Quest® Performance Analysis for SQL Server
Version 6.0 - GA Version
Release Notes
June 2007
Performance Analysis is a database real-time monitoring and historical analysis application. The Performance Analysis application uses the StealthCollect(™) resource-light high sampling rate technology, with the capacity to bind between the (anonymous) database activities and the real users, programs and SQL Server resource consumers (dimensions) in an intuitive user-friendly interface. Listings, reports, and graphical flows and charts grant you both a system-wide perspective and the ability to drill-down into any existing or user-defined unit.
SQL Server database performance monitoring by system and database administrators is immeasurably enhanced by the Performance Analysis ability to bring together in one screen and report all mission-critical performance data in a customizable manner.
Effective data collection and analysis is essential for identifying and correcting performance problems. Performance Analysis provides the means to comprehensively record SQL Server instance activity for an unlimited period for analysis and diagnosis. With Performance Analysis you can:
Performance Analysis offers a comprehensive suite for diagnosing and tuning the SQL Server instance workload. Through advanced new diagnostic features and specially-designed interfaces, Performance Analysis transforms SQL Server performance management into a faster, easier and more efficient experience, as follows:
Users can now separately license support for the following items:
Performance Analysis is installed with a default 30-day trial license key, which also includes support for the Performance Advisories and PeopleSoft modules. Activate the full production version license of Performance Analysis and purchased module support by entering a valid Authorization Key and Site Message in the Help | Help About | Trial Version | Product Authorization dialog.
The Performance Analysis Agent (StealthCollect™) installation supports a variety of configurations, platforms and options. The Agent installation is performed locally, on the target machine. More information about the Agent installation is available from the Performance Analysis Overview page.
Quest supports the hot-fixes listed in SQL_Server_Versions. If you want to apply a hot-fix not listed in that section, please contact Quest support for further instructions.
The following is a list of issues addressed and enhancements implemented in this release of Performance Analysis for SQL Server.
|
Feature |
Resolved Issue |
Change Request |
| Agent Installation | Upgrade failures |
CR#198582 |
| Agent | Inconsistent binaries version numbers | CR#191964 |
|
Collector |
Error logs growing too fast |
CR#183797 |
| Lock enhancements | CR#159599 | |
| Metric definition and aggregation consistency enhancements |
CR#187149 CR#200269 CR#201440 |
|
| Enhanced support for new SQL server ports | CR#211549 | |
|
Middleware |
Stability issues |
CR#193003 CR#157464 |
| Enhancements in the stored procedure detection |
CR#153189 CR#140088 |
|
| Repository | Database Change Tracking enhancements | CR#153730 |
The following is a list of issues known to exist at the time of the Performance Analysis 6.0 release.
|
Feature |
Known Issue |
Change Request |
| General | Installing the Performance Analysis Client/Agent in a folder that contains non-English characters is not supported. |
CR#213891 CR#213896 |
| Running Performance Analysis using a localized username will result in difficulties in extraction and creating a support bundle. | CR#213885 | |
| Agent | Multiple Agents monitoring the same SQL Server instance cannot share the same performance repository (regardless of Agent installation port). This situation will result in data corruption and inconsistencies. | CR#213900 |
| Uninstalling an Agent from a clustered environment should always be done directly from one of the cluster nodes. | CR#213901 | |
|
Data that is related to a newly created database may be associated with the
database ID, rather than its actual name for a period of up to 6 hours.
Workaround: In the Performance Analysis Agent Administration | Agent Options tab, click Refresh Now. |
CR#213902 | |
|
Using the agent's Remove Literals feature in SQL Server 2005 with the auto
parameterize option on is not recommended as the agent will replace the parameterized values with variables following the agent's functionality naming conventions. Work around - disable the remove literals feature |
CR#204401 | |
| Installation of Performance Analysis Agent using a localized user name/ password set either using windows authentication as well as DB authentication is not supported in the current release. | CR#213894 | |
|
If SQL Server stores data of more than a single language, the Performance
Analysis Agent sampling language must be that of the primary language.
