Documentation forServer & Application Monitor
Monitoring your applications and environment is a key capability of SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted (formerly Hybrid Cloud Observability) and is available in the Essentials edition. Server & Application Monitor (SAM) is also available in a standalone module.

Edit the AppInsight for SQL template

The AppInsight for SQL template includes component monitors to provide data about monitored SQL instances. If you modify these settings and configurations in the template, the details in AppInsight application monitors already assigned to instances update to match.

The primary reason to edit most SAM templates is to set general configurations such as polling frequency and thresholds for monitored metrics before assigning templates to nodes.

Some component monitors in this template have default settings that cannot be modified due to dependencies. Also, you cannot add component monitors to this template.

To edit the template, select it on the Manage Application Monitor Templates page, click Edit, and then make necessary changes. To begin gathering metrics, assign the template to a SQL instance.

Disable dynamic component monitors

Starting in SAM 2020.2.6, you can disable dynamic AppInsight for SQL component monitors if you know that an ongoing issue (for example, high index fragmentation of a database) will increase false-positive alerts and logs. You can also turn off components that aren't important for your organization, to reduce polling loads.

Disabled components do not impact the status calculation of dynamic entities, such as SQL databases, nor do they impact application status or node status, as displayed in the SolarWinds Platform Web Console.

You can disable AppInsight for SQL component monitors at various levels:

  • Edit the parent template to mute monitoring for a component in child application monitors assigned to individual nodes. Important: This change impacts all application monitors that inherit template settings.
  • Edit the application monitor assigned to a node to mute component monitoring on that node.

Note that the following components support related Top XX widgets, so they cannot be disabled.

  • Database Files
  • Top Tables for Database
  • Top Indexes for Database.

Customize AppInsight for SQL monitoring

In addition to editing the template, there are many ways to customize AppInsight for SQL monitoring, as described here.

Customize widgets on the AppInsight for SQL Details page

With administrator privileges, you can change the widgets that appear on an AppInsight for SQL Details page. Each widget provides data configuration and display options, consuming data provided by the template application and component monitors. Click here for details.

Set custom properties for a node

You can also set custom properties for the AppInsight for SQL application monitor assigned to a specific node.

  1. Navigate to the AppInsight for SQL Details page for a node.
  2. Click Edit Application Monitor in the upper right-hand corner of the page.
  3. Edit the Application Monitor as necessary and click Select resources as needed, then click Submit.

Consider adding the node ID in the Application Monitor Name field so you can easily identify this monitor later.

Remove a database from an active AppInsight for SQL node

To remove a database from an active AppInsight for SQL node, unmanage the AppInsight application monitor assigned to the node to halt polling and alerts. Navigate to the Node Details view, click Unmanage in the Application Details widget, and specify an interval for the assigned application monitor during which no statistics will be collected.

Alternatively, hide the database from AppInsight for SQL via the All Databases widget. See also Tips & Tricks: Stop the Madness: Avoid alerts but continue to pull statistics.

Monitor with other SQL application monitor templates

If monitoring numerous database instances and AppInsight for SQL starts to impact overall performance in your environment, consider using an MS SQL application monitor template to monitor some instances instead.

  1. Add the named instance as a standard node.
  2. Click Settings > All Settings > SAM Settings > Manage Templates.
  3. Select a SQL Server template and assign it to the node created in step 1.
  4. Edit the individual application monitor created for the node when you assigned the template. For example, you may want to define specific thresholds for various component monitors that collect date from the instance.
  5. Enter the SQL named instance for the SQL Server Instance.

Data captured through a template appears on the Node Details for monitored nodes.

See also SQL Named Instance Monitoring in THWACK