SAP ASE Database Monitoring

SAP Adaptive Server Enterprise (ASE), formerly Sybase ASE, is a high-performance, relational database management system designed for mission-critical, data-intensive environments. SAP ASE provides robust transactional processing capabilities, scalability, and high availability.

Monitoring SAP ASE helps ensure optimal database performance, detect and resolve issues promptly, maintain high availability, and improve overall system efficiency. Regular monitoring allows for proactive resource management, effective capacity planning, and enhanced security by identifying potential vulnerabilities and anomalies in real-time.

Pre-Requisites

Before proceeding to IT-Conductor monitoring, ensure that the following items are enabled on the SAP ASE database.

ASE MDA Configuration

To configure the MDA Tables, follow the steps below.

Only perform these steps if your SAP ASE version is 14 and under.

• Enable monitoring

sp_configure "enable monitoring", 1
go

• Enable error log 'pipe' table and set the number of messages to at least 100

sp_configure "errorlog pipe active", 1
go
sp_configure "errorlog pipe max messages", 100
go

• Enable deadlock 'pipe' table and set the number of messages to at least 100

sp_configure "deadlock pipe active", 1
go
sp_configure "deadlock pipe max messages", 100
go

• Enable lock timeout 'pipe' table and set the number of messages to at least 100

sp_configure "lock timeout pipe active", 1
go

Account Requirements

1. On the SAP ASE database, create a new SAP ASE monitoring account.

2. Grant the user the "mon_role" role.

Configure SAP ASE Database for Monitoring

To configure SAP ASE database monitoring in IT-Conductor, follow the instructions below.

Add New ASE Server

1. Visit service.itconductor.com and enter your login credentials.

2. Navigate to Dashboards → Administrator to access the Administrator's Dashboard.

3. Locate the ASE Servers actions panel and click the title to access the complete list.

Figure 1: ASE Servers Actions Panel in Administrator's Dashboard

4. Click the New ASE Server button to start adding a new instance for monitoring.

Figure 2: ASE Servers Actions Panel Page

5. Fill out all the necessary information in the New ASE Server wizard. Once completed, click to add the instance.

Figure 4a: New ASE Server Wizard (New ASE Server Screen)

• Description - refers to any relevant information about the server being added.

• Organization - refers to an administrative structure that defines objects with a common goal or purpose. If you previously created an organization, please select it.

• Role - refers to the environment where the database server will be used.

• Site - refers to a logical object that describes a particular area or location, depending on the context in which it is used.

• Gateway - allows communication between the customer's site network and the IT-Conductor cloud platform. See Gateway Setup for more details.

• Host - refers to the hostname or IP address of the server being added.

• Port - refers to the port number through which the server communicates with IT-Conductor. This is typically set to 7100.

• Character Set - refers to the encoding used by the SAP ASE database to store and retrieve character data.

• Encrypt Password - enables encryption of data exchanged between the server and IT-Conductor if checked.

• JCE Provider Class - refers to the Java Cryptography Extension provider class used for cryptographic operations.

• SSL - enables SSL protocol to secure the connection between the server and IT-Conductor.

• Request HA - indicates the request or configuration for high-availability features, such as failover and redundancy.

6. Provide the account information in the New Account screen and click to complete the configuration.

Figure 4b: New ASE Server Wizard (New Account Screen)

• Description - refers to any relevant information about the user account being added.

• Application - refers to the name given to the server being added.

• Person - refers to the name of the user who is adding the server.

• User Name - refers to the user created aligned with the Account Requirements.

• User Password - refers to the password of the previously created user.

• Re-type Password - refers to the same password provided in the Password field.

7. Verify if the system was added to the ASE Servers actions panel and check its status.

Note: The status will remain on Ready for a few minutes. Refresh the panel if needed. If there are configuration issues, such as incorrect connection parameters or an invalid account, the status will remain Ready. Click to display the logs and troubleshoot. If everything is configured correctly, the status will change to In Progress.

8. Navigate to the service grid and verify if the system was added under the ASE Servers node.

Note: The system will appear in the service grid within 5-15 minutes.

Monitor SAP ASE Database in IT-Conductor

To view the availability and performance metrics of an ASE database, locate the ASE Servers node in the service grid.

Figure 5: ASE Servers View in Service Grid

SAP ASE Server Key Metrics

• Availability - refers to the operational state and accessibility of the SAP ASE server.

• Connection Failures - refer to the events where attempts to establish a connection are unsuccessful.

• Heartbeat - refers to the periodic signal sent to the system, enabling real-time detection of server downtime.

• Missing Account - refers to the absence of a required user account or resource within the SAP ASE server.

• Retriever Failures - refer to the errors or issues encountered during the retrieval process of essential data or information within the SAP ASE server.

