Skip to content

Prerequisites

Everything SQLMonitor expects to find before Install-SQLMonitor.ps1 is run.

1. Central deployer machine

The machine from which you run the installer (can be your workstation, a jump host, or the inventory server itself).

  • Windows 10 / 11 / Server 2016+ with PowerShell 5.1 or PowerShell 7+.
  • Git (to clone the repo) or ability to download the repo ZIP.

  • dbatools PowerShell module — the installer uses it heavily. Download in advance:

    powershell Save-Module dbatools -Path "$env:USERPROFILE\Downloads\"

  • PoshRSJob PowerShell module (for parallel multi-server wrappers):

    powershell Install-Module PoshRSJob -Scope AllUsers

  • Local admin rights on the monitored instance's Windows host (or a WindowsCredential that has them) — used for Perfmon data-collector setup, copying files to C:\SQLMonitor, and PsRemoting checks.

  • Network access to:
    • Monitored instance (SQL, 1433 or custom) and its Windows host (SMB, WinRM).
    • Inventory server (SQL).
    • Data destination server, if different.

2. Monitored SQL Server instance

Supported editions: SQL Server 2012 onwards (any edition that supports Extended Events). SQL Server 2008 R2 works but XEvent collection is disabled.

Before running the installer:

  • sa-equivalent SQL credentials (or a Windows login that is sysadmin).
  • A dedicated Windows domain account for the SQL Agent proxy (used by PowerShell and CmdExec subsystems). This account needs:
    • Administrators, Performance Log Users, Performance Monitor Users membership on the monitored host.
    • Read access to $env:USERPROFILE\Downloads\ on the deployer (for initial copy).
  • Database Mail profile configured on the inventory server (for dashboard mail / login-expiry mail). You can skip this with -SkipMailProfileCheck $true.
  • TDE / Encryption compatibility: if your instance is TDE-encrypted, confirm the data destination is also TDE-capable (or use the same instance).

3. Inventory SQL Server instance

  • A SQL Server instance that will hold the all_server_* aggregates.
  • Enterprise / Developer edition recommended for Memory-Optimized tables (the installer's default). For Standard Edition, run with -MemoryOptimizedObjectsUsage $false.
  • Can be the same instance you are monitoring (small fleets / labs), or a dedicated observability server.
  • sa-equivalent credentials.

4. Grafana

  • Grafana 10+ (any distribution: Grafana OSS, Grafana Cloud, self-hosted).
  • A Microsoft SQL Server data source pointed at your inventory server, named SQLMonitor.
  • Credentials: a SQL login named grafana with db_datareader on the DBA database. The installer creates this login on every instance and copies its SID from the inventory server so the same login password works cluster-wide (step 56__GrafanaLogin).
  • Optional but recommended: a folder in Grafana called SQLMonitor to house the dashboards.

5. Third-party kits (optional but bundled into the install flow)

Download in advance and point the installer at the ZIPs:

The exact download commands are documented in Wrapper-Samples/Wrapper-InstallSQLMonitor.ps1.

6. PowerShell remoting (deployer ↔ monitored host)

The installer uses PSRemoting to lay down C:\SQLMonitor\*, set up Perfmon's logman data collector, and run the collectors as scheduled tasks where needed.

On the monitored host, one-time setup:

powershell Enable-PSRemoting -Force -SkipNetworkProfileCheck Set-Item WSMAN:\Localhost\Client\TrustedHosts -Value "SQLMonitor.Lab.com" -Concatenate -Force Set-ItemProperty HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System -Name LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy -Value 1

On the deployer:

powershell Set-Item WSMAN:\Localhost\Client\TrustedHosts -Value "*" -Force # or scope to hostnames

7. Ports and firewall

From → To Port Reason
Deployer → Monitored host 445 (SMB) Copy SQLMonitor files to C:\SQLMonitor, ingest Perfmon .blg
Deployer → Monitored host 5985/5986 (WinRM) PSRemoting
Monitored instance ↔ Inventory instance 1433 (or custom SQL) Linked server aggregation
Grafana → Inventory instance 1433 Dashboard queries
Alert Engine → Inventory instance 1433 Alert reads + writes
sql_exporter → Monitored instance (if using Prom path) 1433 Metric scrapes
Prometheus → sql_exporter 9399 Scraping
Prometheus → windows_exporter 9182 Scraping

Pre-flight check

A fast sanity check before you run the installer:

```powershell

1. Can you reach the monitored instance?

Invoke-Sqlcmd -ServerInstance 'MyInstance' -Query "SELECT @@VERSION" -TrustServerCertificate

2. Can PSRemoting work?

Test-WSMan 'MyInstanceHost' -Credential $WindowsCredential -Authentication Negotiate

3. Is the dbatools module loadable?

Import-Module 'D:\Downloads\dbatools\\dbatools.psd1' -Force

4. Does the inventory instance have Database Mail?

Invoke-Sqlcmd -ServerInstance 'Inventory' -Query "SELECT name FROM msdb.dbo.sysmail_profile" ```

When all four succeed, continue to Install Walkthrough.