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SQLFrontline: a Diagnostic and Monitoring Service for all your SQL Servers

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If you’re an overworked DBA (or a DBA that wants to be responsible for more servers and databases), an accidental DBA, or a developer wanting to get a better handle on your SQL Server and databases, SQLFrontline can help you do that.

SQLFrontline is a lightweight, low impact, nothing to install diagnostic tool for all SQL Server versions 2008+. It carries out over 300+ checks (more checks are added frequently), across the areas of security, reliability, performance, configuration and database design. Issues are organised by server and by priority (Critical, High, Medium, Info).

It compares and notifies you what was fixed between data collections. It has a built in reminder list for high priority items that haven’t been fixed over time.

It even has a demo mode, so you can try it out for free.

Here’s an excerpt from an example notification email:

C#: Simple Read/Write Application Settings

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I needed a simple C# class for saving writable application settings. The first attempt was to use Project -> Properties -> Settings, but only user scoped settings are writable. Here’s a simple solution: you will need to add Newtonsoft’s Json.NET (Nuget Json.Net) to your project, if you are not already using it.

using System.IO;
using Newtonsoft.Json;
...

public class AppSettingsBase<T> where T : new()
{
    private const string DefaultSettingsFilename = "settings.json";

    public void Save(string fileName = DefaultSettingsFilename)
    {
        File.WriteAllText(fileName, JsonConvert.SerializeObject(this));
    }

    public static void Save(T settings, string fileName = DefaultSettingsFilename)
    {
        File.WriteAllText(fileName, JsonConvert.SerializeObject(settings));
    }

    public static T Load(string fileName = DefaultSettingsFilename)
    {
        return (File.Exists(fileName)) 
            ? JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<T>(File.ReadAllText(fileName)) : new T();
    }
}

Add your application defined settings to your settings class (derived from the base template):

public class AppSettings : AppSettingsBase<AppSettings>
{
    public Guid ClientId = Guid.Empty;
    public List<string> ServerList = new List<string>();
    public List<string> DatabasesToExclude = new List<string>();

    public bool IsAutoUpdate = true;
    public int AutoUpdaterCheckIntervalHours = 6; 
    public DateTime LastUpdateCheckTime = DateTime.MinValue;

    ...
}

Using your settings is simple:

    AppSettings settings = AppSettings.Load();

    settings.LastUpdateCheckTime = DateTime.UtcNow;
    settings.Save();