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Sumo Logic App for Microsoft SQL Server

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The Sumo Logic App for Microsoft SQL Server is an unified logs and metrics app that provides insight into your SQL server performance metrics and errors. The App consists of predefined Dashboards, providing visibility into your environment for real-time or historical analysis on backup, latency, performance counter, restore, mirroring, database monitoring, general health and operations of your system.

This App has been tested with following SQL Server versions:

  • Microsoft SQL Server 2012

Collecting Logs and Metrics for the Microsoft SQL Server App​

This section provides instructions for configuring a local file source to collect SQL Server ERRORLOG data, and a script source to collect SQL Server performance metrics. A sample log message is also provided.

Step 1: Configure Fields in Sumo Logic​

Create the following Fields in Sumo Logic prior to configuring collection. This ensures that your logs and metrics are tagged with relevant metadata, which is required by the app dashboards. For information on setting up fields, see Sumo Logic Fields.

If you're using SQL Server in a non-Kubernetes environment, create the fields:

  • component
  • environment
  • db_system
  • db_cluster
  • db_cluster_address
  • db_cluster_port

Step 2: Collect Logs and Metrics​

Sumo Logic supports collection of logs and metrics data from SQL Server in both Kubernetes and non-Kubernetes environments. Click on the appropriate tabs below based on the environment where your SQL Server clusters are hosted.

In Kubernetes environments, we use the Telegraf Operator, which is packaged with the Kubernetes collection (learn more). The diagram below illustrates how data is collected from SQL Server in Kubernetes environments. In the architecture shown below, there are four services that make up the metric collection pipeline: Telegraf, Prometheus, Fluentd and FluentBit.
sqlk8s.png

The first service in the pipeline is Telegraf. Telegraf collects metrics from SQL Server. Note that we’re running Telegraf in each pod we want to collect metrics from as a sidecar deployment: i.e. Telegraf runs in the same pod as the containers it monitors. Telegraf uses the SQL Server input plugin to obtain metrics. (For simplicity, the diagram doesn’t show the input plugins.) The injection of the Telegraf sidecar container is done by the Telegraf Operator. We also have Fluentbit that collects logs written to standard out and forwards them to FluentD, which in turn sends all the logs and metrics data to a Sumo Logic HTTP Source.

Follow the below instructions to set up the metric collection:

  1. Configure Metrics Collection
    • Setup Kubernetes Collection with the Telegraf operator
    • Add annotations on your SQL Server pods
  2. Configure Logs Collection
    • Configure logging in SQL Server.
    • Add labels on your SQL Server pods to capture logs from standard output.
    • Collecting SQL Server Logs from a Log file.

Prerequisites

It’s assumed that you are using the latest helm chart version. If not, upgrade using the instructions here.

Step 1: Configure Metrics Collection​

This section explains the steps to collect SQL Server metrics from a Kubernetes environment.

In Kubernetes environments, we use the Telegraf Operator, which is packaged with our Kubernetes collection. Learn more. Follow the steps listed below to collect metrics from a Kubernetes environment:

  1. Set up Kubernetes Collection with the Telegraf Operator.
  2. Add annotations on your SQL Server pods. Before you add annotations, you need to create a login on every SQL Server pod you want to monitor, with following script:
    USE master;
    GO
    CREATE LOGIN [Username_ENV_TO_BE_CHANGED] WITH PASSWORD=N'Password_CHANGE_ME';
    GO
    GRANT VIEW SERVER STATE TO [Username_ENV_TO_BE_CHANGED];
    GO
    GRANT VIEW ANY DEFINITION TO [Username_ENV_TO_BE_CHANGED];
    GO
    On your SQL Server Pods, add the following annotations:
     annotations:
        telegraf.influxdata.com/class: sumologic-prometheus
        prometheus.io/scrape: "true"
        prometheus.io/port: "9273"
        telegraf.influxdata.com/inputs: |+
    [[inputs.sql server]]
        servers = ["Server=<IP_ENV_TO_BE_CHANGED>;Port=<Port_ENV_TO_BE_CHANGED| default 1433>;User Id=<Username_ENV_TO_BE_CHANGED>;Password=<Password_ENV_TO_BE_CHANGED>;app name=telegraf;log=1;",]
       database_type = "SQLServer"
       exclude_query =  [ 'SQLServerSchedulers' , 'SQLServerRequests']
         [inputs.sqlserver.tags]
        environment="ENV_TO_BE_CHANGED"
        component="database"
        db_system = "sqlserver"
        db_cluster: "ENV_TO_BE_CHANGED"
        db_cluster_address = "ENV_TO_BE_CHANGED"
        db_cluster_port = "ENV_TO_BE_CHANGED"
    Enter in values for the following parameters (marked ENV_TO_BE_CHANGED in the snippet above):

