Microsoft: SQL Server Enhanced Release Notes version 109

Version 109 of the Microsoft: SQL Server Enhanced PowerPack updates the PowerPack to add a new Dynamic Application, and added support for -Encryption option of the Invoke-SQLCmd to several Dynamic Applications.

• Minimum Required SL1 Version: 12.1.0

• Other Key Information:

• Additional permissions are required for the user account SL1 uses to perform collection. See the Prerequisites for Monitoring SQL Servers section of the Monitoring SQL Servers manual for more information. If you are currently monitoring devices using the PowerPack, you must update the permissions of the user account you are using to monitor those devices. New Dynamic Applications will be aligned to existing devices during the next discovery of those devices.
• This version of the PowerPack requires PowerShell version 3.0 or later to be installed on the monitored SQL Servers.
• The SQL Servers that you monitor must have the SQL Server PowerShell module installed.

Before You Install or Upgrade

Ensure that you are running version 12.1.0 or later of SL1 before installing "Microsoft: SQL Server Enhanced" PowerPack version 109.

For details on upgrading SL1, see the relevant SL1 Platform Release Notes.

Installation and Upgrade Process

To install this PowerPack:

1. Search for and download the PowerPack from the PowerPacks page (Product Downloads > PowerPacks & SyncPacks) at the ScienceLogic Support Site.
2. In SL1, go to the PowerPacks page (System > Manage > PowerPacks).
3. Click the Actions menu and choose Import PowerPack. The Import PowerPack modal appears.
4. Click Browse and navigate to the PowerPack file from step 1.
5. Select the PowerPack file and click Import. The PowerPack Installer modal displays a list of the PowerPack contents.
6. Click Install. The PowerPack is added to the PowerPack Manager page.

Features

This release includes the following features:

• Dynamic Applications to discover and monitor SQL servers and their component devices
• Event Policies that are triggered when SQL Server components meet certain status criteria
• Device Classes for each type of SQL Server components device monitored
• An example credential you can use to create PowerShell credentials to connect to SQL servers

Enhancements and Issues Addressed

The following enhancements and addressed issues are included this release of the "Microsoft: SQL Server Enhanced" PowerPack:

• Added support for -Encryption option of the Invoke-SQLCmd version 22 and later to the following Dynamic Applications:
  • Microsoft: SQL Server File Groups Performance
  • Microsoft: SQL Server Table Lock/Latch Performance
  • Microsoft: SQL Server Instance Configuration
  • Microsoft: SQL Server Database Configuration
  • Microsoft: SQL Server Long Jobs Configuration
  • Microsoft: SQL Server Long Queries Configuration
  • Microsoft: SQL Server Wait Metrics Configuration
  • Microsoft: SQL Server Failed Jobs Configuration
  • Microsoft: SQL Server Always On Discovery
  • Microsoft: SQL Server Always On Configuration
  • Microsoft: SQL Server Always On Database Configuration
  • Microsoft: SQL Server Replication Agent Discovery
  • Microsoft: SQL Server Replication Agent Configuration
  • Microsoft: SQL Server Database Mirroring Discovery
  • Microsoft: SQL Server Database Mirroring Configuration
  • Microsoft: SQL Server Database Files Configuration
  • Microsoft: SQL Server Cache and Discovery
• Updated the Get-DatabasePerform snippet code of the "Microsoft: SQL Server Database Performance" Dynamic Application to pull data and log size information from a direct SQL query instead of from the cache as the data is no longer being cached during discovery.
• Updated the database and file group discovery PowerShell so that it will not use SQL Server SMO to improve performance and avoid database locks. (Case: 00398588) (Case: 00422626)
• Updated the get-sql-agent-config snippet code in the "Microsoft: SQL Server Failed Jobs Configuration" Dynamic Application to use the last poll time as the starting point to look at new matching failed job records, thus improving the collection time of this Dynamic Application.
• Added the "Microsoft: SQL Server Database Files Performance" Dynamic Application so that users receive an alert when the Data File IO exceeds 1000ms response time for more than 60 seconds in SQL database.
• Updated documentation to include information about setting SQL Server permissions. (Case: 00412835)
• Updated the silo_apps content library to version 5.1.2 and the silo_api_support content library to version 0.1.4.
• Updated the "Microsoft: SQL Server Table Lock/Latch Performance" Dynamic Application to use appropriate indexes for metrics and SQL Label object in order to resolve an issue where alerts would not evaluate properly.
• Added check for empty results to "Microsoft: SQL Server Always On Configuration" and "Microsoft: SQL Server Always On Database Configuration" Dynamic Applications to avoid key errors when no data is returned from the query.

Known Issues

The following known issues affect version 109 of the Microsoft: SQL Server Enhanced PowerPack:

• SQL Server instances with a "$" in the instance name will not discover databases or collect data. The instance name displayed in SL1 will contain only the characters after the "$".
• The "GetDB-Counters" snippet in the "Microsoft: SQL Server Database Performance" Dynamic Application will not collect data when the performance counter cannot be found. To address this, you will need to rebuild the performance counter manually. See the Microsoft documentation for the steps to rebuild the performance counter: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/troubleshoot/windows-server/performance/manually-rebuild-performance-counters
• The Microsoft: SQL Server Dashboard PowerPack is not compatible with the Microsoft: SQL Server Enhanced PowerPack.
• The performance Dynamic Applications in the PowerPack do not collect data for SQL Server x86 instances installed on a 64-bit platform.