Azure SQL Database Alerts

The alerts screen shows 3 tabs - current alerts, alerts history and alerts configuration.

The screenshot belows shows the current alerts, which there are 2, one major and one minor.



Alert details can be seen at the bottom of the screen when an alert is clicked in a grid.
The history of raised alerts are shown in the middle tab, the latest 1000 are displayed.
Alerts can be configured in the configure tab. They can be enabled/disable and have thresholds values changed if appropriate.

Major and minor thresholds are used to raise alerts for both degrees of seriousness and provide an easy to understand view of what is happening on the server.
Alerts can be sent via email (configurable on the options screen) or writen to the windows event log.

The following is a list of the available SQL Server specific alerts: Blocking Processes
Deadlocks
Long Running Queries
Buffer Hit Ratio
Plan Hit Ratio
Maximum Connections
Backup Restore
Instance Memory
Page Life Expectancy
Instance Cpu %
Non Instance Cpu %

Blocking Processes

Processes being blocked by other processes. The threshold represents the number of blocking processes that it takes to trigger an alert.

Deadlocks

Processes deadlocked by other processes.

Long Running Queries

Active processes that have been running the same sql batch for a long period of time The threshold represents number of minutes the batch must run to trigger the alert.

Buffer Hit Ratio

The threshold represents the percentage of reads that use the buffer cache, if dipped below will trigger the alarm.

Plan Hit Ratio

The threshold represents the percentage of queries that reuse execution plans from the plan cache, if dipped below will trigger the alarm.

Maximum Connections

The threshold represents the minimum number of connections to the instance that will trigger the alarm.

Backup Restore

Backup/Restore of any database in progress.

Instance Memory

Triggered when the memory used by this SQL Server instance (Mb) goes over the threshold.

Page Life Expectancy

Triggered when the buffer Page Life Expectancy falls below the number of seconds set in the threshold. 300 seconds is a commonly used threshold.

Instance Cpu %

% of the Cpu used by this SQL Server instance. Triggered when the % rises above the threshold.

Non Instance Cpu

% of the Cpu used by processes other than this instance. Triggered when the % rises above the threshold.