Database Performance Analyzer System Requirements

Port requirements

Review and open ports on the DPA server to support communication to and from DPA.

No additional ports are required for DPA Central.

DPA server requirements

You can install SolarWinds DPA on any physical or virtual Windows or Linux server that supports the Java Runtime Environment (JRE) version 11.

You can also launch DPA in the cloud:

• In the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace from an Amazon Machine Image (AMI).
  • The AMI contains a DPA server on Linux with no repository.
  • Subscription licensing is available.
• In the Azure Marketplace.
  • The DPA virtual machine contains a DPA server on Windows and a built-in Microsoft SQL Server database instance configured as the DPA repository.
  • Individual licenses must be purchased.

Self-managed DPA server requirements

The CPU, RAM, and disk space requirements depend on the number of database instances you plan to monitor.

If you register VMware, increase the CPU and RAM requirements by 50%.

These are estimates. They are based on testing done with an average of 2-3 active sessions per monitored instance. If you are monitoring busy instances with an average of more than 2-3 active sessions, please adjust accordingly.

* If you plan to monitor more than 250 database instances, consider using more than one DPA server and linking the servers together.

Requirements for an AWS DPA server

The minimum required AWS instance type for the DPA server AMI is t2.medium. Smaller instance types are not supported.

A t2.medium size instance is typically powerful enough to monitor 20 database instances. You might need a larger instance type to reliably monitor more than 20 database instances.

Requirements for an Azure DPA server

SolarWinds recommends two or more database throughput units (DTUs) per monitored database instance. See the Azure SQL Database DTU Calculator for more information.

The minimum required Azure tier is standard s0.

DPA repository database requirements

The repository database stores the data collected by DPA. A supported database instance must be installed on the database server.

Do not host the repository on a database instance that you plan to monitor, because this affects the performance of that instance.

Supported database versions

Notes:

• Although DPA will work with the Express editions of Oracle and SQL Server, SolarWinds does not officially support these editions for the repository because of the database size limits. If you need a free database for an evaluation, SolarWinds recommends using a MySQL database.
• You can host a self-managed Oracle, SQL Server, or MySQL database on Amazon EC2 to use as your repository.
• If you choose Azure SQL as your repository, SolarWinds recommends two or more database throughput units (DTU) per monitored database instance. See the Azure SQL Database DTU Calculator for more information.

Self-managed repository database server requirements

If you install DPA on the same server as the repository database, the server must meet these requirements in addition to the DPA server requirements. If you register VMware, increase the CPU and RAM requirements by 50%.

These are estimates. They are based on testing done with an average of 2-3 active sessions per monitored instance. If you are monitoring busy instances with an average of more than 2-3 active sessions, please adjust accordingly.

Repository scalability depends on many things, including the database vendor and configuration, the specifications of the repository server, other activity on the repository server, and the activity levels of the monitored database instances.

Requirements for an AWS DPA repository database server

The following RDS instance types are recommended for AWS deployments.

Required administrator credentials

You must know the following credentials for the database instance hosting your DPA repository.

Virtual environment requirements

In a virtual environment, DPA can remotely connect to the following to monitor the virtual environment that virtualized database instances are running on. The virtualized database instances must be registered separately from the virtual environment.

Web browsers

You can use the following browsers to access the DPA web interface:

You can use the following browsers to access the DPA web interface:

• Microsoft Edge

• Microsoft Internet Explorer 11

  Do not use IE compatibility view. It can cause DPA to function incorrectly.

• Mozilla Firefox: latest stable version
• Google Chrome: latest stable version

MySQL requirements

SolarWinds recommends the following settings to optimize reporting capabilities for a MySQL database instance.

MySQL Performance Schema

The Performance Schema monitors server events and collects performance data. If the Performance Schema is not enabled, DPA provides limited data. Monitoring with the Performance Schema disabled excludes the following data:

• All instrumented wait events
• All wait operations
• All file wait time, broken out by file
• All object wait time, broken out by index and table
• SQL statistics
• Performance-schema dependent alerts

The Performance Schema must be enabled at server startup. In MySQL versions 5.6.6 and later, the Performance Schema is enabled by default.

Global Instrumentation and Thread Instrumentation

Global Instrumentation and Thread Instrumentation must be enabled in the Performance Schema configuration. Disabling these instruments has the same effect as disabling the Performance Schema.

By default, DPA enables these instruments in the configuration. However, if you select the Leave As Is option for Performance Schema setup, you must verify that Global Instrumentation and Thread Instrumentation are enabled in the existing Performance Schema configuration.

show_compatibility_56 system variable

If the monitored database instance is MySQL 5.7.6 or later, SolarWinds recommends turning on the show_compatibility_56 system variable. If this variable is on, DPA can collect data for all metrics.

If this variable is off and the Performance Schema is enabled, DPA cannot collect data for the following metrics:

• Selects
• Inserts
• Updates
• Deletes

Java requirements

DPA requires JDK 13 on the DPA server, and DPA ships with this version of Java for Windows and Linux. If you are installing DPA on a supported operating system, no action is required.

For unsupported operating systems, you must ensure that JDK 13 is installed on the DPA server. If you need to upgrade the JDK:

1. Download and install JDK 13.
2. Remove old Java information by deleting the cat.txt and cat.end files from the following directory:

   <DPA_Home>/iwc/tomcat/ignite_config/

3. At a command line, go to the DPA installation directory.
4. Enter the following command:

   ./startup.sh