Summary

WebWatchBot monitors by connecting to your database through ODBC, enabling:

• Monitoring of virtually each and every database product on the market that provides and utilizes an ODBC driver.
• Execution of specific queries using industry standard SQL 92

How does it work?

• The Database Watch Type will connect to the database
• Optionally, a SQL query can be executed and its success or failure reported.
• Optionally, the output of the SQL query can be searched for one or more words with the search success or failure reported.

Functionality

• Response Time – the amount of time that it takes for the entire operation to be performed
• Reports errors
• Connection failure
• Query execution failure.
• Search failure

Why Use this Watch Type?

The Database Watch Type is often used to determine if a bottleneck or network problem exists by, if a Database server is not responding to connection requests, and if certain queries and results are running as expected.  A periodic increase in response time and failure, for example during business hours, may suggest that the database server is overloaded, not configured properly or a query is proving that the database is not fully optimized.

What to monitor

Use the Database Type to test all of your database servers.  To fully benefit from this Watch Type, a connection, query and search should be performed for each and every database server.  Ideally, multiple Watch Items should be set up for each database on the database server, to periodically run queries and search the results.

Database Settings

Fields and Buttons

Connection String - Required

WebWatchBot connects to the database specified through a "connection string" that contains the type of ODBC/OLEDB driver, database name, login credentials, etc. to use. This allows monitoring to ensure...

• The login credentials work properly.
• The database server is accepting connections.
• The database exists and is accepting connections on the server .

A good resource for finding a connection string for your database type is http://www.connectionstrings.com

Select System DSN

• Click this button to open the Select System DSN dialog.
• If one is selected, the Connection String field will contain the string "DSN=selectedDSN", where "selectedDSN" is the name of the selected DSN.
• If using a system DSN, you may need to add authentication credentials in the form of "uid=username" and "pwd=password" with a connection string like "DSN=selectedDSN;uid=username;pwd=password".

Query to execute - Optional

After a connection to the database is established, WebWatchBot can optionally perform a SQL 92 compliant query. This allows monitoring to ensure...

• The query is executing properly
• The query is executing in a timely manner

Search Query Output - Optional

After a connection to the database is established, WebWatchBot can optionally perform a SQL 92 compliant query. This allows monitoring to ensure...

• The query is executing properly
• The query is executing in a timely manner

Test

The current settings will be used to run a test on the watch item but will not affect the overall success.  By clicking this button, the "Test Watch Item" dialog box will appear