Features
Everything SQLBeat checks, and what it does about it.
Each check is a stored procedure run by a SQL Agent job. Results go to tables you can query; problems go through one rules engine that decides who hears about them and when.
Core
SQL Server monitoring
Automates the routine checks that keep busy multi-server environments healthy, and keeps a complete performance history for tuning and post-incident research.
Blocking and runaway queries
Alerts with full detail on blocker and blocked sessions, and on any process past CPU, disk or runtime thresholds.
Job failures
Every SQL Agent job failure, with step detail, plus jobs that run long or stop running on schedule.
Backups
Records every backup and alerts on any database not backed up within its window.
Integrity and fragmentation
Scheduled DBCC CHECKDB and fragmentation scans, with alerts on errors and optional repair.
Capacity planning
Data and log file sizes and free space over time, "time to full" forecasts, runaway log growth and oversized tempdb.
SQL Server statistics
The full set of performance counters, including page life expectancy, with thresholds you set per server.
Waits, CPU and disk queues
Wait statistics, CPU and disk queuing and file I/O, logged continuously and alerted on when they cross your limits.
User activity
Snapshots of every session: buffer contents, locks, host, login and wait resource, at an interval you choose.
Index usage
Seeks, scans, lookups and updates per index, with reports of missing, unused and badly placed indexes.
Execution statistics
CPU, reads, writes and run counts per procedure and query, to find what's actually expensive.
Replication and log shipping
Alerts on distribution, merge and log shipping errors, and on standby servers falling out of sync.
Error log and services
Reads the SQL Server error log for critical messages and alerts when SQL services stop or start.
Module
Windows monitoring
Uses WMI, PowerShell and the event log to watch the servers under your SQL Servers, and anything else on your network.
Event logs
Reads the Application, System and Security logs on an interval, records every entry, and alerts on the ones your rules select.
Any WMI counter
Monitors any WMI-accessible counter, including vendors' own hardware counters, with defaults set by server role.
Services and processes
Service state changes and running processes, logged and alerted on.
CPU and disk
CPU load, disk space and disk performance per server, with thresholds per server.
Connectivity
Ping time and packet loss for every device, with a traceroute when a device stops responding, and alerts on IP address changes.
Syslog
Acts as a syslog receiver and datastore for network devices.
SMTP queues
Scans the queue, drop and bad-mail folders of your SMTP servers for mail needing attention.
Installed software
A catalog of installed software across servers, with alerts when it changes.
Module
IIS and weblog monitoring
Turns your web servers' logs into a warehouse you can query, so you can see the traffic behind your SQL load.
Near-real-time weblogs
Tails IIS and Apache log files from the paths you define and loads them into normalized, time-partitioned tables.
Site and page roll-ups
Aggregates by site, page, hour and day, including page load times for SLA reporting.
Application pools
Memory, threads, handles and I/O per application pool, and alerts when pools stop.
IIS errors
Alerts on IIS faults in the event log: compilation and configuration errors, SSL errors, and signs of SQL injection.
Configuration drift
Keeps a history of every web.config, machine.config and IIS configuration file, so you can see what changed and on which node.
Bots and humans
Classifies user agents and known crawlers, so reports reflect real visitors.
Module
Audit and change management
A documented trail of what changed, who can do what, and when, across every server SQLBeat watches. Useful evidence for PCI and similar audits.
Object changes
Snapshots every procedure, function, view, table and index, and alerts on changes with before-and-after text.
Compare databases
Uses that history to show the differences between two databases or servers.
Logins and permissions
Server logins, database users, roles and object permissions, recorded over time, with alerts on changes.
Files and folders
Scheduled scans of chosen folders for added, removed or changed files, including each server's hosts file.
Active Directory
A history of AD users and computers.
Watched connections
Alerts when a connection matches the login, host, database or application you're watching for.
Alert engine
One set of rules for every alert.
Every check reports through the same engine. Rules live in a table, so they can be changed with a single UPDATE and reviewed like any other data.
Each alert carries a severity: critical needs action now, non-critical needs attention the next business day, and informational is for proactive tuning.
- Match onServer, server group, severity, alert type, subject or message text (including regular expressions).
- Send toAny number of people, each with any number of addresses, including team lists and chat channels that accept email.
- WhenBusiness hours, off hours or both; quiet low-priority alerts overnight and escalate critical ones.
- SuppressRules that stop known noise from being sent at all.
- HooksBecause it's T-SQL, alerts can trigger your own procedures for automated responses.
Want to see the code behind a check? Every one is a stored procedure in the repository.
Browse the code