Hello there! My name is Cody Lee; I am one of the Software Development Engineers in Test (SDET for short) at SentryOne.
The SentryOne Engineering team recently added the SentryOne Portal to the SQL Sentry Unified Installer. I won’t provide a full explanation of the SentryOne Portal functionality in this blog post; if you’re new to the SentryOne Portal, I recommend checking out this fantastic blog post from SentryOne Director of Product Management Suril Jasani to learn more about it.
In this blog post, you will learn how to download the SQL Sentry Unified Installer, where to install it, the overall SentryOne Portal installation and authentication steps, and general SentryOne Portal configuration. I’ll also point out documentation that will help you dive more deeply into the SQL Sentry ecosystem and all the rich features available to you.
Where to Get SentryOne Portal
Download the SQL Sentry Unified Setup executable file from my.geeksforgeeks.org. If you don’t already have an account, you can create one by purchasing SQL Sentry or signing up for a free SQL Sentry trial.
After you log in to your SentryOne account, you can navigate to the Downloads section, which includes the installation file you need to download.
Once downloaded, the file name will be “SentryOneSetup-x64.exe”.
Installing SentryOne Portal
Determining Where to Install the SentryOne Portal
There are a few things to consider when choosing an installation location for the SentryOne Portal:
- Does the install location have access to your SentryOne database?
- Does the user who is installing the SentryOne Portal have administrative rights to the installation location?
Installation Steps
Once you determine where you are going to install the SentryOne Portal, installation is very straightforward. I won’t explain every step of the installation process here because our documentation team does a fantastic job of explaining it in our installation guide. What I will do is call out a few important installation pages specifically for the SentryOne Portal.
Feature Installation Selection
Now that the SentryOne Portal has been added to the SentryOne installer, you will see a new option on the Custom Setup screen during installation.
For the purpose of this walk-through, we will discuss installing only the SentryOne Portal, so you want to select Monitor Portal and deselect everything else prior to continuing installation.
Portal Service Authentication
SentryOne Portal uses SQL Server authentication to allow the service to connect to the SentryOne database. In this step, you need to make sure to enter user credentials that have access to the SentryOne database. Once these credentials are entered, you can validate proper connection to the SQL Server instance by clicking the Test button.
After a few seconds you should receive a confirmation that the credentials were properly validated. Otherwise, you’ll receive an error message providing some information on what went wrong. If you have trouble connecting, the SentryOne Support team is ready to help.
Service Configuration
The last step of the initial SentryOne Portal installation is an optional configuration of the IP address and port that the SentryOne Portal service will be running under. If no changes need to be made to the IP address or port, feel free to leave the default values.
Once you are done configuring these values, click the Test button, which lets the installer validate the settings to make sure no other services are already using the port specified.
Windows Firewall Rules
Regardless of the settings used in the previous step (default or custom port, for example) this next step is important to ensure the SentryOne Portal service can be reached outside of the machine it is being installed on.
Inbound and Outbound rules need to be added to Windows Firewall security settings for the specific ports used during the setup. It’s important to note, however, that you should be sure to consult with your system administrator prior to adding or modifying any security settings. Your environment might be different than this example scenario, so it is always best to double-check security settings!
Finishing Up the SentryOne Portal Installation Process
Now that all the basic configuration has been performed, the rest of the installation process can be completed. These steps are explained in great detail in the installation documentation, so be sure to reference that page.
Once the SentryOne Portal installation has been completed, you should find a new service running on the machine called “SentryOne Monitor Portal.” If the Services program was already running, you might need to click the refresh button to see the new service.
After you have confirmed the new service is running, you can open a browser and navigate to the SentryOne Portal URL.
This URL depends on the settings that were used before, but in this case you can navigate to the SentryOne Portal using one of the following URLs:
- http://<ServerName>:9991
- http://localhost:9991
- http://<IpAddress>:9991
After navigating to the SentryOne Portal URL, you should see a page very similar to the one shown in following screenshot:
Congratulations! You have successfully installed the SentryOne Portal and you can begin to explore all the features it has to offer. For anyone unfamiliar with the SentryOne Portal, the features and interface are nearly identical to our SaaS-based solution—SentryOne Monitor. I recommend exploring our SentryOne Monitor documentation to learn more.
If you experience any issues accessing the SentryOne Portal at this point, I recommend reviewing the installation documentation for the SentryOne Portal, with an emphasis on security settings, as these can be the sticking point for installations. Again, SentryOne support services are also ready to help.
Basic Configuration Steps
Now that you have the SentryOne Portal installed and running, you can explore its features to get a better understanding of the health of the environment you’re monitoring with SQL Sentry. If, at any time, you need to modify a SentryOne Portal setting, we provide an application to help you through those changes.
The SentryOne Portal Configuration Utility is a simple application that will allow you to quickly make changes to the SentryOne Portal configuration.
The basic configuration options include:
- Database Configuration—This option allows you to change the connection settings for the SentryOne database in the event that security changes occur or the database is moved to another server.
- Binding—These were originally found during installation, but in the event that changes need to be made to either the port or IP numbers, they can be made here.
Once changes are made to the configuration, click “Verify & Save.” A message will be added to the Messages area letting you know the save was complete and that you can close the Configuration Utility.
Next Steps (Advanced Configuration)
After exploring the SentryOne Portal, you might want to know more about the SentryOne Portal Configuration Utility. There is a thorough explanation of this utility, as well as the advanced properties section, in the SentryOne Portal documentation.
Stay Up-to-Date on the Latest Features
Congratulations, you have successfully installed and configured the SentryOne Portal. The SentryOne Portal has been a passion project for the SentryOne Engineering team, and we hope you enjoy using it as much as we’ve enjoyed developing it.
New features are always in the works, so be sure to check out the SentryOne Change List periodically to keep up to speed on the latest and greatest SQL Sentry features!
