Documentation forSQL Sentry

SQL Sentry Monitoring Service Settings

Applies to: SQL Server, Windows/Hyper-V, SSAS, VMware, Azure SQL Database, Azure Synapse Data Pool, and APS target types.

Introduction

The SQL Sentry monitoring service is a Windows service installed on one or more servers in your enterprise. All settings are stored in the SQL Sentry database. The SQL Sentry monitoring service does the following for each watched instance: 

  • Collects event history
  • Collects event status
  • Collects event performance information
  • Sends notifications
  • Performs various other tasks related to event management
Note:  The various event metadata and history information collected by the SQL Sentry monitoring service is stored in a SQL Server database. The number of instances that can be watched in your environment is controlled by the number of licenses you have purchased.

The SQL Sentry Monitoring Service Settings can be accessed by selecting Global Settings from the Navigator pane.

Navigator Pane Global Settings

By default, the monitoring service settings open to the SMTP Configuration tab.

SQL Sentry Monitoring Service Settings

The SQL Sentry monitoring service settings are global in nature, applying to the entire SQL Sentry installation. They control the behavior and function of all installed SQL Sentry monitoring services connected to the active SQL Sentry database. 

Note:  Make changes to any desired setting, and then select save from the toolbar to save your setting globally.

SQL Sentry Monitoring Service Settings Alerting

Email SMTP Configuration

SQL Sentry Monitoring Service Settings Alerting

Additional Information: For information about configuring an SMTP server, see the SMTP Configuration topic.

SQL Sentry Monitoring Service Settings Alerting Email Format

You have the option to have email alerts formatted as HTML instead of Plain Text. 

SNMP Configuration

SQL Sentry Montoring Service Settings Alerting SNMP

Configure SNMP settings by selecting Global Settings > Alerting tab > SNMP settings.

SNMP Settings

Setting Description
Hostname

Determines where the SNMP trap is sent. The default setting (BROADCAST) sends the trap to all managers. Individual managers can be sent the traps using the individual hostname or IP address.

Note:  Managers included in the BROADCAST group and who are also listed individually receive two messages for each occurrence.
Port The port used for transmission of the traps (Default 162).
SNMP MIBS

SNMP MIBS defaults are found in a folder called SNMP MIBs

C:\Program Files\SentryOne\18.0\SNMP MIBs
SNMP Version The version of SNMP to be used (1, 2C, or 3)
Enabled This checkbox determines whether or not the trap is enabled.

SNMP v1/2C Configuration

Setting Description
Community Enter the community.

SNMP v3 Configuration

Setting Description
Engine ID Enter the Engine ID.

Note:  You can also use Generate button to get this value.
Username Enter the username
Privacy Algorithm Select the appropriate privacy algorithm
Privacy Password Enter the privacy password
Hash Algorithm Select the appropriate hash algorithm (MD5, SHA, or None).
Hash Password Enter the password.

Note:  You can configure SQL Sentry to send SNMP traps to Splunk. 

Splunk is an important tool that aggregates logs and events efficiently and allows you to aggregate disparate data sources into a comprehensive overview of your environment. SQL Sentry utilizes its conditions and actions system where conditions represent the expert knowledge required to determine if something is actionable, and actions provide the flexibility to act on that event. Set up SQL Sentry and Splunk to complement one another’s functionality within your enterprise.

Configure SQL Sentry to send SNMP traps to Splunk by completing the following:

  1. Configure devices to send SNMP traps.
  2. Write the traps to a file for Splunk to index.
  3. Monitor the file with Splunk.
Additional Information: For more information about SQL Sentry's functionality with Splunk, see Enterprise Integration: SQL Sentry, Splunk, and SNMP.

Maintenance Window

SQL Sentry Monitoring Service Settings Alerting Maintenance Window

Maintenance window settings allow you to specify a time frame where Failsafe notifications are disabled while daily maintenance activity takes place. This prevents excessive notifications that may occur if a watched instance is temporarily inaccessible during these activities. Log actions are still enabled during this window, but any execute or send actions won't fire inside the maintenance window. The maintenance window specified in this view, under the SQL Sentry monitoring service node, applies to activity on the SQL Sentry database itself. 

