SQL Server monitors allow monitoring all versions of Microsoft SQL Server.
Connection settings
The available performance objects are:
SQL Server
All objects starting with "MSSQL$SQLEXPRESS:"
Information: As the monitor uses the same technology as the Perfmon monitoring tool included with Windows, NeoLoad is able to access all the counters available for SQL Server.
Microsoft monitors use a Windows API to list and query performance counters, namely the Performance Data Helper (PDH) library used by Perfmon which is a Windows tool. Therefore, the NeoLoad Microsoft monitors have the same characteristics and constraints as Perfmon:
Monitoring is done without installing any additional component, which obviates the installation of a specific client on the machine to be monitored.
The monitoring of Microsoft servers is only possible using Windows monitoring agents. Microsoft servers cannot be monitored with a Unix/Linux monitoring agent.
The user account associated with the monitored machine must have the appropriate user rights. For more information, see Connect to a remote server.
When defining a counter, and depending on the type of counter, one or more instances may be also selected. One instance corresponds to a certain sub-division of the monitored object. For example, Processor/Processor Time % has several instances, one for each processor present in the monitored machine. Usually, an instance named _Total allows retrieving an average value across all available instances.
Name: Visual name used to represent the monitor in NeoLoad.
Host: Machine physical name (hostname or IP address).
Tip: If you don't know the machine name, you can just type the IP address and click Resolve. The IP is then automatically replaced with the name.
Login: The user account login associated with the monitored machine. When the domain name is to be specified (optional), the format must be: "{domainName}\\{userName}".
Warning: The login must relate to a user belonging to the Performance Monitor Users group or the Administrators group on the computer from which you want to retrieve monitoring data. Otherwise, no Windows Performance Monitor data is collected. For more information, see Connect to a remote server.
Password: The password associated with the login entered in the Login field.
Monitoring interval: This refers to the interval between two monitor value readings for that connection. The recommended default interval is 5 seconds. Too short an interval could have a negative effect on the server performance.
The Check button allows testing the connection to the server. If it fails, it is necessary to check the monitor settings. A specific error message helps identify the possible cause of the connection failure. Pressing F1 gives a list of prerequisites for each type of monitor.
Available counters
On a typical Windows server, the main, basic counters are as follows:
SQL Server\Buffer Management: Buffer cache hit ratio. Indicates how often SQL Server goes to the buffer, not the hard disk, to get data. Should be greater than 85.
SQL Server\Memory Manager: Total Server Memory (KB). If this reaches the level of the overall server memory, it means the server needs more RAM.
SQL Server\general statistics: User connections. Number of users connected to the system.
HardConnectsPerSecond. Number of connections per second that are being made to a database server.
HardDisconnectsPerSecond. Number of disconnects per second that are being made to a database server.
NumberOfActiveConnectionPoolGroups. Number of unique connection pool groups that are active. This counter is controlled by the number of unique connection strings that are found in the AppDomain.
NumberOfActiveConnectionPools. Total number of connection pools. When connection pooling is configured in the applications, connection pools will be created and connections (min Size mentioned) will be established.
NumberOfActiveConnections. Number of active connections that are currently in use.
NumberOfFreeConnections. Number of connections available for use in the connection pools.
NumberOfInactiveConnectionPoolGroups. Number of unique connection pool groups that are marked for pruning. This counter is controlled by the number of unique connection strings that are found in the AppDomain.
NumberOfInactiveConnectionPools. Number of inactive connection pools that have not had any recent activity and are waiting to be disposed.
NumberOfNonPooledConnections. Number of active connections that are not pooled.
NumberOfPooledConnections. Number of active connections that are being managed by the connection pooling infrastructure.
NumberOfReclaimedConnections. Number of connections that have been reclaimed through garbage collection where Close or Dispose was not called by the application. Not explicitly closing or disposing connections hurts performance.
NumberOfStasisConnections. Number of connections currently awaiting completion of an action and which are therefore unavailable for use by your application.
SoftConnectsPerSecond. Number of active connections being pulled from the connection pool.
SoftDisconnectsPerSecond. Number of active connections that are being returned to the connection pool.
Instances based on regular expressions
On top of the list of available counters and instances you can choose from when you design a Microsoft SQL Server monitor, NeoLoad enables you to configure regular expressions.
Information: Counters with regular expressions are indicated with this specific icon to show that they are dynamic.
In the Instances section, enter a new regular expression to match in the blank field and click the Create button to add this new regular expression to the list.
If you need to modify an existing regular expression, select it in the list of Instances of selected objects, the selected regular expression is then displayed in the blank field in the bottom of the screen so that you can bring your modifications and click the Save button to save it to the list.
This configuration will result in creating counters that will monitor all instances matching the regular expression(s) added.
to show that they are dynamic.
Create button to add this new regular expression to the list.
Save button to save it to the list.