Spotlight on SQL Server 5.7

Quest Software's Spotlight on SQL Server 5.7 is a database performance monitoringtool designed to help you easily detect and diagnose SQL Server database performance problems by means of a graphical UI. Spotlight on SQL Server lets you view real-timeserver activity so that you can locate problematic database activity.

Installation is a breeze, and it's easy toconfigure monitoring connections to yourexisting servers. In fact, once you connect, awizard prompts you to configure a calibrationinterval (spanning from minutes to hours)within which the tool will monitor overallactivity to compute a baseline. Although Ididn't determine how the baseline was computed, I did notice that Spotlight on SQLServer did a great job of informing me whenmy servers departed from normal operatingparameters, such as when I launched a largeRESTORE operation or when I beganthumping one of my databases with severalcomplex and automated INSERTs.

Spotlight on SQL Server's alerting is veryintuitive. Monitored subsystems and components default to a green display (indicatingsubsystems and components are running asthey should) in top-level monitoring screensand transition to yellow (indicating warning)and red (indicating crisis) depending on howseverely they deviate from established baselinesor as they come under increased load. The UIalso flashes the names of servers encounteringproblems in the Live connections pane so thatyou don't miss anything if you're monitoringmultiple instances.

Spotlight on SQL Server's intuitive UImakes it easy for you to drill down into thedetails of each subcomponent's performanceand to see complex details about currentactivity from various angles. Spotlight onSQL Server provides complex graphs, charts,and data grids that contain precise detailsabout individual database files, overall diskutilization, breakdowns of resource utilizationby user or session, and cache and buffer hitratios by object. Without Spotlight on SQLServer, you would have to glean data fromPerfmon, SQL Profiler, and a handful ofninja-caliber admin scripts. Spotlight on SQLServer, however, presents this data in graphicalform, making it easy to distill mounds of datawith the click of a mouse. The time that thisfunctionality saves makes Spotlight on SQLServer's price easier to justify.

Spotlight on SQL Server's only realweakness is its inability to send alerts viaemail or pager. Spotlight on SQL ServerEnterprise edition, which I haven't tested,provides this functionality, as well as historicaltrending capabilities. Better yet, the Enterprise Edition of Spotlight on SQL Server caneven be cheaper to license in many instances.Of course, buying this product can be difficult because Quest requires you to call andspeak directly with a sales person just to get aprice quote. I wondered if some of the morecomplex monitoring functions that Spotlighton SQL Server provides could put enoughload on an overloaded server to push it overthe brink, but because the tool lets youspecify which monitoring options you wantto enable (and warns you when resource-intensive options are enabled), I think suchconcern might not be warranted.

Overall, Spotlight on SQL Server is agreat product that has a minimal learningcurve and offers a great deal of functionality.Although it's a bit expensive, there aren'tmany other products with this functionality,and the insight the tool provides is extremelyvaluable. Spotlight on SQL Server is an indispensable resource if you have many serversto monitor or are in an environment with alot of ad hoc activity.