Database Monitoring
Every database is different, but the complexity is almost always high. This requires a customized approach when you start monitoring your database. No matter how complex your database environment is, OptimaData has the knowledge, experience and skills for adequate database monitoring. With our own monitoring tools and tooling from carefully selected partners – such as EDB, GaleraCluster, SeveralNines and MariaDB – we give you insight into the health of your databases. We gladly put our expertise to work for you, to preventively identify failures and other challenges and then advise and implement the appropriate follow-up.
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What is database monitoring?
Monitoring a database is first and foremost about providing real-time insight into the performance of your database platform. We do this by collecting data from multiple sources. Consider operating system log files, application server log files or data from specific applications running on top of your database servers.
By collecting real-time data, we detect potential problems before they affect database performance. The data collected helps to proactively identify problems that would otherwise not be noticed until it’s already too late.
Compare a database monitor to a depth sounder on a ship. Without a depth sounder, even the most experienced helmsman can get stuck. Extending the comparison: suppose the helmsman has a depth sounder and sets an alarm on it: the depth sounder gives a signal as soon as the maximum draft approaches. In this way, the helmsman prevents the ship from running aground, because there is still plenty of room to make adjustments.
Why database monitoring?
Databases are simply indispensable in most organizations. They are the beating heart of modern platforms, web shops, financial processes and you name it. The availability of data in these environments is essential. Many organizations demand fast and 24/7 availability of data.
As long as the systems do what is expected of them, not much seems wrong. Under the surface, however, minor disruptions or, for example, increasing CPU usage can occur without being immediately noticeable. Once users experience system slowness, there is often much more to the problem. By monitoring the databases in real time and setting triggers – which send signals as soon as certain values are reached – problems surface much faster. We then address them proactively to prevent worse.
To measure is to know
Now, in a database, what are essential parameters to monitor? We give some examples:
- Data traffic
- CPU usage
- Storage usage
- Memory load
- Deadlocks
- Timeouts
- Network bandwidth
It is also possible to monitor certain automated management tasks such as:
- Database backups
- Database maintenance
- Other scheduled tasks
In addition, of course, there are many other interesting data to gain insight into. Just think of everything related to security, such as access to database ports and active database connections. But also the impact of queries and transactions, database port wait times, deadlocks, timeouts, virtual disk usage and much more; it can all be interesting to monitor.
Automated tasks triggered by monitoring
It is important to know the critical value of each parameter. Because if we know them, we can set triggers and alarms that give signals once these values are reached. That makes the next step possible: triggering specific scripts or actions.
Every database is different. Setting up good and effective database monitoring is customized and requires skill. If monitoring is not set up or not set up properly, an organization is sailing blind: you can only take action when the database slows down or has other problems to the point where users notice. By then it is often too late and damage may even have occurred. Resolving from this stage often requires taking the database down, making it unavailable (again) or barely available.
Benefits database monitoring outsourcing
The biggest advantage of outsourcing your database monitoring to OptimaData is our knowledge and experience in this field. We’ve been doing this almost daily for years and we know exactly what to look for, with which application and type of database. We work quickly and efficiently because we know where to start and how to go about it.
There are many different products available to use as monitoring tools. We have tested most of the variants extensively. Based on our experience, we have put together a toolset that can be used successfully in most applications.
Database monitoring by OptimaData
Having your database monitored by OptimaData always means:
- Customized
- Flexible setup
- Assurance of continuity
- Optimal database performance
- Always direct contact with an involved consultant
- Best practices from our database expertise center
“We bieden onze applicaties hosted aan en de data(bases) vormen het hart van ons cloud platform. We werken daar elke dag aan met een team van in-huis specialisten. OptimaData biedt ons een waardevolle toevoeging door daar van buitenaf kritisch naar te kijken en deskundige aanbevelingen te doen voor volgende stappen. Vervolgens helpen ze ons concreet met de implementatie daarvan. We voelen ons dan ook een gewaardeerde klant van OptimaData.”
Karin Valk
Database monitoring outsourcing for which databases?
You can outsource database monitoring to us for the following systems:
PostgreSQL monitoring. PostgreSQL runs as an open-source, relational database platform at many organizations. Having your PostgreSQL database monitored prevents performance problems, such as slow queries, replication errors and failures.
MySQL monitoring. Quickly identify and tackle problems with MySQL monitoring for performance monitoring of MySQL databases.
MariaDB monitoring. MariaDB Server was created by the original developers of MySQL and is guaranteed to remain open source. We are happy to set up MariaDB monitoring for you.
Microsoft SQL Server monitoring. SQL Server is still one of the most widely used databases. Whether in Azure or not. For all SQL Server setups, we have best practices for monitoring and are happy to set this up for you.
MongoDB monitoring. As a schema-less NoSQL database system, MongoDB database monitoring requires its own specific approach. We are happy to set this up for you.
Sybase monitoring. Sybase has been a trusted name for many years. Stability and availability are highly valued. Get the best out of your database with our Sybase monitoring.
DBaaS monitoring. With Database as a Service, you don’t need installation of physical hardware or software, but how do you monitor a DBaaS system? We are happy to help you with DBaaS monitoring.