Known issues

Known issues in version 9.1

General

The option to collect non-query activities data using Extended Events is incorrectly set by default for SQL Server 2008R2 instances. 

SQL Diagnostic Manager is designed to support collection of non-query activities data with Extended Events only for instances running SQL Server 2012 or higher.  In SQL Diagnostic Manager 9.1 for instances running SQL Server 2008R2 the Use Extended Events radio button is selected by default instead of the Use SQL Trace radio button.

Clicking the ‘launch SQLdm’ icon takes users to the corresponding instance dashboard screen but sometimes it fails to highlight the specific instance in the Servers tree.

SQL Diagnostic Manager is designed to allow users access to the SQL Diagnostic Manager Console from the Thumbnail, Heatmap, and Alerts Detail views. In SQL Diagnostic Manager 9.1 clicking the ‘launch SQLdm’ icon takes users to the corresponding instance dashboard screen but occasionally fails to clearly mark the specific instance it refers to in the Servers tree

  Alerting

SQL Diagnostic Manager fails to display one alert response when multiple metric thresholds are breached

SQL Diagnostic Manager version 8.5 and later is designed to trigger an alert response only after multiple metric thresholds are breached when the “Where all metrics are in specified list” condition is selected. However, an issue in the “Send a Network Management (SNMP) Trap Message”, “Send an email to recipient”, and “Run the following SQL Script” actions of the Alert Response Window cause these actions to execute several times, resulting in multiple alerts.

The action “Run the following program” fails to execute when configuring automated responses to alerts

Users with SQL Diagnostic Manager version 8.0 and later may find that when creating an alert response with the associated action “Run the following program” in the Alert Response window, the specified program does not run once the condition is met.

SQL Diagnostic Manager returns PoweredOff alerts for the VM Power State metric when servers are not turned off

Some SQL Diagnostic Manager users may view PoweredOff alerts when reviewing the generated “VM Power State” alerts for their servers linked to vCenter or Hyper-V host servers. These alerts display even though the servers are not turned off.

The actions “Write an event to the Windows event log” and “Send an email to recipient” in the Alert Response Window fail to deliver multiple alert statuses

Users with SQL Diagnostic Manager version 8.5 and later may find that when creating an alert response with multiple metrics as a condition and associated actions “Write an event to the Windows event log” and/or “Send an email to recipient” in the Alert Response window, the feature fails to deliver complete alert information and displays only one alert status when condition is met.

VM Configuration

SQL Diagnostic Manager fails to update fields in the VM Configuration window after the virtualization host server is edited

Users with SQL Diagnostic Manager version 8.5 and later may find that fields such as the Virtual Machine name, Type, and Computer Name in the VM Configuration window are not updated correctly after the virtualization host server is changed.

Known issues in version 9.0

General

SQL Diagnostic Manager fails to update fields in the VM Configuration window after the virtualization host server is edited

Users with SQL Diagnostic Manager version 8.5 and later may find that fields such as the Virtual Machine name, Type, and Computer Name in the VM Configuration window are not updated correctly after the virtualization host server is changed.

Web Application Service

The IDERA Dashboard's Web Application Service fails to restart after reboot

Users with SQL Diagnostic Manager version 9.0 may find that the IDERA Dashboard's Web Application Service does not automatically restart after a machine reboot.

Alerting

SQL Diagnostic Manager fails to display one alert response when multiple metric thresholds are breached

SQL Diagnostic Manager version 8.5 and later is designed to trigger an alert response only after multiple metric thresholds are breached when the “Where all metrics are in specified list” condition is selected. However, an issue in the “Send a Network Management (SNMP) Trap Message”, “Send an email to recipient”, and “Run the following SQL Script” actions of the Alert Response Window cause these actions to execute several times, resulting in multiple alerts.

The action “Run the following program” fails to execute when configuring automated responses to alerts

Users with SQL Diagnostic Manager version 8.0 and later may find that when creating an alert response with the associated action “Run the following program” in the Alert Response window, the specified program does not run once the condition is met.

