Azure Data Studio – Server Reports Extension

This is my fourth blog post on Azure Data Studio extensions.  Of the three I have completed a post on, all of them I found to be very useful.  The Server Reports extension is no different.  As the name implies, it is for reporting on the server.  This extension is currently in preview mode, so things could change.  According to the documentation, this extension returns information about the following items:

        • DB Space Usage
        • DB Buffer Usage
        • CPU Utilization
        • Backup Growth Trend
        • Wait counts

To find the extension search the extensions on “Server Reports”, at the time of this post, this is the only extension that will be returned.

To install, simply click the Install button.  This is a very fast install and does require a restart of Azure Data Studio.  To use the extension, you will need to navigate to your connections by clicking the button that is in the green box below.

Once there, right click on the database connection you would like to review and go to “Manage”.  Once you do, you will see along the top extensions that you have installed.  However, you will only see relevant extensions, mostly extensions for monitoring or configuration.  I currently have the PowerShell extension installed, however it really isn’t a monitoring or configuration reporting extension, so it does not appear in the list of options.

What I found interesting is that if your connection points to the default database you will not see “Server Reports” as an option.

If you see this, you will need to expand the tree, right click on a database and go to “Manage”.  Then you will see Server Reports as an option.  Once you click on Server Reports you will see some pretty useful information.

Starting with what you see under the Home option. You will see two buttons, the top one is for Monitoring and the bottom one is for Performance.

The top one, Monitoring is already selected by default and returns four charts.  One for each of the following items.

          • DB Space Usage
          • DB Buffer Usage
          • CPU Utilization
          • Backup Growth Trend

When you click the “Performance” button you will see a chart returning information about waits.

If you look at all the charts, you will see an ellipsis in the upper right corner.  For all the charts when you click this you will see two options, run query and refresh.  However, some charts may have additional options.  The Wait chart above has a third option, Show Detail.  Which is what is below.

The thing I really like is that one of the options is Run Query.  Not only will this allow me to view the data in a grid format, it will allow me to see the actual query what was used to pull the information.

I really like this extension, I think it returns some useful information.  However, I think I like it more for the potential rather than for what it current returns.  Since this extension is still in preview mode, my hope is that there will be more counters added as time goes on.

Here are the links to my other blog post on Azure Data Studio.

Azure Data Studio Introduction

How to View Agent Jobs in Azure Data Studio

Azure Data Studio – SentryOne Plan Explorer Extension

Azure Data Studio – Explain Button

Azure Data Studio – Searching Extensions

Azure Data Studio – SSMS Keymap

 

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