Detecting Connection Timeouts

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Connection timeouts can be difficult to troubleshoot. It’s sometimes not even apparent that a timeout has occurred. However, the connectivity_ring_buffer_recorded Extended Event can show that this has happened. This is a debug event within Extended Events, so some caution is necessary in its use. Microsoft can change the debug events without warning. You can use […] Read more

Distributor With Undelivered Commands

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We can identify when a distributor has undelivered commands. You can’t tell which database it is though. You’ll have to go to the distributor and run queries. Read more

Subscriber Data Validation Failed

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Uses the data from sysreplication alerts within the msdb database to identify any alerts of value 20574. This indicates a data validation of the subscriber. You will have to look to the error log to understand exactly which subscriber has failed. Only run this on a distribution server. Read more

Finding Job Step Failures

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This metric returns a count of the job steps that failed in the latest execution of all jobs on the instance. This should be a calculated measure, where the change is what should alert the DBA. If any step in a job fails in the latest execution, this alert counts those failures and returns a […] Read more

Detecting Connection Timeouts

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Connection timeouts can be difficult to troubleshoot. It’s sometimes not even apparent that a timeout has occurred. However, the connectivity_ring_buffer_recorded Extended Event can show that this has happened. This is a debug event within Extended Events, so some caution is necessary in its use. Microsoft can change the debug events without warning. You can use […] Read more

Database Drift – Monitoring Unauthorized Object Changes

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This metric identifies when an object has been changed by other than the authorized login. It relies on an Extended Events session to capture the metrics and filters for a specific login. This is a tweak to this custom metric. Here is the necessary Extended Events Session (substitute the appropriate login for the ‘LoginName’ string. […] Read more

Databases at 80% of max file size

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This metric tracks the largest file in a database as a percentage of the maximum file size. If there are 3 files, and 2 are at 50% of the max set (max_usage in sys.database_files), and a third is at 60%, the 60% number is returned. Read more

Detect MrbMiner Malware

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This metric looks for the presence of the MrbMiner malware by checking for an account in sys.sql_logins. Additional information: https://www.zdnet.com/article/new-mrbminer-malware-has-infected-thousands-of-mssql-databases/ Read more

SQL Agent Jobs Owned By The Wrong Person

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One or more SQL Agent jobs exist that are not owned by the database owner. You should fix these jobs so that they’re owned by the appropriate person. If the owning account is removed from Active Directory, the job may fail. 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

  • Total database file size

    by Hugo Kornelis | 5,648 views |

    This custom metric measures the total database file size (data files and log file combined). An increase in this metric signals that a database was grown. When not done by the DBA, this is an autogrow. Excessive autogrow events should be prevented as this can result to file fragmentation. Try to manually grow files before […] Read more

  • Number of active backups and restores

    by SQL Monitor Team | 4,403 views |

    This metric will display the total number of active backups and restores on a server. This can be used to correlate with other metrics to explain why disk IO and CPU usage could have changed. Read more

  • Full backup to odd path

    by Eelco Drost | 4,036 views |

    This custom metric queries the MSDB database to search for multiple paths for a full backup Read more

See all custom metrics