Specifications

The SQL Server Utility CHAPTER 2 23

REAL WORLD

any organizations that participate in the Microsoft SQL Server early adopter

program are currently either evaluating SQL Server 2008 R2 or already using

it in their production infrastructure. The consensus is that organizations should

design a SQL Server Utility solution that factors in a SQL Server Utility with every

deployment. The SQL Server Utility allows you to increase visibility and control,

optimize resources, and improve overall efciencies within your SQL Server infra-

structure.

SQL Server Utility Key Concepts

Although many database administrators may be eager to implement a UCP and start proac-

tively monitoring their SQL Server environment, it is benecial to take a few minutes and be-

come familiar with the new terminology and components that make up the SQL Server Utility.

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The SQL Server Utility This represents an organization’s SQL Server-related entities

in a unied view. The SQL Server Utility supports actions such as specifying resource

utilization policies that track the utilization requirements of an organization. Leverag-

ing Utility Explorer and SQL Server Utility viewpoints in SSMS can give you a holistic

view of SQL Server resource health.

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The Utility Control Point (UCP) The UCP provides the central reasoning point

for the SQL Server Utility by using SSMS to organize and monitor SQL Server resource

health. The UCP collects conguration and performance information from managed

instances of SQL Server every 15 minutes. Information is stored in the Utility Manage-

ment Data Warehouse (UMDW) on the UCP. SQL Server performance data is then com-

pared to policies to help identify resource bottlenecks and consolidation opportunities.

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The Utility Management Data Warehouse (UMDW) The UMDW is a relational

database used to store data collected by managed instances of SQL Server. The UMDW

database is automatically created on a SQL Server instance when the UCP is created.

Its name is sysutility_mdw, and it utilizes the Simple Recovery model. By default, the

collection upload frequency is set to every 15 minutes, and the data retention period is

set to 1 year.