If you have used the dbWatch software for a while, you have probably noticed that it has many things hidden underneath its hood. We have discussed how can dbWatch help you with your database monitoring operations in the past when running InnoDB or MyISAM; one thing we haven’t yet addressed, though, is the hidden gems of dbWatch – in other words, the dbWatch internals. We will do that in this blog post. 

When you fire up dbWatch, you probably see something similar to this: 

In the left side of the screen you should see a bar that depicts some of the tasks that dbWatch can perform for you. Towards the bottom you can also add an instance by clicking the plus sign or get some help by clicking the “?” sign:

On the top of the screen you should also see some options regarding the further configuration of dbWatch. Here are some of them.

•  - You have the monitor tab allowing you to add an instance to dbWatch, inspect the certificates, switch between monitoring and management of your database instances, you have a link to a worksheet that allows you to execute queries, reload the auths or save the input or the output of your queries.

•   - You have the Server tab that allows you to view and generate reports, adjust the server configuration (you can edit the group or instance configuration, you can upload a resource, see the server states, connect to all of the servers or shut them all down, also see the domain configuration) and upload any related resources that you might have (resources could be any .xml files that enhance the functionality of dbWatch – jobs etc.)
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•   - You have the Help tab that has a link to the wiki and the about pages, it allows you to debug the routing and dump, also helps you see the error log to help with resolve any issues you might have:

  - Finally, you have the Views tab. The Views tab enables you to enable or disable what functionality you want to see including the Management, Monitoring, Worksheet, Autodiscover, the FDL console and one of the hidden gems of dbWatch – the dbWatch internals:

The dbWatch Internal is initially unchecked, but check it and you will see a whole new world of database monitoring through dbWatch:

Simply click on this icon and you shall see a brief overview of your dbWatch server, your FDL performance, the syncpoints and the dbWatch engines:

On the dbWatch Server Overview tab you should see some more information about your dbWatch server. You should see the list of your dbWatch servers, the thread statistics per every dbWatch server in use, the disk usage statistics per every dbWatch server in use, this tab also provides you with memory usage statistics. Take a look:

The dbWatch server overview tab can help you identify problems related to your database instances, tell you when you should scale your database servers up or down (look at the disk and CPU usage, CPU speed per dbWatch server, the amount of memory allocated, reserved and its maximum value, thread and worker capacity, uptime and decide if you should upgrade for yourself). It’s also worth noting that this tab can also tell you uyour property data directory nuder the disk usage statistics per dbWatch Server allowing you to see what directory the data and log files are located in, the directory size, capacity and even the amount of free disk space per dbWatch server.

•   - dbWatch Internals can also tell you which FDL topics are performant and which are worth more looking into. Take a look:

This part of dbWatch internals tells you everything about the FDL performance on your dbWatch instances: it can tell you what FDL topics are doing well, list them by maximum number of executions or execution time etc. On the right hand side you can see the time it takes to run a certain FDL-related topic and also the amount of executions made on that particular topic.

    - The dbWatch internals tab can also show you some information about the dbWatch engines. For example, you take a look at the engine table count and the size of them, see the top 20 largest dbWatch engines by rows or by total size occupied on the disk etc.:

•     - dbWatch internals can also tell you some information about your dbWatch license usage, e.g what kind of a license you have, the amount of maximum instances allowed with the license and the amount of instances currently connected with that instance. Take a look for yourself:
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Summary

To summarize, the dbWatch Internals tab can be useful if you want to know more about the database instances you run on dbWatch – it can show you a brief overview of your dbWatch server, your FDL performance, the syncpoints and the dbWatch engines, it can tell you your memory, disk and CPU usage statistics, which FDL topics are performing well and which are worth further looking into, it can provide you with the information about the types of licenses you are running and many other things. If you find yourself looking for something more than what is available in dbWatch by default, consider looking into dbWatch internals.

Other Blogs:

Create a customized database performance view with dbWatch

Backing up with dbWatch - a Guide