  • telegraf.influxdata.com/inputs - This contains the required configuration for the Telegraf SQL Server Input plugin. Please refer to this doc for more information on configuring the SQL Server input plugin for Telegraf. Note: As telegraf will be run as a sidecar the host should always be localhost.

  • In the input plugins section, which is [[inputs.sqlserver]]:

    • servers - The URL to the SQLserver server. This can be a comma-separated list to connect to multiple SQLserver servers. Please see this doc for more information on additional parameters for configuring the SQLserver input plugin for Telegraf.

  • In the tags section, which is [inputs.sqlserver.tags]

    • environment - This is the deployment environment where the SQLserver cluster identified by the value of servers resides. For example: dev, prod or qa. While this value is optional we highly recommend setting it.

    • db_cluster - Enter a name to identify this SQLserver cluster. This cluster name will be shown in the Sumo Logic dashboards.

    • db_cluster_address - Enter the cluster hostname or ip address that is used by the application to connect to the database. It could also be the load balancer or proxy endpoint.

    • db_cluster_port - Enter the database port. If not provided, a default port will be used.

      note

      db_cluster_address and db_cluster_port should reflect exact configuration of DB client configuration in your application, especially if you instrument it with OT tracing. The values of these fields should match exactly the connection string used by the database client (reported as values for net.peer.name and net.peer.port metadata fields).

      For example, if your app uses “sqlserver-prod.sumologic.com:3306” as the connection string, the field values should be set as follows: db_cluster_address=sqlserver-prod.sumologic.com db_cluster_port=3306.

      If your application connects directly to a given SQL server node, rather than the whole cluster, use the application connection string to override the value of the “host” field in the Telegraf configuration: host=sqlserver-prod.sumologic.com.

      Pivoting to Tracing data from Entity Inspector is possible only for “SQLServer address” Entities.

Do not modify the following values, as they will cause the Sumo Logic apps to not function correctly.

  • telegraf.influxdata.com/class: sumologic-prometheus - This instructs the Telegraf operator what output to use. This should not be changed.

  • prometheus.io/scrape: "true" - This ensures our Prometheus will scrape the metrics.

  • prometheus.io/port: "9273" - This tells prometheus what ports to scrape on. This should not be changed.

  • telegraf.influxdata.com/inputs - In the tags section, which is [inputs.sqlserver.tags]:

    • component: “database” - This value is used by Sumo Logic apps to identify application components.

    • db_system: “sqlserver” - This value identifies the database system.

      For all other parameters, see this doc for more parameters that can be configured in the Telegraf agent globally.

  1. Sumo Logic Kubernetes collection will automatically start collecting metrics from the pods having the labels and annotations defined in the previous step.
  2. Verify metrics in Sumo Logic.

Step 2: Configure Logs Collection​

This section explains the steps to collect SQL Server logs from a Kubernetes environment.

  1. (Recommended Method) Add labels on your SQL server pods to capture logs from standard output.. Make sure that the logs from SQL Server are sent to stdout. Follow the instructions below to capture SQL Server logs from stdout on Kubernetes.

