Microsoft

SQL Server 7.0 and

SQL Server 2000
Management Pack
Guide
Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 and
SQL Server 2000 Management Pack
Refresh for Microsoft Operations
Manager 1.0 SP1
Published: November 2003

Acknowledgements
Program Managers: Tom Keane, Steve Wilson
Writer: Brenda Carter
Technical Reviewer: James Hedrick
Editor: Scott Kendall
 Recommended Knowledge and Skills 2

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 Contents iii

Contents

Recommended Knowledge and Skills.....................................................1

Overview of the Microsoft SQL Server Management Pack Refresh.........1
Deploying the Microsoft SQL Server Management Pack Refresh............4
Operations Tasks..................................................................................33
Recommendations for the Network Operations Desk...........................36
Troubleshooting...................................................................................36
Reference.............................................................................................37
 Recommended Knowledge and Skills 1

Recommended Knowledge
and Skills
To deploy and operate the Microsoft® SQL Server™ Management Pack Refresh, it is
recommended that you possess the following knowledge and skills:
• A working knowledge of the Microsoft Operations Manager 2000 (MOM)
monitoring features.
• Be familiar with the recommended process for deploying Management Packs as
described in Chapter 7, “Deploying Management Packs,” in the Microsoft
Operations Manager 2000 SP1 Deployment Guide.
• Have an administrative and working knowledge of Microsoft SQL Server 7.0 and
SQL Server 2000.
• Have a working knowledge of databases and Transact-SQL.

Overview of the Microsoft

SQL Server Management
Pack Refresh
The Microsoft SQL Server Management Pack Refresh for MOM SP1 provides both proactive
and reactive monitoring of Microsoft SQL Server 7.x and Microsoft SQL Server 2000. This
Management Pack is provided as a Web download upgrade for existing users of the Microsoft
SQL Server Management Pack and provides additional monitoring of SQL Server functionality
in the following key areas:
• Microsoft SQL Server clusters
• Microsoft SQL Server 2000 named instances
• Database and database transaction log free space monitoring
• Microsoft SQL Server service monitoring
• Local and remote connectivity monitoring
• Database health monitoring
• Support for Microsoft SQL Server named instance and clustered databases with
MOM SP1 reporting
2 Recommended Knowledge and Skills

• An easy-to-understand and navigate processing rule group hierarchy

• Public views of key operating system and SQL Server performance metrics
 Recommended Knowledge and Skills 3

Microsoft SQL Server Management

Pack Monitoring Scenarios
The Microsoft SQL Server Management Pack monitors key data points to ensure the availability
of SQL Server and related components as well as reliable day-to-day operation of SQL Server.

SQL Server Availability and SQL Server Named Instance

Availability
• SQL Server service monitoring
• SQL Server local connectivity monitoring
• Database and transaction log space monitoring
• Database health monitoring
• SQL Server remote connectivity monitoring
• SQL Server port bind errors
• Collection of SQL Server Windows® event log events

SQL Server Cluster Availability

• SQL Server clustered SQL service availability

SQL Server Agent Availability

• SQL Server Agent availability
• Monitor failed SQL Server agent jobs

MSDTC
• SQL Server MSDTC errors

Performance
• Deadlocks and blocks
• Excessive user connections
• Pages writes and allocations
• Active transactions
• Average wait time
• DBCC logical scan bytes per second
• Full scans per second
• Memory grants pending
4 Recommended Knowledge and Skills

Reporting
• Replication metrics
• Backup device throughput
• Lock performance
• Log performance
• SQL Server critical errors

Security
• Trusted and non-trusted security configurations
• Collection of failed SQL Server login attempts

Backups
• Failed full database backups
• Failed incremental database backups
• Database device throughput
• Successful database backups

Replication
• Snapshot replication
• Merge replication
• Transactional replication
• Replication components
• Replication agents running

Deploying the Microsoft

SQL Server Management
Pack Refresh
Upgrading the Management Pack
The Microsoft SQL Server Management Pack Refresh is an upgrade of existing versions of the
Management Pack. It is essential that previous versions of the Management Pack are installed
prior to installing this Management Pack.
 Recommended Knowledge and Skills 5

The upgrade process replaces the existing SQL Server Management Pack. This updated
Management Pack includes significant changes to the structure of the existing Management Pack
hierarchy and relocates a large number of rules. Therefore, if you have made customizations to
existing rules in a previous version of the SQL Server Management Pack, it is recommended that
you copy these customized rules to a dedicated Management Pack for the upgrade process. You
should also perform a full database backup prior to upgrading this Management Pack.

Note
No changes are made to existing SQL Server Management Pack
reports. All reports continue to work as is.

The Import Management Pack wizard in MOM allows you to perform a backup of the previous
version of the SQL Server Management Pack. The best practice is to leave the Backup existing
Management Pack on upgrade check box selected. This allows you to revert to the previous
Management Pack, if required.
To upgrade the SQL Server Management Pack
1. In the MOM Administrator console, navigate to Rules, Processing Rule Groups.
2. Right-click Processing Rule Groups, and then click Import Management Pack.
3. Enter the path to the Microsoft SQL Server.akm file or browse to and select this file.
4. Verify that Replace Existing Management Pack is selected.
5. Verify that the Backup existing Management Pack on upgrade check box is selected.
6. Click Next.
7. Select the desired options for backing up the previous version of the SQL Server
Management Pack, and then click Next.
8. Click Finish.
To verify that the upgraded SQL Server Management Pack appears in
the MOM Administrator console
1. In the MOM Administrator console, navigate to Rules, and then click Microsoft
SQL Server.
2. In the right pane, review the Purpose section of the knowledge base content, and
then verify that the last sentence in this section lists a build number of 1334 or later.
After upgrading the SQL Server Management Pack, commit the new configuration changes
manually to ensure that agents receive the new SQL Server Management Pack rules.
To commit configuration changes
1. In the MOM Administrator console, navigate to Rules.
2. Right-click Rules, and then click Commit Configuration Change.
6 Recommended Knowledge and Skills

Setting Up Reporting
By default, no data is collected for reporting. This prevents unnecessary database growth. To
enable reporting, the processing rules that collect the data for reports must be enabled. This
section lists the processing rules that need to be enabled and includes setup for the following
reporting scenarios:
• Reporting for clustered databases
• Reporting for named instances on SQL Server 2000
For a list of reports that are included in the SQL Server Management Pack Refresh, see the
“Reports” section later in this guide.

