Microsoft System Center Management Pack (Community Technical Preview 1) for Azure SQL Database

  • Article

This management pack provides capabilities to discover, monitor, and manage your Microsoft Azure SQL Databases

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Download it HERE

 

  • The Microsoft Azure SQL Database Management Pack enables you to monitor the availability and performance of Azure SQL Databases.
    Feature Summary
    After configuration, the Microsoft Azure SQL Database Monitoring Management Pack offers the following functionalities:
  • User-friendly wizard to discover Microsoft Azure SQL Database servers
  • Provides availability status of Microsoft Azure SQL Database server
  • Collects and monitors health of Azure SQL Database Elastic Pools
  • Collects and monitors health of Azure SQL Database databases
  • Monitors health of Database Geo-Replication

New Features and Fixes in Microsoft Azure SQL Database Management Pack (Community Technical Preview 1) v.6.7.11.0

  • Azure Resource Manager is now supported: the previous versions of the Management Pack used T-SQL queries to SQL Server system views to get information on the databases health and performance; now, the Management Pack can also get this information from Azure REST API (this is a preferred option)
  • Multiple subscriptions and multiple servers are now supported
  • Added support of Azure AD authentication
  • Added white-black lists for Azure SQL Database instances and Elastic Pools
  • Improved monitoring efficiency: monitoring target is now defined by monitoring pool; WatcherNode class is considered to be deprecated
  • Improved SCOM Add Monitoring Wizard to reflect the new features of the Management Pack
  • Added health monitoring for Geo-Replication
  • Added health monitoring for Elastic Pools
  • Added monitoring for "Average DTU utilization percentage" metric
  • Fixed issue: some rules work only if more than 1% of Microsoft Azure SQL Database space is used
  • Introduced performance improvements to the Management Pack
  • Optimized performance rules notation: all Object Names are standardized; Instance Names are not used anymore
  • Updated the guide to reflect all the changes
  • Updated the visualization library

Release History

  • 5/3/2012 - Original release, version 1.5.4.0
  • 6/14/2016 - version 1.6.1.0
  • 12/6/2016 - version 6.7.11.0 CTP1

  • System Requirements

    Supported Operating System

    Windows Server 2012

    • Other Software:
      System Center Operations Manager 2012 SP1, System Center Operations Manager 2012 R2

  • Install Instructions

    • For detailed instructions on setup, configuration and monitoring refer to the management pack guide.

 

What’s in the Management Pack Guide

 

Changes History

Release date

Changes

December, 2016 (version 6.7.11.0 CTP1)

· Azure Resource Manager is now supported: the previous versions of the Management Pack used T-SQL queries to SQL Server system views to get information on the databases health and performance; now, the Management Pack can also get this information from Azure REST API (this is a preferred option)

· Multiple subscriptions and multiple servers are now supported

· Added support of Azure AD authentication

· Added white-black lists for Azure SQL Database instances and Elastic Pools

· Improved monitoring efficiency: monitoring target is now defined by monitoring pool; WatcherNode class is considered to be deprecated

· Improved SCOM Add Monitoring Wizard to reflect the new features of the Management Pack

· Added health monitoring for Database Geo-Replication

· Added health monitoring for Elastic Pools

· Added monitoring for "Average DTU utilization percentage" metric

· Fixed issue: some rules work only if more than 1% of Microsoft Azure SQL Database space is used

· Introduced performance improvements to the Management Pack

· Optimized performance rules notation: all Object Names are standardized; Instance Names are not used anymore

· Updated the guide to reflect all the changes

· Updated the visualization library

June, 2016 (version 1.6.1.0)

· Added Dashboards

· Added a number of new monitors and rules, including the following:

§ CPU Usage (%)

§ Workers Usage (%)

§ Log write(%)

§ Data I/O (%)

§ Sessions (%)

§ CountFailed Connection

§ CountSuccessful Connection

§ Count Connection Blocked by Firewall

§ Count of Deadlock

§ Count Throttling long transaction

§ CountConnection Failed

§ XTP Storage (In-memory OLTP Storage, %)

· Deprecated Collect Microsoft Azure SQL Database Internal/External Network Egress/Ingress performance rules

· Deprecated Federation and Federation member workflows

· Implemented rebranding: the management pack and some workflow names have been changed

May, 2013

Original release of this guide

 

 

Supported Configurations

Microsoft Azure SQL Database Management Pack is designed for the System Center Operations Manager 2012. Any versions prior to Operations Manager 2012 are not supported.

This management pack has been tested on Windows Server 2012 R2. Other versions of Windows operating system have not been tested.

It is recommended that no more than 140 databases per proxy agent are monitored to avoid spikes in CPU usage that may affect the performance agents and monitored servers.

 

Security Considerations

Run As Accounts

For each set of unique credentials used to monitor Microsoft Azure SQL Database cloud services, create a separate simple or basic authentication Run As account.

For more information about Run As accounts, see Creating Microsoft Azure SQL Database Run As Accounts section above.