Microsoft SQL Server monitoring configuration

After you define the scope of your configuration, you need to identify the following:

Databases from which to collect data
ActiveGates to execute the extension and connect to your devices

Example payload

Example payload to activate a Microsoft SQL extension:

{
  "value": {
    "enabled": true,
    "description": "My Microsoft SQL extension",
    "version": "1.0.1",
    "sqlServerRemote": {
      "endpoints": [
        {
          "host": "localhost",
          "port": 1521,
          "instanceName": "some-instanceName",
          "databaseName": "some-databaseName",
          "authentication": {
            "scheme": "basic",
            "username": "username",
            "password": "password"
          },
          "ssl": false
        }
      ]
    }
  },
  "scope": "ag_group-default"
}

Parameters

Enabled

If set to true, the configuration is active and Dynatrace starts monitoring immediately.

Description

A human-readable description of the specifics of this monitoring configuration.

Version

The version of this monitoring configuration. Note that a single extension can run multiple monitoring configurations.

Endpoints

You can define up to 20,000 endpoints in a single monitoring configuration in the sqlServerRemote section.

"sqlServerRemote": {
        "endpoints": [
            {
                "host": "sqlserver.org",
                "port": 1433,
                "instanceName": "instance",
                "databaseName": "database",
                "authentication": {
                    "scheme": "basic",
                    "username": "admin",
                    "password": "password"
                }
            }
        ]
    }

To define a Microsoft SQL Server, add the following details in the endpoints section:

Host
Port
Instance name
Database name
Authentication credentials

Authentication

Authentication details passed to the Dynatrace API when activating a monitoring configuration are obfuscated and it's impossible to retrieve them.

Basic

Basic authentication requires only a username and password.

"authentication": {
   "scheme": "basic",
   "username": "username",
   "password": "password",
}

Kerberos

Requires Active Directory domain set up. Allows you to connect to a database by providing a domain username, password, Key Distribution Center (KDC), and realm.

"authentication": {
   "scheme": "kerberos",
   "username": "username",
   "password": "password",
   "realm": "realm",
   "kdc": "kdc"
}

NTLM

Windows only

Requires Active Directory domain set up. Allows you to connect to a database by providing a domain username, a domain password, and, optionally, the domain.

"authentication": {
   "scheme": "ntlm",
   "username": "username",
   "password": "password",
   "domain": "some-domain-name"
}

Credential vault

The credential vault authentication type provides a more secure approach to using extensions by securely storing and managing user credentials. To use this, you must be the owner of the credentials and have a credential vault that meets the following criteria:

Credential type—User and password
Credential scope—Synthetic (in case of external vault usage) and Extension authentication scopes enabled
Owner access only is enabled only for credential owners

"authentication": {
   "scheme": "basic",
   "useCredentialVault": true,
   "credentialVaultId": "some-credential-vault-id"
}

SSL

ActiveGate version 1.251+

Enable SSL to make the data source verify the server certificate and use SSL encryption instead of native encryption.

"ssl": true

Enable SSL without a local truststore

When SSL is enabled and the server's certificate chain is publicly verifiable (for example, issued by Azure or other well-known CAs), there's no need to manually create a truststore. The system will automatically trust the server's certificate based on the trusted CAs in the environment.

However, if you need to use a local truststore for certificates not globally recognized or for additional security measures

In the userdata directory on the ActiveGates running the SQL data source, manually create a PKCS12 truststore with the name sqlds_truststore and password sqlds_truststore.

Command to create a truststore with keytool:
```
keytool -genkey -keystore sqlds_truststore -storepass sqlds_truststore -keyalg DSA
```
Location of userdata directory:
- Windows: %PROGRAMDATA%\dynatrace\remotepluginmodule\agent\conf\userdata
- Unix: /var/lib/dynatrace/remotepluginmodule/agent/conf/userdata
Add the server's certificate to it.

Command to import a certificate with keytool:
```
keytool -import -keystore sqlds_truststore -file .\ora.crt -alias oracle
```

Validate SSL certificates

ActiveGate version 1.269+

The certificate is additionally validated with hostname, which means that the domain from the certificate must match the one from the endpoint passed in the monitoring configuration.

Enable this option when connecting to databases using custom certificates.

"validateCertificates": true

Scope

Note that each ActiveGate host running your extension needs the root certificate to verify the authenticity of your extension. For more information, see Sign extension.

The scope is an ActiveGate group that will execute the extension. Only one ActiveGate from the group will run this monitoring configuration. If you plan to use a single ActiveGate, assign it to a dedicated group. You can assign an ActiveGate to a group during or after installation. For more information, see ActiveGate group.

Use the following format when defining the ActiveGate group:

"scope": "ag_group-<ActiveGate-group-name>",

Replace <ActiveGate-group-name> with the actual name.