Using RSS for Administration Chad Miller DBA Manager

Using RSS for Administration Chad Miller DBA Manager, Raymond James Financial

Using RSS for System Administration • • What is RSS Why should you use RSS How to use RSS in system administration RSS

What is RSS? RSS Feed icon in IE and Firefox RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a Web feed format used to publish frequently updated content such as blog entries, news headlines or podcasts. An RSS document, which is called a "feed" contains either a summary of content from an associated web site or the full text. RSS makes it possible for people to keep up with their favorite web sites in an automated manner that's easier than checking them manually. RSS content can be read using software called an "RSS reader", "feed reader" or an "aggregator". The user subscribes to a feed by entering the feed's link into the reader or by clicking an RSS icon in a browser that initiates the subscription process. The reader checks the user's subscribed feeds regularly for new content, downloading any updates that it finds. – Wikipedia ww. commoncraft. com/rss_plain_english Video RSS

Traditional Way RSS

RSS Way RSS

RSS Way System Administration RSS

Why RSS • Workers get an average 156 e-mails a day, according to the Radicati Group Inc. , a research group • According to Gartner the average SQL Server DBA manages 36 SQL instances or 2 TB of data • Administrative information originates from multiple sources: SQL Server, MOM/SCOM, system logs, help desk systems, scheduling systems • New sources of information in SQL Server 2008 include Policy Based Management and Performance Warehouse RSS

RSS File Structure <rss version="2. 0"> <channel> <title>Chad Miller’s Blog</title> <link>http: //chadwickmiller. spaces. live. com</link> <description>SQL Server, Power. Shell and so on</description> <item> </channel> </rss> RSS

Admin Usage • • Lightweight Dashboards Fits between an email and report Need to aggregate information from different sources • Complimentary to existing monitoring solutions (MOM/SCOM, PBM) • Leverages existing monitors by aggregating information RSS

Admin Scenarios • Databases missing backups • SQL Replication Issues including down or latency problems • SQL Error Log for Error Messages • Open Microsoft Operation Manager Alerts • Open Help desk tickets • Drives with less than 20% free space • Uptime RSS

Characteristics of Good Monitoring Solutions • • • Agentless Simple to deploy, maintain and extend Follows a manage by exception philosophy Open architecture which allow integration with other tools Implements alert suppression Easy to customize Automatically resolve alerts when monitor returns to healthy state Provides meaningful and actionable alerts Does not negatively effect performance of monitored systems Provide entire environment view instead of instance RSS

Report vs. RSS Report RSS Static Information reflecting data at the Real-time information RSS feed link time report was generated executes the script Single Data Source Federated Data Sources Requires creation, collection, storage, formatting and deliver usually via email Collection, format and delivery are handled for you Single format Can be consumed in a number of ways including via an aggregator, Internet Explorer, Outlook, Share. Point, or email Requires opening the report Aggregates information for you RSS

RSS vs. Other Monitoring Solutions Other Monitoring RSS Often requires installation of agents Agent less Complex Architecture Simple Uses Polling Manage by Exception Closed Architecture* Open Architecture Alert Flooding Suppression Out of the Box initial deployment Must setup each feed Difficult to customize SQL alerts Easy to setup SQL query alerts Does not automatically resolve Automatically resolve when monitor returns to healthy state Difficult to prune back alerts that both meaningful and actionable Meaningful and actionable alerts RSS

Policy Based Managment • Introduced in SQL Server 2008 • Uses RAISERROR to write to SQL Server Errorlog and Windows Event Log • Events IDs 34050 to 34053 • No SCOM integration • No SNMP connectors • Solves some problems but creates new integration issues • RSS enable PBM data RSS

Aggregate Monitoring Systems Data • MOM/SCCOM • SQL Agent • Help Desk System • New Tickets • OLA Monitoring • Provides a single portal, an RSS aggregator, to view instead of having to log into numerous systems RSS

RSS Administration Architecture RSS Admin Architecture RSS

Server-side RSS Generators • x. SQLSoftware RSS Reporter – Specifically geared towards DBAs includes built-in feeds for database space and failed jobs • Code. Plex Posh. RSS – Open source web application for generating RSS feeds from any Powershell script • RSSBus Desktop/Server – RSS Server suitable for not only administration but also application development contains many advanced features. Numerous “connectors” including SQL and Powershell RSS

Server-side Software RSS

Client Side Readers • • • Internet Explorer Outlook Powershell SQL Server CLR RSSOwl RSS

RSSOwl • • • Open source reader Java based Portable version – requires no installation Export to HTML and PDF Demo RSS

Case Study • Using RSS for System Administration since September 2007 • 434 Administration focused RSS feeds • Based on exceptions conditions • Out of 434 feeds generally less than 12 to review • Databases missing backups • SQL Replication Issues including down or latency problems • SQL Error Log for Error Messages • Open Microsoft Operation Manager Alerts • Open Help desk tickets • Drives with less than 20% free space • Uptime • Complimentary solution to existing monitoring products MOM/SCOM RSS

Internet Explorer RSS • • Treats feeds as favorites Updated information is shown in bold No aggregation capabilities Demo RSS

Outlook 2007 RSS • Treats feeds like email • No aggregation capabilities • Demo RSS

Powershell RSS Example Powershell script which checks feeds and emails results http: //poshcode. org/742 RSS

SQL Server CLR RSS • Because RSS is simple XML you can consume RSS from within SQL Server using a CLR • http: //blogs. msdn. com/jgalla/archive/2005/09/13/464881. aspx • Demo RSS

Client-side RSS Feed Reader RSS

OPML Files • OPML (Outline Processor Markup Language) is an XML format for outlines. Originally developed by Radio User. Land as a native file format for an outliner application, it has since been adopted for other uses, the most common being to exchange lists of web feeds between web feed aggregators. – Wikipedia • Supported by aggregators/readers including Outlook and Google Reader RSS

Generating an OPML file with Powershell • Feed definitions are stored in XML file or as files in file system • Powershell can be used to generate an OPML file of all available RSS feeds • Technique is particularly useful after defining a large number of feeds RSS

Questions? • • • Chad Miller – cmille 19 <AT> gmail http: //chadwickmiller. spaces. live. com/ http: www. xsqlsoftware. com http: //www. codeplex. com/Posh. Rss http: //www. rssbus. com http: //www. rssowl. org/ RSS