Infrastructure
The Infrastructure module lists the hosts, instances, databases, tables, and processes that have been added to WISdom for monitoring. Each list is customizable and comes with resource metrics, cost data, and configuration details that help you manage and optimize your infrastructure. WISdom is SQL Server performance monitoring with cost optimization built in, and Infrastructure is where the two meet: for every host, instance, database, table, and process, you see what it costs next to how hard it works.
What you’ll find here
Section titled “What you’ll find here”Most tables are customizable by selecting the columns that are viewable. In the upper-right corner of the table is a column chooser icon. The customization will only apply to the table that it was selected in. Each screen offers a different set of columns. Your selections are kept in your browser cache and persist until the cache is flushed.
The action icon (three vertical dots) in the table’s header row, next to the column chooser, offers a full-screen view and an export option. This is different from the row-level action icon at the end of each row, described below. Export creates an Excel file with all available columns, regardless of which columns are displayed. It does not ignore filters: only the data that matches the filters currently applied is exported. This applies to every Infrastructure page: Hosts, Instances, Databases, Tables, and Processes.
The Infrastructure module gives you five detailed views of the SQL Server environment that WISdom monitors:
Hosts - The physical and virtual servers that have been added to WISdom for monitoring. View hardware specifications, resource utilization, costs, and operational metrics for capacity planning and infrastructure optimization.
Instances - The SQL Server instances that have been added to WISdom for monitoring. Track instance configuration, database counts, resource consumption, and costs to manage your SQL Server footprint effectively.
Databases - The databases on your monitored instances. Monitor database sizes, costs, resource usage, and configuration settings to optimize storage and performance.
Tables - The SQL Server tables on your monitored databases. Assess data access patterns, identify cold or stale data, quantify storage costs, and project future growth. Tables contains:
- Overview - Summary cards for Annual Spend, Savings Opportunity, Cold Data Size, Cold Data Copies, and Annual Growth %, a Last Accessed breakdown by access tier, a 5-year growth projection, and a grid of the tables in scope.
- Details - Every monitored copy of one table by instance and database, with a flyout for each copy that shows its properties, FinOps projection, and indexes.
Processes - Every process running across your monitored hosts, combined with resource consumption and cost. Identify the processes that drive the most CPU, IOPS, memory, and spend. Processes contains:
- Overview - Summary cards for Annual Process Spend, Hosts, CPU, IOPS, and Memory, and a ranked table of every process with Category, Program, Hosts, CPU, Memory, and IOPS averages and maximums, and Annual Spend.
- Details - One process over time, with a resource usage chart for CPU, IOPS, and memory and a table of the hosts that run it.
Drilling down from a row
Section titled “Drilling down from a row”Select a row to move to the next level of detail. Selecting a row is the same as choosing the matching option from the row-level action icon: View Instances on the Hosts page, View Databases on the Instances page, and View Tables on the Databases page. WISdom applies filters for you:
- Hosts - Selecting a host opens Instances with that host applied as a filter.
- Instances - Selecting an instance opens Databases with the instance name applied as a filter. The host filter is not carried over.
- Databases - Selecting a database opens Tables. The instance filter is kept and the database name is added as a filter.
- Tables and Processes - Selecting a row opens the Details page for that table or process.
The row-level action icon (three vertical dots at the end of each row) provides additional options, such as editing tags or jumping to a different area of WISdom. The options differ by page, so see each page for what is available.
Key capabilities
Section titled “Key capabilities”Inventory of monitored resources
Section titled “Inventory of monitored resources”Access sortable lists of the hosts, instances, databases, tables, and processes that WISdom monitors. Quickly find specific resources using flexible filtering and search capabilities.
Resource utilization tracking
Section titled “Resource utilization tracking”Monitor CPU usage, memory allocation and consumption, storage capacity, and IO throughput across your hosts and instances. On Processes, see the average and peak CPU, memory, and IOPS of each process. Identify resource constraints and optimization opportunities.
Cost analysis and planning
Section titled “Cost analysis and planning”Track Annual Compute Costs at the host and instance level, Annual Cost of Data at the database level, and annual spend for tables and processes. Use FinOps metrics to understand spending patterns, justify infrastructure investments, and identify cost optimization opportunities.
Spend depends on host information. WISdom applies cost to a resource using the host it runs on, so a cost can only be calculated when host information has been collected. Without host information, or without cloud cost information where it applies, spend may not display. You may see $0 amounts or charts with no data. See Cost Management for how costs are defined.