  2. Apply following labels to the SQL server pods:

    environment: "prod_CHANGE_ME"
    component: "database"
    db_system: "SQLserver"
    db_cluster: "SQLserver_prod_CHANGE_ME"

    Enter in values for the following parameters (marked CHANGE_ME above):

    • environment - This is the deployment environment where the SQL server cluster identified by the value of servers resides. For example: dev, prod or qa. While this value is optional we highly recommend setting it.

    • db_cluster - Enter a name to identify this SQL server cluster. This cluster name will be shown in the Sumo Logic dashboards.

      Here’s an explanation for additional values set by this configuration that we request you please do not modify as they will cause the Sumo Logic apps to not function correctly.

    • component: “database” - This value is used by Sumo Logic apps to identify application components.

    • db_system: “SQLserver” - This value identifies the database system.

    • db_cluster_address - Enter the cluster hostname or ip address that is used by the application to connect to the database. It could also be the load balancer or proxy endpoint.

    • db_cluster_port - Enter the database port. If not provided, a default port will be used.

    note

    db_cluster_address and db_cluster_port should reflect the exact configuration of DB client configuration in your application, especially if you instrument it with OT tracing. The values of these fields should match exactly the connection string used by the database client (reported as values for net.peer.name and net.peer.port metadata fields).

    For example, if your application uses “sqlserver-prod.sumologic.com:3306” as the connection string, the field values should be set as follows: db_cluster_address=sqlserver-prod.sumologic.com db_cluster_port=3306

    If your application connects directly to a given SQL server node, rather than the whole cluster, use the application connection string to override the value of the “host” field in the Telegraf configuration: host=sqlserver-prod.sumologic.com

    Pivoting to Tracing data from Entity Inspector is possible only for “SQLServer address” Entities.

    For all other parameters, please see this doc for more parameters that can be configured in the Telegraf agent globally.

    • The Sumologic-Kubernetes-Collection will automatically capture the logs from stdout and will send the logs to Sumologic. For more information on deploying Sumologic-Kubernetes-Collection, visit here.
    • Verify logs in Sumo Logic.

  3. (Optional) Collecting SQL server Logs from a Log File. Follow the steps below to capture SQL server logs from a log file on Kubernetes.

  4. Determine the location of the SQL server log file on Kubernetes. This can be determined from the SQLserver.conf for your SQL server cluster along with the mounts on the SQL server pods.

  5. Install the Sumo Logic tailing sidecar operator.

  6. Add the following annotation in addition to the existing annotations.

annotations:
  tailing-sidecar: sidecarconfig;<mount>:<path_of_SQLserver_log_file>/<SQLserver_log_file_name>

Example:

annotations:
  tailing-sidecar: sidecarconfig;data:/var/opt/mssql/errorlog
  1. Make sure that the SQL server pods are running and annotations are applied by using the command:
kubectl describe pod <SQLserver_pod_name>
  1. Sumo Logic Kubernetes collection will automatically start collecting logs from the pods having the annotations defined above.
  2. Verify logs in Sumo Logic.
  3. Add a FER to normalize the fields in Kubernetes environments. Labels created in Kubernetes environments automatically are prefixed with pod_labels. To normalize these for our app to work, we need to create a Field Extraction Rule if not already created for Proxy Application Components. To do so:
  4. Go to Manage Data > Logs > Field Extraction Rules.
  5. Click the + Add button on the top right of the table.
  6. The Add Field Extraction Rule form will appear:
  1. Enter the following options:
  • Rule Name. Enter the name as App Observability - Proxy.
  • Applied At. Choose Ingest Time
  • Scope. Select Specific Data
    • Scope: Enter the following keyword search expression:
pod_labels_environment=* pod_labels_component=database
pod_labels_db_system=*
pod_labels_db_cluster=*
  • Parse Expression. Enter the following parse expression:
if (!isEmpty(pod_labels_environment), pod_labels_environment, "") as environment
| pod_labels_component as component
| pod_labels_db_system as db_system
| if (!isEmpty(pod_labels_db_cluster), pod_labels_db_cluster, null) as db_cluster
  1. Click Save to create the rule.