Enabling Dependent Rules

The processing rules that collect data for reporting are listed in the following locations.
SQL Server 2000
• \SQL Server 2000\SQL Server 2000 Report Collection Rules\Event Processing Rules
• \SQL Server 2000\SQL Server 2000 Report Collection Rules\Performance
Processing Rules
• \SQL Server 2000\Server Performance Collection\Replication Performance
Collection\Event Processing Rules
• \SQL Server 2000\Server Performance Collection\Replication Performance
Collection\Performance Processing Rules
SQL Server 7.0
• \SQL Server 7.0\SQL Server 7.0 Report Collection Rules\Event Processing Rules
• \SQL Server 7.0\SQL Server 7.0 Report Collection Rules\Performance Processing
Rules
To collect the data that is used by reports, you must enable the associated processing rules. The
following table lists the processing rules that must be enabled for each report.

Note
Not all reporting processing rules are available for both
SQL Server 7.0 and SQL Server 2000. Also, report names in
some processing rule groups are preceded by Report Collection
—.

Table 1 Processing Rules That Gather Data for Capacity Planning Reports
Report Processing Rule
Capacity Planning — SQL Server Device Throughput Bytes/sec
Backup Device Capacity
Planning by Day
 Recommended Knowledge and Skills 7

Capacity Planning — SQL Server User Connections

User Connections by Day
Capacity Planning — SQL Server User Connections
User Connections by Peak Hours
Operations — SQL Server Critical SQL Server Critical Events
Events
Operations — SQL Server Critical SQL Server Critical Events
Events Trend by Day
Performance Analysis — Replication Dist:Delivered Cmds/sec,
SQL Server Distribution Replication Dist:Delivered Trans/sec
Replication Performance
Replication Dist:Delivery Latency
Analysis
Performance Analysis — Lock Requests/sec
SQL Server Lock Performance Lock Waits/sec
Analysis
Number of Deadlocks/sec
Performance Analysis — Log Flushes/sec
SQL Server Log Performance Log Flush Wait Time
Analysis
Log Flush Waits/sec
Performance Analysis — Logreader:Delivered Cmds/sec
SQL Server Logreader Logreader:Delivered Trans/sec
Replication Performance
Logreader:Delivery Latency
Analysis
Performance Analysis — Page Faults/sec - sqlserv
SQL Server Memory Performance Private Bytes - sqlserv
Analysis
Total Server Memory
Buffer Cache Hit Ratio
Free Buffers (SQL Server 2000 only)
Lazy Writes/Sec
Readahead Pages/Sec
Performance Analysis — Replication Merge-Conflicts/sec
SQL Server Merge Replication Replication Merge-Downloaded
Performance Analysis Changes/sec
Replication Merge-Uploaded
Changes/sec
Performance Analysis — Replication Database Pending Xacts
SQL Server Overall Replication Replication Database Trans. Rate
Performance Analysis
Performance Analysis — Replication Snapshot:Delivered
SQL Server Snapshot Replication cmds/sec
Performance Analysis Replication Snapshot:Delivered
8 Recommended Knowledge and Skills

Trans/sec
 Recommended Knowledge and Skills 9

Reporting for Clustered Databases

The SQL Server Management Pack Refresh supports reporting against clustered servers. To
report against clustered servers, the virtual server name must be added to the MS
SQL Server 2000 computer group.
To add virtual server names to the MS SQL Server 2000 computer
group
1. In the MOM Administrator console, navigate to Rules, Computer Groups.
2. Right-click the MS SQL Server 2000 computer group, and then click Properties.
3. Click the Included Computers tab, and then click Add.
4. On the Computer menu, select Equals, and then enter the virtual server name.
5. Click OK, and then Apply.

Reporting for Named Instances on SQL Server 2000

The SQL Server Management Pack Refresh supports reporting against named instances of
SQL Server. A list of the installed SQL Server instances on each server is collected by a script
every 24 hours. By default, this script is disabled. To configure reporting for named instances,
enable the following processing rule:
• \Microsoft SQL Server\SQL Server 2000\Report Collection Rules\Event Processing
Rules\Named Instance Discovery (24 hours)

Service Monitoring and Local Connectivity

The SQL Server Management Pack Refresh monitors the availability of critical SQL Server
services such as the SQL Server service, the SQL Agent service, and optionally the Full Text
Search service. As part of the service check functionality, the SQL Server Management Pack also
monitors the availability of SQL Server for connections by querying the server for data. The
service check functionality is fully named instance and cluster aware, and it does not generate an
alert if a clustered node is passive (and the SQL Server services are not running). On a server
with multiple instances of SQL Server installed, each instance is queried to ensure that all
appropriate services are running and functional.
Service monitoring and local connectivity is checked every five minutes, by default.

Processing Rules
Service monitoring and local connectivity rules are listed in the following locations:
• \SQL Server 2000\SQL Server 2000 Health and Availability Monitoring\Event
Processing Rules\SQL Server Service Availability
• \SQL Server 7.0\SQL Server 7.0 Health and Availability Monitoring\Event
Processing Rules\SQL Server Service Availability
10 Recommended Knowledge and Skills

The following table lists the service availability processing rules.

Table 2 SQL Server Service Availability Processing Rules
Processing Rule Default Value
SQL Server Service Availability Enabled
SQL Server Service Availability — Connection Failure Enabled
SQL Server Service Availability — SQL Server Agent Enabled
service not running
SQL Server Service Availability — SQL Server Full Text Enabled
Search not running
SQL Server Service Availability — SQL Server service not Enabled
running

Scripts
While there are five SQL Server service availability processing rules, the first of these rules
(SQL Server Service Availability) stores the script and executes the script parameters for service
availability monitoring.
The best practice for modifying these service availability monitoring settings is to adjust the
script parameters in the SQL Server Service Availability processing rule, rather than disabling
any of the remaining service availability processing rules. If you disable any of the remaining
service availability processing rules without disabling the script responses associated with those
rules, the scripts continues to run but the alerts are not generated.
The following table lists the script parameters, descriptions, and default states.
Table 3 SQL Server Service Availability Script Parameters
Script Parameter Description Default Value
CheckSQLAgent Logs a warning event when the SQL Enabled
Agent service is not running
CheckSQLConnectio Logs an error event when Enabled
n SQL Server local connectivity
cannot be established
CheckSQLServer Logs an error event when the Enabled
SQL Server service is not running
CheckSearch Logs a warning event when full text Disabled
search is not available
InformationEvent Logs an information event each Disabled
time the script runs
 Recommended Knowledge and Skills 11

Customization
SQL Server service availability monitoring can be customized to modify the behavior to only
check some services and connectivity. However, the default configuration effectively monitors
the health of SQL Server. Therefore, the best practice is to not change the default configuration.
To customize SQL Server service monitoring
1. In the MOM Administrator console, navigate to the SQL Server Service
Availability processing rule.
2. Right-click the rule, and then click the Response tab.
3. Select the rule, and then click Edit.
4. In the Script parameters box, modify the script responses by selecting a script, and
then click Edit Script Parameters.
5. After modifying script responses, click OK, and then Apply.
After modifying the script responses, commit the configuration changes to apply the changes to
agent computers.