SQL Diagnostic Manager returns PoweredOff alerts for the VM Power State metric when servers are not turned off

Some SQL Diagnostic Manager users may view PoweredOff alerts when reviewing the generated “VM Power State” alerts for their servers linked to vCenter or Hyper-V host servers. These alerts display even though the servers are not turned off.

The actions “Write an event to the Windows event log” and “Send an email to recipient” in the Alert Response Window fail to deliver multiple alert statuses

Users with SQL Diagnostic Manager version 8.5 and later may find that when creating an alert response with multiple metrics as a condition and associated actions “Write an event to the Windows event log” and/or “Send an email to recipient” in the Alert Response window, the feature fails to deliver complete alert information and displays only one alert status when condition is met.

Known issues in version 8.6

Alerting

SQL Diagnostic Manager fails to update statistics for some monitored SQL servers and triggers a persistent alert ‘Unable To Monitor’ for the same

Users with SQL Diagnostic Manager version 8.0.1 and later may find that some servers are not returning any statistics due to an issue in the Activity Monitor settings that causes the entire refresh of servers to fail.

SQL Diagnostic Manager fails to display one alert response when multiple metric thresholds are breached

SQL Diagnostic Manager version 8.5 and later is designed to trigger an alert response only after multiple metric thresholds are breached when the “Where all metrics are in specified list” condition is selected. However, an issue in the “Send a Network Management (SNMP) Trap Message”, “Send an email to recipient”, and “Run the following SQL Script” actions of the Alert Response Window cause these actions to execute several times, resulting in multiple alerts.

The action “Run the following program” fails to execute when configuring automated responses to alerts

Users with SQL Diagnostic Manager version 8.0 and later may find that when creating an alert response with the associated action “Run the following program” in the Alert Response window, the specified program does not run once the condition is met.

The actions “Write an event to the Windows event log” and “Send an email to recipient” in the Alert Response Window fail to deliver multiple alert statuses

Users with SQL Diagnostic Manager version 8.5 and later may find that when creating an alert response with multiple metrics as a condition and associated actions “Write an event to the Windows event log” and/or “Send an email to recipient” in the Alert Response window, the feature fails to deliver complete alert information and displays only one alert status when condition is met.

SQL Diagnostic Manager returns PoweredOff alerts for the VM Power State metric when servers are not turned off

Some SQL Diagnostic Manager users may view PoweredOff alerts when reviewing the generated “VM Power State” alerts for their servers linked to vCenter or Hyper-V host servers. These alerts display even though the servers are not turned off.

SQL Diagnostic Manager fails to stop alert generation after the Availability Group Preferred Replica alert is un-checked

Users with SQL Diagnostic Manager version 8.6 that have the Availability Group Preferred Replica alert configured may find that when un-checking the alert in the Alert Configuration window to stop raising the alert, SQL Diagnostic Manager continues to generate the alert which also displays in the Alerts View. Un-checking the configured database in the Configuration tab of the Alert Configuration window solves this issue.

General

SQL Diagnostic Manager fails to update fields in the VM Configuration window after the virtualization host server is edited

Users with SQL Diagnostic Manager version 8.5 and later may find that fields such as the Virtual Machine name, Type, and Computer Name in the VM Configuration window are not updated correctly after the virtualization host server is changed.

Known issues in version 8.5

General

The Query Monitor trace in SQL Diagnostic Manager does not return queries in progress

Users with SQL Diagnostic Manager version 8.0 and later may find that when using the Query Monitor functionality, the queries returned and displayed do not include queries in progress.

SQL Diagnostic Manager fails to update fields in the VM Configuration window after the virtualization host server is edited

Users with SQL Diagnostic Manager version 8.5 may find that fields such as the Virtual Machine name, Type, and Computer Name in the VM Configuration window are not updated correctly after the virtualization host server is changed.

Alerting

SQL Diagnostic Manager returns Blocking Session Wait Time alerts with session 0 and missing information when blocking-process node is empty

Some users may experience Blocking Session Wait Time alerts with missing information and session 0 when the blocking-process node is empty in SQL Server. In SQL Diagnostic Manager 8.01 and later versions, this issue may occur only if the trace that is collecting blocking data doesn’t return a SPID for a blocking process.

