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In any BizTalk environment, it is important to keep track of database growth and execute the data purging policies whenever necessary. When the database size grows, the SQL server needs more memory and CPU to read data from the tables, which slows down the database operation. Besides that, there is also the risk that, due to the growing database(s), you are running out of disk space. Database Administrators spend a lot of their time dealing with the problem of database processes consuming too much disk space. So, it’s very important to monitor the database size to ensure the database is not seizing the memory and CPU for smooth BizTalk server operation.
The ability of Database Size Monitoring is a feature request we picked up from our feedback portal. This feature will be available for production use from BizTalk360 version 9.0 phase 3 on.
What can be monitored with Database Size Monitoring?
With Database Size Monitoring, you can monitor the data file and log file sizes of below BizTalk Server and BizTalk360 databases, by simply configuring the error and warning threshold conditions for the data and log file sizes.
- BizTalkDTADb
- BizTalkMgmtDb
- BizTalkMsgBoxDb
- BizTalkRuleEngineDb
- BAM databases (BAMPrimaryImport, BAMAlertsApplication, BAMArchive, BAMStarSchema)
- SSODB
- BizTalk360
For example, if the size of the BizTalkDTADb is greater than a configured threshold value, then you will get notified.
Scenario
OutOfMemoryException in BizTalkDTADb
BizTalkDTADb contains the health monitoring data tracked by the BizTalk Server tracking engine. The size of the database can grow relatively quickly depending on the load of your server, which in turn results in OutOfMemory Exceptions.
This scenario can be overcome by proactively knowing the size of the database and acting against the exponential growth of the database by configuring the threshold limit in database size monitoring.
Monitor BizTalk360 database Growth
There might be a situation where the BizTalk360 database grows due to the amount and size of event log data and performance counter data. The BizTalk360 purging policy will take care of the data growth, but it is also important to monitor the size regularly to ensure BizTalk360 is working seamlessly.
Configuring Database for monitoring size
We wanted to simplify the process of configuring database size monitoring. To achieve this, we list all the BizTalk and BizTalk360 related databases. You can start monitoring by specifying the threshold details from the SQL instance.
To configure a database for monitoring, navigate to Monitoring->BizTalk environment-> Database Size, which lists all the BizTalk and bizTalk360 databases under the respective SQL Instances. Click on the config gear icon, as shown in the above image, to configure the threshold values to monitor the size of the database. Based on the threshold configuration, the user will get notified if there is any threshold violation occurring.
The available Threshold types, logical condition, and unit prefixes are:
Threshold Type |
Logical Condition |
Unit Prefixes |
Data File Size Data File Used Space Data File Available Space Log File Size Log File Used Space Log File Available Space |
Equals Not-Equals Greater-than Greater-than-or-Equal Less-than Less-than-or-Equals |
Bytes Kilo-Bytes (KB) Mega-Bytes (MB) GigaBytes (GB) |
Following are the threshold types on which you can monitor a database:
Threshold Type |
Explanation |
Data File Size |
This threshold type represents the reserved space for the data file. For e.g.: Warn Me if Data File Size is Greater-than 200 GB Error if Data File Size is Greater-than 250 GB |
Data File Used Space |
This threshold type represents the size used by the data file. For e.g.: Warn Me if Data file Used Space not-equals 250 GB Error if Data file Used Space not-equals 250 GB |
Data File Available Space |
This threshold type represents the available space for the data file For e.g.: Warn Me if Data file Available space less-than-or-equals 99 GB Error if Data file Available space less-than-or-equals 99 GB |
Log File Size |
This threshold type represents the size reserved for the transaction log file. For e.g.: Warn Me if Log File Size is Greater-than 200 GB Error if Log File Size is Greater-than 200GB |
Log File Used Space |
This threshold type represents the space used by the log file. For e.g.: Warn Me if Log File Used Space not-equals 250 GB Error if Log File Used Space not-equals 250 GB |
Log File Available Space |
This threshold type represents the available space for the log file. For e.g.: Warn Me if Log File Available Space Greater-than 250 GB Error if Log File Available Space Greater-than 250 GB |
Once the threshold values are configured and saved, the monitoring conditions will be evaluated, and the status of the database size will be displayed in the grid.
The Monitoring Dashboard and BizTalk Group Dashboard display the overall status of the alarm including the Database size shown in the picture below.
The user will get notified through mail or notification channel when any threshold violation happens.
Quick Alarm
You can also configure database size for monitoring simply by configuring Quick alarm. In this case, an alarm will be created and all the BizTalk and BizTalk360 databases will get configured for database size monitoring with default threshold conditions.
Conclusion
Considering the feedback provided by our customers, via the feedback portal, BizTalk360 will continue to provide more useful features every single release. In the upcoming release v9.0 phase 3, the ability to monitor Database Sizes is only one of the features we bring. If you have any suggestions for a =n upcoming version, please write to us at [email protected].
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