SQL Session Activity Test

This test monitors the sessions initiated by each application on the Microsoft SQL server, and reports the level of activity each application has imposed on the server. This test has been disabled by default. To enable this test, go to the enable / disable tests page using the menu sequence : Agents -> Tests -> Enable/Disable, pick Microsoft SQL as the Component type, Performance as the Test type, choose this test from the disabled tests list, and click on the << button to move the test to the ENABLED TESTS list. Finally, click the Update button.

Target of the test : A Microsoft SQL server

Agent deploying the test : An internal agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for each application using the Microsoft SQL server instance being monitored

Configurable parameters for the test
TEST PERIOD - How often should the test be executed Host – The IP address of the Microsoft SQL server. Port - The port number through which the Microsoft SQL server communicates. The default port is 1433. ssl – If the Microsoft SQL server being monitored is an SSL-enabled server, then set the ssl flag to Yes. If not, then set the ssl flag to No. instance - In this text box, enter the name of a specific Microsoft SQL instance that is to be monitored. The default value of this parameter is “default”. To monitor a Microsoft SQL instance named “CFS”, enter this as the value of the INSTANCE parameter. USER – If a Microsoft SQL Server 7.0/2000 is monitored, then provide the name of a SQL user with the Sysadmin role in this text box. While monitoring a Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or above, provide the name of a SQL user with all of the privileges outlined in User Privileges Required for Monitoring Microsoft SQL server. password - The password of the specified user confirm password - Confirm the password by retyping it. domain - By default, none is displayed in the DOMAIN text box. If the ‘SQL server and Windows’ authentication has been enabled for the server being monitored, then the DOMAIN can continue to be none. On the other hand, if ‘Windows only’ authentication has been enabled, then, in the DOMAIN text box, specify the Windows domain in which the managed Microsoft SQL server exists. Also, in such a case, the USER name and PASSWORD that you provide should be that of a user authorized to access the monitored SQL server. exclude info - By default, this is set to none, indicating that the test will monitor all the applications that are using the Microsoft SQL server by default. To exclude specific applications from the monitoring scope of this test, provide a comma-separated list of applications in the EXCLUDE INFO text box. top-n session - By default, this is set to 10, indicating that the detailed diagnosis of this test will list only the top-10 sessions based on the elapsed time of the sessions. To view more or less number of top-n records in the detailed diagnosis, provide any other number of your choice in the TOP-N session text box. isntlmv2 - In some Windows networks, NTLM (NT LAN Manager) may be enabled. NTLM is a suite of Microsoft security protocols that provides authentication, integrity, and confidentiality to users. NTLM version 2 (“NTLMv2”) was concocted to address the security issues present in NTLM. By default, the isntlmv2 flag is set to No, indicating that NTLMv2 is not enabled by default on the target Microsoft SQL host. Set this flag to Yes if NTLMv2 is enabled on the target host. ISPASSIVE – If the value chosen is yes, then the Microsoft SQL server under consideration is a passive server in a SQL cluster. No alerts will be generated if the server is not running. Measures will be reported as "Not applicable" by the agent if the server is not up. dd frequency - Refers to the frequency with which detailed diagnosis measures are to be generated for this test. For instance, if you set to 1:1, it means that detailed measures will be generated every time this test runs, and also every time the test detects a problem. DETAILED DIAGNOSIS - To make diagnosis more efficient and accurate, the eG Enterprise embeds an optional detailed diagnostic capability. With this capability, the eG agents can be configured to run detailed, more elaborate tests as and when specific problems are detected. To enable the detailed diagnosis capability of this test for a particular server, choose the On option. To disable the capability, click on the Off option. The option to selectively enabled/disable the detailed diagnosis capability will be available only if the following conditions are fulfilled: The eG manager license should allow the detailed diagnosis capability Both the normal and abnormal frequencies configured for the detailed diagnosis measures should not be 0.

Measurements made by the test
Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Number of processes:	Indicates the total number of processes executed currently by this application on the server.	Number	The detailed diagnosis of this measure is used to view the complete details of the session. This includes the session ID, the user who has initiated the session, the current status of the session, the elapsed time, CPU time, open cursor count,active request count,blocking/blocked request count, the count of disk reads and writes, and the count of logical reads performed by the session. These information enables you to know how resource intensive the session is and how much I/O load has been generated by the session.
Open transaction count:	Indicates the total number of transaction executed currently by the application on the server.	Number	In terms of a server overload, you can compare the value of this measure across the applications to identify the sessions that are responsible for increasing the transaction load on the server.
Open cursor count:	Indicates the total number of cursors executed currently by the application on the server.	Number	In terms of a server overload, you can compare the value of this measure across the applications to identify the sessions that are responsible for increasing the transaction load on the server.
Active request count:	Indicates the rate at which the application is sending requests to the server.	Reqs/Sec
Blocking request count:	Indicates the number of requests of this application that are currently being blocked.	Number	Ideally, the value of this measure should be 0. If the measure reports a non-zero value, then you can use the detailed diagnosis of the Blocked processes measure of the SQL System Processes test to identify the exact query that is responsible for the blocking.
Open resultset count:	Indicates the number of resultsets that are currently open on the server for this application.	Number
Blocked request count:	Indicates the number of requests of the application that are currently blocking.	Number	Ideally, the value of this measure should be 0. If the measure reports a non-zero value, then you can use the detailed diagnosis of the Blocked processes measure of the SQL System Processes test to identify the exact query that is responsible for the blocking.