Database Space Analysis and

Thresholds
The SQL Server Management Pack monitors the space of all databases and transaction logs.
Granular thresholds can be defined based on the role of the databases.

Processing Rules
The database space analysis processing rules are listed in the following locations:
• \SQL Server 2000\SQL Server 2000 Health and Availability Monitoring\Event
Processing Rules\SQL Server Database Space Analysis
• \SQL Server 7.0\SQL Server 7.0 Health and Availability Monitoring\Event
Processing Rules\SQL Server Database Space Analysis
The following table lists the database space analysis processing rules.
Table 4 SQL Server Service Availability Processing Rules
Processing Rule Default Value
SQL Server Database Space Analysis Enabled
SQL Server Database Space Analysis — Database space Enabled
error
SQL Server Database Space Analysis — Database space Enabled
warning
SQL Server Database Space Analysis — Log file space Enabled
12 Recommended Knowledge and Skills

error
SQL Server Database Space Analysis — Log file space Enabled
warning
 Recommended Knowledge and Skills 13

Scripts
While there are five SQL Server database space processing rules, the first of these rules
(SQL Server Database Space) stores the script responses for database space monitoring. The
following table lists the script parameters, the database to which they are applied, the threshold
settings, and the default states. If the indicated database is General, the script is applied to all
databases except those specifically called out in the table, such as the System Databases and the
TempDB databases. The Model database is excluded from space monitoring.
Table 5 SQL Server Service Availability Script Parameters
Event Threshold Default
Script Parameter Database Severity Value Value
DBErrorLevel General databases Error 100 MB Enabled
DBWarningLevel General databases Warning 200 MB Enabled
LogErrorLevel General Transaction Error 75 MB Enabled
logs
LogWarningLeve General Transaction Warning 150 MB Enabled
l logs
SysDBErrorLevel System Databases Error 15 MB Enabled
(MSDB and Master)
SysDBWarningL System Databases Warning 30 MB Enabled
evel (MSDB and Master)
SysLogErrorLeve System Transaction Error 15 MB Enabled
l Logs (MSDB and
Master)
SysLogWarningL System Transaction Warning 30 MB Enabled
evel Logs (MSDB and
Master)
TempDBErrorLe TempDB Error 100 MB Enabled
vel
TempDBWarnin TempDB Warning 200 MB Enabled
gLevel
TempLogErrorLe TempDB Transaction Error 75 MB Enabled
vel Logs
TempLogWarnin TempDB Transaction Warning 150 MB Enabled
gLevel Logs

Monitoring for Free Space

Database and transaction log space monitoring intelligently monitors free space and takes into
account database automatic growth, multiple file groups, and files. The free space check runs
14 Recommended Knowledge and Skills

every hour, by default, and checks each installed database on the server. When checking the
database, each database and transaction log file group and associated file is enumerated.

Reporting for Databases That Are Configured to Automatically

Grow
When checking the free space, each file is checked for the Automatically grow file option. If
this option is configured, the SQL Server Management Pack does not generate warnings or errors
for these databases.

Excluding Databases from Monitoring

Individual databases can be excluded from monitoring, if required. For more information, see the
“Excluding Databases from Monitoring” section later in this guide.

Combining Database Space Monitoring with Disk Space

Monitoring
It is recommended that you use database and transaction log free space monitoring in
combination with disk space monitoring to ensure that databases that are set to automatically
grow have sufficient disk space as they grow. The SQL Server Management Pack includes two
public views that help monitor disk space. The public views are in the following location:
• Monitor\Public Views\Microsoft SQL Server\SQL Server 2000\Server Resource
Utilization\Disk Capacity
The following disk space views are provided:
• % Free Space
• Free Megabytes
Both of these views assist in determining whether sufficient free space is available on the disk
subsystem.

Customizing Thresholds
The database and transaction log space monitoring thresholds can be customized. If you are
customizing thresholds, it is recommended that you work with database administrators to
determine the appropriate warning and error threshold levels. By default, the space thresholds do
not require any customization.
To customize database space analysis monitoring
1. In the MOM Administrator console, navigate to the SQL Server Database Space
Analysis processing rule.
2. Right-click the rule, and then click the Response tab.
3. Select the rule, and then click Edit.
4. In the Script parameters box, modify the script responses by selecting a script, and
then click Edit Script Parameters.
5. After modifying script responses, click OK, and then Apply.
 Recommended Knowledge and Skills 15

After modifying the script responses, commit the configuration changes to apply the changes to
agent computers.
16 Recommended Knowledge and Skills

Remote Connectivity Monitoring

The SQL Server Management Pack provides a simple way to verify remote connectivity to
SQL Server and to verify that users can successful connect to remote SQL Server databases.
While other monitoring tools do not verify that the network stack of a server is functioning or
that other network devices between the server and the end user are functioning, the SQL Server
Management Pack Refresh provides client-side monitoring of remote SQL Server databases. This
feature monitors the availability of SQL Server by querying the server remotely from client
computers that you designate.
To check for remote connectivity, the SQL Server Management Pack runs a timed user-defined
Transact-SQL remote connectivity script on computers that are members of the following
computer groups:
• MS SQL Server 2000 Client Side Monitoring
• Microsoft SQL Server 7.x Client Side Monitoring
The script is run against servers listed in the SQL remote connectivity processing rule. If the
script fails to execute successfully or takes too long to execute, alerts are generated.
You can designate multiple remote client computers; however, each client computer checks for
connectivity on all servers that are listed in the SQL remote connectivity processing rule.
Specifying multiple remote client computers is useful for checking connectivity from different
locations across a network.
Remote connectivity checking requires that Structured Query Language-Distributed Management
Objects (SQL-DMO) components be installed on the designated remote client. You can meet this
requirement by either installing SQL Server or SQL Server client tools on designated remote
client computers.
 Recommended Knowledge and Skills 17

The following figure highlights the two-step process for remote connectivity checking.
Figure 1 SQL Server remote connectivity check

Processing Rules
The client-side monitoring processing rules are listed in the following locations:
• \SQL Server 2000\Client Side Monitoring\Event Processing Rules\SQL Server
Remote Connectivity
• \SQL Server 7.0\Client Side Monitoring\Event Processing Rules\SQL Server Remote
Connectivity
The following table lists the client-side monitoring processing rules.
Table 6 SQL Server Client-Side Monitoring Processing Rules
Processing Rule Default Value
SQL Server Remote Connectivity Enabled
SQL Server Remote Connectivity — Execution Failure Enabled
SQL Server Remote Connectivity — Execution Time Enabled
Warning
18 Recommended Knowledge and Skills
 Recommended Knowledge and Skills 19

Scripts
While there are several SQL Server remote connectivity processing rules, the first of these rules
(SQL Server Remote Connectivity) stores the script parameters for remote connectivity
monitoring. The following table lists the script parameters, descriptions, and default states for the
SQL Server Remote Connectivity processing rule.
Table 7 SQL Server Service Availability Script Parameters
Script Parameter Description Default Value
CheckInstances A comma-separated list of remote Disabled
databases to connect to. This list
might include only computer names
(for a default instance) or a computer
and instance name (for example,
Server\Instance10).
DatabaseName The database to run the query against. Enabled
By default, the database is set to
Master.
ExecutionTimeAl The acceptable time for the specified Enabled
ert query to execute. If the query takes
longer than the specified time to
execute, an alert is raised. This
number can be a decimal number, for
example 0.01. The default value is
5 seconds.
InformationEven Logs an information event each time Disabled
t the script runs.
Query The Transact-SQL query that is run on Enabled
the designated client computer to
check connectivity to SQL Server
databases specified in the
CheckInstances script parameter. The
default query is SELECT GETDATE.

