Microsoft recently released updates to the version-agnostic management pack for SQL Server. The management pack was originally released in November 2017 and at that time it supported SQL Server 2017 and newer only. In July 2018, Microsoft released a preview version adding support for SQL Server versions: 2012, 2014, and 2016. Now it has published the first GA version with support for 2012+, including support for SQL Server 2019 CTP. With this release, the version-specific management packs for SQL Server 2008, 2012, 2014, and 2016 will no longer be supported.

There are several advantages to the version-agnostic approach to Management Packs for SQL Server.

• Combining SQL Server Management Packs in a single management pack reduces the complexity of monitoring configuration.
• It will be easier to develop and maintain custom solutions based on SQL Server Management Packs. Developers will be able to create a single solution for all supported versions of SQL Server, rather than being required to develop and maintain a solution for each of the supported versions of SQL Server.
• The combined management pack provides simplified Run as configuration which is used by all version-agnostic management packs for the SQL Server product family.

The management pack is designed to work with System Center Operations Manager (SCOM) from 2012 R2 and up to 2019. It allows SQL Server instances, including SQL Server on Linux, to be discovered and monitored by SCOM and provides monitoring for a broad array of SQL Server features, including SQL Cluster, Availability Groups and Distributed Availability Groups, Memory-Optimized Data, Custom User Policies, and more.

It is worth repeating that, as of this release, separate Management Packs for SQL Server 2008–2016 will no longer be supported. There will also be no support in the version-agnostic Management Pack for SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2, because these versions of SQL Server reach EOL in July 2019.

Get the Release for Version-Agnostic Management Pack for SQL Server

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