Workaround: Adjust the Sampling Language attribute from within the Collector tab, accessible in the Performance Analysis Agent administration. |
CR#213898 | |
| When an invalid collation exists (this can often result when SQL Server and/or the host operating system have been upgraded and a collation dropped), SQL Server will return NULL for the SERVERPROPERTY(‘Collation’) function or creating a new database with the server collation will fail. In these cases, the repository manager will create a database using the Latin1_General_CS_AS collation. This condition can result from configuration changes, upgrades or other scenarios. Use fn_helpcollations to verify valid collations on your server. If the Latin1_General_CS_AS collation is not desired, a manual installation can be chosen | CR#228798 | |
|
For SQL Server 2000 without Hotfix 8.00.959 installed, when the SQL Server
restarts, SQL Server performance counter metrics are not reinitialized if any
process was attached to the SQL Server performance counters. This results in the
Performance Analysis Agent not collecting SQL Server-provided metrics.
Workaround: Identify and stop all processes attached to the SQL Server performance counters and restart the SQL Server. |
CR#213899 | |
|
Performance Analysis Client |
||
| The command types for certain statements might appear as unknown – (SQL Server 2005 specific). | CR#213884 | |
|
Running Performance Analysis using a localized username will result in difficulties in extraction and creating a support bundle. |
CR#213885 |
|
| Using the "Copy to clipboard" feature on a German machine will copy the SQL while replacing the German characters with squares. | CR#207638 | |
| The online help is not accessible from within the Schedule Report configuration dialog. | CR#213886 | |
| Only the HTML and PDF file types are supported in the Executive Workload Summary Reports wizard | Print dialog, Print to File option. Other file types will not be correctly formatted. |
CR#213888 |
|
| Unicode data set within the context_info field may appear with extra characters at the end of the actual value. | CR#213890 | |
| For SQL statements running as server cursors, only the first 256 characters are displayed. | CR#213892 | |
|
Performance Analysis for SQL Server does not include support for instances of
SQL Server where the lightweight pooling option is enabled. Enabling lightweight
pooling is an advanced option and is not appropriate for many environments.
For more information please read the following Microsoft Knowledgebase Article: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/319942 |
CR#213893 | |
|
Online Help |
The online help is not accessible from within the Schedule Report configuration dialog. |
CR#213886 |
The following is a list of third party issues known to exist at the time of the Performance Analysis 6.0 release.
|
Feature |
Known Issue |
Change Request |
| McAfee v5.5 |
McAfee v5.5 installations may not allow the Performance Analysis installer to complete. Workaround: Contact Quest support. |
CR#214140 |
|
SQL Server 2005 |
The command types for certain statements might appear as unknown. |
CR#213884 |
|
Citrix |
When running Performance Analysis on Citrix, sufficient OS permissions are required to run scheduled reports. |
CR#213889 |
For the Agent to function in a mixed environment running both SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2000, upgrade all Performance Analysis Agent components to the latest version.
For detailed instructions please visit the Performance Analysis Overview page or contact Quest Support.
Quest supports the hot-fixes listed in SQL_Server_Versions. If you want to apply a hot-fix not listed in that section, please contact Quest support for further instructions.
Before installing Performance Analysis 6.0, ensure your system meets the following minimum hardware and software requirements:
| Platform | Pentium III (Pentium IV recommended) or compatible processor. |
| Memory | 512 MB of RAM minimum Note: The memory required may vary based on the following:
|
| Hard Disk Space | 450 MB of disk space required for a full installation,
which includes 200 MB download of temporary setup files that can be
removed at the completion of the installation.
