spotlight requires the network setting "File and Print Sharing" to be enabled and any firewall to be configured to:
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| Virtualization |
Spotlight on SQL Server can monitor virtual guest machines in a VMware ESX infrastructure. The following versions are supported:
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| Connection Limit |
This version of Spotlight on SQL Server is designed to monitor a maximum of 100 SQL Server or Analysis Services instances and 100 Windows servers. Monitoring more than this recommended limit may result in poor performance or product instability. |
Before installing the playback database, ensure your system meets the following minimum requirements:
| Database sizing | By default, the size of the playback database is set to 500MB (data size) and 125MB (log size). |
| Hard Disk Space |
Requires approximately 270 MB for each monitored SQL Server instance and the corresponding monitored Windows host on which the SQL Server instance resides. Retains 7 days of historical data for each connection in the playback database by default. This is configurable. This estimate assumes default configuration in an average environment. Actual space used will depend on your environment and any data collection/storage configuration changes that are made. |
| SQL Server |
The playback database can be installed on:
Note: The playback database cannot be installed on SQL Server 2000. |
| Other Requirements |
The SQL Browser service must be running on the machine where the playback database is installed. Alternatively you can use the host and port number of the (named) SQL Server instance you want to connect to, when creating a connection and connecting to the playback database. The TCP protocol must be enabled on the instance where the playback database resides. For more information, see the Spotlight on SQL Server Getting Started Guide. |
| Maintenance |
The Diagnostic Server runs maintenance procedures daily at 3am for the playback database. |
For installation guidelines, see the Spotlight on SQL Server Getting Started Guide.
This section contains information about installing and operating this product in non-English configurations, such as those needed by customers outside of North America. This section does not replace the materials about supported platforms and configurations found elsewhere in the product documentation.
This release is Unicode-enabled and supports any character set. In this release, all product components should be configured to use the same or compatible character encodings and should be installed to use the same locale and regional options. This release is targeted to support operations in the following regions: North America, Western Europe and Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, Far-East Asia, Japan.
This release has the following known capabilities or limitations: There are no plans to localize this product
The Spotlight on SQL Server release package contains the following products:
Refer to the Spotlight on SQL Server Getting Started Guide for installation instructions.
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Email: |
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Mail: |
Quest Software, Inc. World Headquarters 5 Polaris Way Aliso Viejo, CA 92656 USA |
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Web site: |
Refer to our Web site for regional and international office information.
Quest Support is available to customers who have a trial version of a Quest product or who have purchased a Quest product and have a valid maintenance contract. Quest Support provides unlimited 24x7 access to our Support Portal at www.quest.com/support.
From our Support Portal, you can do the following:
View the Global Support Guide for a detailed explanation of support programs, online services, contact information, policies and procedures. The guide is available at: www.quest.com/support.
If you have questions about using Spotlight, please contact our technical support staff. Please include the version number and if your question is about an error message, include the error text as well.
Should you encounter any problems with Spotlight, follow these steps:
Click Collect.
This creates a file called SpotlightSupport.zip the following folder:
Support bundles contain information for the active instance only. If you are using Spotlight to diagnose multiple instances, ensure that the correct instance is displayed before creating the support bundle.
© 2013 Quest Software, Inc.
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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Refer to our Web site (www.quest.com) for regional and international office information.
Patents
Protected by U.S. Patent #6,901,582. Additional patents pending.
Trademarks
Quest, Quest Software, the Quest Software logo and Spotlight are trademarks and registered trademarks of Quest Software, Inc in the United States of America and other countries. For a complete list of Quest Software’s trademarks, please see http://www.quest.com/legal/trademark-information.aspx. Other trademarks and registered trademarks are property of their respective owners.
