Database autogrowth

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Rating: 5.0/5 (4 votes cast)
4 17,117 0
This metric measures the number of database autogrowth events (data file or log file) in the last hour. Read more

Percentage of blocked connections

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Rating: 5.0/5 (3 votes cast)
3 10,792 0
Most well-balanced SQL Servers will have some degree of blocking. This metric attempts to measure the impact of lead blocking queries against other queries. Higher values indicate that many connections are being blocked, and queries should be tuned to reduce the amount of contention. Read more

Issues found by sp_Blitz

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Rating: 4.8/5 (5 votes cast)
5 17,469 0
This metric looks for configuration, security, health and performance problems, and reports back with a list of issues for you to look into. Read more

Job overran

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Rating: 5.0/5 (1 vote cast)
1 8,047 0
This metric tells you whether a specific SQL Agent job that runs at exactly the same time every day has overrun its expected duration. Read more

Data not yet sent to the mirror

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Rating: 5.0/5 (1 vote cast)
1 5,773 0
This metric tracks the amount of data waiting to be sent from the principal database to the mirror. This is known as the send queue. Read more

Current status of mirroring

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Rating: 5.0/5 (1 vote cast)
1 11,203 0
Mirroring systems can go offline. This metric returns the current state of the mirroring system so you’ll know from a single value what the current status of your mirroring environment is. Read more

Current role of a database

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Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
0 4,543 1
This metric allows you to keep track of the role of a given database within your mirroring set up. The single value returned tells you whether the database is the principal or the mirror. Read more

Status of the witness

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Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)
0 8,566 0
This metric returns a single value that tells you whether the witness is connected, disconnected or unknown. Knowing if it is offline can be as important as knowing if your mirrored databases are available. Read more

Long-running job

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Rating: 3.8/5 (8 votes cast)
8 14,472 1
This metric returns the longest running instance of the named job in the last hour. By creating multiple custom metrics from this example – one for each job you're interested in – you can specify alert thresholds for each job individually. Read more

Number of queries running

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Rating: 4.2/5 (6 votes cast)
6 5,846 0
This metric counts how many queries are running, and alerts you if the value goes above a defined threshold. Read more

What are custom metrics?

The SQL Monitor custom metric feature lets you run T-SQL queries against your SQL Servers to collect specific data. You can analyze and receive alerts about your custom data just like everything else SQL Monitor collects.

But what if you don’t want to write your own queries? No problem. Redgate has brought together a range of quality custom metrics for you to use in SQL Monitor, which are all are free, tried and tested. You can install straight away, and use the resources on this site to help you write your own.

See the Getting Started guides

What is SQL Monitor?

SQL Monitor is a SQL Server performance monitoring tool that gives you real-time and historical SQL Server performance data with alerts and diagnostics.

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

Find out more about SQL Monitor

Featured custom metrics

  • Non-Microsoft loaded modules

    by SQL Monitor Team | 839 views |

    This metric returns the number of non-Microsoft modules loaded into the SQL Server address space. Having a lot of modules loaded into the address space can cause performance issues in SQL Server. This metric lets you keep an eye on how many modules you have, other than those created by Microsoft. Thanks to Nicolaas Botes for […] Read more

  • SQL Server instance restarted

    by Chris Lambrou | 1,227 views |

    This metric and alert will notify you when a SQL Server instance is restarted for any reason. The value returned by the metric is not useful on its own, and is only used by the alert to detect changes. When the server has not been restarted it will report 0 , and when the server […] Read more

  • Default user service account

    by Fabiano Amorim | 13,543 views |

    This metric checks whether SQL Server services are running under any of the default accounts, such as localsystem. Using a default account for SQL Server services can be a security risk. Read more

See all custom metrics