Monitor The Arbiter Server With Foxhound

Question: How do I monitor a SQL Anywhere High Availability Arbiter server with Foxhound 4?

Answer: Gosh, how hard can that be?

After all, dbping has no problem connecting to an arbiter server:

"%SQLANY17%\bin64\dbping.exe" -c "SERVER=ARBITER_PROD; HOST=localhost:55501;" SQL Anywhere Server Ping Utility Version 17.0.7.3399 Ping server successful.

Foxhound 4 uses ODBC to connect, so all we have to do is add a DRIVER= to the connection string, right?

SERVER=ARBITER_PROD; HOST=localhost:55501; DRIVER=SQL Anywhere Native; 2:10:36 PM 2m 21s -- Invalid user ID or password -- 2:09:11 PM Alert #1: Database unresponsive. Foxhound has been unable to gather samples for 1m or longer. Email not sent because Alert Emails were disabled. 2:08:15 PM 5.2s -- Invalid user ID or password at --

OK, so Foxhound can't just ping a server, it needs a database, so let's specify DBN=utility_db in the connection string.

Tip: You have to specify the -su option when starting the arbiter server if you want to connection via the utility database: e.g., dbsrv16 -su sql or dbsrv17 -su sqlsql. Why sqlsql? Because passwords have to be 6 characters long in SQL Anywhere 17.

But! ... it still doesn't work!

SERVER=ARBITER_PROD; DBN=utility_db; UID=DBA; PWD=sqlsql; HOST=localhost:55501; DRIVER=SQL Anywhere Native; 2:19:13 PM 1m .2s -- Permission denied: you do not have permission to execute a statement of this type -- 2:19:09 PM Alert #1: Database unresponsive. Foxhound has been unable to gather samples for 1m or longer. Email not sent because Alert Emails were disabled. 2:18:13 PM 5.1s -- Permission denied: you do not have permission to execute a statement of this type at --

One last change is needed: Use the Monitor Options page to tell Foxhound to use the new Ping-Only Sampling feature:

Finally! Foxhound connects to the arbiter server and displays "Ping OK":

SERVER=ARBITER_PROD; DBN=utility_db; UID=DBA; PWD=sqlsql; HOST=localhost:55501; DRIVER=SQL Anywhere Native; 2:32:53 PM 20.2s -- Ping-only sampling -- Ping OK 2:32:33 PM All Clear - Alert #1: Database unresponsive. Foxhound has been unable to gather samples for 1m or longer. Email not sent because Alert Emails were disabled. 2:32:33 PM 10s -- Ping-only sampling at --

When you directly monitor the arbiter server with a separate Foxhound sampling session, you can get Alert #1 messages sent to you when the arbiter goes down:

The other High Availability sampling sessions (primary, secondary, partner) also tell you about troubles with the arbiter, but that's not the same as Alert #1:

Overview - How To Monitor The Arbiter Server With Foxhound

• Start the arbiter server with the -su option to enable connections via the utility database; e.g., dbsrv16 -su sql or dbsrv17 -su sqlsql
  

• Specify the utility database in the Foxhound connection string; e.g., SERVER=ARBITER_PROD; DBN=utility_db; UID=DBA; PWD=sqlsql; HOST=localhost:55501; DRIVER=SQL Anywhere Native;
  

• Check Perform Ping-Only Sampling on the Foxhound Monitor Options page for the arbiter server.
  

Tip: If you are using the original Foxhound 4 build 4729, consider upgrading to build 4740, or at least applying Patch 8 to build 4728, in order to fix problems affecting Ping-Only Sampling.

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