Configuring Client Monitoring of Remote Connectivity

Client monitoring of remote connectivity is configured by:
• Installing either SQL Server or SQL Server client tools on the designated client
computers.
• Installing a MOM agent on the designated client computers. Add the designated
client computers to the same configuration group that you are using to monitor
remote connectivity.
• Adding designated client computers to the appropriate computer group, according to
the SQL Server version:
20 Recommended Knowledge and Skills

• MS SQL Server 2000 Client Side Monitoring

• MS SQL Server 7.x Client Side Monitoring
 Recommended Knowledge and Skills 21

• Ensuring that the MOM service account on the designated client computer has the
appropriate permissions to connect to the SQL Server computers.
• Adding SQL Server computers and instances to the SQL Server remote connectivity
processing rule.
To add computers to the MS SQL Server client-side monitoring
computer groups
1. In the MOM Administrator console, navigate to Rules, Computer Groups.
2. Right-click the appropriate computer group, and then click Properties.
3. Click the Included Computers tab.
4. Click Add to add computers, add computer criteria, and then click OK.
5. Click Apply, and then OK.
Be sure to initiate a managed computer scan after modifying a computer group membership.
To add computers to the SQL Server remote connectivity processing
rule
1. In the MOM Administrator console, navigate to the Client Side Monitoring
processing rule group, and then click Event Processing Rules.
2. Right-click the SQL Server Remote Connectivity processing rule, and then click
Properties.
3. Click the Responses tab, select SQL Server Remote Connectivity, and then click
Edit.
4. In the Script parameters box, select CheckInstances, and then click Edit Script
Parameters.
5. In the Value field, enter a comma-separated list of instances to connect to, and then
click OK. To check for connectivity to a default instance, enter only the server name.
To check for connectivity to a named instance, enter the server name and instance
name by using the following format: server_name\instance_name.
6. After modifying script responses, click OK, and then Apply.
After modifying the computer group membership and script responses, commit the configuration
changes to apply the changes to agent computers.

Alerts
The results of the query determine the alerts that are generated:
Alert – The query failed to execute.
Warning – The query executed outside the acceptable time threshold.
22 Recommended Knowledge and Skills

Service Pack Compliance

The SQL Server Management Pack can monitor servers running SQL Server to ensure that they
are running the most recent SQL Server service pack or hotfix version. This checking generates
an alert when a computer is running a service pack or hotfix version earlier than the specified
version. The checking can also optionally generate an informational alert for service pack
compliance that can be used for auditing purposes.
Service pack compliance monitoring is not configured by default. While the processing rules that
are associated with service pack compliance are enabled by default, the script responses must be
configured to monitor for service pack compliance.
Version compliance is performed by using the SQL Server version string, where the version
strings beginning with 7 are SQL Server 7.x and the version strings beginning with 8 are
SQL Server 2000. The following table lists SQL Server version strings and their service pack
levels.
Table 8 SQL Server Version Strings and Associated Releases
Version String Service Pack Level
7.00.163 SQL Server 7.x RTM
7.00.699 SQL Server 7.x Service Pack 1
7.00.842 SQL Server 7.x Service Pack 2
7.00.961 SQL Server 7.x Service Pack 3
7.00.1063 SQL Server 7.x Service Pack 4
8.00.194 SQL Server 2000 RTM
8.00.384 SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 1
8.00.534 SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 2
8.00.760 SQL Server 2000 Service Pack 3

For information about how to determine the SQL Server version, see article 321185 in the
Microsoft Knowledge Base.

Processing Rules
The service pack compliance processing rules are listed in the following locations:
• \SQL Server 2000\SQL Server 2000 Health and Availability Monitoring\Event
Processing Rules\SQL Service Pack Compliance
• \SQL Server 7.0\SQL Server 7.0 Health and Availability Monitoring\Event
Processing Rules\SQL Service Pack Compliance
 Recommended Knowledge and Skills 23

The following table lists the service pack compliance processing rules.
Table 9 SQL Service Pack Compliance Processing Rules
Processing Rule Default Value
SQL Service Pack Compliance Enabled
SQL Service Pack Compliance — Version does comply Enabled
SQL Service Pack Compliance — Version does not comply Enabled

Scripts
While there are several SQL Server service pack compliance processing rules, the first of these
rules (SQL Service Pack Compliance) stores the script parameters for service pack monitoring.
The following table lists the script parameters, descriptions, and default states for the SQL
Service Pack Compliance processing rule.
Table 10 SQL Service Pack Compliance Script Parameters
Script Parameter Description Default Value
AlertOnAll Generates a success event if the False (Disabled)
version complies.
InformationEven Logs an information event when the False (Disabled)
t script is run.
VersionString The SQL Server version string that is 8.00.194
used to evaluate service pack
compliance. The version string is the
earliest version that is acceptable to
meet service pack compliance.

Configuring Service Pack Monitoring

By default, service pack compliance is enabled. However, you need to configure the version
string for your environment. Additionally, you can optionally configure the script to generate an
event for service pack compliance success.
To configure service pack monitoring
1. In the MOM Administrator console, navigate to the SQL Service Pack Compliance
processing rule.
2. Right-click the rule, and then click the Response tab.
3. Select the rule, and then click Edit.
4. In the Script parameters box, select AlertOnAll, and then click Edit Script
Parameters.
5. If you want to receive success version compliance alerts, type True in the Value box,
and then click OK.
24 Recommended Knowledge and Skills

1. In the Script parameters box, select VersionString, and then click Edit Script
Parameters.
2. In the Value box, enter the SQL Server version number that applies to your
environment, and then click OK.
3. After modifying script responses, click OK.
4. Click the General tab, select Enabled, and then click Apply.
After modifying the script responses, commit the configuration changes to apply the changes to
agent computers.