Notes:
|
| Monitor | VGA with a minimum resolution of 1024x768, small fonts |
| Printer | Optional for printing graphs and reports. |
| Mouse | Required for accessing all features |
| CD drive or Internet connection | Required for installation only |
| Operating System |
|
| Browser | Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or later |
| Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) | Version 2.6 or later installed. To verify the MDAC version installed on your computer, follow the instructions from Microsoft's site: |
| Citrix Support |
|
| Platform |
|
| CPU |
According to the Hardware requirements document accessible through the Performance Analysis Overview page. |
|
Memory |
According to the Hardware requirements document accessible through the Performance Analysis Overview page. |
|
Hard Disk Space |
According to the Hardware requirements document accessible through the Performance Analysis Overview page. |
| Operating System |
|
| CD/DVD drive or Internet connection | Required for installation only |
| PeopleSoft Versions | 8.0 or later |
| Performance Repository | SQL Server 2005 SQL Server 2000 Sp3a and above |
| Microsoft Data Access Components (MDAC) | Version 2.6 or later installed. To verify the MDAC version installed on your computer, follow the instructions from Microsoft's site: |
| SQL Server Versions |
32 bit Platforms
64 bit (Windows x64) Platforms
64 bit (Itanium) Platforms
|
Performance Analysis requires 2.5GB of free disk space on the repository host in order to create the repository database – 2GB for data files and 512MB for transaction log files. Please note, while the initial size of the repository database is 2.5GB, the database will grow as data is accumulated for each monitored instance configured to use that repository; Performance Analysis provides the ability to configure multiple agents to share a common repository database, so the repository size will be dependent upon the sum of all agents' observed activity. The final size of the repository database is dependent on a number of factors that are unique to each application environment including the instance workload (which includes the number of unique SQL statements captured, and the number of unique dimension members observed for each of the historical dimensions), and the settings configured for data retention.
This section contains information about installing and operating this product in non-English configurations, such as those needed by customers outside of North America. This section does not replace the materials about supported platforms and configurations found elsewhere in the product documentation.
This release supports any single-byte or multi-byte character set. In this release, all product components should be configured to use the same or compatible character encodings and should be installed to use the same locale and regional options. This release is targeted to support operations in the following regions: North America, Western Europe and Latin America, Central and Eastern Europe, Far-East Asia.
This release has the following known capabilities or limitations: Korean Advisories have limited internationalization support.
The Performance Analysis for SQL Server version 6.0 release package contains the following products:
- Windows x86 (32 bit) (PA_MSSQL_Agent_Installer_6_0_21_0_Win_x86.exe)
- Windows x64 (64 bit) (PA_MSSQL_Agent_Installer_6_0_21_0_Win_x64.exe)
- Windows Itanium (64 bit) (PA_MSSQL_Agent_Installer_6_0_21_0_Win_ia64.exe)
- These release notes (PASS_60_Release_Notes.htm)
- Installation Checklist/Quick Guide (Pre Installation Check List.pdf)
- Agent Installation User Guide (Agent Installation User Guide.pdf)
- Client Online Help (PASS_60_Online_Help.chm)
Performance Analysis Agent installation should be performed as follows.
Download the Agent installation file matching the target SQL Server platform (Windows 32 bits x86, Windows 64 bits x64, Windows 64 bits Itanium).
Run the installation file on the SQLServer host and follow the displayed instructions.
For detailed instructions please visit the Performance Analysis Agent web site or contact Quest Support.
| info@quest.com | |
| Quest Software, Inc. World Headquarters 5 Polaris Way Aliso Viejo, CA 92656 USA | |
| Web |
Refer to our Web site for regional and international office information.
Quest Support is available to customers who have a trial version of a Quest product or who have purchased a commercial version and have a valid maintenance contract. Quest Support provides around the clock coverage with SupportLink, our web self-service. Visit SupportLink at http://support.quest.com.
From SupportLink, you can do the following:
View the Global Support Guide for a detailed explanation of support programs, online services, contact information, and policy and procedures. The guide is available from: http://support.quest.com/pdfs/Global Support Guide.pdf.
This document contains proprietary information protected by copyright. The software described in this guide is furnished under a software license or nondisclosure agreement. This software may be used or copied only in accordance with the terms of the applicable agreement. No part of this guide may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording for any purpose other than the purchaser’s personal use without the written permission of Quest Software, Inc.
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This product includes software developed by third parties. License information for these components is available from the Performance Analysis Overview page.
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