Documentation forDatabase Performance Analyzer

Database Performance Analyzer 2020.2.1 Release Notes

Release date: August 19, 2020

These release notes were last updated on May 3, 2021.

These release notes describe the new features, improvements, and fixed issues in Database Performance Analyzer 2020.2.1. They also provide information about upgrades and describe workarounds for known issues.

If you are looking for previous release notes for Database Performance Analyzer, see Previous Version documentation.

New features and improvements in DPA

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DPA 2020.2.1 offers new features and improvements compared to previous releases of DPA.

Registering database instances with limited permissions

The following knowledge base articles provide instructions for registering database instances for monitoring without advanced permissions:

Preventing browser cookies from saving the username

A new advanced option called LOGIN_FILL_USER can be used to prevent cookies from saving the username entered in the DPA login dialog. If you set the LOGIN_FILL_USER option to FALSE, the Username field is never automatically populated and the username is not stored in browser cookies. By default, this option is set to TRUE and the LOGIN_FILL_REPO_USER setting determines how the Username field on the DPA login dialog is populated.

Using the UTC time zone for log entries

You can configure DPA to record log entry timestamps using the UTC time zone instead of the time zone of the DPA server. For instructions, see Changing DPA to write logs using the UTC time zone.

Password encryption for Sybase monitored instances

You can encrypt the password that DPA uses to connect to a Sybase monitored database instance. To support password encryption for Sybase monitoring, the jConnect driver has to be used instead of the jTDS driver. By default, DPA uses the jTDS driver. For instructions, see Encrypt the password that DPA uses to connect to a monitored Sybase database instance.

New customer installation

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For information about installing DPA 2020.2.1, see the DPA Installation and Upgrade Guide. You can download a free trial from the SolarWinds website.

How to upgrade

If you are upgrading from a previous version, use the following resources to plan and implement your upgrade:

Fixed issues in DPA 2020.2.1

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DPA 2020.2.1 fixes the following issues.

Case Number Description

00558602

 DPA 2020.2.1 includes security improvements.

00570808

 By default, DPA no longer collects wait time for internal PostgreSQL processes, such as autovacuum. If you would like DPA to monitor wait time for these internal processes, set the advanced option POSTGRESQL_POLL_INTERNAL_WAIT to TRUE.

00574053

 When you are monitoring a PostgreSQL database instance, DPA issues the SQL statement SELECT sysdate FROM dual only once when monitoring starts, and only when monitoring an EDB Postgres instance. This prevents the monitored instance from repeatedly logging the error relation "dual" does not exist at character 21 .

00586963

 When DPA is monitoring a SQL Server database instance running on server with multiple CPU cores, the Instance CPU Utilization resource metric displays the correct value.

Known issues

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Database types supported for the DPA repository

Issue: In the Repository Creation Wizard, the line that lists variations of MySQL that are supported for the DPA repository includes MariaDB. However, MariaDB is not supported for the DPA repository. For DPA 2020.2.x, the list of MySQL variations should include only MySQL, Amazon RDS for MySQL, or Amazon Aurora for MySQL. 

Resolution/Work-around: For a complete list of the database types and versions supported for the DPA repository, see the System Requirements for your version of DPA.

DPA cannot monitor a PostgreSQL database instance with multiple connection properties

Issue: If you enter multiple connection properties in the JDBC URL field (either in the Registration Wizard or the Update DB Instance Connection Wizard) for a PostgreSQL database instance, DPA cannot monitor the instance. DPA repeatedly attempts to start monitoring the instance, but monitoring fails to start.

Resolution/Work-around: Change the property separator in the COND table in the DPA repository database from & to ;. For details, see this article.
DPA running on ESX servers with a compatibility setting of ESX 3.4 or 4

Issue: If you attempt to run DPA on ESX servers as a virtual machine with a compatibility setting of ESX 3.4 or 4, DPA might not start. For additional information see this KB article.

Resolution/Work-around: Do one of the following:

  • Update your VM compatibility version to the latest one (for example, 6.7).
  • Upgrade JDK to a version in which the bug is fixed (11.0.8 or 14.0.1).
  • Add -XX:UseAvx=0 property to JAVA_OPTS for your JDK.
Creating the monitoring user when registering a MySQL 8.0 database instance

Issue: For MySQL 8.0, the default authentication plug-in has changed from mysql_native_password to caching_sha2_password. If you attempt to register a MySQL 8.0 instance and allow DPA to create the monitoring user, registration fails because DPA cannot authenticate a user created with the default option.

