SQL Performance Report
The responsiveness of a transaction is the key determinant of user experience with that transaction. To ensure user experience is always on par, a business transaction should be rapidly processed by each of the Microsoft IIS web servers in its path. Processing bottlenecks on a single server owning to SQL queries executed on the server can slowdown/stall an entire business transaction or can cause serious transaction errors. If the issue persists, then, the user experience will be affected badly. To historically analyze how frequently the business transactions suffered due to a longer SQL execution time, the SQL queries that were affected and the SQL queries that were error prone, eG Enterprise offers the SQL Performance Report. This report when generated helps administrators identify those business transactions with maximum SQL execution time, isolate the SQL queries that were executed frequently and identify those queries that were executed with errors. By closely analyzing this report, administrators can pick those queries that required to be optimized so that the transaction processing capability is improved which automatically helps in gaining more ‘happy’ users.
To generate the SQL Performance report, do the following:
Login to eG Reporter.
Follow the menu sequence: REPORTS BY FUNCTION -> Domain-specific Reports -> Web Application Monitoring -> Business Transaction Monitoring -> SQL Performance Report.
Using this report, you can analyze the performance of one/more managed components, or those that are part of a zone, service or segment. The options provided by the Analyze By list box are discussed hereunder:
Component: Select this option to choose the component (s) from across all the managed components in the environment.
Zone: To generate a report for one/more components that are included in a zone, pick the Zone option. A Zone drop-down list will then appear, from which you would have to select the zone to which the components of interest to you belong to. A Sub zone flag also appears. Indicate whether the components present within the sub-zones of the chosen zone are also to be considered for report generation, by setting the Sub zone flag to Yes.
Segment: If you want to generate a report for one/more chosen components that belong to a segment, select the Segment option from Analyze By list box, and then pick the Segment from the drop-down list that appears.
Service: If you want to generate a report for one/more components involved in the delivery of a service, select the Service option from Analyze By, and then pick the required Service from the drop-down list that appears.
In the Component list box, all the components pertaining to the chosen Component Type will be listed. If the Component list consists of too many web application servers, then viewing all the components and selecting the ones you need for report generation could require endless scrolling. To avoid this, you can click the
button next to the Component list. This will open the Components pop up window using which you can view almost all the components in a single interface and Select the ones for which the report is to be generated. If there are still too many components in the list to choose from, you can narrow your search further by using the Search Components text box. Specify the whole/part of the component name to search for in this text box, and click the icon next to it. The Component list will then be populated with all component names that embed the specified search string. Select the component of your choice from this list. Provide a report Timeline. You can either select a fixed timeline such as 1 hour, 2 days, etc., or choose the Any option from the Timeline list, and then provide a From and To date/time for report generation.
Note
For every user registered with the eG Enterprise system, the administrator can indicate the maximum timeline for which that user can generate a report. Once the maximum timeline is set for a user, then, whenever that user logs into eG Reporter and attempts to generate a report, the Timeline list box in the report page will display options according to the maximum timeline setting of that user. For instance, if a user can generate a report for a maximum period of 3 days only, then 3 days will be the highest option displayed in the Timeline list - i.e., 3 days will be the last option in the fixed Timeline list. Similarly, if the user chooses the Any option from the Timeline list and proceeds to provide a start date and end date for report generation using the From and To specifications, eG Enterprise will first check if the user's Timeline specification conforms to his/her maximum timeline setting. If not, report generation will fail. For instance, for a user who is allowed to generate reports spanning over a maximum period of 3 days only, the difference between the From and To dates should never be over 3 days. If it is, then, upon clicking the Run Report button a message box will appear, prompting the user to change the From and To specification.
In addition to the settings discussed above, this report comes with a set of default specifications. These settings are hidden by default. If you do not want to disturb these default settings, then you can proceed to generate the report by clicking the Run Report button soon after you pick a Measure. However, if you want to view and then alter these settings (if required ), click on the
icon. The default settings will then appear in the More Options drop down window. The steps below discuss each of these settings and how they can be customized.If the timeline specified for the report needs to exclude the data collected during the Weekends, then set Exclude weekends to Yes. If not, select No.
