Multi-receiver configuration for MSSQL with NRDOT

You can configure the NRDOT Collector to monitor multiple MSSQL instances from one collector. This is useful if you have multiple MSSQL instances running on different hosts and want to collect metrics from all of them using a single NRDOT Collector instance.

Prerequisites

NRDOT is installed and configured for your MSSQL instances:
- Linux RDS
- Linux Hosted
- Windows self-hosted:
- Windows RDS:

Add multi-receiver configuration

The following example shows how to configure the NRDOT Collector to monitor two MSSQL instances using a multi-receiver configuration. The first instance, nrsqlserver/1, carries the complete configuration and acts as the anchor; the second instance, nrsqlserver/2, inherits every shared setting through the YAML merge key and overrides only its own connection details. You can add more receivers as needed for additional instances.

receivers:
  # Base SQL Server instance: defines the anchor all others inherit from.
  nrsqlserver/1: &nrsqlserver-common
    username: "<YOUR_DB1_USERNAME>"
    password: "<YOUR_DB1_PASSWORD>"
    server: "<YOUR_SERVER_1>"
    port: 1433
    collection_interval: 15s

    metrics:
      sqlserver.database.count:
        enabled: true
      sqlserver.database.io:
        enabled: true
      sqlserver.database.latency:
        enabled: true
      sqlserver.database.operations:
        enabled: true
      sqlserver.database.tempdb.space:
        enabled: true
      sqlserver.database.tempdb.version_store.size:
        enabled: true
      sqlserver.deadlock.rate:
        enabled: true
      sqlserver.os.wait.duration:
        enabled: true
      sqlserver.processes.blocked:
        enabled: true
      sqlserver.memory.grants.pending.count:
        enabled: true
      sqlserver.database.file.size:
        enabled: true
      sqlserver.memory.area:
        enabled: true

    events:
      db.server.query_sample:
        enabled: true
      db.server.top_query:
        enabled: true
      db.server.query_plan:
        enabled: true
      db.server.top_procedure:
        enabled: true

    top_query_collection:
      lookback_time: 60s
      max_query_sample_count: 1000
      top_query_count: 250
      collection_interval: 60s
      collect_full_query_text: true
      allowed_comment_keys:
        - nr_service_guid

    query_sample_collection:
      max_rows_per_query: 100
      collect_full_query_text: true
      allowed_comment_keys:
        - nr_service_guid

    top_procedure_collection:
      max_procedure_sample_count: 1000
      top_procedure_count: 250
      collection_interval: 60s

    resource_attributes:
      db.system.version:
        enabled: true
      sqlserver.db.edition:
        enabled: true

  # Second SQL Server instance: inherits all settings from nrsqlserver/1,
  # overrides only the connection-specific fields.
  # Additional SQL Server instances can be added here following the same pattern.
  nrsqlserver/2:
    <<: *nrsqlserver-common
    username: "<YOUR_DB2_USERNAME>"
    password: "<YOUR_DB2_PASSWORD>"
    server: "<YOUR_SERVER_2>"
    port: 1433

processors:
  memory_limiter:
    check_interval: ${env:NR_MEM_LIMITER_CHECK_INTERVAL:-1s}
    limit_mib: ${env:NR_MEM_LIMITER_LIMIT_MIB:-200}
    spike_limit_mib: ${env:NR_MEM_LIMITER_SPIKE_MIB:-50}

exporters:
  otlp:
    endpoint: https://otlp.nr-data.net:4318
    headers:
      api-key: <YOUR_LICENSE_KEY>
    tls:
      insecure: false
    compression: gzip
    sending_queue:
      enabled: true
      sizer: bytes
      queue_size: 100_000_000
      num_consumers: 10
      batch:
        sizer: bytes
        max_size: 1_000_000
        min_size: 0
        flush_timeout: 5s

service:
  telemetry:
    metrics:
      level: none

  # Metrics and logs pipelines for multiple SQL Server instances
  pipelines:
    metrics:
      receivers: [nrsqlserver/1, nrsqlserver/2]
      processors: [memory_limiter]
      exporters: [otlp]
    logs:
      receivers: [nrsqlserver/1, nrsqlserver/2]
      processors: [memory_limiter]
      exporters: [otlp]

The <<: *nrsqlserver-common merge key inherits all settings from nrsqlserver/1, including its metric catalog, events, query/procedure collection settings, and resource attributes. Any field you explicitly set after it, such as username, password, server, and port, overrides the inherited value for that specific receiver instance.

Important

Each time you add a new receiver instance (for example, nrsqlserver/3), also add it to the receivers list in both the metrics and logs pipelines under service.pipelines. A receiver defined in the receivers block but missing from service.pipelines won't collect any data.

Tip

For Windows self-hosted and RDS environments using domain or gMSA authentication, use the datasource field instead of username/password/server/port. See Windows self-hosted instrumentation (Windows Domain authentication) for the datasource format.

Restart NRDOT Collector

Restart the NRDOT Collector service for configuration changes to take effect. The collector loads configuration parameters once at startup and doesn't support hot-reloading. Any changes made to the configuration while the collector is running remain inactive until the process restarts.

bash

$sudo systemctl restart nrdot-collector

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