Introduction to Microsoft SQL Server monitoring with NRDOT

Get deep insights into your SQL Server performance with our OpenTelemetry-based monitoring solution. Track database metrics, analyze slow queries, monitor resource usage, and correlate database performance with your applications.

This NRDOT-based approach complements our existing On-Host Integration (OHI) by leveraging OpenTelemetry standards for database monitoring, making it easier to integrate with your existing observability stack.

Unlike On-Host Integrations, NRDOT operates independently of the Infrastructure agent. It doesn't require the Infrastructure agent to collect database telemetry. NRDOT also includes native host monitoring capabilities, so you can choose to:

• Use the Infrastructure agent for host monitoring alongside NRDOT for database monitoring, or
• Use NRDOT to monitor both the database and the host.

Key features:

• OpenTelemetry standards: Integrates seamlessly with existing observability tools
• Comprehensive metrics: 50+ database performance indicators
• Query-level insights: Identify and optimize slow-performing queries
• Flexible deployment: Works with self-hosted and cloud environments
• APM correlation: Connect database performance to application traces

Choose your installation method

You can install the NRDOT Collector for SQL Server monitoring in the following ways:

• Self-hosted environments:
  • Windows self-hosted:
    • SQL Server authentication
    • Windows Domain authentication
    • gMSA
  • Linux self-hosted
• AWS RDS environments:
  • Windows RDS monitoring:
    • SQL Server authentication
    • Windows Domain authentication
    • gMSA
  • Linux RDS monitoring
• New Relic CLI
• Ansible
• Chef
• Helm chart
• Docker

Guided install

To install this through the New Relic UI instead, go to one.newrelic.com > Integrations & Agents > MSSQL (OpenTelemetry) . Follow the on-screen instructions to set up the integration.

Installation at a glance

1. Check compatibility and gather prerequisites.
2. Install the NRDOT Collector.
3. Configure the monitoring user.
4. Configure the NRDOT Collector.
5. Restart the NRDOT Collector.
6. Verify data is flowing to New Relic.

Next: install and configure

• Self-hosted environments:
  • Windows self-hosted:
    • SQL Server authentication
    • Windows Domain authentication
    • gMSA
  • Linux self-hosted
• AWS RDS environments: Cloud-managed SQL Server monitoring
  • Windows RDS monitoring:
    • SQL Server authentication
    • Windows Domain authentication
    • gMSA
  • Linux RDS monitoring
• New Relic CLI: Install and configure the collector with a single command
• Ansible: Install and configure the collector at scale using the newrelic.newrelic_install Ansible role
• Chef: Install and configure the collector at scale using the newrelic-install Chef cookbook
• Helm chart: Install and configure SQL Server monitoring on Kubernetes using the mssql-otel Helm chart
• Docker: Run the collector as a sibling container to a SQL Server instance already running in Docker