DBA Dash

Quick Start

Requirements

Repository DB:

  • SQL 2016 SP1 or later, including Azure DB and RDS (SQL Server)

Monitored Instances:

  • SQL 2005-2022, including Azure DB and RDS (SQL Server)

DBA Dash Service:

  • .NET 8 Desktop Runtime. Version 8.0.0 or later

    Download .NET 8 Desktop Runtime

    If the .NET 8 runtime is not installed, you will be prompted to install it when you try to run the application.

    Note: Versions 2.x of DBA Dash used .NET 6. Version 3.0 and later use .NET 8

    dotnet --list-runtimes

  • Account to run the service with appropriate permissions to connect to the monitored instances and repository database instance

You can run the DBADashService.exe console app as your own user account without installing as a service for testing purposes

Setup

  1. Download the latest release from GitHub:

Download

(Select the one labelled DBADash_{version}.zip)

  1. Extract the files to a folder of your choosing

Please secure access to this folder. See security document for more information.

  1. Run DBADashServiceConfigTool.exe

If the application fails to start, please ensure you have .NET Framework 8 Runtime (desktop apps) installed. See Requirements

  1. Set a destination connection

The destination connection is the SQL instance where your DBA Dash repository database is to be located. By default this is set to DBADashDB and the database will be created automatically when the service starts. If you select an existing database it will need to be completely blank with no existing objects created.

Use Windows authentication where possible.

ServiceConfig.json is used to store the connection details.

  1. Click the “Source” tab
  2. Click the connect button to add a source connection (monitored instance)

Add multiple instances at the same time by entering a connection string or instance name on each line in the source textbox

  1. Review the options available on the “Extended Events” and “Other” tab.
  2. Click “Add/Update” to add the source connection(s)
  3. Repeat the process of adding source connections as necessary
  4. Click “Save”.

Your settings are stored in a file called ServiceConfig.json

  1. Click the “Destination” tab
  2. Click the “Install as service button”
  3. Click Install and enter credentials for the service.
  4. Click Start

Click View Service Log button to see what the service is doing. It will take a few moments to create the repository database and start collecting data.

  1. All done! Run DBADash.exe to see the data collected 🎉
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