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Enterprise SQL Server Manager Installation and Planning Guide

Chapter 1: Product Overview

Chapter 1

This chapter presents a brief introduction to Enterprise SQL Server Manager (ESSM). It describes the product's features and its relationship to the Tivoli Management Environment (TME). A complete description of these features is in Enterprise SQL Server Manager User's Guide. If you are already familiar with Enterprise SQL Server Manager, skip this chapter and proceed to Chapter 2, "Planning an Enterprise SQL Server Manager Deployment" or Chapter 3, "Preparing to Install Enterprise SQL Server Manager," depending on your needs.

Enterprise SQL Server Manager is a SQL Server administration tool. It is designed to address the needs of an organization that has implemented an enterprise-based client/server architecture. Enterprise SQL Server Manager offers a highly scalable, interoperable, and extensible solution that adheres to a common, standards-based, object-oriented architecture. Running as a TME application, Enterprise SQL Server Manager lets administrators manage multiple SQL Servers that are distributed across multiple hosts from a single desktop.

Enterprise SQL Server Manager as a TME-based Application

Enterprise SQL Server Manager runs as a TME-based management application that installs into the Tivoli Management Platform (TMP) framework.

Figure 1-1: Tivoli Management Environment

Running in this interoperable environment, Enterprise SQL Server Manager shares the same framework services used by other management applications. These shared services include:

• Administrator role assignment services
• Implementation of rules through policies and policy regions
• Distribution of SQL Server and database objects through TME profile management services
• A common event management facility through Tivoli Monitoring Technology (TMT) and Tivoli/Sentry profiles
• A common notification facility through the TME Bulletin Board services
• Job automation and scheduling through TME Task Library and scheduler services

User Interface

Enterprise SQL Server Manager consists of a graphical user interface (GUI) that you access from the TME desktop and a command line interface that you access from the operating system command line.

Graphical User Interface

Enterprise SQL Server Manager uses both the Tivoli desktop and the following special Enterprise SQL Server Manager windows:

• SQL Server window
• SQL Server Profile Manager window
• Database Profile Manager window

These three windows, also referred to generically as Voyager windows, use a hierarchical list to display all objects managed by Enterprise SQL Server Manager and allow flexibility in managing SQL Server.

Figure 1-2: The Enterprise SQL Server Manager graphical user interface

For more information about using the TME desktop, see Tivoli Management Platform User's Guide. For information about the Enterprise SQL Server Manager GUI, see Enterprise SQL Server Manager User's Guide.

Command Line Interface

Enterprise SQL Server Manager includes a comprehensive command set that you can use to perform administration activities from the operating system command line.

Figure 1-3: The Enterprise SQL Server Manager command line interface

In addition to being an alternative to using the graphic interface, Enterprise SQL Server Manager commands offer some features that are not available from the graphic interface. These include:

• Auditing
• Ability to compare objects
• Ability to copy objects

You can create scripts that combine Enterprise SQL Server Manager commands and Tivoli commands with virtually any scripting language, to facilitate batch processing of repetitive or large-scale administrative chores. You can automate this work by saving the scripts as tasks in a TME task library and scheduling them in the desktop scheduler to execute automatically.

For more information about the Enterprise SQL Server Manager command line interface, see Enterprise SQL Server Manager Reference Manual.

Policy Region Resources

To allow you to manage and configure SQL Server and database objects in TME policy regions, Enterprise SQL Server Manager adds resource types to the TMR database. These resource types appear in the list of available resource types in every policy region. Enterprise SQL Server Manager uses the following types of resources:

• Managed SQL Server.
• SQL Server Profile Manager.
• Database Profile Manager.
• The profile types used by Enterprise SQL Server Manager.

Default and Validation Policy

You can configure policy for the attributes of SQL Server profiles.

• Default policy methods generate default values for attributes of an object in a profile when you create the object.
• Validation policy methods check that an object's attribute values comply with those established for that profile type when you create or change the object.

Profile Management

Enterprise SQL Server Manager profile management is a powerful tool that allows you to distribute SQL Server and database objects to many SQL Servers across the enterprise in a single step.

The ability to create and distribute profiles is the key to managing your enterprise. Without profile distribution, you can manage only one SQL Server installation at a time. With profile distribution, you can manage hundreds of SQL Server installations at a time.

For information about Enterprise SQL Server Manager profile management features, see Chapter 12, "Managing ESSM Profiles," in
Enterprise SQL Server Manager User's Guide.

Event Monitoring Services

You can use Event Monitoring Services to monitor SQL Server for specific events and to manage responses to the events. Event Monitoring Services are based on Tivoli Monitoring Technology (TMT). TMT is the same event management technology that Tivoli/Sentry uses.

An event occurs when a SQL Server characteristic surpasses a user-defined threshold. For example, you can use Event Monitoring Services to notify you when the number of network packets sent exceeds a specific number or if an error log file records an access error.

For more information about Enterprise SQL Server Manager Event Monitoring Services, see Chapter 14, "Using Event Monitoring Services," in Enterprise SQL Server Manager User's Guide.