Installing Microsoft SQL Server Monitors​

This section provides instructions for installing the Microsoft SQL Server App, as well as examples of each of the App dashboards. These instructions assume you have already set up collection as described in the Collect Logs and Metrics for the Microsoft SQL Server App page.

Pre-Packaged Alerts​

Sumo Logic has provided out-of-the-box alerts available through Sumo Logic monitors to help you monitor your SQL Server clusters. These alerts are built based on metrics and logs datasets and include preset thresholds based on industry best practices and recommendations.

For details on the individual alerts, see Alerts.

  • To install these alerts, you need to have the Manage Monitors role capability.
  • Alerts can be installed by either importing a JSON file or a Terraform script.
  • Note: There are limits to how many alerts can be enabled - please see the Alerts FAQ for details.

Method A: Importing a JSON file​

  1. Download the JSON file that describes the monitors.
  2. The JSON contains the alerts that are based on Sumo Logic searches that do not have any scope filters and therefore will be applicable to all SQL Server clusters, the data for which has been collected via the instructions in the previous sections. However, if you would like to restrict these alerts to specific clusters or environments, update the JSON file by replacing the text db_system=sqlserver with <Your Custom Filter>.

Custom filter examples:

  1. For alerts applicable only to a specific cluster, your custom filter would be: ‘db_cluster=sqlserver-prod.01‘
  2. For alerts applicable to all clusters that start with Kafka-prod, your custom filter would be: db_cluster=sql-prod*
  3. For alerts applicable to a specific cluster within a production environment, your custom filter would be: db_cluster=sql-1 AND environment=prod (This assumes you have set the optional environment tag while configuring collection)
  4. Go to Manage Data > Alerts > Monitors.
  5. Click Add:
  6. Click Import, then copy paste the above JSON to import monitors.

The monitors are disabled by default. Once you have installed the alerts using this method, navigate to the MySQL folder under Monitors to configure them. See this document to enable monitors to send notifications to teams or connections. Please see the instructions detailed in Step 4 of this document.

Method B: Using a Terraform script​

Step 1: Generate a Sumo Logic access key and ID

Generate an access key and access ID for a user that has the Manage Monitors role capability in Sumo Logic using these instructions. Please identify which deployment your Sumo Logic account is in, using this link.

Step 2: Download and install Terraform 0.13 or later

Step 3: Download the Sumo Logic Terraform package for SQL Server alerts

The alerts package is available in the Sumo Logic github repository. You can either download it through the “git clone” command or as a zip file.

Step 4: Alert Configuration

After the package has been extracted, navigate to the package directory terraform-sumologic-sumo-logic-monitor/monitor_packages/SQLServer/

Edit the SQLServer.auto.tfvars file and add the Sumo Logic Access Key, Access Id and Deployment from Step 1 .

access_id   = "<SUMOLOGIC ACCESS ID>"
access_key  = "<SUMOLOGIC ACCESS KEY>"
environment = "<SUMOLOGIC DEPLOYMENT>"

The Terraform script installs the alerts without any scope filters, if you would like to restrict the alerts to specific clusters or environments, update the variable sqlserver_data_source. Custom filter examples:

  1. A specific cluster db_cluster=sqlserver.prod.01
  2. All clusters in an environment environment=prod
  3. For alerts applicable to all clusters that start with sqlserver-prod, your custom filter would be: db_cluster=sqlserver-prod*
  4. For alerts applicable to a specific cluster within a production environment, your custom filter would be:

db_cluster=sqlserver-1 and environment=prod (This assumes you have set the optional environment tag while configuring collection)

All monitors are disabled by default on installation, if you would like to enable all the monitors, set the parameter monitors_disabled to false in this file.

By default, the monitors are configured in a monitor folder called “SQLServer”, if you would like to change the name of the folder, update the monitor folder name in “folder” key at SQLServer.auto.tfvars file.

If you would like the alerts to send email or connection notifications, configure these in the file SQLServer_notifications.auto.tfvars. For configuration examples, refer to the next section.

Step 5: Email and Connection Notification Configuration Examples

Modify the file SQLServer_notifications.auto.tfvars and populate connection_notifications and email_notifications as per below examples.

