Data That Ultrasound Collects

The Ultrasound controller and provider collect the following information.

Data collected by the controller

The controller gathers data collected by the provider and from Active Directory. When polling Active Directory, the controller collects topology information about monitored replica sets primarily from the reference domain controller, though the controller also collects data from other domain controllers, including those in other domains for the subscriber object. The data gathered includes the replica members, inbound connections, outbound connections, and the replication schedules for each connection. The controller also tracks changes to replica members, such as adding or removing replica members, and changes to inbound and outbound connections. Because the controller tracks these changes, Ultrasound can show changes that occurred within specified time intervals.

The controller is also responsible for monitoring information about propagation files. If you schedule a propagation test, the controller records where the propagation file is dropped, the size of the propagation file, and the time of the drop. The controller can detect whether the propagation file arrived on a particular replica member within the time-out period and the time of arrival. (You configure the time-out period when you schedule the propagation test.) For more information about propagation files, see Verifying Replication by Using Propagation files.

Data collected by the provider

The provider collects information about the server on which it is installed. When the FRS service is running on a server, the provider collects the following information:

In addition to the information listed above, the provider installed on the server that is designated as the reference member for a monitored replica set gathers information about files in the replica set, including files that are added, deleted, and renamed. Based on this master list of files, Ultrasound can compute the file name from the file GUID, the size of the files in the replica set, how often files are changed, and which replica member changes each file.

If the FRS service is not running, or if FRS is in a severe error state, the provider gathers information about that replica member from other data sources, such as the event log and registry entries. Ultrasound combines this information with information gathered while the service was running to fill in the gaps and by default triggers an alert to notify administrators that the FRS service is an unhealthy state.