The dbWatch Blog

Monitoring databases in large,  distributed or hybrid environments

Monitoring database or SQL servers can in itself be a complex task - as we discuss in SQL Monitoring - 5 steps to full control. But what if you have a really complex environment, with multiple locations, restricted networks behind firewalls, high number of servers or a hybrid solution with some on-premise and some in a cloud? What are the issues, and how can you resolve them?

dbWatch Enterprise Manager 12

This year Bob’s job as a DBA has some challenging issues. His company is considering moving to the cloud, which has Bob worried about job security. The developers are interested in adopting Devops, to streamline their applications. Additionally, his boss wants more database security and decided that the system needs 24 x 7 maintenance. As if that’s not enough, there seems to be never ending demands for growth in services, solutions, data and the need for speed.

No matter what the service, no matter what the purpose, no matter what the product, the cloud is being touted as an answer to scalability by pretty much every major vendor. It started with data-storage, and rapidly moved to databases. In the past we were limited by the actual hardware that we owned. If we needed to expand on it, we needed to purchase more memory, and in many cases we needed to purchase new hardware as the old wore out, or was incapable of handling what we needed it to do.

It's an old problem. The more results you deliver, the more that are expected. The faster you provide them, the faster they are expected. Next thing you know, old methods don't work as well as they used to.

New demands require new workflows. On top of it new technologies are appearing making it seem like your old tools are no longer needed. Next thing you know the environment in which you work has changed. It is barely recognisable, and you might be afraid that you are no longer relevant.

As most DBAs know, security of data is one of the most difficult yet important tasks of maintaining a large estate of databases. It has kept more than one administrator up at night worrying about potential threats and pitfalls. With the growth of the information economy, not only is most information stored in databases, the value of that information has grown. As with anything withvalue, the threats to security increases at a direct correlation to its worth.

Tuning the performance of SQL servers can be a complex and time-consuming task that can affect consistency. Frustratingly, there are no shortcuts either - it’s a job that needs doing and cutting corners can spell disaster for your organisation and require some costly maintenance to put right.

Database server scalability is a common practice in use by IT departments today to help them cope with ever-growing databases and server requirements.

As data requirements grow, the number of server instances in use by businesses explodes, and the importance of stable and reliable IT systems increase, it’s no longer possible for businesses to cope with rigid, non-scalable systems and tools.

Large databases are a key ingredient of today’s online world - most businesses, organisations, applications and software rely on them every second of the day to keep running smoothly.

But maintaining stability and smooth performance across a large and ever-growing set of databases isn’t simple, and that’s why many IT teams and DBAs rely on monitoring and management tools to identify and solve issues quickly.

Want to lower the cost of your database operations? You might start by consolidating database servers and loads, reducing the number of servers or standardising software. Even if you’ve settled on a single database engine like Oracle, it’s common to have multiple different versions in use; out of all the organizations using our dbWatch tools, only one managed to converge on a single version of Oracle. But just as you need to see if you’re making the most of your hardware and software environment, you also need to check if you’re using your...