'Monitoring a SQL Server database is a critical component of database administration. Ninety percent of the organizations expect the number of databases to increase over the next twelve months. An increase in data volumes can have negative effects on the availability of databases. Hence, SQL Server database monitoring is considered a critical responsibility of a database administrator. Organizations tend to spend a lot of their funds towards enterprise solutions. And due to the sensitive and growing nature of business and user needs, application availability is very important nowadays.
It’s also equally important to get alerted or notified when a database is inaccessible, due to any of the myriad of reasons we can think of. This article deals with one of the solutions to monitor the status of the SQL Server database using T-SQL or PowerShell with the help of the native programming and alerting techniques.
Some of us may have many questions regarding this: How do we decide on the monitoring strategies for different environments? How do we automate and manage SQL Server databases? Can the monitoring task be automated using T-SQL or PowerShell or any other tools or techniques? Does the SQL engine provide the required capabilities to schedule a job and run it across multiple servers? What are the customization options available? Do we have a robust method to perform the backup activity?
The monitoring techniques using T-SQL, XML, and PowerShell are used to monitor a SQL Server database using native methods are discussed in this article.'...
https://www.sqlshack.com/monitoring-sql-server-database-status-changes-using-t-sql-powershell-scripts/
'Microsoft has announced some changes to the release schedule and servicing model for Windows Server. The new Semi-Annual Channel is a twice-per-year feature update release with an 18 month servicing timeline (meaning that Mainstream support ends 18 months after that Semi-Annual Channel release becomes available).
The current release in this channel is Windows Server, version 1709, which became available on October 17, 2017. This release will fall out of Mainstream support on April 18, 2019, and there is no Extended support period. In this new model, Windows Server releases are identified by the year and month of release: for example, in 2017, a release in the 9th month (September) would be identified as version 1709.'...
https://www.sqlskills.com/blogs/glenn/windows-server-servicing-model-changes/?utm_source=DBW&utm_medium=pubemail
'Every single time when I go for Comprehensive Database Performance Health Check, I get many different questions from the users. However, there are some questions which are very common and I have started to build a list of the such questions so I can share the same with you. Today’s question is about the Stored Procedure Execution Count.
Here is the question from the latest consultancy, which I had performed for a health care organization last week.
How can we know how many stored procedures have executed so far and how many times?'...
https://blog.sqlauthority.com/2017/10/19/sql-server-find-stored-procedure-execution-count-average-elapsed-time/
'Today, as part of the release of SQL Server 2017, we’re pleased to make SQL Server 2017 Reporting Services generally available. This release cycle, we’ve built on the success of SSRS 2016, which we’re seeing customers adopt at an incredible rate, and delivered several enhancements, from a lightweight installer, to a modern REST API, to an updated Report Viewer control and web part, and more.
Lightweight installer
First things first: If you’ve installed previous versions of Reporting Services, installing SSRS 2017 will be a little different. After much research into how customers install and update Reporting Services, we moved installation from the SQL Server installer to a separate installer. This lightweight installer – under 100 MB and only a few screens – delivers a few benefits. First, if you already have SQL Server (2008-2017) Database Engine deployed within your organization to store the report server database, you can now download and install Reporting Services in just a few minutes. Second, you can now update Reporting Services in a few minutes, too. Third, since the installer is specific to Reporting Services, you can now install the latest version of Reporting Services or the latest update and be certain it’ll have zero impact on your SQL Server databases or other SQL Server features.
To run SSRS 2017 in production, just enter your SQL Server 2017 product key during setup.'...
https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/sqlrsteamblog/2017/10/02/sql-server-2017-reporting-services-now-generally-available/
