Finding Inactive SQL Server Databases

Phil Factor demonstrates how to identify objects in a database that are not being used. The technique uses Extended Events to detect acquisition of Intent locks, and so determine which databases are active or apparently 'dormant', and then drills down to investigate on which tables data has been modified recently, and which views and stored procedures have been run. Read more

Checking for Database Events Using Extended Events and SQL Monitor

You need to make sure that nobody tampers with your production databases, or really any databases outside Development. Even if you weren't of a nervous disposition, you'd want to know if a database was stopped or removed. You'd also be intrigued by the sudden unrehearsed addition of a database to a production server. Read more

Checking on Failed Server Logins, Server Errors and Warnings using SQL Monitor

Provides a PowerShell monitoring script for errors, warnings and critical events on the Windows server hosting your SQL Server instance, including the failed server login attempts that would accompany a brute-force password attack. Read more

Monitoring SQL Server Security: What’s Required?

If we know how a database is likely to be attacked, we can arrange our lines of defense, and install the monitors required to detect any attempts. However, some types of attack are difficult to imagine, so we also need our monitoring tool to be adaptable, so that it can collect a more diffuse collection of metrics, and then help us determine the reason for any sudden change in the patterns of access . Read more

Monitoring the Application with SQL Monitor: Website Activity

Using a PowerShell script that collects log data from a web server, plus a SQL Monitor custom metric, Phil Factor offers a way to check for suspicious website errors and unusual patterns of activity, right alongside your database monitoring. Read more

How to Monitor IDENTITY columns to prevent unplanned downtime

If a table runs out of IDENTITY values then it, and any dependent services and applications, will be "read-only" until the problem is fixed. Steve Jones explains how to set up a custom monitor to detect and prevent such problems. Read more

On Quickly Investigating a SQL Monitor Custom Security Alert

Phil Factor offers a clever way to report on a SQL Server intrusion, with a query that shows a full narrative description of all the security-related changes that have been detected by a set of SQL Monitor custom metrics. Read more

Picking over the Bones of a SQL Injection Attack

The best way to learn how to protect your databases from SQL Injection is to to see it in action and confront its consequences. This article tells the story of an attack on a vulnerable SQL Server REST interface, explaining how the attack unfolds, the mistakes that made it possible, and SQL Monitor's role as the 'canary in the mine'. Read more

Monitoring Changes in Permissions, Users, Roles and Logins

Phil Factor uses the default trace and a SQL Monitor custom metric to alert you to unauthorized changes in security membership or permissions in any of your monitored databases. Read more

Checking for Database Drift using Extended Events and SQL Monitor

Phil Factor uses Extended Events and a SQL Monitor custom metric to detect when the metadata of a database has 'drifted', meaning that a database object has been created, deleted or modified outside of the official change management process. Read more

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