Database Health Monitoring

The SQL Server Management Pack Refresh monitors database health. In the event that a
database enters an unhealthy state (such as Suspect), the Management Pack generates an alert.
However, the Management Pack does not generate an alert if a database enters an intentional
states such as Offline or Read Only.
Database health monitoring checking occurs every 15 minutes by default and requires no
configuration changes to work.
An unhealthy database generates a critical error alert. The checking script allows high-impact
databases to be defined, without which SQL Server or a particular application cannot function.
High-severity databases that are entering an unhealthy state generate a service unavailable alert.
These databases are defined as high-severity databases. By default, the following databases are
defined as high severity:
• Master
• TempDB
• Model
• msdb
• Distribution
• OnePoint
Individual databases can be excluded from monitoring, if required. For more information, see the
“Excluding Databases from Monitoring” section later in this guide.

Processing Rules
The database health monitoring processing rules are listed in the following locations:
• \SQL Server 2000\SQL Server 2000 Health and Availability Monitoring\Event
Processing Rules\SQL Server Database Health
• \SQL Server 7.0\SQL Server 7.0 Health and Availability Monitoring\Event
Processing Rules\SQL Server Database Health
 Recommended Knowledge and Skills 25

The following table lists the database health monitoring processing rules.
Table 11 SQL Server Database Health Processing Rules
Processing Rule Default Value
SQL Service Database Health Enabled
SQL Service Database Health — Database is unhealthy Enabled
SQL Service Database Health — High impact database is Enabled
unhealthy

Scripts
While there are several SQL Server database health processing rules, the first of these rules
(SQL Server Database Health) stores the script parameters for database health monitoring. The
following table lists the script parameters, descriptions, and default states for this processing rule.
Table 12 SQL Server Database Health Script Parameters
Script Parameter Description Default Value
HighSevDatabas A comma-separated list of databases master, tempdb,
es that are of high importance and model, msdb,
require extra health checks distribution,
onepoint
InformationEven Generates an information event when False (Disabled)
t the script is run

Customizing Database Health Monitoring

You can customize database health monitoring by adding databases to the list of high-severity
databases.
To add databases to the high-severity list
1. In the MOM Administrator console, navigate to the SQL Server Database Health
processing rule.
2. Right-click the rule, and then click the Response tab.
3. Select the rule, and then click Edit.
4. In the Script parameters box, select HighSevDatabases, and then click Edit Script
Parameters.
5. In the Value box, enter the database names, and then click OK.
6. After modifying script responses, click OK, and then Apply.
After modifying the script responses, commit the configuration changes to apply the changes to
agent computers.
26 Recommended Knowledge and Skills

Database Configuration Monitoring

Database configuration monitoring allows you to audit your environment for database
configuration settings that you establish as a standard for your organization. By default, this
monitoring feature is disabled. You must enable the processing rule associated with this
monitoring feature and configure the script responses to check for the database configuration
settings that apply to your environment.

Processing Rules
The database configuration monitoring processing rules are listed in the following locations:
• \SQL Server 2000\SQL Server 2000 Health and Availability Monitoring\Event
Processing Rules\SQL Server Database Configuration Monitoring
• \SQL Server 7.0\SQL Server 7.0 Health and Availability Monitoring\Event
Processing Rules\SQL Server Database Configuration Monitoring
The following table lists the database configuration monitoring processing rules.
Table 13 SQL Server Database Health Processing Rules
Processing Rule Default Value
SQL Server Database Configuration Monitoring Disabled
SQL Server Database Configuration Monitoring — Enabled
Database is not configured correctly

Scripts
The SQL Server Database Configuration Monitoring processing rule stores the script parameters
for database configuration auditing. The following table lists the script parameters, descriptions,
and default states for this processing rule.
 Recommended Knowledge and Skills 27

Important
The default state for database configuration monitoring script
parameters indicates whether an event is generated for a
configuration setting that is either enabled or disabled. For
example, if the default state of the AutoClose parameter is set
to False, an event is generated if the AutoClose configuration
setting on a database is enabled.

Table 14 SQL Server Database Health Script Parameters

Script Parameter Description Default Value
AutoClose Checks for the state of the Auto close False
configuration setting
AutoCreateStati Checks for the state of the Auto True
stics create statistics configuration
setting
AutoShrink Checks for the state of the Auto False
shrink configuration setting
AutoUpdatesSta Checks for the state of the Auto True
tistics updates statistics configuration
setting
CrossDBChainin Checks for the state of the Cross- False
g database ownership chaining
configuration setting
InformationEven Logs an event when this script is run False (Disabled)
t
TornPageDetecti Checks for the state of the Torn page True
on detection configuration setting

To customize SQL Server database configuration monitoring

1. In the MOM Administrator console, navigate to the SQL Server Database
Configuration Monitoring processing rule.
2. Right-click the rule, and then click the Response tab.
3. Select the rule, and then click Edit.
4. In the Script parameters box, modify the script responses by selecting a script, and
then click Edit Script Parameters.
5. After modifying script responses, click OK, and then Apply.
After modifying the script responses, commit the configuration changes to apply the changes to
agent computers.
28 Recommended Knowledge and Skills

Excluding Databases from

Monitoring
The SQL Server Management Pack allows administrators to exclude individual databases from
script-based monitoring. By adding databases to an exclusion file, alerts are not generated for the
following monitoring scenarios:
• Database space monitoring
• Transaction log space monitoring
• Database health
 Recommended Knowledge and Skills 29

Exclusions are implemented by using a text file on the monitored server that lists database
names. If databases that are to be excluded are in named instances, the database name should be
preceded with the instance name. All databases are assumed to be in the default instance unless
an instance is specified.
Save the file as SQLExclude.txt and place it in the c:\ folder.
The exclusions file is parsed when read. An invalid entry results in the reading being terminated
for the invalid line. Reading continues at the next line until the end of the file is reached. An
exclusion file can contain any number of databases; however, an exclusions list places an
overhead on monitoring and should not be overused.
The following example shows a typical exclusion file.
Northwind
Master
Pubs
Instance1\Northwind
Instance1\Pubs
Instance2\Northwind

SQL Server Performance Monitoring

The SQL Server Management Pack collects performance data for sampling purposes. The
collected data is displayed in public views that can be used to monitor the health of SQL Server.
This section provides an overview of the performance monitoring that is provided in the
SQL Server Management Pack Refresh. Review the monitoring rules, default states, and
thresholds and configure these appropriately for your environment.

