Documentation forDatabase Mapper
Effective February 28, 2024, Database Mapper has reached its end of life and is no longer available or supported. If you liked Database Mapper, consider trying another SolarWinds product.

Database Mapper Environment Map

EOL: An end of life announcement has been made for Database Mapper on February 28, 2023. See the Solarwinds End of Life Policy for more information.

Environment Map Introduction

Solution Item Icon Solution Item Description
Database Mapper Environment Map Solution Item icon

The Environment Map shows data collected from the SQL Sentry database to map connections between applications, users, clients and targets (sourced from Top SQL and Windows processes). This information complements the lineage analysis feature by showing the dynamic usage of targets in the lineage diagram and shedding light on the processes that are using the database.

Additional Information: See the SQL Sentry - Database Mapper Environment Map blog post with additional feature highlights and examples.

To drill into the dependencies detected, you can start by selecting a target to find items that connect to it, or an application, client machine or user to see which items connect. Multiple levels are supported in the Environment Map hierarchy, so you can navigate to a target, then a database, and then a client machine to see which applications and users on that client machine connect to the selected target and database.

This dependency map provides a detailed view of dependencies in your environment, which can be particularly useful if you are planning to migrate your on-premises environment to the cloud.

Database Mapper Environment MapExample of Database Mapper Environment Map (initial documentation view)

Note:  Information is limited to the queries that are collected in Top SQL. If queries do not meet the impact criteria, they are not available in the Environment Map.

Prerequisites

The SQL Sentry database needs to be a version compatible with the Database Mapper Environment Map feature. The database is compatible in SQL Sentry version 2020.14 or later.

Adding Environment Map

Add an Environment Map solution item to your Database Mapper solution by completing the following steps:

1. Select Add to add a new solution (or select Open to openan existing solution) in the Database Mapper configuration tool. Database Mapper Solution Configuration Tool Open Solution

2. Select Add to open the Add solution item window. Database Mapper Solution Configuration Tool Add Solution Item

3. Enter an item name, then select Environment Map (SQL Sentry Database) from the Source type drop-down list.

Database Mapper Solution Configuration Tool select Environment Map

4. Configure the Source options for your SQL Sentry Database. Select the Server name that hosts your SQL Sentry database, select the Security mode that you use to connect, then the name of the SQL Sentry database.

Database Mapper Solution Configuration Tool Configure Environment Map connection

Note:  There are options to Produce object/column level lineage and Produce documentation which are selected by default. To quickly create an Environment Map at the server and database level without the extra level of detail, these options may be deselected.

Using the Environment Map

  1. Once you've added a new solution item with the Environment MapSource Type, you'll see the Environment Map item in your list of solutions the same way you see other solutions in Database Mapper.
  2. Configure the snapshot to generate documentation.
  3. Explore the documentation and lineage.

Documentation

Information displayed in documentation varies depending on your environment. In general, you'll see the Environment Map targets, (monitored by SQL Sentry), applications (interacting with the targets), clients, and users.

Expand the nodes to see a summary and detail view. For example, if you are viewing a user, you will see a hyperlinked summary of all targets, applications, and clients related to that specific user.  You can drill into all of these for a more complete view.

The entries list shows all the associated queries in a table that includes key information such as the target, database, application, number of queries, duration, CPU, reads, and so on.

Database Mapper Environment Map at database levelExample of Environment Map Documentation at the database level

Lineage

Lineage provides some of the same options on the nodes, but displays graphs and dependency flows of the information and connections. You can adjust the granularity or apply filters.

Additional Information: See the Lineage article for details on using the options (e.g. Granularity Detail, Dependency Direction, Dependency Level, etc.).

Database Mapper Environment Map lineage at the host server levelExample of Environment Map Lineage at the host/server level

You can drill down to the database, schema, table, and column levels.

Database Mapper Environment Map at the column levelExample of Environment Map at the column level

Filters

The Environment Map allows you to filter the information displayed in Lineage by application, client, or user (in addition to the SQL filters for database and column).

Database Mapper Environment Map FilterEnvironment Map filter options

 Select Apply to view your filtered lineage graph:

Database Mapper Environment Map at the server level with users filtered outEnvironment Map at the server level with users removed by the filter.

Troubleshooting

Top SQL data is not displaying in the Environment Map

Initially (if you've just started using SQL Sentry or upgraded to a version with this feature), there is a bit of lead time to get the data from SQL Sentry to the Database Mapper Environment Map (about ten minutes), then about 1-2 days for it to fully ramp up and have a decent amount of Top SQL data to use. 

Not seeing expected queries in Top SQL

If you're not seeing data in Top SQL, you may need to adjust what is being captured.