Databases Reference
In-Depth Information
Since the SQL Server database platform has become more mature, many customers focus on reduc-
ing total cost of ownership (TCO) and delivering better value to the business by improving service
levels and reducing deployment times for new services. The benei t driving more widespread adop-
tion of these technologies is breadth of coverage. For example, an increasing number of customers
are deploying Hyper-V in some capacity within the data center, and it is very easy to add monitoring
and alerting via the System Center Operations Manager.
The next step in the evolution of the data center is the private cloud concept. Typically these deploy-
ments are created and standardized using a virtualization platform. Compared to the traditional
server purchase and provisioning cycle, this can drastically reduce both the cost per server (or vir-
tual machine) and the provisioning time required.
System Center Advisor
The System Center Advisor (SCA) is a cloud-based subscription service that provides coni guration
reviews and feedback. Part of the System Center manageability product family, it offers detailed
customer-specii c guidance based on server coni guration, and leverages best practices and i eld
knowledge from the Microsoft Customer Service and Support (CSS) organization.
The tool is intended to consolidate the features of other products such as Windows Server Update
Service (WSUS) and the Best Practice Analyzer (BPA), and to close the gap between best practice
guidance and advice provided by CSS. As a result, SCA provides customers with specii c, actionable
recommendations.
SCA supports SQL Server 2008, SQL Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2012, running on Windows
Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2. You can i nd out more and try it out here:
There is also a Microsoft KB article to be aware of for SQL Server 2012 which can found here:
How to coni gure SQL Server 2012 to allow for System Center Advisor monitoring
:
LICENSING SYSTEM CENTER ADVISOR
System Center Advisor is available to customers with Software Assurance (SA) as
a value-added service — without any additional charge. Other than purchasing
Software Assurance, there's currently no licensing model for using System Center
Advisor.
Microsoft does not offer System Center Advisor through a typical cloud pay-as-you-
go subscription, or through the Service Provider License Agreement (SPLA) models.
It's important to understand under which circumstances you would use SCA, as approaching the
tool with accurate expectations is more likely to result in a satisfactory experience. Although SCA
does provide a lot of useful information, it isn't a performance analysis tool or a live monitoring
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