SQL Diagnostic Manager fails to display one alert response when multiple metric thresholds are breached.

SQL Diagnostic Manager version 8.5 and later is designed to trigger an alert response only after multiple metric thresholds are breached when the “Where all metrics are in specified list” condition is selected. However, an issue in the “Send a Network Management (SNMP) Trap Message”, “Send an email to recipient”, and “Run the following SQL Script” actions of the Alert Response Window cause these actions to execute several times, resulting in multiple alerts.

The action “Run the following program” fails to execute when configuring automated responses to alerts.

Users with SQL Diagnostic Manager version 8.0 and later may find that when creating an alert response with the associated action “Run the following program” in the Alert Response window, the specified program does not run once the condition is met.

The actions “Write an event to the Windows event log” and “Send an email to recipient” in the Alert Response Window fail to deliver multiple alert statuses.

Users with SQL Diagnostic Manager version 8.5 and later may find that when creating an alert response with multiple metrics as a condition and associated actions “Write an event to the Windows event log” and/or “Send an email to recipient” in the Alert Response window, the feature fails to deliver complete alert information and displays only one alert status when condition is met.

SQL Diagnostic Manager returns PoweredOff alerts for the VM Power State metric when servers are not turned off.

Some SQL Diagnostic Manager users may view PoweredOff alerts when reviewing the generated “VM Power State” alerts for their servers linked to vCenter or Hyper-V host servers. These alerts display even though the servers are not turned off.

Known issues in version 8.0

Installation and configuration issues

The SQLdm Setup Wizard is interrupted after selecting the SQL server instance on which you want to install the SQL Diagnostic Manager Repository

Some users may experience an interruption due to memory corruption in their SQL Diagnostic Manager installation after selecting the SQL Server instance on which they want to install their SQL Diagnostic Manager Repository. Note that the SQL Diagnostic Manager installer does not complete on machines where memory corruption prevents connections to SQL Server. Furthermore, in these types of environments other applications such as SQL Server Management Studio also do not function.

Negative values received from vCenter as a warning message do not impact VM data collection

Some users may receive negative values from vCenter as a warning message. The message is logged as in the SQL Diagnostic Manager Services. Note that this does not have any impact in terms of VM data collection and users are able to view VM and VM Host data.

Console crashes when upgrading to SQL Diagnostic Manager 8.0 while logged in the IDERA Newsfeed account

Users who remain logged in the IDERA Newsfeed account and upgrade to SQL Diagnostic Manager 8.0 may experience console crashes. Note that an upgrade from SQL Diagnostic Manager 8.0 to 8.0.1 will solve this issue.

Known issues in version 7.5

General

SQL Diagnostic Manager 7.5 no longer supports Microsoft Windows 2000 or the .Net 2.0 framework

SQL Diagnostic Manager 7.5 does not support Windows 2000 or the .Net 2.0 framework. While SQL Diagnostic Manager 7.2 and prior versions continue to operate with Windows 2000, SQL Diagnostic Manager 7.5 and later require the .Net 4.0 Full framework to take advantage of the additional features.

Server Overview

Timeline refresh causes a memory leak

SQL Diagnostic Manager experiences a memory leak when you are viewing the Timeline and click Refresh. To free the memory, you must restart the SQL Diagnostic Manager Management Console.

Queries

Queries view filter may not properly filter in some situations

In environments with large databases, the Queries view filter may not properly filter if you attempt to change filter properties during a refresh.

Resources

File Activity displays an unhelpful error message when WMI credentials are invalid

SQL Diagnostic Manager displays the error message, "An error occurred while refreshing the active view," when you attempt with access the Resources > File Activity view if your WMI credentials are invalid. If this message appears, verify your WMI access credentials and try again.

Installation and configuration considerations

SQL Diagnostic Manager Repository computer must run Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or later

SQL Diagnostic Manager 7.0 and later require Microsoft SQL Server 2005 or later running on the computer that hosts the SQL Diagnostic Manager Repository database for all installations.