Performance Counters Collected by Default

The following performance counters are collected by default:
• Active Transactions – A count of the current active transactions for the database.
• Average Wait Time (ms) – The average amount of time (in milliseconds) for each
lock request that resulted in a wait.
• DBCC Logical Scan Bytes/second – The number of logical read scan bytes per
second for database consistency checker (DBCC) statements.
• Full Scans/second – The number of unrestricted full scans per second. These can be
either base-table or full-index scans.
• Lock Blocks – Individual resources, such as rows or tables, that are locked by a user
or process. This counter represents the number of lock blocks currently in use on the
server. This counter is refreshed periodically.
• Lock Timeouts/second – The number of lock requests per second that timed out. This
includes internal requests for NOWAIT locks.
• Log Cache Reads/second – The count per second of reads performed through the log
manager cache.
30 Recommended Knowledge and Skills

• Log Truncations – The total number of times the database's transaction log has been
truncated.
• Logins/second – The total number of logins started per second.
• Memory Grants Pending – The count per second of processes waiting for a
workspace memory grant.
• Mixed Page Allocations/second – The count per second of pages allocated from
mixed extents. An extent is the smallest amount of space (eight contiguous pages or
16 KB) allocated for a table or index.
• Page Writes/second – The count per second of issued database page writes. Page
writes are generally expensive. One method for reducing page-write activity is to
ensure that the free buffer pool does not run out of free buffers. If it does, page writes
occur while waiting for an unused cache buffer to flush.
• Pages Allocated/second – The count per second of pages allocated to database objects
that are used for storing index or data records.

SQL Server Performance Threshold Defaults

The SQL Server Management Pack samples performance counters for threshold breaches on a
regular basis. Breaches in these thresholds generate an alert. The following default thresholds are
monitored by the SQL Server Management Pack:
• Access Methods – Full scans > two for 15 minutes (disabled by default)
• Buffer Manager – Page life expectancy < 300 second (disabled by default)
• Cache Hit Ratio – < 90% for 15 minutes
• Locks – The number of deadlocks > 1 for 15 minutes
• SQL Server User Connections – > 500
It might be necessary to adjust thresholds based on the acceptable performance of your servers
running SQL Server.

SQL Replication Performance Collection Defaults

This Management Pack collects counters that monitor the health of SQL Server replication. All
data that is collected by these counters is displayed in public views. By default, all replication
performance collection rules are disabled. Each performance collection rule must be enabled to
collect data.
Processing rule group
All replication performance rules are located in the following processing rule group:
• \SQL Server 2000\Server Performance Collection\Replication Performance
Collection
 Recommended Knowledge and Skills 31

Default performance counters

The following replication performance counters are collected by default:
• Replication Distributor Delivered Commands/second
• Replication Distributor Delivered Transactions/second
• Replication Logreader Delivered Commands/second
• Replication Logreader Delivered Transactions /second
• Replication Merge Conflicts/second
• Replication Merge Downloaded Changes/second
• Replication Merge Uploaded Changes/second
• Replication Snapshot Delivered Commands/second
• Replication Snapshot Delivered Transactions/second
• Replication Total Agents Running

Named Instance Performance Collection

This Management Pack can collect performance data from named and clustered instances of
SQL Server. This performance collection is script based and disabled by default. When enabled,
performance collection occurs for all named instances (and not default instances) using each
script. Default instance performance collection uses standard MOM rules. The following named
instance performance collection rules are included in the Management Pack.
Named instance base performance collection (15 minutes)
• Location – SQL Server 2000\Server Performance Collection\Event Processing Rules
• Purpose – This rule collects all default performance data every 15 minutes for named
instances of SQL Server.
• Default State – Disabled
Named instance replication performance collection (15 minutes)
• Location – SQL Server 2000\Server Performance Collection\Replication
Performance Collection\Event Processing Rule
• Purpose – This rule collects all replication performance data every 15 minutes for
named instances of SQL Server.
• Default State – Disabled
Named instance reporting performance collection (15 minutes)
• Location – SQL Server 2000\SQL Server 2000 Report Collection Rules\Event
Processing Rules
• Purpose – This rule collects all named instance performance counters that are
required for reports to work every 15 minutes.
• Default State – Disabled
32 Recommended Knowledge and Skills

Each named instance performance collection script can be toggled to adjust the individual
performance counters that it collects. Each collected performance counter can be enabled and
disabled by adjusting the script parameter.

Note
By default all scripts are disabled, but all counters are enabled.
When enabling a script, all performance counters are collected.

To adjust the performance data that is collected

1. In the MOM Administrator console, navigate to the desired performance rule.
2. Right-click the rule, and then click the Response tab.
3. Select the rule, and then click Edit.
4. In the Script parameters box, select the desired script parameter, and then click Edit
Script Parameters. The name of the parameter is the name of the performance
counter.
5. After modifying script responses, click OK, and then Apply.
After modifying the script responses, commit the configuration changes to apply the changes to
agent computers.

Base Operating System Performance Monitoring

The SQL Server Management Pack monitors the underlying health of the base operating system,
which might affect SQL Server health. All performance counters are collected every 15 minutes.
Administrators should compare this list with the counters that were collected by other
Management Packs to ensure that there is no duplicate collection of performance counters on
SQL Servers.
The Management Pack monitors the following base operating system areas:
CPU
• Context Switches/Second
• Processor Queue Length
• Total CPU Usage
• CPU Usage – SQLAGENT process (threshold and collection)
• CPU Usage – SQLSERVR process (threshold and collection)
• CPU Usage – SQLMANGR process (threshold and collection)
• CPU Usage and Processor Queue Length (threshold)
 Recommended Knowledge and Skills 33

Disk
• Disk Free Space Capacity
• Disk Queue Length
• Disk Read Latency (threshold)
• Disk Write Latency (threshold)
Memory
• Page Read/Sec
• Page Writes/Sec
• Pages/Sec
• Page Nonpaged Bytes
• Pool Paged Bytes
Network
• Bytes Received/Sec
• Bytes Sent/Sec
• Bytes Total/Sec

Operations Tasks
The best practice is to review and prioritize all alerts on a daily basis. In addition, perform other
tasks on a regular basis, depending on your environment. Many important problems do not cause
alerts, but they still require periodic attention. The SQL Server Management Pack generates
reports that display data over time and present patterns that indicate problems. Review the reports
to resolve issues before they generate alerts.
You can perform the daily, weekly, and monthly tasks as specified in this guide. However, adjust
the frequency of these tasks to meet the needs of your particular environment.

Daily Tasks
On a daily basis, perform the following tasks:
• Review all open alerts.
• Verify that all servers running SQL Server are communicating with the MOM
Administrator console.
• Review warnings (optional).
34 Recommended Knowledge and Skills

Reviewing All Open Alerts

Review all new alerts in the following order of priority:
• Service Unavailable errors
• Critical errors
• SQL Server scripts, such as the SQL Server Service Availability and SQL Server
Remote Connectivity
• Warnings (optional)
• Informational messages (optional)
Not all problems can be repaired in one day or less. Commonly, parts must be ordered or
computers must be scheduled for restart. It is important that you follow up on these open alerts to
ensure that they are addressed in a timely manner.
To review open alerts
1. In the MOM Administrator console, navigate to Monitor, All Open Alerts.
2. Review all alerts that are older than 24 hours to ensure that they are addressed in a
timely manner.

