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Released: System Center Management Pack for SQL Server and Dashboards (6.7.20.0)

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We are happy to announce that updates to SQL Server Management Packs have been released!

Downloads available:

Microsoft System Center Management Pack for SQL Server 2016 Microsoft System Center Management Pack for SQL Server 2014 Microsoft System Center Management Pack for SQL Server (2008-2012) Microsoft System Center Management Pack for SQL Server Dashboards

A Note About Dashboard Performance

Sometimes, you may run into a situation when dashboards open rather unwillingly—it may take quite a lot of time to get them ready. The core of the issue lays in large amounts of data written into Data Warehouse throughout the day. Every bit of this data is to be processed when you open any dashboard, which may lead to dashboards freezing. The issue is rather frequent if you open the dashboards after a certain period of inactivity. To neutralize this issue, it is recommended to enable the special “DW data early aggregation” rule. The rule will distribute the Data Warehouse processing load during the day, which will result in a quicker start of the dashboards.

By default, the rule has a 4-hour launch interval which works for most environments. In case the dashboards have not reached the desired performance level in your environment, decrease the interval. The more frequently the rule launches, the quicker the dashboards behave. However, do not decrease the interval below 15 minutes and do not forget to override the rule timeout value to keep it always lower than the interval value.

SP Compliance Monitor Known Issue

“SP Compliance” monitor of SQL 2016 MP throws an alert and switches to "Warning" state even if the monitored instance of SQL Server 2016 has SP1 already installed. The cause of the issue is that SP1 does not update the corresponding parameter in WMI. Therefore, the management pack considers that no SP is installed. Override the monitor to either disable it or set 0 as the minimal required SP level.  This issue will be fixed in SQL Server SP2.

Please see below for the new features and improvements. Most of them are based on your feedback. More detailed information can be found in guides that can be downloaded from the links above.

New SQL Server 2008-2012 MP Features and Fixes

  • Implemented some enhancements to data source scripts
  • Fixed issue: The SQL Server 2012 Database Files and Filegroups get undiscovered upon Database discovery script failure
  • Fixed issue: DatabaseReplicaAlwaysOnDiscovery.ps1 connects to a cluster instance using node name instead of client access name and crashes
  • Fixed issue: CPUUsagePercentDataSource.ps1 crashes with “Cannot process argument because the value of argument "obj" is null” error
  • Fixed issue: Description field of custom user policy cannot be discovered
  • Fixed issue: SPN Status monitor throws errors for servers not joined to the domain
  • Fixed issue: SQL Server policy discovery does not ignore policies targeted to system databases in some cases
  • Fixed issue: GetSQL20XXSPNState.vbs fails when domain controller is Read-Only
  • Fixed issue: SQL ADODB "IsServiceRunning" function always uses localhost instead of server name
  • Increased the length restriction for some policy properties in order to make them match the policy fields
  • Actualized Service Pack Compliance monitor according to the latest published Service Packs for SQL Server

New SQL Server 2014 and 2016 MP Features and Fixes

  • Implemented some enhancements to data source scripts
  • Fixed issue: DatabaseReplicaAlwaysOnDiscovery.ps1 connects to a cluster instance using node name instead of client access name and crashes
  • Fixed issue: CPUUsagePercentDataSource.ps1 crashes with “Cannot process argument because the value of argument "obj" is null” error
  • Fixed issue: Description field of custom user policy cannot be discovered
  • Fixed issue: SPN Status monitor throws errors for servers not joined to the domain
  • Fixed issue: SQL Server policy discovery does not ignore policies targeted to system databases in some cases
  • Fixed issue: Garbage Collection monitor gets generic PropertyBag instead of performance PropertyBag
  • Fixed issue: GetSQL20XXSPNState.vbs fails when domain controller is Read-Only
  • Fixed issue: SQL ADODB "IsServiceRunning" function always uses localhost instead of server name
  • Increased the length restriction for some policy properties in order to make them match the policy fields
  • Actualized Service Pack Compliance monitor according to the latest published Service Packs for SQL Server

SQL Server Dashboards MP

  • No changes since 6.7.15.0. The version number has been bumped to 6.7.20.0 to match the current version of SQL Server MPs.

We are looking forward to hearing your feedback.

