Documentation forSQL Sentry

SQL Sentry Portal Storage

Storage

The Storage view provides details about the disk space and disk activity in your monitored environment. Use the Storage tab to view details about your monitored environment storage by disk, including capacity, free space, databases, disk activity, etc.

View data about your monitored environment's disk activity and disk space. Selecting a link from the table on the left populates details for your selection on the right in the Details and Trends tabs. 

Overview Chart

The Overview chart displays storage capacity information for your monitored environment. 

Note:  Select any blue link to display more information about your selection in the Details tab.

SQL Sentry Portal Storage Overview

Option  Description
Name The name of your monitored storage unit.
Type The type of storage unit (Disk , Volume, Transaction Log, Data, etc).
% Used The percentage of used space for the storage unit.
Size The overall size of the Storage unit in MB or GB.
Note:  You can use the ► icon to expand information for a selected disk and the ▼ icon to minimize information for a selected disk.

SQL Sentry Portal Storage overview selection expanded

Details

The Details tab displays recorded storage metrics and any storage activity for your monitored environment. The details tab is divided into Capacity and Activity Metrics sections that display real-time data or a selected range of data.

SQL Sentry Portal Storage Details

Capacity Metrics

Metric Description
Size The overall size of the selected Storage unit in MB or GB.
% Used The percentage of used space for the selected storage unit.
File Group The file group that the storage unit is associated with.
Database The database for the selected storage unit.
File Path The file path for the selected storage unit.
Active VLFs The number of active virtual log files for the selected storage unit.
Autogrowth The percentage of autogrowth and amount of autogrowth memory in (KB), or (MB).
Autogrowth VLF Count The number of virtual log files that have used autogrowth for the selected storage unit.
Autogrowth VLF Size The size in (KB) or (MB) of the autogrowth VLF(s).
Last Backup Time The time in UTC that the selected storage unit was last backed up.
Last Backup Type The type of backup performed during the last backup period.
Log Reuse Wait The status of the transaction log for the monitored connection.

Additional Information: For more information about the Transaction Log in SQL Server and possible statuses, see the Transaction Log (SQL Server) MSDB article
Max File Size The maximum file size for the selected storage unit.
Max VLF Size The maximum virtual log file size for the selected storage unit.
Min VLF Size The minimum virtual log file size for the selected storage unit.
Total VLFs The  total number of virtual log files for the selected storage unit.
Used Space The total amount of consumed space for the selected storage unit. 

Activity Metrics

Note:  Activity Metrics update automatically in five minute increments by default.
Metric Description
Reads The number of reads in your selected storage unit for the specified time period. 
Reads/sec The number of reads per second in your selected storage unit for the specified time period.
Read Bytes The total number of read bytes in your selected storage unit for the specified time period. 
Read Bytes/sec The total number of read bytes per second in your selected storage unit for the specified time period.
Read Bytes % The total percentage of read bytes in your selected storage unit for the specified time period.
Bytes/Read The number of bytes per read in your selected storage unit for the specified time period.
Writes The number of writes in your selected storage unit for the specified time period.
Writes/sec The number of writes per second in your selected storage unit for the specified time period.
Write Bytes The total number of write bytes in your selected storage unit for the specified time period.
Write Bytes/sec The total number of write bytes per second in your selected storage unit for the specified time period.
Write Bytes % The total percentage of write bytes in your selected storage unit for the specified time period.
Bytes/Write The number of bytes per write in your selected storage unit for the specified time period.
Note:  Activity Metrics update automatically in five minute increments by default.

Trends

The Trends tab displays Latency, IOPS, and MB/sec graphs for your selected storage unit. 

SQL Sentry Portal Storage Trends

Select a spike on a trends graph to display detailed read and write tooltips for your selection.SQL Sentry Portal Storage Trends tooltip

View storage trends historically for your selection. Select the calendar, and then select the desired Range, Days, Weeks, or Months that you want to display. Select Apply to update the trends graphs based on your selection.

Note:  Select the play button ( ► ) to switch to live data.

Select a graph metric to remove that data from the graph. 

Select a Disk Volume to display a disk space forecast for the selection.

Warnings

SQL Sentry Portal tracks multiple warnings types across the storage entities in your monitored environment. Warnings display as red icons and are visible on the Overview chart. Select a storage entity with a warning icon to display more information about the warning in the Details tab.

Important:  Warnings in your monitored environment display hierarchically. For example, if you select your Controller, the Details tab will display all of the warnings in your environment.

If you select an individual disk, the Details tab will display the warnings associated to the selected disk.

Select the ! on the column bar to sort by warnings.

SQL Sentry Portal Storage Details filter by the warning column

Select a Storage Warning link to be redirected to the selection.

SQL Sentry Portal will notify you if your environment encounters any of the following warnings:

Warning Description
TotalVlfsOver100 (vlfs = virtual log files)
Total VLFs over 100. Too many VLFs can cause long startup and backup times.
TotalVlfsOver300 (vlfs = virtual log files Total VLFs over 300. Too many VLFs can cause long startup and backup times.
AutogrowthUnderTenMegabytes Autogrowth under ten megabytes.
AutogrowthOverOneGigabyte Autogrowth over one gigabyte.
AutogrowthOverRemainingDiskSpace Autogrowth over remaining disk space.
NonSimpleRecoveryModelAndNotBackedUp This database is in a non-simple recovery model and is not backed up.
ForecastExhaustionWithinThirtyDays The forecasted exhaustion of this volume is within 30 days.
LowFreeSpacePercentage (Free space < 10%) This volume has low free space.