How to check and compare baselines with Redgate Monitor

Redgate Monitor Technical Author Anne Edwards explains how to check baselines for SQL Server performance metrics in Redgate Monitor.

Hi, my name's Anne and I'm going to walk you through a few of the things you can do really easily with Redgate Monitor.

First up, baselining. You can use the analysis graph to compare a metric with an earlier time range. This helps to identify patterns and work out whether the metric activity is unusual.

Click 'Compare baseline'. A second lighter line is added to the graph to show the metric activity from six hours earlier.

Use the dropdown menu to change the time range, for example, if you want to see what happened at this time yesterday.

To show up to 10 previous time ranges on the graph, click 'Extend baseline'. This helps to show historical patterns, so that you can see any anomalies more clearly.

To see a moving average, click regions. The most recent line stays on the graph, but the other lines become regions. The darker region represents half of all the metric activity, and the lighter regions represent the remaining activity.

You can see that the spikes at around 6pm and 9.30pm are within the normal range, whereas the spike at around 7.30pm is not.

Create your own custom SQL Server metrics in Redgate Monitor

Redgate Monitor Technical Author Anne Edwards shows you how to set up a new custom SQL Server metric in Redgate Monitor. She covers entering T-SQL code, choosing SQL Server instances to monitor, data collection frequency, and more.

To add a custom metric to Redgate Monitor, on the Configuration tab click 'Custom metrics' and then 'Create custom metric'. Enter a name and a description for your metric.

Then enter the T-SQL query used to collect the data. The query must return a single numeric scalar or NULL. Choose which instances and databases to collect from, and set the collection frequency.

Then click 'Next'. If you like, you can also create a custom alert to go with your metric. For the moment, I'm not going to create an alert. I can always do this later if I want to.

Click 'Next'. You'll see a summary of the metric details. If you're happy with them, click 'Create metric'. The metric is added to Redgate Monitor.

Monitoring the activity and performance of SQL Server and resolving problems is time-consuming

That's where Redgate Monitor steps in with clear insights into SQL Server performance in real time, bringing problems to your attention before anyone else notices.

With its embedded expertise from SQL Server experts and MVPs, it gives you the data and advice you need to find and fix issues before users are even aware.

So, whether you're looking for baselining, wait stats, expensive queries, or instant alerts, find out how Redgate Monitor gives you everything you need – and more – with a free 14 day trial.

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