Pagerduty Connection Example
connection_notifications = [
    {
      connection_type       = "PagerDuty",
      connection_id         = "<CONNECTION_ID>",
      payload_override      = "{\"service_key\": \"your_pagerduty_api_integration_key\",\"event_type\": \"trigger\",\"description\": \"Alert: Triggered {{TriggerType}} for Monitor {{Name}}\",\"client\": \"Sumo Logic\",\"client_url\": \"{{QueryUrl}}\"}",
      run_for_trigger_types = ["Critical", "ResolvedCritical"]
    },
    {
      connection_type       = "Webhook",
      connection_id         = "<CONNECTION_ID>",
      payload_override      = "",
      run_for_trigger_types = ["Critical", "ResolvedCritical"]
    }
  ]

Replace <CONNECTION_ID> with the connection id of the webhook connection. The webhook connection id can be retrieved by calling the Monitors API.

For overriding payload for different connection types, refer to this document.

Email Notifications Example
email_notifications = [
    {
      connection_type       = "Email",
      recipients            = ["abc@example.com"],
      subject               = "Monitor Alert: {{TriggerType}} on {{Name}}",
      time_zone             = "PST",
      message_body          = "Triggered {{TriggerType}} Alert on {{Name}}: {{QueryURL}}",
      run_for_trigger_types = ["Critical", "ResolvedCritical"]
    }
  ]

Step 6: Install the Alerts

  1. Navigate to the package directory terraform-sumologic-sumo-logic-monitor/monitor_packages/SQLServer/ and run terraform init. This will initialize Terraform and will download the required components.
  2. Run terraform plan to view the monitors which will be created/modified by Terraform.
  3. Run terraform apply.

Step 7: Post Installation

If you haven’t enabled alerts and/or configured notifications through the Terraform procedure outlined above, we highly recommend enabling alerts of interest and configuring each enabled alert to send notifications to other users or services. This is detailed in Step 4 of this document.

There are limits to how many alerts can be enabled - please see the Alerts FAQ.

Installing the Microsoft SQL Server App​

This section demonstrates how to install the SQL Server App.

To install the app:

Locate and install the app you need from the App Catalog. If you want to see a preview of the dashboards included with the app before installing, click Preview Dashboards.

  1. From the App Catalog, search for and select the app.
  2. Select the service version you're using and click Add to Library. Version selection applies only to a few apps currently. For more information, see the Install the Apps from the Library.
  3. To install the app, complete the following fields:
    • App Name. You can retain the existing name or enter the app's name of your choice.

    • Advanced. Select the Location in Library (the default is the Personal folder in the library), or click New Folder to add a new folder.
  4. Click Add to Library.

Once an app is installed, it will appear in your Personal folder, or the folder that you specified. From here, you can share it with your organization.

Panels will start to fill automatically. It's important to note that each panel slowly fills with data matching the time range query and received since the panel was created. Results won't immediately be available, but with a bit of time, you'll see full graphs and maps.

Viewing Microsoft SQL Server Dashboards​

Filter with template variables

Template variables provide dynamic dashboards that can rescope data on the fly. As you apply variables to troubleshoot through your dashboard, you view dynamic changes to the data for a quicker resolution to the root cause. You can use template variables to drill down and examine the data on a granular level. For more information, see Filter with template variables.

Overview​

The SQL Server - Overview dashboard provides a snapshot overview of your SQL Server instance. Use this dashboard to understand CPU, Memory, and Disk utilization of your SQL Server (s) deployed in your cluster. This dashboard also provides login activities and methods by users.

Use this dashboard to:

  • Analyze CPU, Memory and disk utilization.
  • Examine Login activities, failures, and failure reasons.
Microsoft_SQL_Server dashboards

General Health​

The SQL Server - General Health dashboard gives you the overall health of SQL Server. Use this dashboard to analyze server events including stopped/up servers, and corresponding down/uptime, monitor disk space percentage utilization, wait time trend, app-domain issues by SQL server.

