1. Real-time Performance Monitoring for SQL Server and Dynamics AX
Nigel Murdoch, Edgewater/Fullscope

2. OVERVIEW OF SESSION OBJECTIVE APPROACH ANALYZE
Provide visibility into Dynamics AX activity
APPROACH
Extract Dynamics AX-centric workloads
ANALYZE
Categorize results by source and purpose to identify hotspots

3. OBJECTIVE
Provide visibility into Dynamics AX activity

4. IDENTIFY TYPES OF ACTIVITY
USER SESSIONS
Active Sessions by AOS
Active Sessions by Originator (Server, User, etc.)
Active Sessions by Client Type
BATCH PROCESSING
Workload by Time of Day
Workload Distribution by AOS
Workload by Job Execution Count and Duration
SQL QUERIES
Long running queries with table usage and stack trace
Errors and Warnings about SQL exceptions

5. IDENTIFY SOURCE OF ACTIVITY – USER SESSIONS

6. IDENTIFY SOURCE OF ACTIVITY – BATCH HISTORY

7. IDENTIFY SOURCE OF ACTIVITY – SQL TRACE LOGS

8. COLLECT WORKLOAD
Extract Dynamics AX-centric workloads

9. GETTING THINGS SETUP COLLECTION SESSION ID Create AX Admin Database
Create SQL Agent Job to collect volatile session data
SESSION ID
Turn On Context
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services\Dynamics Server\6.0\01\Original (installed configuration)
connectioncontext = 1
Enable SQL Trace Logging for Dynamics Ax Users
SQL Stored Procedure

10. AX ADMIN DATABASE CREATE TABLES CREATE SYNONYMS CREATE SQL VIEWS
Active User Sessions Log
Time Dimension with Hours
CREATE SYNONYMS
Used to simplify deployment
Update with target environment
CREATE SQL VIEWS
Provide access to live data
CREATE AGENT JOBS
Schedule data collection

11. SOURCE DATA TABLES USER SESSIONS BATCH PROCESSING SQL TRACE LOGS
SYSSERVERSESSIONS
SYSCLIENTSESSIONS
BATCH PROCESSING
BATCHJOB
BATCHJOBHISTORY
SQL TRACE LOGS
SYSTRACETABLESQL

12. ANALYZE
Categorize results by source and purpose to identify hotspots

13. EXCEL DASHBOARD POWER QUERY POWER PIVOT PIVOT CHARTS
Connect Excel to the AX Admin Database
POWER PIVOT
Create Relationships between the data and the Time Dimension
Create Hierarchies for analysis
PIVOT CHARTS
Develop Dashboard to visualize activity

14. EXCEL DASHBOARD

15. EXCEL DASHBOARD – POWER QUERY
Connect Excel to the AX Admin Database

16. EXCEL DASHBOARD – POWER PIVOT
Create Relationships and Hierarchies

17. EXCEL DASHBOARD – PIVOT CHARTS
Create Visualizations and Dashboard
Client Session Count by Time of Day
Session Count by Client Type
Batch Processing by Job Count
Batch Processing by Job Duration
Top Queries by Query Time

18. WHAT’S NEXT
In upcoming BI sessions I will demonstrate how to turn this solution into a custom OLAP Cube and surface the output as an Admin Role Center using Power View Webparts
Identify other Administrative Data to include on the Dashboard like AIF Exception Logs

19. Final reminders
CPE Credit Code: 53C2 Complete Surveys

20. Speaker contact info
Nigel Murdoch
MCSE, MCSA, MCDBA, MCITP – Business Intelligence
Edgewater/Fullscope
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