SQL Diagnostic Manager Console only users cannot upgrade to the full version without uninstalling SQL Diagnostic Manager

Users who have an installation of SQL Diagnostic Manager Console only on a computer can use the upgrade to update their current version of the desktop client console, but cannot use the upgrade program to install the full version of SQL Diagnostic Manager.

Registering a SQL Server instance that uses an Alias Name requires an alias on the host computer

When registering a SQL Server instance using the alias name, an alias must first be created on the computer that hosts the SQLdm Management and Collection Services. If the instance uses Named Pipes, Named Pipes must be enabled in the SQL Server network configuration of the aliased SQL Server instance.

Management Service does not start when the account permissions are incorrect

If the account you specified for the SQL Diagnostic Manager services does not have System Administrator privileges on the SQL Server instance hosting the Repository database, the setup program cannot start the SQLdm Management Service. This issue only occurs during installation.

Some users may receive an error message when opening the SQL Diagnostic Manager stating that there is no valid license available

To resolve this issue, use the Management Service Configuration wizard to specify credentials for a Windows account or SQL Server login that has System Administrator privileges on the SQL Server instance hosting the Repository database. You can start the Management Service Configuration wizard from the Programs menu.

SQL Diagnostic Manager Reporting does not support Microsoft Reporting Services 2000

SQL Diagnostic Manager only supports Microsoft Reporting Services 2005 and later.

SQL Diagnostic Manager requires Predictive Analytics for baseline-related results

SQL Diagnostic Manager 7.5 requires the Predictive Analytics Service in order to display baseline-related results. During installations and upgrades, SQL Diagnostic Manager installs the Predictive Analytic service with the other included services. If Predictive Analytics is not detected or is disabled, SQL Diagnostic Manager cannot generate baseline data for the requested report. The following reports require the Predictive Analysis Service to include baseline-related results:

• • Baseline Statistics
  • CPU Statistics
  • Memory Statistics
  • Session Statistics
  • Disk Statistics
  • Replication Statistics

Phase out SQL Diagnostic Manager mobile manager

IDERA is announcing end of life for SQL mobile manager (SQLmm). On October 1, 2012, all support for SQLmm will stop and the SQLmm trial site will be decommissioned. Also, any remaining installations of SQLmm 3.6 or earlier that use the IDERA redirectors will no longer work.

To continue using a Web-based monitoring solution that is accessible from your smart phones or tablet devices, upgrade to SQL Diagnostic Manager 7.0 or later, and deploy SQLdm Mobile. IDERA discontinued distribution of SQL mobile manager in October 2011.

SQLdm Mobile does not support Microsoft IIS Express

SQLdm Mobile requires the standard version of the Microsoft IIS Web Server, version 7.0 or later. For more information, see the SQLdm Mobile requirements.

SQLdm Mobile & Newsfeed installation cannot be changed or repaired using Add/Remove Programs

To successfully change or repair your SQLdm Mobile & Newsfeed installation, uninstall the application and components, and then run the setup program to reinstall your deployment.

SQLdm may not properly link to vCenter from some monitored virtual SQL Server instances

The SQLdm VM Configuration window displays a list of your monitored virtual SQL Server instances, but the link between an instance and the associated vCenter may not work properly. To access this window, click Tools > VM Configuration.

VM Host Server Change alert not always triggered when a VM moves from one host server to another

Even if the circumstances warrant SQL Diagnostic Manager to trigger the VM Host Server Change alert, users who have virtual machines running on an ESX host managed by vCenter 5.0 or later may not receive the alert when they move a VM from one host to another.

Negative values received from vCenter as a warning message do not impact VM data collection

Some users may receive negative values from vCenter as a warning message. The message is logged as in the SQL Diagnostic Manager Services. Note that this does not have any impact in terms of VM data collection and users are able to view VM and VM Host data.

Query Monitor disregards filter for SQL Server 2000 users

Some SQL Server 2000 users may notice that SQLdm Query Monitor includes SQL Diagnostic Manager queries in the results even if the Exclude SQL Diagnostic Manager queries check box is checked in the Advanced Query Monitor Configuration window.