Use this dashboard to:

  • Analyze server events including stopped/up servers, and corresponding down/uptime.
  • Monitor server events trends including SQL Server wait time.
  • Get insight into app-domain and percentage disk utilization issues by SQL Server.
Microsoft_SQL_Server dashboards

I/O​

The SQL Server - I/O dashboard provides read and write bytes throughput by SQL Server.

Use this dashboard to:

  • Analyze performance of SQL server by monitoring read and write bytes throughput of your SQL server instance.
Microsoft_SQL_Server dashboards

Latency​

The SQL Server - Latency dashboard provides read and write latency trend by SQL Server.

Use this dashboard to:

  • Analyze performance of SQL server by monitoring read and write latency of your SQL server instance.
Microsoft_SQL_Server dashboards

Operations​

The SQL Server - Operations displays recent server configuration changes, number & type of configuration updates, error and warnings, high severity error, and warning trends.

Use this dashboard to:

  • Get insights into configuration changes and updates to SQL server instance.
  • Monitor any errors and warnings.
Microsoft_SQL_Server dashboards

Performance Counters​

The SQL Server - Performance Counters dashboard shows performance counters related to database activities, SQL statistics, and buffer cache.

Use this dashboard to:

  • Get insights into database activities such as errors/sec, lock timeouts/sec, and wait/sec, deadlocks/sec, and write transactions/sec.
  • Monitor important SQL statistics such as login/sec, logout/sec, sql compilations/sec, processes blocked and batch requests/sec.
Microsoft_SQL_Server dashboards

Replication​

The SQL Server - Replication dashboard provides insights into SQL Server replication performance. Use this dashboard to monitor bytes sent and received from replica instance, transaction delays, and mirrored white transaction/sec.

Use this dashboard to:

  • Get insights into bytes sent to and received from replica instance.
  • Analyze transaction delays, and mirrored white transaction/sec.
Microsoft_SQL_Server dashboards

Backup Restore Mirroring​

The SQL Server - Backup Restore Mirroring provides information about:

  • Transaction log backup events
  • Database backup events
  • Restore activities
  • Backup failures and reasons
  • Mirroring errors
Microsoft_SQL_Server dashboards

Microsoft SQL Server Alerts​

Sumo Logic provideds out-of-the-box alerts available via Sumo Logic monitors. These alerts are built based on logs and metrics datasets and have preset thresholds based on industry best practices and recommendations.

Alert NameAlert DescriptionTrigger Type (Critical / Warning)Alert ConditionRecover Condition
SQL Server - Instance DownThis alert fires when we detect that the SQL Server instance is down for 5 minutes.Critical >0 <=0
Warning
SQL Server - AppDomainThis alert fires when we detect AppDomain related issues in your SQL Server instance.Critical
Warning >=1 <1
SQL Server - Backup FailThis alert fires when we detect that the SQL Server backup failed.Critical
Warning >=1 <1
SQL Server - Cpu High UsageThis alert fires when the CPU usage within a 5 minute interval for an SQL Server instance is high (70% - 80% for Warning and >=80% for Critical).Critical >=80 <80
Warning >=70 <70
SQL Server - DeadlockThis alert fires when we detect deadlocks in a SQL Server instance.Critical
Warning >5 <=5
SQL Server - Disk UsageThis alert fires when the Disk usage within a 5 minute interval for an SQL Server instance is high (70% - 80% for Warning and >=80% for Critical).Critical >=80 <80
Warning >=70 <70
SQL Server - Insufficient SpaceThis alert fires when SQL Server instance could not allocate a new page for database because of insufficient disk space in filegroup.Critical
Warning >0 <=0
SQL Server - Login FailThis alert fires when we detect that the user cannot login to SQL Server.Critical
Warning >=1 <1
SQL Server - Mirroring ErrorThis alert fires when we detect that the SQL Server mirroring has error.Critical >=1 <1
Warning
SQL Server - Processes BlockedThis alert fires when we detect that SQL Server has blocked processes.Critical
Warning >0 <=0
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