User guide

with SQL Sentry Performance Advisor.

It is not necessary for this account to be a Domain Administrator account. Instead, it is recommended

that the service account be a standard user Domain account that has been added to the local

Administrators group of each monitored target. For more information about security and SQL Sentry

Performance Advisor, please see the Performance Advisor Security Requirements topic.

Note: As of SQL Server 2008 the local Administrators group of a Windows server is no longer

automatically given access to a SQL Server instance installed on that Windows server. Keep this in

mind when installing SQL Sentry for use with SQL Server 2008 and above.

Adding the service account to the local Windows Administrators group for the SQL Sentry

Database server does not automatically grant the service user access to the SQL Sentry Database.

CHANGING THE MONITORING SERVICE CREDENTIALS

After the initial installation, the Service Configuration Utility is used to update or change the

credentials of the SQL Sentry Monitoring Service account. The Service Configuration Utility can be

accessed within the SQL Sentry program group in the Windows Start Menu.

Using the Service Configuration Utility is the only supported way of changing the SQL Sentry

Monitoring Service credentials. For more information please see the Service Configuration Utility

topic in the SQL Sentry User Guide.

MONITORING SERVICE CONNECTION PROPERTIES

If you are monitoring a server with SQL Sentry Event Manager, and do not have a need to utilize

Event Manager's General Performance Monitoring features, you may configure the Monitoring

Service to use SQL Server Authentication. This is done through a Connection's Monitoring Service

Connection Properties.

To access the Monitoring Service Connection Properties for a Connection, right-click the

Connection and choose the Monitoring Service Connection Properties command. From the

Connection Properties dialog, uncheck Use Integrated Authentication, and enter the SQL Server

Authentication account you would like the Monitoring Service to use for the Connection.

Important: If you configure SQL Authentication for a Connection which is being monitored with

SQL Sentry Performance Advisor, Performance Advisor will not be able to collect Windows

level metrics for that Connection. This is because Performance Advisor collects various

performance and configuration data directly from Windows, and requires a higher level of access

to the operating system than does Event Manager. See the Performance Advisor Security

Requirements topic for more information.

STARTING THE MONITORING SERVICE

The SQL Sentry Monitoring Service will start automatically after installation. It will become active

upon detecting a valid license on the SQL Sentry Database. If for some reason the Service fails to start,

you may follow these directions to start the service manually.

SQL Sentry Quick Start 28