===== MS-SQL Backups =====
===== Purpose =====
  * When a disaster strikes SQL Server databases, a efficient working backup is essential in order to recover from most disasters
  * Backup will also help to protect against database upgrades that go bad, table corruption, and other system problems.
  * Monitoring database backup execution results becomes then crucial in order to guarantee Database Administrators that a full database recovery is possible, database damages etc..

**Monitor features include :**
  * Monitoring of every SQL Server  database backup tpe (Full, Differential, Transaction log ...)
  * It is able to alert if time elapsed from last backup (of any type) has reached a given threshold expressed in number of days, hours, or minutes 
  * It is capable to retrieve duration time of a given backup and to alert in case a threshold is reached
  * It will also send an alert in case a backup size overreached a threshold set by the user
  * The monitor can be configurated so to trigger an alert if the database has been damaged

===== Configuration hints =====
**Surveillance table:** 
  * This is a table of rules that you can use to configure and customize the configuration.
  * Each line of the table will define a rule of monitoring. You can combine multiple rules to cover different cases.
  * Within a rule, you can configure the last **database backup  type** you want to monitor, the **elapsed time from last backup** that you can express in days, hours or minutes, the **duration time in seconds** of last backup 
  * You can also seta severity level **alert if the database is detected as damaged**

**Backup type**\\
Select the specific backup type you want to monitor or select "All" to monitor any kind of backup that has been made of the database


**Elapsed time from last backup:**\\
Use the multi-threshold syntax to set multiple threshold/severity associations: G2W:1 W2M:2 M2C:3 (Green To Warning, Warning To Major, etc...), expressed in days, hours or minutes  An alarm of the corresponding severity will be sent if time eapsed from last backup is **over** threshold.  Set 0 in the field if unused


**Duration time in seconds:**\\
Use the multi-threshold syntax to set multiple threshold/severity associations: G2W:60 W2M:120 M2C:180 (Green To Warning, Warning To Major, etc...), expressed in seconds  An alarm of the corresponding severity will be sent if backup time duration is **over** threshold.  Set 0 in the field if unused


**Backup size in MB:**\\
Use the multi-threshold syntax to set multiple threshold/severity associations: G2W:512 W2M:1024 M2C:2048 (Green To Warning, Warning To Major, etc...), expressed in MB  An alarm of the corresponding severity will be sent if backup size is **over** threshold.  
Notice that values retrieved will be rounded  
Set 0 in the field if unused


**Damaged DB:**\\
Set a alert severity level if the database has been detected as damaged and you want to be notified. Set it to "DISABLED" to deactivate the alert
===== Surveillance table =====
^Parameter^Description^
^Active|Use this field to activate or deactivate a line of configuration.|
^Backup type|Select the specific database backup type you want to monitor or select "All" so to monitor all types of backup|
^Elapsed time from last backup|The threshold for the elapsed time from the last backup.You can use the multi threshold syntax (i.e. : G2W:10 W2C:40) . Values can be expressed in : Days, Hours or Minutes|
^Unit|Time unit of measure of "Elapsed time from last backup" field|
^Duration time in sec|The threshold setting for the last backup duration time in seconds.You can use the multi threshold syntax (i.e. : G2W:10 W2C:40) . Values have tobe expressed in seconds|
^Backup size in MB|The threshold setting for the last backup size in MB.You can use the multi threshold syntax (i.e. : G2W:10 W2C:40) . Values have tobe expressed in MB|
^Damaged DB|Set a severity level if you need to be alerted if the database has been detected as damaged.|
^Auto clear|If checked, the alarm will be cleared as soon as the alarm condition is not met anymore.|
^Alarm tag|This field allows to add custom text within the alarm message. %MSG% variable will contain the actual generated message and can be used such as: "my_prefix %MSG% my_suffix". By default, tag will be used as prefix.|
^Alarm|If checked, this line of surveillance will be used for alarm generation.|
^Metric|If checked, this line of surveillance will be used for metric generation.|
^Report|If checked, this line of surveillance will used for showing threshold and severity in the daily report|
===== Examples =====
 
^Active^Backup type^Elapsed time from last backup^Unit^Duration time in sec^Backup size in MB^Damaged DB^Auto clear^Alarm tag^Alarm^Metric^Report^
|true|Full|G2W:1 W2M:3|Days|G2W:60 W2M:180|G2W:1024 W2M:4096|CRITICAL|true| |true|true|true|

**Effect** : For this rule, only Full database backup type will be monitored (Backup Type set to : "Full").
 
A WARNING alarm is sent if elapsed time time from last Full database backup is 1 day (see Unit field) or more, a MAJOR alarm if 3 days (see Unit field) or more.
   
A WARNING alarm is sent if backup duration time was 60 seconds or more, a MAJOR alarm if 180 seconds or more. 
A WARNING alarm is sent if backup size is 1024 MB or more, a MAJOR alarm if 4096 MB or more.
   
A CRITICAL alarm will be sent if the database has been detected as damaged.

===== Generated metrics ===== 
^metricId^metricUnit^metricTarget^metricDescription^
|MSSQL_DATABASE_ELAPSED_TIME_SINCE_LAST_BACKUP_DAYS|Days|[Backup Type]|The retrieved elapsed time since the last backup of a given type, expressed in Days|
|MSSQL_DATABASE_ELAPSED_TIME_SINCE_LAST_BACKUP_HOURS|Hours|[Backup Type]|The retrieved elapsed time since the last backup of a given type, expressed in Hours|
|MSSQL_DATABASE_ELAPSED_TIME_SINCE_LAST_BACKUP_MINUTES|Minutes|[Backup Type]|The retrieved elapsed time since the last backup of a given type, expressed in Minutes|
|MSSQL_DATABASE_BACKUP_DURATION_TIME|seconds|[Backup Type]|Fetched duration time of the last backup of a given type, expressed in Seconds|
|MSSQL_DATABASE_BACKUP_SIZE|MB|[Backup Type]|Fetched size of the last backup of a given type, expressed in MB|