Note:  To specify a maintenance window for watched instances / target(s), select Settings tab from the Settings pane for that instance / target.

PowerShell

SQL Sentry Monitoring Service Settings Alerting PowerShell

Configure PowerShell Execution settings by selecting Global Settings > Alerting tab > PowerShell.

PowerShell Execution Account

Setting Description
Username The global account that the Execute PowerShell Command can be run with.
Password The password for the Execute PowerShell global account.
Additional Information: For more information about PowerShell, see the PowerShell topic.
Additional Information: For information about setting up a PowerShell account, the benefits of PowerShell, and PowerShell Security, see the PowerShell MSDN article.

Webhooks

SQL Sentry Global Alerting settings can be configured to send a POST request with a JSON payload of alert information to your configured destination URL.

SQL Sentry Global Settings Alerting Webhooks section

Configure Webhook settings by selecting Global Settings > Alerting tab > Webhooks.

Option Description
Endpoint Name The name of your integration that is used to differentiate it from other integrations.
Note:  The Endpoint Name can be a maximum of 50 characters.
Endpoint URL The endpoint where you want your alert request to be sent.

Note:  The Endpoint URL must begin with https:// and can be a maximum of 150 characters.
Secret Token An optional field that's used to compute a unique SQLSentry-webhook-signature header to verify request origins.

Note:  The secret token is optional. The signature is calculated by hex-encoding the SHA-256 hash of the payload and token concatenated together. The token can be a maximum of 108 characters. 
Verify and Add After entering your connection properties, select Verify and Add to add your webhook endpoint connection. Select Save to save your global settings.

Important:  If you can't connect to your entered endpoint, you will see the following message:

SQL Sentry Verify and Add Webhook message prompt

Select Yes to continue adding the connection.

The following attributes are sent as a part of the JSON POST request:

Attribute Description Type Example
Severity The severity level of the triggered event. For more information about Severity levels, see Environment Health Overview. String Info
Content The overall content of the webhook message. String See the example request below. 
Timestamp_UTC The time that the event occurred in  UTC. DateTime 2021-08-18T15:09:19.1091532Z
Message The description of the advisory condition event. String Job 'FailedJob' Failed
Condition_Name The name of the condition that was triggered. String SQL Server Agent Job: Failure
Condition_Description The description of the condition that was triggered. String SQL Server Agent Job failed.
Monitor_Type The internal monitoring process type. String EventHistoryMonitor
Monitor_Name The internal monitoring process name. The friendly named version of
Monitor_Type.		 String Event History Monitor
Monitor_Server_Name The name of the monitored sever where the event occurred. String TARGET72
Monitor_Description The description for
Monitor_Type.		 String Processes SQL Sentry Client message queue messages.
Monitor_Object_Name The monitored object type that triggered the event. String FailedJob
Monitor_Object
_Description 		The description of the monitored object type that triggered the event. String Processes SQL Sentry Client message queue messages.
Monitor_Object_
Parent_Name 		The monitored object parent name.  String JDOE-HP: SQL Server Agent Jobs
Generated_By The SQL Sentry client name, version, and target that generated the event. String SolarWinds SQL Sentry 2021.18 Server [TARGET72]
Version The version of the condition that was triggered. Number 2021.13.0.29403
Filter The Condition Settings Filter applied to the triggered condition. String Filter1
Response_Ruleset The response ruleset for the advisory condition event. String Notify Every Time (default)
Configured_Object_Name The name of the target that triggered the event.  String TARGET72
Configured_Object_Type The type of target that triggered the event. String Windows Computer
Message_Recipients The recipients that will be notified of the event.
Note:  This option will always display as null.		 String null
Links The deep linking to open the Target where the event was triggered in the SQL Sentry Client. String url:sqlsentry:
TARGET72
-HP/SentryOne
Debug/
em/eventview/
?c=2&id=250
Timestamp_Local The local time when the alert was collected by monitoring service. DateTime 10/25/2021 11:09:19 AM
Event_Time The date and time the event occurred. DateTime 8/18/2021 11:09:19 AM
End_Time The date and time the event ended (if applicable). DateTime 8/18/2021 11:09:19 AM
Duration The duration of the event. String 15 seconds
Debugging_Information Details debugging information if the Monitoring Service is set to Verbose logging mode. String [Response Ruleset Definition]:\r\nStart Sending Notifications After 1 occurrence within 00:00:01]
Server_Health_Status The environmental health overview score for the monitored target where the event occurred. String null
Modified_By The user account that made modifications to the advisory condition. String JDOE
Host_Name The name of the host server. String JDOE(fe80::3093:70b0
:2c1c:e748%26)
Database_Login The user account used to login to the SQL Sentry database. String JDOE
Action_Object The action associated to the  String Global
Action_Condition The name of the advisory condition associated to the captured event. String Audit: Notes Changed
Action The response action associated to the advisory condition. String Log To Database
TimeSent The time the webhook alert message sent. DateTime 2021-08-18T11:09:40.8606519-04:00

