How to setup a single SQL Server agent for monitoring using the simple mode

Welcome to Dell Software Foglight Video Solutions. This video will cover how to set up a single agent for monitoring using the simple mode. My name is Darrell Williams, and I'm a technical product specialist. The cartridge for SQL Server currently provides two methods when creating agents to monitor instances, simple and events mode. The objective of this demo will cover how to create a single SQL Server agent to monitor a SQL Server instance using a simple method, ideal in creating single agents at a time. The setup has some minimum requirements for database and OS connections. Please review the prerequisites and requirements as a setup reference. Also consult the Foglight documentation guides mentioned below. To add agents, log into the Foglight web console with your Foglight user. Click on Databases to access the Databases dashboard. Click on Monitor and select SQL Server. The Monitor SQL Server Instance setup GUI should display in a simple mode format, requesting the needed setup configurations for creating a single instance. This feature allows for quicker setup in one consolidated screen and caters towards creating single agents at a time. To create multiple agents in one setting, click on Use this option to discover multiple sequel server instances. A separate video will cover this use. Let's continue with configuring a single agent. Agent manager host specifies that agent manager is selected to use the discover the instance. A host shown in blue is usually defaulted based on the least amount of instances already deployed against it. Also helps with low balancing and sizing that affects performance. Click the Host to change the agent manager host, if desired. Another option pop-up shows the current agent managers and the number of agents deployed against it. You have a choice of selecting a new agent manager or continuing on with the default host. Remember the host should meet the system requirements and supported number of deployed agents. The little i is helpful in explaining the use of each section. The connection details is where to specify the name of the SQL Server instance to monitor. To monitor a default instance, only input the host name in the Server field. For name instance, use the host name backslash instance format. In a clustered environment, insert the virtual host name of the SQL Server host in the server name field. During this demo, we will stage monitoring against the name instance. The SQL Server default port is 1433. If no port is specified, the wizard will use the port provided by the SQL browser servers, in which case the servers must me started. The information i is helpful explaining the login credentials. Next, there are two methods for login connections. One is to specify login credentials either by using Windows or SQL Server authentication. Same connecting methods when accessing the SQL Server management studio. So if the provided user can connect via the SQL Server management studio, it should be able to establish login through this wizard. If SQL Server authentication is selected, the OS credentials for configuring OS metrics are suggested here, separately in this location. Click on Missing Credentials and complete the OS login setup in accordance to the information provided. There's also an option to select from stored credentials from a lockbox if it exists, ideal for domain users' accessibility. For a side note, if the OS option is not enabled, the database agent may not display CPU or memory in its corresponding SQL Server dashboard. For this setup, we will authenticate using Windows authentication. In one configuration, this setting will allow to connect to the instance as well as log in to the OS to gather OS metrics if enabled. Enter the username in the domain backslash username format. The current alarm sensitivity level for this instance is set to normal. This alarm level is adjustable. Select the alarm sensitivity to determine what level alarms the system will store and display for the instance. There's a sensitivity control definition for each alarm level of choice. Once all the connection details are in place, click Monitor. Configuration starts, and if a grant privileges box pops up, supply sys admin user to execute grant scripts. Once completed, the Monitoring Initialized Successfully pop-up is indicated. There's a choice of adding another database in which will take you back to the setup screen, or click Finish. The new agent is now created to monitor and viewable in the Databases dashboard. There's also an entry in agent status where the created SQL Server agent and its corresponding infrastructure OS agent if OS was selected during the creation stage. After a couple minutes of collection time, the dashboard should become populated with data. To learn more Foglight for SQL Server, visit software.dell.com/products/foglight-for-sql-server. For more video tutorials, visit DellSoftware.com/support.