Verifying That All SQL Servers Are Communicating with the MOM
Administrator Console
Communication failure between the servers running SQL Server and the monitoring
infrastructure prevents you from receiving alerts so that you can examine and resolve them.
To verify that servers running SQL Server are communicating with the
MOM Administrator console
1. In the MOM Administrator console, navigate to Monitor, All Agents.
2. In the right pane, click the Last Contact column heading. This sorts all computers
based on the last contact time. If the last contact time is greater than five minutes,
determine why the computer is not communicating with MOM.

Weekly Tasks
In addition to the tasks that you perform daily, review the following reports weekly:
• SQL Server Critical Events
• SQL Server Critical Events Trend by Day
• SQL Server Lock Performance Analysis
• SQL Server Log Performance Analysis
• SQL Server Memory Performance Analysis
For a description of the reports, see the “Reports” section later in this guide.
 Recommended Knowledge and Skills 35

Monthly Tasks
In addition to the tasks you perform daily, and the reports you review weekly, review reports in
the following categories on a monthly basis:
Capacity planning and trending
• SQL Server Backup Device Capacity Planning by Day
• SQL Server User Connections by Day
• SQL Server User Connections by Peak Hours
SQL Server performance analysis (if using replication)
• SQL Server Distribution Replication Performance Analysis
• SQL Server Log Reader Replication Performance Analysis
• SQL Server Merge Replication Performance Analysis
• SQL Server Overall Replication Performance Analysis
• SQL Server Snapshot Replication Performance Analysis
Other reports
Review other reports as appropriate for your installation.

As Needed Tasks
It is recommended that you perform the following tasks as required to ensure the availability of
SQL Server:
• Review all open alerts.
• Verify that all MOM agents are communicating.
• Use the SQL Server public views.
• Use the SQL Server Health Monitoring public views.
36 Recommended Knowledge and Skills

Recommendations for the

Network Operations Desk
It is recommended that network operations staff monitor servers running SQL Server for high-
impact alert scenarios. These scenarios include:
• SQL Server database and transaction log space warnings and errors.
• SQL Server failed backups.
• SQL Server failed agent jobs.
• SQL Server connection errors.
• Configuring notification groups.
The best practice is to review public views in the SQL Server Health Monitoring group and use
these views to monitor the previous scenarios.

Troubleshooting
WMI Performance Collection
The SQL Server Management Pack can collect performance counters from named instances of
SQL Server. This collection of performance data uses Windows Management Instrumentation
(WMI) and requires access to WMI performance objects.
Due to known issues with SQL Server 2000 and Microsoft Windows Server™ 2003, WMI
performance objects might not be available. The SQL Server Management Pack checks for this
condition every 24 hours and notifies operators with an alert, with steps to resolve this issue.

Information Events
Information events can be enabled to trace the behavior of the Management Pack. Information
events can be enabled for any script-determined health check in the Management Pack, such as
Service Availability or Database Free Space Checking. When enabled, an information event is
logged when the associated script is run. The event lists the servers or instances excluded during
monitoring, such as passive nodes.
To enable information events, set the InformationEvent parameter to True on any script-
determined health check.
 Recommended Knowledge and Skills 37

Reference
Processing Rules That Generate
Critical Events and Alerts
This section lists the processing rule groups and event processing rules in the SQL Server
Management Pack. These are found in the MOM Administrator console at the following
locations:
• Processing Rule Groups\Microsoft SQL Server\SQL Server 2000
• Processing Rule Groups\Microsoft SQL Server\SQL Server 7.0

Processing Rule Group: SQL Server Health Monitoring

The SQL Server Health Monitoring group contains rules that monitor the health of key
SQL Server components.
Table 15 Processing Rules in the SQL Server Health Monitoring Group
Default Alert
Rule
Severity
SQL Server Database Health - Database is unhealthy Critical Error
SQL Server Database Health – High-impact database
is unhealthy Service Unavailable
SQL Server Database Space Analysis - Database
space error Critical Error
SQL Server Database Space Analysis - Log file space
error Critical Error
SQL Server Service Availability - Connection failure Service Unavailable
SQL Server Service Availability - SQL Server Agent
service is not running Service Unavailable
SQL Server Service Availability - SQL Server service
is not running Service Unavailable

Reports
This section lists the reports that are included in the SQL Server Management Pack.
38 Recommended Knowledge and Skills

SQL Server Capacity Planning Reports

SQL Server Backup Device Capacity Planning by Day
This report provides a graph of the daily use of the SQL Server backup device. The graph
indicates the minimum, maximum, and average backup device capacity based on the backup
device/device throughput bytes per second performance counter. This report provides one graph
for each specified server.
 Recommended Knowledge and Skills 39

SQL Server User Connections by Day

This report provides a graph of the daily SQL Server user connections for the specified server
during the specified time period, displayed by day. The graph indicates the minimum, maximum,
and average user connections capacity based on the SQL Server/general statistics - user
connections performance counter. This report provides one graph for each specified server.
SQL Server User Connections by Peak Hours
This report provides a graph of the daily SQL Server user connections for the specified server
during the specified time period, displayed by day or by peak hours. The graph indicates the
minimum, maximum, and average user connections capacity based on the SQL Server/general
statistics - user connections performance counter. This report provides one graph for each
specified server.

SQL Server Operations Reports

SQL Server Critical Events
This report lists critical events, which are events with a severity of 1, that have occurred on the
specified server in the specified time period. This report is sorted alphabetically by server and by
event time.
SQL Server Critical Events Trend by Day
This report provides a daily graph of all critical events, which are events with a severity of 1, that
have occurred on the specified server in the specified time period.

SQL Server Performance Analysis Reports

SQL Server Distribution Replication Performance Analysis
This report provides a graph of several SQL Server distribution replication performance counters
for the specified server during the specified time period. Performance counter data is averaged by
the hour.
SQL Server Lock Performance Analysis
This report provides a graph of several SQL Server lock performance counters for the specified
server during the specified time period. Performance counter data is averaged by the hour.
SQL Server Log Performance Analysis
This report provides a graph of several SQL Server transaction log performance counters for the
specified server during the specified time period, where the database instance is not Total,
master, msdb, model, Northwind, or pubs. Performance counter data is averaged by the hour.
This report provides one graph for each database instance.
SQL Server Logreader Replication Performance Analysis
This report provides a graph of several SQL Server logreader replication performance counters
for the specified server during the specified time period. Performance counter data is averaged by
the hour.
40 Recommended Knowledge and Skills

SQL Server Memory Performance Analysis

This report provides a graph of several SQL Server memory performance counters for the
specified server during the specified time period. Performance counter data is averaged by the
hour.
The following counters are plotted on a primary axis:
• Total Server Memory (KB) (Scale = KB)
• Buffer Cache Hit Ratio (Scale = 1)
• Free Buffers (Scale = 1/10)
• Lazy Writes/sec (Scale = 1/10)
• Readahead Pages/sec (Scale = 1/10)
The following counters are plotted on a secondary axis:
• Process-Page Faults/sec (Scale = 1/10)
• Process-Private Bytes (Scale = MB)
SQL Server Merge Replication Performance Analysis
This report provides a graph of several SQL Server merge replication performance counters for
the specified server during the specified time period. Performance counter data is averaged by the
hour.
SQL Server Overall Replication Performance Analysis
This report provides a graph of several SQL Server overall replication performance counters for
the specified server during the specified time period. Performance counter data is averaged by the
hour.
SQL Server Snapshot Replication Performance Analysis
This report provides a graph of several SQL Server snapshot replication counters for the
specified server during the specified time period. Performance counter data is averaged by the
hour.