Example Request 

{
   "Severity":"Info",
   "Content":{
      "Timestamp_UTC":"2021-09-30T19:01:45.1710284Z",
      "Message":"Global: Actions Changed",
      "Condition_Name":"Audit: Actions Changed",
      "Condition_Description":"A configured Action was changed for an object.",
      "Monitor_Type":"ConsoleMessageQueueProcessor",
      "Monitor_Name":"SQL Sentry Client Message Queue Processor",
      "Monitor_Server_Name":"JDOE-HP",
      "Monitor_Description":"Processes SQL Sentry Client message queue messages.",
      "Monitor_Object_Name":"Global",
      "Monitor_Object_Description":"Global",
      "Monitor_Object_Parent_Name":null,
      "Generated_By":"SolarWinds SQL Sentry 2021.18 Server [JDOE-HP]",
      "Version":"0.0.0.0",
      "Filter":null,
      "Response_Ruleset":"Notify Every Time (default)",
      "Configured_Object_Name":"Global",
      "Configured_Object_Type":"Global",
      "Message_Recipients":null,
      "Links":null,
      "Timestamp_Local":"9/30/2021 3:01:45 PM",
      "Event_Time":"9/30/2021 3:01:45 PM",
      "End_Time":"9/30/2021 3:01:45 PM",
      "Duration":null,
      "Debugging_Information":null,
      "Server_Health_Status":null
   },
   "TimeSent":"2021-09-30T15:01:51.9995617-04:00"
}

SQL Sentry Monitoring Service Settings Storage 

There are monitoring service settings that control the retention of certain types of data within the SQL Sentry database. Access these settings by selecting Global Settings > Storage tab.

Storage Setting Description
Keep Event History For

Controls the retention of Event Manager data (Event History data). 

Note:  The default value is 30 days.
Keep Performance History For

Specifies how long Performance Advisor Top SQL, Blocking SQL, and Deadlock data is retained in the SQL Sentry database. This settings also applies to Event Manager General Performance Monitoring data.

Note:  The default value is 15 days.
Keep SolarWinds SQL Sentry Message History For

This setting determines how many days worth of Action Log information is stored. 

Note:  The default value is 365 days.
Keep Index Usage History For

Controls the retention of Index Usage statistics counter data in Fragmentation Manager. 

Note:  The default value is 365 days, the minimum permitted value is one, and the maximum permitted value is 396.
Note:  Top SQL, Blocking SQL, and Deadlocks data is also converted to the native Event Calendar format and then is retained according to the Global Settings > Storage tab>  Keep Event History For setting.
Note:  All other performance data, including data displayed on the performance analysis Dashboard, isn't affected by Monitoring Service settings. This data is subject to a high performance storage scheme and internal rollup structure. For more information, see the Dashboard Resolutions/Retention and Data Capacity Planning topics.

