Hello all, we get questions from time to time asking how alarms in Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise can be configured to match a specific customers need.  Questions such as:

1) As a database administrator, all of my critical data files are on my F and G drives.  I don’t want to monitor those drives with the same thresholds and alerts as I do my C drive.

2) I have different backup policies for different databases on my servers and I don’t want to alarm on every database the same way.

All of these use cases can be met with Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise’s alarm configurations.  Please watch the video below to see how its done.  If anyone has any questions or comments, or you want to be walked through a use case of your own, leave a comment or post in the forums!

Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise has a great feature titled “Custom Counters” that allows you to incorporate your own custom data collections into the Spotlight Enterprise framework for data collection, diagnostics, and reporting.  This post will serve as a getting started guide to assist in adding custom counters to your Spotlight deployment.

First off, a disclaimer.  Due to the “open” nature of custom counters, Quest Software makes no guarantees as to the overhead or accuracy of any custom counter.  Custom Counters should be fully tested and validated in a customer’s environment prior to loading onto a production system.

For documentation on the counter used in this screencast as well as other possible counters, head to the Articles -> Documentation -> Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise section of this site, or click on the link below:

http://sqlserver.quest.com/kbcategory.jspa?categoryID=372

If you have any questions, please post them to the forum.