Resolution/Work-around:

  1. Create the monitoring user manually and specify that the mysql_native_password plugin be used to authenticate that user. For example:

    CREATE USER 'userName'@'localhost' IDENTIFIED WITH mysql_native_password BY 'userPassword';

    You can verify user creation by querying the mysql.user table:

    select user,host,plugin from mysql.user;

  2. Grant the required privileges to the user. See the GRANT statements in the script available through the Register Instance Wizard.
  3. On step 2 of the Register Instance Wizard, select I'll create the database user. Then enter the user name and password of the user you created.
Adding a distributed AG to a server prevents DPA from monitoring non-distributed AGs on the server

Issue: If DPA is monitoring non-distributed SQL Server Availability Groups (AGs) on a server and you add a distributed AG to the server, DPA stops monitoring the non-distributed AGs.
Resolution/Work-around: Do not add a distributed AG to the server.
Validation of the LDAP/AD server host name fails because it doesn't match the subject of the certificate

Issue: Java validates that the host name of the LDAP server matches the LDAP certificate by checking the subjectAlternativeName's dNSName fields of the certificate. If the validation fails, you will see the following error when you are configuring DPA to use AD/LDAP:

The subject of the certificate doesn't match your AD/LDAP server.

Resolution/Work-around: Follow the instructions in this article to resolve the issue.
Real Time Sessions page

Issue: When you are monitoring an Azure SQL Managed Instance (ASMI) that is registered via the public endpoint, some of the connections are closed after three minutes. If you turn the DPA monitor off, open the Real Time Sessions page, and then refresh the page after three to four minutes, the Real Time Sessions page displays the following SQL Server exception:

The connection is closed.

Resolution/Work-around: If you experience this issue, complete the following steps to configure DPA to recreate connections every three minutes:

  1. Open the following file in a text editor:

    <dpaHome>\iwc\tomcat\ignite_config\idc\system.properties

  2. Update the value of the following parameter to 180000:

    com.confio.iwc.realtime.service.datasource.map.timeout=180000

    This is the timeout for idle connections, in milliseconds.

  3. Save the file and restart DPA.
Microsoft reports incorrect metric values for SQL Server on Linux

Issue: When you monitor a SQL Server 2017 database instance that runs on a Linux server:

  • The O/S CPU Utilization resource always shows usage at 100%.
  • The Instance CPU Utilization resource always shows usage at 100%.
  • The O/S Memory Utilization resource always shows usage at 0%.

When you monitor a SQL Server 2019 database instance that runs on a Linux server:

  • The O/S CPU Utilization resource always shows usage at 100%.
  • In some cases, the Instance CPU Utilization resource always shows usage at 100%.

Microsoft reports these values.

Resolution or Workaround: Disregard the values that are incorrect on your version of SQL Server. You can also disable the collection of a metric that shows incorrect data.

 

Monitoring a database instance in the Oracle Public Cloud
Issue: When DPA is monitoring a database instance in the Oracle Public Cloud, it sometimes reports incorrect values.
Resolution/Work-around: DPA does not support monitoring database instances deployed in the Oracle Public Cloud. Use DPA to monitor supported database instance types.

Deprecation notices

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This version of Database Performance Analyzer deprecates the following platforms and features.

Deprecated platforms and features are still supported in the current release. However, they will be unsupported in a future release. Plan on upgrading deprecated platforms, and avoid using deprecated features. 

Type Details
Repository database Support for using Oracle 11.2 as the DPA repository database is deprecated. Oracle 11.2 is still supported as a repository database in the DPA 2020.2 release, but support will be removed in an upcoming release.
Browser

Support for accessing DPA through a Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE) 11 browser or the legacy version of Microsoft Edge is deprecated. These browsers are still supported in the DPA 2020.2.1 release, but support will be removed in an upcoming release.

Upcoming releases will continue to support Chromium-based versions of Microsoft Edge.

End of life

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Version EoL Announcement EoE Effective Date EoL Effective Date
DPA 12.0

June 4, 2020 End-of-Life (EoL) announcement - Customers on DPA version 12.0 or earlier should begin transitioning to the latest version of DPA.

 September 2, 2020 End-of-Engineering (EoE) - Service releases, bug fixes, workarounds, and service packs for DPA version 12.0 or earlier will no longer actively be supported by SolarWinds. September 2, 2021 End-of-Life (EoL) - SolarWinds will no longer provide technical support for DPA version 12.0 or earlier.
DPA 11.1

June 4, 2020 End-of-Life (EoL) announcement - Customers on DPA version 11.1 or earlier should begin transitioning to the latest version of DPA.

September 2, 2020 End-of-Engineering (EoE) - Service releases, bug fixes, workarounds, and service packs for DPA version 11.1 or earlier will no longer actively be supported by SolarWinds. September 2, 2021 End-of-Life (EoL) - SolarWinds will no longer provide technical support for DPA version 11.1 or earlier.
DPA 11.0 November 5, 2019 End-of-Life (EoL) announcement - Customers on DPA version 11.0 or earlier should begin transitioning to the latest version of DPA. March 7, 2020 End-of-Engineering (EoE) - Service releases, bug fixes, workarounds, and service packs for DPA version 11.0 or earlier will no longer actively be supported by SolarWinds. March 7, 2021 End-of-Life (EoL) - SolarWinds will no longer provide technical support for DPA version 11.0 or earlier.

See the End of Life Policy for information about SolarWinds product lifecycle phases. For supported versions and EoL announcements for all SolarWinds products, see Currently supported software versions.

Legal notices

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