Documentation forDatabase Performance Analyzer

Register a SQL Server database instance

Complete the following tasks to register an individual SQL Server database instance for monitoring with DPA.

Identify the privileged user

When you register a database instance with the registration wizard, you must provide the credentials of a privileged user. During registration, the privileged user either creates the monitoring user or grants the required privileges to an existing user that you designate as the monitoring user. DPA does not store the credentials of the privileged user. 

For self-managed SQL Server database instances, the privileged user requires the following privileges:

SYSADMIN role

To register an instance without granting the SYSADMIN role, see Register a SQL Server instance for DPA monitoring without the sysadmin role.

Complete the registration wizard

  1. On the DPA homepage, click Register DB Instance for Monitoring.
  2. Under Self-Managed, click Microsoft SQL Server.
  3. Click Next.
  4. Complete the wizard panels as described in the following table.
Panel Instructions
Enter Monitored Database Instance Connection Information

  1. Enter connection information for the SQL Server instance:

    • If the SQL Server Browser service is running, enter the server name or IP address and the instance name in this format: Server\Instance.
    • If the SQL Server instance contains one or more Availability Groups, click Note for Availability Groups for instructions on how to register primary and secondary replicas.
    • Otherwise, enter the server name or IP address and the port number.

    DPA monitors all databases within the instance. If more than one instance exists on the server, you must register each instance separately in DPA.

  2. Select the type of authentication you want to use. If Mixed Mode was selected during the SQL Server installation, you can choose either option.

  3. Enter a SYSADMIN login that DPA can use to register the instance.

    DPA does not use or store these credentials after you complete the wizard.

    • For Windows authentication, enter <DOMAIN>\<username> in the SYSADMIN User field.

    • For SQL Server authentication, enter the credentials that you enter on the Connect to Server dialog in SQL Server Management Studio (with Database Engine as the Server type).

SSL is requested by default. If the server does not support SSL, a plain connection is used.

Are you receiving errors? See DPA for SQL Server installation troubleshooting.
Enter the Monitoring User

Create or specify the account that DPA will use to gather information. To ensure that the account has the required permissions, SolarWinds recommends creating a new account.

To create a new account:

  1. Click Yes.
  2. Select SQL Server as the authentication method. (DPA cannot create a new Windows account.)
  3. Enter a user name and password for the new account, or accept the default values.

To specify an existing account:

  1. Click No.
  2. Select either authentication method.

  3. Enter the user name and password of an existing account.

    For Windows authentication, enter <DOMAIN>\<username> in the Monitoring User field.

You can also authenticate using a Windows Computer Account.

For SQL Server authentication, only the user name is required. Do not specify a domain.
Oracle Repository Tablespace

If your repository database is not Oracle, the wizard skips this step.

Choose the tablespace in the repository database to store DPA performance data for this monitored instance.

By default, the performance data is stored in the default tablespace of the repository user. However, data for monitored instances can be stored in separate tablespaces.
Select the Alert Groups

If you have no Alert Groups set up, or if this new database instance does not match the database type of the Alert Group, the wizard skips this step.

Alert Groups simplify alert configuration and help make alerting more consistent across the monitored database instances.

Select the Alert Groups you want the new database instance to join.
Summary Review the information and click Register Database Instance.
Database Instance Registration Complete Click Finish to return to the DPA homepage.

If you register a database instance within the 14-day trial period, DPA begins monitoring the instance immediately. After the trial period, you must activate a license to monitor the database instance.