Dashboard Zone

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After reviewing the Firebird Dashboard and Oracle Dashboard , let us take a stab at Dashboarding options for SQL Server.

Here is a good tutorial on how to build a Dashboard using Sharepoint, In this tutorial Rob, lays down a very pragmatic approach to designing dashboards.

The hard parts of building a dashboard are not technical at all. They are determining what key indicators should be presented and figuring out who the audience should be. For that, you need to work with the top level executives (perhaps through your boss and chain of command), on planning what these key indicators should be and who should be allowed to see them.

In order to determine content, you may have to ask leading questions like:

“If your BI portal could look like the front page of the NY Times, what would you like to see?”

“What are the top 10 metrics that are important to you as an individual and the Executive Management team?”

“For a top level overview, do you prefer charts and graphics, or are you strictly a numbers person?”

“Should we build one dashboard for top level executives and another for all personnel or should everyone see the same thing?”

Similarly, if you are designing a dashboard for a DBA then your only user is the DBA, so go buy him some lunch, sit together, be nice and find out what he does on a daily basis to make sure the databases run fine. He surely has a collection of scripts that he runs for troubleshooting and diagnosis. This could be the starting point for your Dashboard requirements gathering.

Here is a screenshot of the Sharepoint DBA dashboard, although very primitive looking. The point is, it is a tutorial and does not claim to be a production ready dashboard. So if you are into SQL Server, Sharepoint related stuff, then jump over and read the rest of the tutorial

Here is another Dashboard for SQL Server from Idera

Idera also provides a Free SQL Dashboard known as SQLCheck