Tag-based organization
Section titled “Tag-based organization”Apply and manage tags to organize resources by environment, tier of service, application, or custom classifications. Use tags to filter views and enable targeted analysis.
Migration planning
Section titled “Migration planning”Select hosts or instances to generate cloud migration recommendations. Integration with the Migration Planner helps you evaluate cloud platform options and estimate migration costs.
Health monitoring
Section titled “Health monitoring”View current health status at a glance. Quickly identify resources experiencing issues.
Flexible filtering and search
Section titled “Flexible filtering and search”Use drop-down filters to narrow your view by specific criteria such as operating system, SQL Server edition, compatibility level, monitoring level, or data collector. Combine filters with text search to quickly locate specific resources.
Using the infrastructure module
Section titled “Using the infrastructure module”Filtering your view
Section titled “Filtering your view”Each Infrastructure page offers multiple filtering options:
- Drop-down filters - Select specific values to narrow the displayed list (e.g., filter by Operating System, Edition, Recovery Model)
- Tag filters - Filter resources by applied tags for organized analysis
- Search - Use the search box (magnifying glass icon) to find resources by name or text string
- Column sorting - Select any column header to sort the list in ascending or descending order
Applied filters help you focus on specific subsets of your infrastructure for targeted analysis or reporting.
Row actions
Section titled “Row actions”Each row includes a row-level action icon (three vertical dots at the end of the row). It provides additional options, such as editing tags or jumping to a different area of WISdom. Edit is available on Hosts, Instances, and Databases, and it only manages tags. To edit tags for several resources at once, check the boxes in front of the resource names and select Assign Value. Most configuration is managed in the Admin Console.
Bulk operations
Section titled “Bulk operations”Select multiple resources using checkboxes to perform bulk operations:
- Assign Value - Add or edit tags for multiple hosts, instances, or databases simultaneously. Check the boxes in front of the resource names first
- Migrate - Generate cloud migration recommendations for selected hosts or instances
Exporting data
Section titled “Exporting data”Use the available export options to extract inventory data for:
- Capacity planning and forecasting
- Cost allocation and chargeback reporting
- Compliance and audit documentation
- External analysis in spreadsheets or BI tools
Export creates an Excel file with all available columns, regardless of which columns are displayed. It does not ignore filters: only the data that matches the filters currently applied is exported.
Choosing your view
Section titled “Choosing your view”Use Hosts when you want to:
- Review physical and virtual server inventory
- Analyze hardware specifications and capacity
- Track host-level costs and resource pressure
- Plan infrastructure consolidation or upgrades
- Generate migration recommendations for entire servers
Use Instances when you want to:
- Review SQL Server instance configuration and distribution
- Track database counts and total space by instance
- Analyze instance-level resource consumption
- Monitor instance restart history and uptime
- Plan instance consolidation or separation strategies
Use Databases when you want to:
- Review the databases on your monitored instances
- Track database costs, sizes, and growth patterns
- Monitor database-level resource consumption (CPU, memory, IO)
- Identify unused or underutilized databases (Last Used date)
- Analyze compatibility levels and recovery models across your estate
Use Tables when you want to:
- Find tables that have gone stale, cold, or frozen, based on when they were last accessed
- See which tables carry the highest annual spend or are growing fastest
- Project storage growth and spend for your estate or for a single table
- Size the savings opportunity from compressing indexes
- Compare every copy of a table by instance and database to spot redundant or dormant copies
- Review the properties and indexes of a specific table copy
Use Processes when you want to:
- Find the processes behind the largest share of your annual infrastructure spend
- Spot processes that use outsized CPU, IOPS, or memory for their role
- See which hosts run a process and what each host contributes to its usage and cost
- Review processes that WISdom could not categorize (shown as Unknown)
What’s next?
Section titled “What’s next?”For detailed information about each Infrastructure view:
- Infrastructure - Hosts - Monitored hosts with resource and cost metrics
- Infrastructure - Instances - SQL Server instance inventory and configuration
- Infrastructure - Databases - Database inventory with utilization and cost data
- Infrastructure - Tables - Table inventory with access tiers, storage costs, and growth projections
- Infrastructure - Processes - Process rankings with resource consumption and spend
For related functionality:
- Migration Planner - Cloud migration planning and recommendations
- Tags - Tag management and organization
- Admin Console - Configuration and resource management
- Collector Health - Data collector monitoring and troubleshooting