Note: All metrics will not show data when a server is unavailable.

To access a historical view of each of these metrics, click and a pop-up chart will be displayed.

Figure 6: ASE Server Availability Chart in Service Grid

Error Logs

To view the error logs that the ASE server generates, click Error Log in the Service Grid, and you will be redirected to the Error Logs Explorer, as shown in Figure 7.

Figure 7: ASE Server Error Logs Explorer

To view the error logs in more detail, click on any bar or data point in the chart, and a list will be displayed. To export the list, click and a .csv file will start downloading.

Figure 8: ASE Server Error Logs Details

SAP ASE Database Key Metrics

• DATA Used Space - refers to the amount of storage currently occupied by the actual data within the database.

• LOG Used Space - indicates the portion of the transaction log used in an SAP ASE database.

• Dump Errors - refer to issues encountered when creating a database backup in SAP ASE.

• Free Space - refers to the amount of available storage within the database that is not yet utilized.

To view the metrics of a specific database, expand the Databases node by clicking .

Figure 9: Expanded ASE Database View in Service Grid

Alternatively, locate any ASE server and click Databases. You will be redirected to a page, as shown in Figure 10. To view details about a specific database, click .

Figure 10: ASE Database Node View in Service Grid

To view other tool options for monitoring the ASE server, click any ASE server node, and you will be redirected to a page, as shown in Figure 11.

Figure 11: ASE Server Node View in Service Grid

SQL Jobs

To view all SQL jobs, click SQL Jobs from the server node view, and you will be redirected to the SQL Jobs actions panel page. To create a new SQL job, click .

Figure 12: ASE Database SQL Jobs Actions Panel Page

You will be redirected to the Create Synchronous SQL Script configuration page. Fill out all the necessary information, then click to save the script.

Figure 13: Create Synchronous SQL Script Configuration Page

• Name - refers to a descriptive name for the job.

• Description - refers to any relevant information about the job being added.

• Owner - refers to the user who's adding the new job.

• Status - refers to the SQL job status. At this stage of the process, this is set to Initial.

• Work Queue - specifies the queue or list where the job is managed and processed. This field contains the name of the ASE Database.

• Schedule - sets the frequency or timing for executing the job. You may choose from one of the schedules previously created in IT-Conductor. See How to Define Operating Schedules for more details.

• Planned Start Time - refers to the scheduled start time for the SQL job.

• Time Windows Begin - refers to the beginning of the time window during which the SQL job can be executed.

• Time Windows End - refers to the end of the time window during which the SQL job can be executed.

• Repeat - if checked, it specifies that the job should be repeated or executed only once.

• Completion Monitoring - if checked, it enables tracking and reporting on the completion status of the SQL job.

• Deliver Log - if checked, it determines if the log or output of the SQL job should be sent or delivered to specified recipients.

• SQL - refers to the SQL query or script to be executed as part of the job.

• Echo - if checked, it controls whether the executed SQL query or script is echoed back in the job output.

• Preserve Formatting - if checked, it specifies whether it maintains the original formatting of the SQL query or script in the job output.

• Wrapped - if checked, it indicates if long lines of SQL output should be wrapped or truncated to fit within specified constraints.

• Query Timeout - refers to the maximum duration (in seconds) allowed for the execution of the SQL query before it is terminated. By default, this is set to 180 seconds.

To view all the available SQL jobs actions, click .

Figure 14: ASE Database SQL Jobs Actions Menu

To view the execution logs of a specific SQL job, click Execution Log from the actions menu.

Figure 15: SQL Job Errors Execution Log

Instances

To view the metrics of a specific database instance, expand Instances by clicking .

Figure 16: Expanded ASE Server Instances View in Service Grid

Alternatively, locate any ASE server and click Instances. You will be redirected to a page, as shown in Figure 17. To view details about the instance or a specific engine, click .

Figure 17: ASE Database Instances Node View in Service Grid

• Status - refers to the current operational state of the database instance.

• Disk reads per second - indicates the number of read operations the database performs on the disk per second.

• Disk writes per second - indicates the number of read operations the database performs on the disk per second.

• Kernel run queue length - indicates the number of processes waiting to be executed by the CPU.

• Network reads per second - indicates the rate at which data is read from the network by the database.

• Network writes per second - indicates the rate at which data is written to the network by the database.

• Outstanding disk I/Os - indicates the number of I/O operations by the disk subsystem.

• Percent I/O busy - indicates the percentage of time the disk subsystem is busy handling I/O operations.

• Percent system busy - indicates the percentage of time the system is engaged in executing kernel-level operations.

• Percent user busy - indicates the percentage of time the CPU is busy executing user-level processes.

• Run queue length - indicates the number of processes waiting in the queue to be executed by the CPU.

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