It has been a LONG time since I’ve posted anything about this. This has turned into a simple monitoring tool that shows key SQL Server metrics. It’s now available to download from GitHub at scalesql/isitsql: A simple in-memory SQL Server Monitoring Tool.
It has a few weird little features and quirks that are likely useful to only me
- IsItSQL doesn’t need SQL Server. In default mode, it only has one hour of data that it stores in memory and caches to disk as JSON.
- Runs as a Windows service primarily for “on premise” configurations.
- Supports optional file-based configuration. We run one in each data center. The files are stored in GIT and pushed to each service by Puppet. The service watches the files and reloads the configuration on file changes. You can also create markdown files for each domain, computer, or instance and it will display those as documentation.
- IsItSQL polls running sessions every second to capture waits. This lets you see blocking quickly.
- It also has a simple AG health page showing the health and state of each node.
- Recognize backups from different nodes in Availability Group databases. Missing backups are exposed as a JSON API endpoint. The repository has a PowerShell script that emails if backups are missing.
- It now supports writing basic metrics and waits every minute to SQL Server.
(Bill’s note - I pay for the site and I’m one of the moderators, so I get to post about apps I write.)