Microsoft SQL Server¶

The mssql probe monitors SQL Server health and throughput via sys.dm_os_performance_counters, sys.databases and sys.dm_io_virtual_file_stats, with OTel-first metric naming aligned with the OpenTelemetry Collector contrib sqlserverreceiver.

Quick start¶

# probes.d/20-mssql.yaml — each file under probes.d/ is a YAML array of probes
- name: mssql
  type: mssql
  params:
    host: localhost
    username: sa
    password: ${secret:mssql.password}   # OS secret store; inline plaintext is auto-sealed on install

Parameters¶

Parameter	Must set	Default	Description
`host`	Yes	-	Server hostname or address; use host\Instance for a named instance. Example: `sql01.example.com`
`port`	In practice	`1433`	Server TCP port
`username`	In practice	-	SQL login; empty selects Windows integrated authentication with the agent's account
`password`	In practice	-	SQL login password; empty with an empty username selects integrated authentication. A secret: reference it with `${secret:…}`, `${env:…}` or `${file:…}` rather than writing it in the file
`encrypt`	No	`true`	Encryption of the connection, as go-mssqldb reads it; true by default. One of `true`, `false`, `disable`, `strict`
`trust_server_cert`	No	`false`	Accept the server certificate without verifying it
`interval`	No	`60`	Seconds between collections

An encrypt value outside the four listed stops the probe at load time rather than reaching the server.
trust_server_cert: true is for a lab, not for production.

Metrics¶

Metric	Unit	Description
`senhub.db.up`	1	1 when the agent's most recent ping reached the server
`sqlserver.batch_request.rate`	{request}/s	Batch requests per second
`sqlserver.transaction_rate`	{transaction}/s	Transactions per second
`sqlserver.user.connection.count`	{connection}	Open connections
`sqlserver.page_buffer_cache.hit_ratio`	%	Buffer cache hit ratio (data pages found in memory)
`sqlserver.page_life_expectancy`	s	Estimated page life expectancy in the buffer pool
`sqlserver.lock_wait_rate`	#	Lock requests per second that had to wait
`sqlserver.database.status`	1	Database state per database (1 = ONLINE), tagged with `database`
`sqlserver.database.io`	B	Bytes read and written per database, tagged with `direction`

Operational notes¶

The monitoring account needs VIEW SERVER STATE and VIEW DATABASE STATE permissions. A minimal-privilege account is recommended over sa.
Windows Integrated Authentication (omit username/password) works when the agent runs under a domain account with the required SQL Server permissions.
For SQL Server on a named instance, use host: server\InstanceName.

Metric reference¶

Every metric this probe can emit. Metric is the OpenTelemetry name the OTLP, Prometheus and Zabbix outputs derive theirs from. Name is what a Nagios check and the API metrics= filter match. PRTG channel is the label PRTG shows, placeholders filled from the series' tags.

Metric	Name	PRTG channel	Unit	Description
`senhub.db.up`	`senhub.db.up`	Database Up	#	1 if the agent's most recent ping reached the server, 0 otherwise
`sqlserver.batch_request.rate`	`sqlserver.batch_request.rate`	Batch Requests/sec	#	T-SQL batch requests received per second (Batch Requests/sec)
`sqlserver.transaction_rate`	`sqlserver.transaction_rate`	Transactions/sec	#	Transactions started per second across all databases (Transactions/sec)
`sqlserver.page_buffer_cache.hit_ratio`	`sqlserver.page_buffer_cache.hit_ratio`	Buffer Cache Hit Ratio	%	Percentage of page requests served from the buffer pool without a physical read
`sqlserver.page_life_expectancy`	`sqlserver.page_life_expectancy`	Page Life Expectancy	s	Seconds a page is expected to stay in the buffer pool (Page life expectancy)
`sqlserver.lock_wait_rate`	`sqlserver.lock_wait_rate`	Lock Waits/sec	#	Lock requests per second that required the caller to wait (Lock Waits/sec)
`sqlserver.processes.blocked`	`sqlserver.processes.blocked`	Processes Blocked	#	Number of currently blocked processes (Processes blocked)
`sqlserver.user.connection.count`	`sqlserver.user.connection.count`	User Connections	#	Number of user connections to the instance (User Connections)
`sqlserver.database.io`	`sqlserver.database.io`	DB {database} I/O {direction}	B	Total bytes read/written per database since startup (sys.dm_io_virtual_file_stats)
`sqlserver.database.status`	`sqlserver.database.status`	DB {database} Status	#	Database state code (sys.databases.state — 0=ONLINE, 6=OFFLINE, …)