After what has been a relatively smooth beta, we’re going gold with v7 today!
Read more about v7 features in my last post. I’ve also got some exciting news regarding new fragmentation-related features included in the base software, and how to get FREE licenses of both Performance Advisor and Fragmentation Manager.
New Base Software Features
Originally Fragmentation Manager was designed to be either ON or OFF, there was no in between. When it was OFF for a server, no table and index size or fragmentation-related data whatsoever was made available inside either Performance Advisor or Event Manager.
We’ve changed this, in a big way. A significant portion of the new features previously found only in Fragmentation Manager are now ON by default, whether or not you’ve purchased a license for it. Here’s what you now get out of the box with v7, for both new installs and upgrades:
- New “Indexes” tab in Performance Advisor, with table/index size and other details
- Scheduled and manual fragmentation analysis with adjustable scan mode, from the SQL Server instance down to partition level
- Table/index size and other details on the Performance Advisor Disk Space tab, organized by data file
- Calendar display of all historical and future fragmentation analysis events, with drag-and-drop support
- New “Databases” node for each SQL Server instance in the Navigator pane, listing all table and indexes
- Partitioning sliding window support for fragmentation analysis (defrag only max partition, or all others)
These are some significant capabilities which should add value for most any environment.
If you purchase and enable Fragmentation Manager, here are the additional features that become available:
- Automated Defragmentation
- Scheduled and manual rebuilds & reorgs, from the SQL Server instance down to partition level
- Support for multiple concurrent defrag operations, which can dramatically reduce overall defrag time
- Adjustable rebuild/reorg thresholds, scan mode and many other options
- Post-defrag analysis capability, so you can instantly see gains from defrag
- Calendar display of all historical and future defrag events, with drag-and-drop support
- Alerting for defrag success, failure, and completion
- Partitioning sliding window support for defrag (defrag only max partition, or all others)
- Historical trending via multiple charts on the Indexes tab:
- Total server fragmentation, by fragmented % range
- Total server disk space used, and wasted by fragmentation
- Total server buffer space used, and wasted by fragmentation
- Index fragmentation
- Index disk/buffer space used/wasted
- Index activity
In a nutshell, the base v7 software provides dramatically increased visibility into table/index size and fragmentation information, and Fragmentation Manager gets you automated defragmentation and many associated options, as well as historical trending.
FREE Licenses of Performance Advisor and Fragmentation Manager!
If the above included features weren’t enough, we’ve introduced 2 new ways for you to get FREE software licenses:
- If you own five (5) licenses of Performance Advisor and five (5) licenses of Event Manager, you will automatically get:
- One (1) Performance Advisor license, for monitoring the SQL Server instance where your SQLSentry database is located ($1495 value)
- One (1) Fragmentation Manager license, for defragmenting the SQL Server instance where your SQLSentry database is located ($795 value)
- Regardless of the number of licenses you own, if you monitor the SQL Server instance where your SQLSentry database is located with a paid license of Performance Advisor, you will automatically get:
- One (1) Fragmentation Manager license, for defragmenting this instance only ($795 value)
Some important points:
- These free licenses won’t show up in your license counts, they are just “there.” 😉
- If you meet the criteria for #1 above and are already monitoring the SQL Server instance holding your SQLSentry database with a paid Performance Advisor license, then you’re effectively getting a 6th PA license for free, which you can use to monitor any server.
- There are no ASM (annual software maintenance) costs for these free licenses, and they are perpetual.
Thanks again to all who participated in the beta, and we hope you like what you see in SQL Sentry v7!
Greg is founder and Chief Scientist at SentryOne. He is a Microsoft developer by background and has been working with SQL Server since the mid 90s. He is perpetually engaged in the design and development of SQL Sentry, Plan Explorer and other SentryOne solutions for optimizing performance on the Microsoft Data Platform.
