Docs » Supported integrations in Splunk Observability Cloud » Configure application receivers for databases » Microsoft SQL Server

Microsoft SQL Server 🔗

The Splunk Distribution of the OpenTelemetry Collector uses the Smart Agent receiver with the Microsoft SQL Server monitor type to send metrics from Microsoft SQL Server instances.

Note

To monitor Microsoft SQL server instances with the OpenTelemetry Collector using native OpenTelemetry refer to the Microsoft SQL server receiver component.

Benefits 🔗

After you configure the integration, you can access these features:

Installation 🔗

Follow these steps to deploy this integration:

  1. Deploy the Splunk Distribution of the OpenTelemetry Collector to your host or container platform:

  2. Configure the integration, as described in the Configuration section.

  3. Restart the Splunk Distribution of the OpenTelemetry Collector.

Authentication 🔗

This integration supports Windows and SQL authentication. Windows authentication is the default option. If you can’t authenticate with Windows, use SQL authentication instead.

  • Windows authentication uses the local system account to access the Microsoft SQL Server.

  • SQL authentication uses an account that you configure for the integration. See Microsoft SQL authentication.

Microsoft SQL authentication 🔗

To use the integration, you need to create login credentials in the Microsoft SQL Server host. To create this login, follow these steps:

  1. Log in as an administrator.

  2. Start an SQL client.

  3. Enter the following commands:

USE master;
GO
CREATE LOGIN [<user_id>] WITH PASSWORD = '<YOUR PASSWORD HERE>';
GO
GRANT VIEW SERVER STATE TO [<user_id>];
GO
GRANT VIEW ANY DEFINITION TO [<user_id>];
GO

Configuration 🔗

To use this integration of a Smart Agent monitor with the Collector:

  1. Include the Smart Agent receiver in your configuration file.

  2. Add the monitor type to the Collector configuration, both in the receiver and pipelines sections.

Example 🔗

To activate this integration, add the following to your Collector configuration:

receivers:
  smartagent/sqlserver:
    type: telegraf/sqlserver
    ...  # Additional config

Next, add the monitor to the service.pipelines.metrics.receivers section of your configuration file:

service:
  pipelines:
    metrics:
      receivers: [smartagent/sqlserver]

Example: Microsoft SQL Server receiver 🔗

The following is an example of a Microsoft SQL Server receiver configuration:

receivers:
  smartagent/sqlserver:
     type: telegraf/sqlserver
     host: <host_name>
     port: 1433
     userID: <user_id>
     password: <password>
     appName: sqlserver

Configuration settings 🔗

The following table shows the configuration options for the Microsoft SQL Server monitor:

Option

Required

Type

Description

host

yes

string

port

yes

integer

userID

no

string

UserID used to access the SQL Server instance.

password

no

string

Password used to access the SQL Server instance.

appName

no

string
The app name used by the monitor when connecting to the

SQLServer. (default: signalfxagent)

queryVersion

no

integer
The version of queries to use when accessing the cluster. See

the documentation for the Microsoft SQL Server Telegraf Plugin, provided by Influxdata. (default: 2)

azureDB

no

bool
Whether the database is a Microsoft Azure database.

(default: false)

excludedQueries

no

list of strings
Queries to exclude. Possible values are PerformanceCounters,

WaitStatsCategorized, DatabaseIO, DatabaseProperties, CPUHistory, DatabaseSize, DatabaseStats, MemoryClerk VolumeSpace, and PerformanceMetrics.

log

no

unsigned integer
Log level to use when accessing the database (default:

1)

Metrics 🔗

This integration provides a set of metrics. Note that some metrics might depend your type of your database instance:

Notes 🔗

  • To learn more about the available in Splunk Observability Cloud see Metric types

  • In host-based subscription plans, default metrics are those metrics included in host-based subscriptions in Splunk Observability Cloud, such as host, container, or bundled metrics. Custom metrics are not provided by default and might be subject to charges. See Metric categories for more information.

  • In MTS-based subscription plans, all metrics are custom.

  • To add additional metrics, see how to configure extraMetrics in Add additional metrics

Troubleshooting 🔗

If you are a Splunk Observability Cloud customer and are not able to see your data in Splunk Observability Cloud, you can get help in the following ways.

Available to Splunk Observability Cloud customers

Available to prospective customers and free trial users

  • Ask a question and get answers through community support at Splunk Answers .

  • Join the Splunk #observability user group Slack channel to communicate with customers, partners, and Splunk employees worldwide. To join, see Chat groups in the Get Started with Splunk Community manual.

TCP/IP is deactivated 🔗

In some Windows-based SQL Server instances, TCP/IP has been deactivated by default. You might encounter this in a Microsoft Azure service instance. If you see error messages similar to Cannot read handshake packet: read tcp: wsarecv: An existing connection was forcibly closed by the remote host., you need to explicitly activate TCP/IP for the instance.

  1. Verify agent configurations are correct.

  2. In your SQL Server instance, activate TCP/IP. To do this, select Start, then Administrative Tools, then Computer Management.

  3. In the Computer Management sidebar, select Services and Applications, then SQL Server Configuration Manager, then SQL Server Network Configuration.

  4. Select Protocols for <your_sql_server_name>.

  5. In the protocol list, right-click the TCP/IP protocol and select Enable.

This page was last updated on Feb 11, 2025.