Note
By default, the weekend constitutes Saturday and Sunday. To override this default setting, do the following:
Edit the eg_report.ini file in the <EG_INSTALL_DIR>\manager\config directory.
In the [EXCLUDE_WEEKEND] section of the file, the Days parameter is set to Saturday,Sunday by default. You can modify this by setting the Days parameter to a comma-separated list of other days of the week - say Friday,Saturday.
Save the file after making the required changes.
Next, specify the start time and end time for report generation against the Time period field.
Note
By default, the Time period is set to 24 hours. Accordingly, the From and To parameters in the [timeframe] section of the eg_report.ini file (in the <EG_INSTALL_DIR>\manager\config directory) are set to 00:00 and 24:00 respectively. If need be, you can override this default setting by configuring a different timeframe against the From and/or To parameters.
In large environments, reports generated using months of data can take a long time to complete. Administrators now have the option of generating reports on-line or in the background. When a report is scheduled for background generation, administrators can proceed with their other monitoring, diagnosis, and reporting tasks, while the eG manager is processing the report. This saves the administrator valuable time. To schedule background processing of a report, select the Background Save - PDF option from the Report Generation list. In this case, a Report Name text box will appear, where you would have to provide the name with which the report is to be saved in the background. To process reports in the foreground, select the Foreground Generation - HTML option from this list.
Note
The Report Generation list will appear only if the EnableBackgroundReport flag in the [BACKGROUND_PROCESS] section of the eg_report.ini file (in the {EG_INSTALL_DIR}\manager\config directory) is set to Yes.
The default selection in the Report Generation list will change according to the Timeline specified for the report. If the Timeline set is greater than or equal to the number of days specified against the MinDurationForReport parameter in the [BACKGROUND_PROCESS] section of the eg_report.ini file, then the default selection in the Report Generation list will be Background. On the other hand, if the Timeline set for the report is lesser than the value of the MinDurationForReport parameter, then the default selection in the Report Generation list will be Foreground. This is because, the MinDurationForReport setting governs when reports are to be processed in the background. By default, this parameter is set to 2 weeks - this indicates that by default, reports with a timeline of 2 weeks and above will be processed in the background.
Finally, click the Run Report button to generate the report.
If the Report Generation is Foreground Generation - HTML, then the report will appear as soon as you click the Run Report button.
The Top 10 Business Transactions by SQL Execution Time section displays the top-10 business transactions based on the percentage of time that each business transaction waited to get response from the SQL database. This section also reveals the URL and average response time of each business transaction and the average time taken by SQL database to respond to the transaction.
Using the By SQL Query Issued section of this report, administrators can determine how many times a query executed on the SQL database to respond to the business tranactions. The average time taken for executing each query is also reported in this section.
The SQL Queries with Error section helps administrators to figure out the total number of times that a query was executed on the SQL database and the number of times that a query executed with errors. This helps administrators to easily figure out error-prone queries.
The Top 5 Servers by SQLs Executed graph of this report reveals the top-5 servers that issued maximum number of queries to the SQL database for performing business transactions. This graph helps administrators in identifying the server that imposed maximum query load on the SQL database.
The Top 5 Servers by SQL Execution Time (Secs) graph reveals the top-5 servers whose SQL queries took maximum amount of time to execute. This revelation helps administrators in determining which server took maximum time for query execution.
The Top 5 Business Transactions by SQLs Executed graph reveals the top-5 business transactions for which maximum number of SQL queries were executed on the SQL database. In the event of abnormal query load on the SQL database, administrators can use this graph to identify the business transaction for such load.
The Top 5 Business Transactions by SQLs Execution Time graph graphically displays the top-5 business transactions that took longer time for SQL query execution. Administrators can use these details to identify slow transactions.