3 days ago Microsoft published a new SQL Server management pack version. In every new MP version there are fixes for some bugs or new monitors / rules and support for new SQL Server versions. This MP is a bit different and I would like to spread the words about a very welcome new summer gift. The new management pack contains not only new default SQL Server dashboards (which look btw. awesome!), we actually get the opportunity to use the same kind of dashboard for all groups respectively objects in SCOM.
Just here few impression of the new default summary SQL Server dashboard…
…and if you double click on a tile from the dashboard above, it drills down to a detailed instance dashboard…
There are more default dashboards to explore, but you can also build these kind of summary / detail dashboards yourself! I would like to show a simple example for domain controllers.
Create a “Datacenter Dashboard” dashboard…
After creating the dashboard, you get an empty “workspace”…
Next you need to click on the upper right corner and the you are able to select any kind of SCOM group, in this example I choose domain controllers…
An (expandable) State and Alert tile will be placed onto the dashboard, you are able to expand it by clicking on the left upper triangle and also you can add additional monitors and performance widgets…
So, after adding some more monitor / performance tiles, it could look like this for Active Directory (I randomly picked some rules / monitors)….
And if you double click onto a tile you get an instance view, where you are able to add also additional monitor and performance tiles which act in context of the selected instance…
If you double click a single tile, either a performance view or the Health Explorer will be opened in context. If you click the icon in the upper right corner the details information will be copied to clipboard :). Pretty useful!
This dashboard is just a simple example, but shows you some of the power to use any group / object and create very appealing dashboards. If you go to the dashboard settings, you are even capable of changing the color, refresh interval and also time interval (influences the performance tile on the instance dashboard)…
This SQL Server MP contains a pretty good, separate documentation of these new dashboard capabilities, I highly recommend studying this guide!
The SQL Server management pack and documentation can be downloaded here. Have fun!
While the new dashboards are great, they only worked a couple of days for us and then quit working. Any ideas?