How to Manage Complex Database Environments

by Feb 14, 2019

Every year, data becomes increasingly critical to the organization. And data becomes even more complicated to manage and keep secure. The growth in the diversity of the deployments of databases (such as physical, virtual, private cloud, and public cloud) along with the complexity of multiple versions and editions of the database management software has introduced a lot of variables for database administrators of today to manage effectively. The daily maintenance activities, performance monitoring and security controls with an audit trail of server and user activities are still necessary. Add to that the reality of today of continually evolving and new technologies for databases. This evolution means that database administrators must not only learn the latest techniques but also manage the migrations of data as the data demands of the organization grow and change to fit the dynamics of the organization.

Inventory – For Microsoft SQL Server, discover and manage deployed databases, whether hosted on a physical or virtual server. View a list of builds, versions, and editions of SQL Server to ensure Microsoft licensing compliance including core license calculations. Upgrade and downgrade databases to different versions and editions of SQL Server. Track server growth for future capacity needs, chargebacks and reallocation of server resources for various applications or user groups. Manage monitored databases across the spectrum of SQL Server editions and cloud virtual machines.

Migration for Hybrid Environments – For SQL Server, move data to the cloud without impacting application performance. Determine the best database-specific settings for cloud deployments. Plan how many schemas and tables databases have and how big the tables are to migrate. Migrate and manage instances across multiple cloud platforms with different options including Amazon RDS for SQL Server and Microsoft Azure SQL Database. Verify successful database migration and replication. Move database environments to and from the cloud.

Performance – For SQL Server, monitor performance of instances hosted on physical, virtual, and cloud virtual machines, plus Amazon RDS for SQL Server and Microsoft Azure SQL Database. Review performance statistics pertinent to decision making. Improve visibility into the overall health and availability of databases. Identify database-related application performance issues. Tune parameters to fit database requirements and workloads. Find and fix problem queries with tuning advice and automated response actions. Generate performance reports to satisfy service-level agreements within the organization.

Security – For SQL Server, monitor and alert on server user activities, data and schema changes. Reduce unauthorized usage of service accounts by identifying users and logging. Provide database audit reports to auditors and security staff quickly. Get notified of suspicious activities and accesses/changes to sensitive data. Understand who has access to what and identify each user’s effective rights. Identify top security vulnerabilities on databases and servers via a scorecard.

For more information, read the 2-page datasheet “IDERA Solutions for DBAs Managing Complex Database Environments”.

Click here to read the datasheet.

To help solve some of these challenges, IDERA provides a portfolio of products to ease the burden of managing complex environments and simplifying planned migrations to hybrid cloud environments. In particular, IDERA has five products which database administrators can use to address these environmental challenges: SQL Diagnostic Manager, SQL Inventory Manager, SQL Compliance Manager, and SQL Secure.