Database Monitor

The database monitor is used to monitor database tables. It periodically checks a database table for new records and if it finds them, generates an event from each record. A table that is to be monitored by the database monitor must have an integer ID field that auto-increments.

Please note that the database monitor transmits all of the data obtained within its event properties. This means that you must use an output format suitable to show event properties if you intend to process the record with a third party application. We strongly recommend using XML based formatting for this. Alternatively, you can also select a format for the msg property itself (which is the default message). To do so, you need to configure the database monitor’s advanced option’s msg field settings.

Service - Database Monitor

Check Interval (ms)

File Configuration field:

nSleepTime

Description:

The database monitor runs periodically. This specifies, how often it should run. Please note that the Database Monitor waits for the configured amount of time after the current run is finished. The time is the delay in milliseconds.

Overrun Prevention Delay (ms)

File Configuration field:

nPreventOverrunDelay

Description:

This property allows configuring a delay after generating an event. The time is the delay in milliseconds.

If run at a value of zero, the service generates events as fast as the machine permits. We have seen scenarios where routers and receivers are not able to keep up with this rate, resulting in packet loss. In addition, the CPU of the reporting machine is run at 100% - which is not a problem because the service runs at a low priority. However, with even a 1-millisecond delay, there is no noticeable CPU activity even when large bursts of events are forwarded. At one millisecond, the service can still generate 1000 events per second.

The default setting is an overrun protection of five millisecond, which allows roughly 200 events per second. This should be sufficient for even very busy servers.

Close connection after each Check Interval

File Configuration field:

nForceConnectionClose

Description:

If checked, the database connection will be closed after each checking interval. When using a low checking interval, this can have an impact on the database performance.

Write LastDBIndex at frequent intervals

File Configuration field:

nWriteLastDBINdex

Description:

By default, the Last processed DBIndex field will be written after each database record. On large database, this can cause additional overhead. In order to avoid this problem, you can write the Last DBINdex after 10, 100, or even 1000 data records only.

Database Properties Tab

Here you can configure the access data for the database.

DSN

File Configuration field:

szDBDSN

Description:

The data source name of the database to access. All databases that support standard SQL syntax and have an ODBC driver support.

User-ID

File Configuration field:

szDBUser

Description:

The User ID to log on to the database system. Please note that the database system may not require this setting or may ignore it (e.g. Microsoft SQL Server in “integrated” security mode) - please check with your database vendor or your administrator if in doubt.

Password

File Configuration fields:

szDBPass

Description:

The password to access the database. If the “Enable Encryption” check box is checked, a weak symetrical encryption is applied on the password. Thus, we highly recommend to create a specific account with very limited permissions if you store a password. This account does only need to have “select” permissions.

ID Field name

File Configuration field:

szTableID

Description:

The name of the column in your database table, that will be used as ID field.

Statement related properties

Select Statement

File Configuration field:

szDBSelect

Description:

You can configure a Select Statement to be issued to the database. This way, you have full control over what is fetched from the database.

Please note that if you specify specific fields, the ID field must be present in the select clause - otherwise the service can not process the records.

Database Table

File Configuration field:

szDBTableName

Description:

Enter the name of the table from which the records should be monitored.

Maximum char length (Bytes)

File Configuration field:

nMAX_VCHAR_LEN

Description:

The maximum support length in bytes for vchar fields.

Maximum text length (Bytes)

File Configuration field:

nMAX_LONGVCHAR_LEN

Description:

The maximum support length in bytes for text fields.

Last DB Index

File Configuration field:

iLastDBID [Data Value]

Description:

The Database Monitor will store the last processed index of the configured ID Field Name into this data value. The data value can be controlled using the Reload DB Index number and Reset DB Index number buttons or simply by editing the field. When saving changes to the Last DB Index, the service will reload the value during next check interval and process database records if necessary.

Message Field (%msg%) Tab

Service - Database Monitor Message Field

Message Field

File Configuration field:

nMessageMode

0 = None
1 = CSV
2 = Custom

Description:

This field specifies the content of the “msg” property. By default, msg does NOT contain any useful information. This is because all data is provided via the event properties. If you actually need this as part of the msg, you can either select a custom format or CSV format.

If CSV is selected, msg contains all field values (not names) in comma-separated format. Instead of a comma you can also use any other custom separator. The field order is as it was in the select statement. We recommend not to use select * in this case (but specify the fields inside the select statement, so that they have a definite order).

We recommend not to reley on msg with the database monitor. Access via properties is much better. If you do not need msg, we recommend to set the msg content to “none” as this removes the unneccessary default message.

General Values (Common settings for most services)

Syslog Facility

File Configuration field:

nSyslogFacility

Description:

The Syslog facility to be assigned to events created by this service. Most useful if the message is to forward to a Syslog server.

Syslog Priority

File Configuration field:

nSyslogPriority

Description:

The Syslog priority to be assigned to events created by this service. Most useful if the message is to forward to a Syslog server.

Syslog Tag Value

File Configuration field:

szSyslogTagValue

Description:

The Syslog tag value to be assigned to events created by this service. Most useful if the message is to forward to a Syslog server.

Resource ID

File Configuration field:

szResource

Description:

The Resource ID to be assigned to events created by this service. Most useful if the message is to forward to a Syslog server.

Rule Set to Use

File Configuration field:

szRuleSetName

Description:

Name of the rule set to be used for this service. The Rule Set name must be a valid Rule Set.