Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise‘s main purpose in life is to inform you of SQL Server performance problems, and then give you a quick way to diagnose their root causes so you can take action quickly.  Email and mobile app notifications along with…

Configuring alarms in Spotlight on SQL Server Enteprise is quite easy. Configuring alarms across multiple connections, however, wasn’t always so easy. In versions prior to 11.5, you were required to select a connection and then apply your configuration…

As the old saying goes, “the one constant in life is change”, and this is especially true in database environments.  There are many reasons why database environments experience change whether it be through typical maintenance efforts such…

In recent SharePlex blogs, my colleagues and I have discussed using the Analyze Config command to help gather information to tune SharePlex, and the importance of tuning the target database.  In this blog, I’ll attempt to put it all together.  This…

One of the lesser known features of Foglight the ability to monitor log files.  One of our customers has a process that collects and prints documentation required for truck movement.    Before a truck can leave the loading dock, the dispatcher requests a…

As we continue our navigation of Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise and we can diagnose an alarm that triggers. Let us see what setting caused an alarm to trigger. The fact is when you start monitoring an Instance it is assigned the preset “Factory Settings…

Just the facts! Part 2

Acknowledging Alarms in Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise

Now that we have establish a view of the facts let’s see what we can do with them. Some on these alarms are set by default to be acknowledged before they will clear for…

When a large customer appreciation company needed to categorize their Oracle auditing data by region, SharePlex came to their rescue.  They were already using SharePlex’s Change History feature to track the userid’s, timestamp, before and after data values…

The original “Just the Facts” blog I discussed how to see just the Alarms displayed in “Spotlight Today” within Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise. Now it is time to see what we can do with those Facts or Alarms. Spotlight comes with factory settings…

I once attended an excellent training on giving effective software demonstrations, and the main point was simple: Don’t make your audience wait - show them the good stuff FIRST!

So here it is, in just three steps in Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise…

SharePlex peer-to-peer setup

Peer-to-Peer replication (P2P) allows users on multiple databases to make changes concurrently to the same data, while SharePlex replication keeps all of the databases synchronized. Peer-to-Peer replication is not appropriate…

When very large tables are out of sync on the target and Compare is not a suitable sync option, it requires a set of coordinated steps to bring them in sync with the source tables. This is especially true if the downtime on the source table is not acceptable…

I'm very happy to report that a new release of Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise (version 11.7) is now available.  This is a relatively minor release, mostly including fixes, although there are two enhancements worth mentioning.  One that has been…

Whether it’s hitting sys.dm_io_virtual_file_stats DMV with calculated queries, collecting Perfmon Disk Counter statistics, reviewing Resource Monitor Disk information, or keeping your storage admin close by, I/O issues are all too familiar a concern.…

I had a question recently from a customer. They were asking how to keep track of inactive SQL Server instances in Foglight so that the data can be removed. A flip side of this would be to check what instances they have being monitored vs. what is supposed…

I get this question at least once a month and it has to do with transferring Toad for Oracle user settings from one version to an updated version. When you install a new version of the Toad for Oracle 2016 Suite, the installer does a side-by-side installation…

Friends in High Places

I’m starting a blog series about our Toad solution family, and how it’s changed lives for almost 20 years now.  Sometimes a vendor’s product does something extraordinary for its customers.  The stories you read…

Toad for Oracle’s Query Builder window provides a quick method for creating the framework of a SQL queries (Select, Insert, Update, or Delete statement). Additionally, one can select Tables, Views, or Synonyms, join columns, select columns, and generate…

It has happened to all of us. We love an application like Toad. However, it would be so much more awesome if the app would do some idea that is currently not in the product. Allow me to introduce you to the Toad “Idea Pond.”

The Idea Pond…

You will see that our quest for a fully web-enabled client is full steam ahead!  We just released Stat 5.8.1.  This is a maintenance release that previews some cool new features and fine tuning of the infrastructure that will be a part of the upcoming Stat…

I’m sure Oracle DBAs everywhere are keeping their collective ears close to the ground waiting for the official announcement on 12cR2. We still, rightly or wrongly, have a habit of waiting for the 2^nd release of Oracle versions, but that’s for another…

User-Defined Collections enable you to tell Foglight for SQL Server to go beyond the data points it collects out-of-the-box to also collect the results of queries that you define.  So in addition to the vast amount of commonly-needed metrics that Foglight…

I remember as a young lad of 12 years of age writing letters to friends and family that I had grown up with. As I would finish the letter, I would jump on my bike and run to the local post office to purchase a stamp for the letter. I’m not going…

In this blog, I want to share a scenario that happens when not all the local components are not present doing a specific type of install.  

When selecting ‘Create a New Connection’ | ‘Salesforce’, there is nowhere to enter the connection data, such as…

Here is an annoying issue that hopefully will never happen to you.

For the most part, there is just one service account to run the Diagnostic Server; however, some users may decide, "Hey, I'm  going to monitor one or two connections with my own…