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			Markdown
		
	
	
	
			
		
		
	
	
			105 lines
		
	
	
		
			6.0 KiB
		
	
	
	
		
			Markdown
		
	
	
	
---
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aliases:
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  - ../guides/getting_started/
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  - ../guides/gettingstarted/
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  - getting-started-sql/
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description: Learn how to build your first MS SQL Server dashboard in Grafana.
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labels:
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  products:
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    - enterprise
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    - oss
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title: Get started with Grafana and MS SQL Server
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weight: 500
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---
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# Get started with Grafana and MS SQL Server
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Microsoft SQL Server is a popular relational database management system that is widely used in development and production environments. This topic walks you through the steps to create a series of dashboards in Grafana to display metrics from a MS SQL Server database.
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#### Download MS SQL Server
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MS SQL Server can be installed on Windows or Linux operating systems and also on Docker containers. Refer to the [MS SQL Server downloads page](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server/sql-server-downloads), for a complete list of all available options.
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#### Install MS SQL Server
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You can install MS SQL Server on the host running Grafana or on a remote server. To install the software from the [downloads page](https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/sql-server/sql-server-downloads), follow their setup prompts.
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If you are on a Windows host but want to use Grafana and MS SQL data source on a Linux environment, refer to the [WSL to set up your Grafana development environment](/blog/2021/03/03/.how-to-set-up-a-grafana-development-environment-on-a-windows-pc-using-wsl). This will allow you to leverage the resources available in [grafana/grafana](https://github.com/grafana/grafana) GitHub repository. Here you will find a collection of supported data sources, including MS SQL Server, along with test data and pre-configured dashboards for use.
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#### Add the MS SQL data source
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There are several ways to authenticate in MSSQL. Start by:
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1. Click **Connections** in the left-side menu and filter by `mssql`.
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1. Select the **Microsoft SQL Server** option.
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1. Click **Create a Microsoft SQL Server data source** in the top right corner to open the configuration page.
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1. Select the desired authentication method and fill in the right information as detailed below.
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1. Click **Save & test**.
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##### General configuration
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| Name       | Description                                                                                                           |
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| ---------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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| `Name`     | The data source name. This is how you refer to the data source in panels and queries.                                 |
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| `Host`     | The IP address/hostname and optional port of your MS SQL instance. If port is omitted, the default 1433 will be used. |
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| `Database` | Name of your MS SQL database.                                                                                         |
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##### SQL Server Authentication
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| Name       | Description                     |
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| ---------- | ------------------------------- |
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| `User`     | Database user's login/username. |
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| `Password` | Database user's password.       |
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##### Windows Active Directory (Kerberos)
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Below are the four possible ways to authenticate via Windows Active Directory/Kerberos.
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{{< admonition type="note" >}}
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Windows Active Directory (Kerberos) authentication is not supported in Grafana Cloud at the moment.
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{{< /admonition >}}
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| Method                    | Description                                                                                                                                                  |
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| ------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ |
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| **Username + password**   | Enter the domain user and password                                                                                                                           |
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| **Keytab file**           | Specify the path to a valid keytab file to use that for authentication.                                                                                      |
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| **Credential cache**      | Log in on the host via `kinit` and pass the path to the credential cache. The cache path can be found by running `klist` on the host in question.            |
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| **Credential cache file** | This option allows multiple valid configurations to be present and matching is performed on host, database, and user. See the example JSON below this table. |
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```json
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[
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  {
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    "user": "grot@GF.LAB",
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    "database": "dbone",
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    "address": "mysql1.mydomain.com:3306",
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    "credentialCache": "/tmp/krb5cc_1000"
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  },
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  {
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    "user": "grot@GF.LAB",
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    "database": "dbtwo",
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    "address": "mysql2.gf.lab",
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    "credentialCache": "/tmp/krb5cc_1000"
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  }
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]
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```
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For installations from the [grafana/grafana](https://github.com/grafana/grafana/tree/main) repository, `gdev-mssql` data source is available. Once you add this data source, you can use the `Datasource tests - MSSQL` dashboard with three panels showing metrics generated from a test database.
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Optionally, play around this dashboard and customize it to:
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- Create different panels.
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- Change titles for panels.
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- Change frequency of data polling.
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- Change the period for which the data is displayed.
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- Rearrange and resize panels.
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#### Start building dashboards
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Now that you have gained some idea of using the pre-packaged MS SQL data source and some test data, the next step is to setup your own instance of MS SQL Server database and data your development or sandbox area.
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To fetch data from your own instance of MS SQL Server, add the data source using instructions in Step 4 of this topic. In Grafana [Explore]({{< relref "../explore" >}}) build queries to experiment with the metrics you want to monitor.
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Once you have a curated list of queries, create [dashboards]({{< relref "../dashboards" >}}) to render metrics from the SQL Server database. For troubleshooting, user permissions, known issues, and query examples, refer to [Using Microsoft SQL Server in Grafana]({{< relref "../datasources/mssql" >}}).
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