SQLdm Mobile Server Dashboard charts display “Data not available” error

This error indicates that SQLdm Mobile was not able to collect all the performance metrics tracked by these charts. This issue is more likely to occur with the I/O and Per Read/Write charts on the Disk dashboard. To correct this issue, use the Microsoft IIS Manager console to restart the SQLdm Mobile Web site (virtual directory).

Start and Stop service actions not supported for virtual SQL Server instances

The Start and Stop service actions are not supported for virtual SQL Server instances (instances located on a Windows cluster node). To start or stop a service on a virtual SQL Server 2008 instance, use the Microsoft Failover Cluster Management tool. For SQL Server 2005 or earlier, use the Microsoft Cluster Administrator tool to manage services.

Gaps between the real-time view and back-filled historical data can be seen on the CPU view

This occurs only when the CPU view is accessed via the Server tree. To view the information, without any gaps, access the CPU view via the ribbon.

Free disk space reported as zero on databases with special characters

For servers and path names that include special characters such as % or #, SQL Diagnostic Manager may incorrectly report the remaining disk space as zero.

Known issues in versions previous to 7.5

General

SQL Diagnostic Manager displays a refresh error when a user attempts to view data for an instance to which he does not have admin rights

SQL Diagnostic Manager displays a refresh error message when a user tries to view data for a monitored SQL Server instance to which the user does not have administrative rights. The message states that, "An error occurred while refreshing the active view."

SQL Diagnostic Manager displays an error when a user attempts to configure disk collection for an instance to which he does not have admin rights

SQL Diagnostic Manager displays an error message on the Server Properties Disk Drives window if a user's collection service credentials do not have administrative access to the monitored SQL Server instance, and the user attempts to view the list of attached disk drives on that instance. Note that WMI credentials are not used to retrieve disk drive information on this page.

Drives may not appear in the Resources Disk view when you switch to direct WMI collection

Users who select to collect OS metrics using direct WMI collection may notice mounted drives appearing in some areas of SQL Diagnostic Manager but not on the Resources Disk view. To refresh this list, you must restart the SQL Diagnostic Manager Management Console.

Dashboard

Custom Counters dashboard panel does not return to default after deleting all counters

The Custom Counters dashboard panel includes a drop-down list to allow you to select from the available counters. If you delete all counters, the panel does not return to the default title and continues to display one of the counter names.

Resources

Disk Filter Columns does not work on a blank chart

The Filter Columns selection does not work in the Resources > Disk view if you receive a blank chart due to your WMI credentials being invalid.

Alerts

OS Disk Time (Percent) and OS Disk Time Per Disk (Percent) alerts may not trigger for some users

Users with Windows Server 2008 SP1 and SQL Server 2000 SP4, and who select direct WMI collection for their OS metrics may experience an issue preventing OS Disk Time (Percent) and OS Disk Time Per Disk (Percent) alerts from triggering. If this issue occurs, switch to using OLE automation.

Virtualization-related alerts occasionally raise more than once

In some circumstances, SQL Diagnostic Manager may repeatedly raise virtualization-related alerts when there is no change in the status.

Custom Counters

SQL Diagnostic Manager does not automatically add unassociated custom counters to an alert template created from an instance

If you use alert templates and create a custom counter, SQL Diagnostic Manager automatically adds the new counter to your existing alert templates. However, if you create a custom counter not associated with an instance, and then create an alert template based on the alert configuration of one of your monitored instances, SQL Diagnostic Manager does not add the new counter to your alert template nor can you manually add the counter.

To avoid this issue, add the missing custom counter to any SQL Server instance, create an alert template from that instance, and then clear any undesired custom counters from that instance.

SQLdm Mobile

SQLdm Mobile My Servers view filter does not work 

The filter on this view will consistently display the message, “You have no favored or followed servers or the servers list has not been cached yet,” regardless of the filter option you choose. This issue occurs even when you are following servers or have marked servers as favorites.