As we approach Christmas 2023, it is time to look back at what we have achieved with DBmarlin over the last year. It has been a year filled with growth, innovation, and exciting partnerships. In this blog post, we will take a closer look at the product features we have introduced and the valuable partnerships we have formed to enhance the DBmarlin experience.

Some of the new features we added in 2023

Throughout the year, we have introduced several new product features to empower you in monitoring and managing your database environments. Here are just some of the highlights.

1. Blocking Sessions - We introduced a new blocking sessions screen. This allows you to view information about which sessions are holding locks and which sessions are being blocked, for any period of time. By utilising this new screen, you can gain valuable insights into the root causes of blocking issues and take necessary actions to resolve them efficiently.

2. Deadlock detection - For SQL Server and Oracle, we added the ability to collect deadlocks. This option allows you to gather information about deadlocks, which are situations where multiple processes are unable to proceed because each is waiting for the other to release a resource. With this new screen, you can gain insights into the root causes and patterns of these occurrences.

3. Enhanced Chart Granularity - Earlier in the year we increased the default granularity on the charts and then later we added an option in the date selector to choose your own preferred granularity for the charts. Having more data points providing extra detail allows for more precise analysis and troubleshooting.

4. Instance Tagging - We introduced tagging for instances, allowing you to tag your instances with relevant metadata such as application, service, region, or cluster. This flexible feature enables easy filtering of instances, enhancing your monitoring experience. We have more plans for tagging in the coming year so stay tuned for news.

5. Remote agents: - can now be deployed alongside the built-in agent on the DBmarlin server. This provides scalability and allows for deploying agents closer to the target databases, such as in different data centres or cloud regions, while still reporting to a central DBmarlin server. You can also run the remote agent in Kubernetes to monitor databases running within a Kubernetes cluster.

6. SQL Statistics improvements - Collection of additional SQL Statistics can now be configured through a new SQL Statistics Settings screen without requiring any backend changes. These are useful to understand SQL Statement-level statistics like the number of executions, cpu time, or the number of reads/writes.

7. Alerting improvements - Alert notifications can now be sent to PagerDuty and also to Slack as well as email.

8. Multiple usability improvements: - you can now get to the settings screen and back with a single click with no need to manually restart the sensors for changes to be applied. We also added an info icon on the instance dashboard so you can see the database version and which DBmarlin features are available within it.

9. 3rd-Party links - You can now define 3rd-party links and associate them with your DB instances. This gives you a shortcut to other products so you can get there in a single click. Use cases for this could be opening a dashboard in another monitoring or observability solution, a database management console or log monitoring tool to see your database logs.

10. SQL Search: We have added a new top level SQL Search screen which lets you search for any piece of SQL text across all instances. This uses fuzzy matching so can find similar statements even if the text or formatting is slightly different.

11. Integrations: We created a DBmarlin browser extension for chromium-based browsers which is available on the Chrome web store. It allows uses of Instana and New Relic to click through on a SQL statement within a trace from the application side and see the execution plan and performance metrics from the database side.

12. Informix Support: We are excited to announce the alpha release of Informix support. If you are interested in trying it out, please contact us for more information.

These are just a few of the many product features we have introduced to empower you in effectively monitoring and managing your database environments.

Valuable partnerships and collaborations

At DBmarlin, we believe in the power of collaboration and partnerships. Throughout the year, we have formed valuable partnerships with industry-leading organisations to enhance the DBmarlin experience. Here are some noteworthy partnerships:

1. IBM: Our relationship with IBM has grown stronger this year. This collaboration has resulted in significant improvements and innovation within our product such as the new bi-directional integration with IBM Instana. We attended IBM events as speakers and sponsors, such as the IBM Db2 international user group conference in Prague, and IBM Instana customer events in Munich and Austin Texas.

2. New Relic: We have extended the integration with New Relic to include click-through from SQL statements found within New Relic traces so that you can get to the root cause of database problems.

3. Pronteff: We are proud to partner with Pronteff, an organisation that harnesses the power of the latest technologies to guide organisations on their path to digital transformation. Their commitment to delivering scalable applications aligns perfectly with our mission to provide top-notch monitoring and management solutions.

4. Stark Technologia: Our partnership with Stark Technologia has enabled us to expand our reach in South America. They specialise in infrastructure solutions, cloud migrations, and database management, making them a perfect fit for DBmarlin’s comprehensive monitoring capabilities.

These partnerships, along with many others, have allowed us to bring you an enhanced DBmarlin experience and provide you with the tools you need to succeed in supporting your critical databases.

As we reflect on the year gone by, we are proud of the achievements we have made with DBmarlin. The introduction of new product features and the formation of valuable partnerships have been instrumental in our growth and success. We would like to express our gratitude to our customers, partners, and the entire DBmarlin community for their support and trust in our product. We look forward to another year of innovation and collaboration to continue empowering you in monitoring and managing your database environments.

Merry Christmas 🎄

Merry Christmas and a happy new year from the DBmarlin team!