SQL Azure monitoring with Cotega

I just started to use this SQL Azure and SQL Server Monitoring tool http://www.cotega.com/ and I must say that it is exactly what I was looking for in a easy to use monitoring tool. I don’t need to be complex, feature rich and massive monitoring tool. I only need a alert when database is not accessible, if performance seems to be below average or there is a spike in the usage. Service is stil in beta but it looks really promising.

Just click "add SQL Azure database"

Setting up the database connection was easy. After login you are presented with Dashboard view. Just click “add SQL Azure database and fill in the database address, username and password to the popup. Finally press “Add database button”.

Fill in the address and login details.

You can add notifications to you databases by going to Notifications view and pressing “Create Notification” button.

To add new notification just press "Create Notification"

Just fill the name of the notification, select monitoring rule from “select what you want to monitor”, database and the polling frequency.

Fill in the details and select monitoring target.

After you have selected monitoring target you can select when to create a notification. In this case I have selected “when connection fails”. After this you can fill in a email address and even select a stored procedure to be run. But with connection fails case that does not make sense :). Finally press “Add Notification”.

Add email address and select stored procedure if you need one

There you go. Just start waiting those notifications to kick in.

There is a nice feature in the notifications: When you start to receive lots of them for example conserning “connection fails” you can temporarily disable the notification directly from the notification.

When you get many same type of Notifications you have option to disable the Notification directly from the email.

You can check the logs for specific notification to make sure that rule works.

You can see how rules are being evaluated.

Also you can view this info in a report view for performance ananlysis purposes.

Its easier to spot performance problems from visualized reports.

Very potential neat litle monitoring tool for those who don’t need complex solution for simple problem!