The much anticipated Spotlight Developer v6.3 has finally been released.Over the next few blog entries I will present some of the key features especially new ones in this release. (Please not v6.3 will not install in SSMS 2016).
New great features for this release include Integration with Wiat-o-pedia, muliple users on the same machine and enhancements to SQL Analysis.
For me the single most important new features is sharing Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise’s Diagnostic Server with Spotlight Developer. This allows Spotlight Developer users to connect to a Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise Diagnostic Server, thus all the connections being monitored by Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise are now visible to all Spotlight Developer’s screens and more.
To simply typing and reading I will use these acronyms
- Spotlight on SQL Server Enterprise desktop client -> SoSSE
- Spotlight Developer SSMS plugin-> SpotDev
- Diagnostic Server -> either SpotDev-DS or SoSSE-DS
- SSMS -> SQL Server Management Studio
The simplest configuration where one SOSSE-DS is shared by both SoSSE and SpoDev, as per diagram
This setup can be achieved by while installing SpotDev or within SpotDev settings. Lets look at the install steps.
Configuration using Installer.
First there must be an installed and running SoSSE and SoSSE-DS (I assume the SpotDev user has obtained the name of SoSSE-DS server).
During SpotDev installation the following screen is reached, at this point the user can choose to not install a Diagnostic Server rather enter or select a SoSSE-DS for connection. The name of the diagnostic server is the hosting server name. Please confirm with SoSSE as to the name or address if needed.
The installation proceeds to install SpotDev into the SSMS as per usual, but does not install a Diagnostic Server as it is now configured to use the entered or selected SoSSE-DS.
So what do I get for connecting to SoSSE-DS
Launch SSMS following the above install. Open the HEATMAP (Spotlight->Heatmap) where the user should see a list of connections and a Heatmap for the connections as monitored by SoSSE. The alarms and the monitoring screens are fully available plus the workload analysis and wait events (more on these new screens in another blog).
Currently (ie this SpotDev release v6.3) the connections being monitored cannot be managed by SpotDev. Adding or removing connections must be achieved via SoSSE.
While connected to SoSSE-DS, none of the connection settings are available.to SpotDev, The relationship is simply read-only.
Using the Settings feature I can change which SoSE-DS or SpotDev-DS that are available on my network.
So both DBA and Developers can share monitoring of SQL Server instances with less overhead and increased flexibility.
Till next blog entry – please feel free to leave a reply.