Comments

  • Anonymous
    March 20, 2017
    How about replication mp update?
    • Anonymous
      March 20, 2017
      Hi Igor, barring any unforeseen circumstances, we plan to update it by end of June.
      • Anonymous
        March 30, 2017
        :( Ok . I disabled almost all debug rules because too errors
  • Anonymous
    March 21, 2017
    Hi,Is there a bug in the collection rule: MSSQL 2012: Collect DB File Free Space (MB) ?It seems to be missing a conversion from KB to MB when looking at the numbers it reports/perf data.Eg. free space (MB) is much higher than actual DB Allocated Size (MB)
    • Anonymous
      March 21, 2017
      Im guessing it's also relevant for the other SQL versions. :)
      • Anonymous
        March 21, 2017
        Hi Søren,MSSQL 2012: Collect DB File Free Space (MB) collects all the space that could be used, including the autogrow properties. If you don't have a limit on autogrow, the "file free space" will be equal to "free space in file" + "free space on disk"Could you please check the settings of the file?Thank you,Dmitry Kalinin.
        • Anonymous
          March 23, 2017
          Hi,That makes sense, allthough extremely confusing when looking at a DB space report/perf data, since you will always end up with 99.999% free space if you have a large data drive hosting the SQL databases and are using the default SQL settings for a database, with "infinite" autogrow.Where as i would expect the report and perf counters to reflect the current free space in the database file, as that's the name of the monitor "DB File Free Space (MB)" and not "DB File + Disk free space" ;)
          • Anonymous
            March 23, 2017
            Hi Søren,You have dedicated rules for your case:MSSQL 2012: Collect DB File Allocated Free Space (%)MSSQL 2012: Collect DB File Allocated Free Space (MB)Could you please check if these ones produce the expected output?Thank you,Dmitry Kalinin.
          • Anonymous
            March 24, 2017
            Hi,MSSQL 2012: Collect DB File Allocated Free Space (MB) shows what i expect. :)The "problem" came when i used the "SQL Database space" report, this does not use the allocated free space, but instead the total DB + Disk freespace to show the database used %, which is a bit misleading in my mind as it reflects poorly on the actual usage of the database space in my mind.
  • Anonymous
    April 03, 2017
    I'm still seeing alerts for the "CPUUsagePercentDataSource.ps1 crashes with “Cannot process argument because the value of argument “obj” is null” error". The notes says this is fixed.Here's the alert details in case more information would be helpful in resolving it in future MP updates:---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Event ID: 4201. Management Group: WSP. Script: Main Module: CPUUsagePercentDataSource.ps1 Version: 6.7.20.0 : Error occured during CPU Usage for SQL Instances data source executing.Computer:Reason: Cannot process argument because the value of argument "obj" is null. Change the value of argument "obj" to a non-null value. Position:1043 Offset:40Detailed error output: Cannot process argument because the value of argument "obj" is null. Change the value of argument "obj" to a non-null value.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Is there something I could be missing?
    • Anonymous
      April 11, 2017
      Thank you for your comment. We've already known that these errors got back. The problem here is we can't reproduce the issue in our testing labs, it affects quite few productive environments. We're going to find all the weak places in the script and fix them all in the next release.
      • Anonymous
        April 17, 2017
        Getting the same errors here, any ETA on the next release?
        • Anonymous
          April 17, 2017
          Hi Landon, we're going to release the preview version in May and the production-ready version in June.
          • Anonymous
            May 25, 2017
            Any update? I haven't seen a preview release, and we're nearing the end of May.
            • Anonymous
              May 25, 2017
              We plan to release the CTP next week. Thanks for being patient.
  • Anonymous
    April 04, 2017
    The Service Pack Compliance monitor is generating alerts for my SQL 2016 instances, despite them being patched to SP1 CU2. Is this a known issue?Also, the Product Knowledge for the alert mentions that the default value for the override parameter "Minimal Service Pack level for SQL Server 2016" is 0, yet the Override Properties show the default value to be 1.
    • Anonymous
      April 04, 2017
      Stewart, thanks for the feedback. The first issue is known, please see the note about SP Compliance Monitor Known Issue in the post above. The second issue will be fixed in the next release of the MP.
      • Anonymous
        April 04, 2017
        Thanks for the clarification.RegardsStewart
  • Anonymous
    June 11, 2017
    The comment has been removed
    • Anonymous
      June 13, 2017
      Thank you for reporting this. We need some more details to investigate this error and help you solve it. When did the problem appear? Did you grant both LocalSystem accounts with required permissions on both primary and secondary SQL Server instances? Can you name the Availability Group from the error description? How often does such an error appear in OpsMan log? You can answer here or email to us at sqlmpsfeedback@microsoft.com.
  • Anonymous
    June 18, 2017
    Hi Team,The GUIDE for this MP states that the following..NET Framework 4.6 and Windows PowerShell 3+ are required. (On Page 9)What does it mean when by this statement. Nothing very clear. Where is this required and for what?
    • Anonymous
      June 20, 2017
      Binoy, thank you for reaching us out. Those are requirements for SQL Server 2016, and our MP has to use the same versions of .NET and PowerShell. Otherwise, some workflows using SMO lib couldn't have operated.
      • Anonymous
        June 20, 2017
        Thank You Alex for the Update. So is .net 4.6 needed only on the servers running the SQL Application or is it required to be present on the SCOM Management Servers? I guess just the SQL Servers Would be enough but wanted to double check on this before i Import it into Production.