SQL Sentry Monitoring Service Settings Forecasts

See the Monitoring Service Settings section of the Forecasting article for details and instructions.

SQL Sentry Monitoring Service Settings Privacy

SQL Sentry Monitoring Service Settings Privacy

The following settings are available in Global Settings > Privacy tab:

SQL Sentry Monitoring Service Settings View End User License Agreement Displays the End User License Agreement.
SQL Sentry Monitoring Service Settings Privacy Telemetry Settings Allows SQL Sentry to collect anonymous information about how you use our software. Un-check the box to stop telemetry. For more information about telemetry, see the telemetry topic.

SQL Sentry Monitoring Service Settings Advanced

SQL Sentry Monitoring Service Settings Advanced

SQL Sentry Global Settings > Advanced tab is where you configure settings for the process that polls watched instances for an active event status.

Setting Description
Live Event Monitor Polling Interval

Controls how often the SQL Sentry monitoring service polls each watched instance for event status information. The polling operations used are lightweight; however, the value can be increased to reduce network activity associated with the SQL Sentry monitoring service. 

Note:  The default Polling Interval is 15 seconds.
History Polling Interval

Controls how often the SQL Sentry Monitoring Service polls each watched instance for event history information.

Note:  The default value is 30 seconds. 
SolarWinds SQL Sentry Message Polling Interval

Controls how often the SQL Sentry Monitoring Service’s internal message queue is checked and messages are processed. Increasing this setting effectively lengthens the time between when a condition is met and any associated actions are triggered. 

Important:  Adjusting the setting up or down affects overhead on the SQL Sentry Monitoring Service only, and won’t affect network or monitoring overhead for watched instances.

Note:  The default value is five seconds.
TempDB Session Usage Polling Interval Controls how often the SQL Sentry Monitoring service polls each watched instances for tempdb session usage information. The polling operations are lightweight, however, the value can be increased to reduce network activity associated with the SQL Sentry Monitoring Service.

Note:  The default value is 20 seconds.
Event Chains are Only Affected by History Within

Tells chaining how far back in the history to look when determining whether history entries should affect chain status. This setting is used as a fail safe measure if for some reason you were unable to synchronize with a server for a specified period of time. Whenever the server comes back online and SQL Sentry is able to re-synchronize history information, any history that's older than the time specified by this setting won’t be used to impact chain execution status. 

Note:  The default value is one day and the minimum value is ten minutes.

Note:  It's recommended to contact support.solarwinds.combefore changing the default value.
Do Not Fire Actions for History Older Than

If messages were unable to be collected for some time this setting keeps actions from being fired for these older message.

Note:  The default value is two hours.
Trigger Run Missed Condition When Scheduling Agent is Offline

Used to specify whether or not to execute the Run Missed Condition when the instance is offline. 

Note:  This setting is enabled by default.
Minimum Block Duration Required to Trigger SQL Server Agent Job: Block Condition

Used to specify the minimum time a SQL Agent Job must be part of a blocking chain before triggering the SQL Server Agent Job: Block Condition.

Note:  The default value is 15 seconds.
Enable AlwaysOn Health Collection

Used to enable AlwaysOn health collection. 

Note:  This setting is disabled by default.
Query Collection Maximum Text Length

Change the maximum length of textdata captured for Top SQL and Top Command events. 

Note:  The default value is 10,000 characters.
Top SQL XE Ring Buffer Size The maximum number of events stored in the ring buffer used for Top SQL Extended Events (XE) collection. This buffer is polled every 10 seconds by default, so it should be large enough to hold the number of queries that will be captured over that interval to avoid data loss.

Important:  All monitoring services must be restarted for changes to this setting to take effect.

Note:  The default value is 25.
Normalization Engine

With the release of version 8.2, there have been improvements made to the Normalization Engine. Users upgrading from a prior build will need to select the Advanced option to see the enhancements. 

Note:  The default value is Advanced, and the default value for Basic (Legacy) is 4000 characters.