Computer Groups
The following computer groups are included in the SQL Server Management Pack Refresh:
• MSSQL Server 2000
• MSSQL Server 2000 Client Side Monitoring
• Microsoft SQL Server 7.x
• Microsoft SQL Server 7.x Client Side Monitoring
 Recommended Knowledge and Skills 41

Scripts
The following scripts are included in the SQL Server Management Pack Refresh:
• SQL Server 2000 Base Performance Collection (15 minutes)
• SQL Server 2000 Long Running Agent Jobs
• SQL Server 2000 Replication Performance Collection (15 minutes)
• SQL Server 2000 Report Performance Collection (15 minutes)
• SQL Server 2000 WMI Performance Object Check
• SQL Server 7.0 Instance Process ID
• SQL Server CPU Overload
• SQL Server Database Health Monitoring
• SQL Server Named Instance Detection
• SQL Server Remote Connectivity
• SQL Server Service Monitoring
• SQL Server Service Pack Compliance
• SQL Server Space Analysis

Default Public Views

This section lists the public views that are included in the SQL Server Management Pack
Refresh.

SQL Server 2000

Microsoft SQL Server 2000
• All alerts generated in the last 2 hours
• All alerts generated in the last 24 hours
• SQL Server 2000 computer groups
• SQL Server 2000 servers
• Unresolved alerts
42 Recommended Knowledge and Skills

Microsoft SQL Server 2000\Server Resource Utilization

• CPU Usage\% CPU - MOM OnePoint Process
• CPU Usage\% CPU - SQLAGENT Process
• CPU Usage\% CPU - SQLMANGR Process
• CPU Usage\% CPU - SQLSERVR Process
• CPU Usage\Context Switches / second
• CPU Usage\Processor Queue Length
• CPU Usage\Total % CPU Usage
• Disk Capacity\% Free Space
• Disk Capacity\Free Megabytes
• Disk Performance\Average Disk Queue Length
• Disk Performance\Current Disk Queue Length
• Disk Performance\Disk Read and Write Latency
• Disk Performance\Disk Reads and Writes / second
• Memory Usage\Memory: Page Reads/sec
• Memory Usage\Memory: Page Writes/sec
• Memory Usage\Memory: Pages / second
• Memory Usage\Memory: Pool Nonpaged Bytes
• Memory Usage\Memory: Pool Paged Bytes
• Network Usage\Bytes Received/second
• Network Usage\Bytes Sent/second
• Network Usage\Bytes Total/second
Microsoft SQL Server 2000\SQL Server Health Monitoring
• SQL Agent\Failed SQL Agent Jobs
• SQL Server Backups\Failed SQL Backups
• SQL Server Replication\Distributor\Delivered Commands/second
• SQL Server Replication\Distributor\Delivered Transaction/second
• SQL Server Replication\Log Reader\Delivered Commands/second
• SQL Server Replication\Log Reader\Delivered Transactions/second
• SQL Server Replication\Merge\Conflicts/second
• SQL Server Replication\Merge\Downloaded Changes/second
• SQL Server Replication\Merge\Uploaded Changes/second
 Recommended Knowledge and Skills 43

• SQL Server Replication\Replication Agents Running

• SQL Server Replication\Snapshot\Delivered Commands/second
• SQL Server Replication\Snapshot\Delivered Transactions/second
• SQL Server Replication\SQL Server 2000 Replication Servers

Microsoft SQL Server 2000\SQL Server Utilization and

Performance
• Active Transactions
• Average Wait Time/ms
• DBCC Logical Scan Bytes/second
• Full Scans/second
• Lock Blocks
• Lock Timeouts/second
• Log Cache Reads/second
• Log Truncations
• Logins/second
• Memory Grants Pending
• Mixed page allocations/second
• Page Writes/second
• Pages Allocated/second

SQL Server 7.0

Microsoft SQL Server 7.0
• All alerts generated in the last 2 hours
• All alerts generated in the last 24 hours
• SQL Server 7.x Servers
• Unresolved alerts

Microsoft SQL Server 7.0\SQL Server Utilization and Performance

• Active Transactions
• Average Wait Time/ms
• Full Scans/second
• Lock Blocks
• Lock Timeouts/second
44 Recommended Knowledge and Skills

• Log Cache Reads/second

• Log Truncations
• Logins/second
• Memory Grants Pending
• Mixed page allocations/second
• Page Writes/second
• Pages Allocated/second

Processing Rule Groups

The following processing rule group hierarchy is used by the SQL Server Management Pack
Refresh. If a specific monitoring scenario is not being used, the best practice is to disable the
processing rule group associated with the monitoring scenario.

SQL Server 2000

Microsoft SQL Server
SQL Server 2000
Client Side Monitoring
Server Performance Collection
Replication Performance Collection
Server Resource Utilization
CPU Performance Collection
Disk Performance Collection
Disk Space Usage
Memory Performance Collection
Network Performance Collection
Server Performance Thresholds
SQL Server 2000 Event Collection
MSDTC
OLE DB
SQL Server Active Directory® Helper Service
SQL Server Agent
SQL Server Backup
SQL Server Databases
SQL Server DBCC
 Recommended Knowledge and Skills 45

SQL Server Full Text Search

SQL Server General
SQL Server Log Shipping
SQL Server Mail
SQL Server Performance
SQL Server Query Processor
SQL Server Replication
SQL Server Security
SQL Server Security Audit Collection
SQL Server Tables
SQL Server Web Assistant
SQL Server XML
SQL Server 2000 Health and Availability Monitoring
SQL Server 2000 Report Collection Rules

SQL Server 7.x

Microsoft SQL Server
SQL Server 7.0
Client Side Monitoring
Server Performance Collection
Server Performance Thresholds
SQL Server 7.0 Event Collection
SQL Server 7.0 Agent
SQL Server 7.0 Events
SQL Server 7.0 Report Collection Rules
SQL Server 7.0 Profiler
SQL Server 7.0 Security Events
SQL Server 7.0 Health and Availability Monitoring
SQL Server 7.0 Report Collection Rules
State Monitoring and Service Discovery