Managed Applications: Microsoft SQL Database

Service Guide

Updated: October 19, 2017

Overview

Database Server Software 1.0 is a Managed Hosting product. The standard “Service” consists of the licensing, installation, configuration, administration, monitoring, maintenance and support for software components.

Customer chooses the Database type, edition, version and options at the time of purchase.

Licensing

Licensing of the Database Software can either be provided by CenturyLink or obtained by Customer.

If provided by CenturyLink, CenturyLink will, as part of the Service, obtain and maintain the required Software licenses under the Software Vendors Use Rights and License Agreement. All users of the Service are subject to the terms and conditions of the referenced license agreements.

If provided by Customer, Customer may obtain, and maintain throughout the Service Term, the required Software licenses. If Customer chooses to obtain the licenses, CenturyLink will install the Software as part of the Service provided Customer secures and grants the applicable accesses to CenturyLink to allow CenturyLink to perform the Service. Customer shall at all times comply with any and all end user license agreements related to the Software. Customer represents and warrants that a written license agreement exists with the License vendor that permits CenturyLink to perform activities described in the proceeding sections. Customer agrees to provide CenturyLink with evidence of licensing as requested prior to the deployment date and periodically as requested to update the status of the license. If Customer fails to provide the license agreement, CenturyLink may, at its option, delay the deployment date or terminate the Agreement.

Third Party Software Terms

If any third party software, including any corresponding documentation, is provided to Customer by CenturyLink in connection with the Service, Customer agrees to be bound by any additional licensing terms and conditions applicable to such third party software and that it will use such third party software strictly in accordance with such terms and conditions. CenturyLink makes no representations or warranties whatsoever with regard to such third party software.

Indemnification

Except as otherwise provided by mandatory applicable law without possibility of contractual waiver and notwithstanding anything in the Master Service Agreement or elsewhere, CenturyLink and its affiliated companies shall not be liable to Customer or indemnify Customer for any claims of infringement of patent, copyright or other intellectual property right related to third-party software components.

Service Level Agreement

The Service Level Agreement (SLA) associated with this Service Guide is the Managed Hosting Services SLA.

CenturyLink SLA applies to all vendor supported configurations. Any configuration or version identified as “unsupported” by vendor will be subject to reasonable effort support by CenturyLink and will not be subject to SLA Service Credits.

Security

CenturyLink utilizes CIS Level 1 security benchmarks and NIST for additional security standards when deploying Managed Database Services and will provide security policies for Managed Database Services to Customer upon request.

Monitoring

CenturyLink will enable application level monitoring for each environment as they are created within the product configuration.

CenturyLink will retain primary notification and resolution responsibilities for all automated environment alerts. A Customer technical contact will be engaged to perform primary resolution of incidents associated with a non-production level environment.

Maintenance and Support

Change Management:

All changes to the CenturyLink managed applications, systems, network and facilities are subject to CenturyLink’s change management process. This process is intended to confirm that work is reviewed for completeness (risk assessment, completed test procedure, metrics for measuring progress, back out procedure, etc.) and accuracy prior to scheduling and implementation.

Major and Minor Releases:

Major and Minor Releases require a new installation of the Software binaries, which is not included in this Service. CenturyLink suggests that Customer purchase a new managed server (via a Service Order) and migrate data (defined in a SOW) as a commercially reasonable practice.

Maintenance Windows:

All times listed under Scheduled Maintenance Windows are local times and subject to change. CenturyLink will use commercially reasonable efforts to perform routine maintenance only during the Saturday or Sunday defined maintenance windows. See Maintenance Windows page for details.

Support:

CenturyLink will provide support for the Service during installation, content migration, Customer validation, and 24x7 monitoring and management by the CenturyLink Service Center after installation.

Customer Contact:

Customer will designate and maintain a Customer Contact during the Service Term (including current contact information). “Customer Contact” means a technical point of contact available 24x7 with sufficient knowledge, authority and access to address configuration issues, event notifications, system or infrastructure modifications and authentication of applicable CenturyLink systems.

Supported Editions, Versions, Platforms and Operating Systems

See Managed Database Compatibility Matrix

Additional Licensing Terms

If Customer-provided licensing, Customer represents and warrants that a written license agreement exists with Microsoft under the Cloud Mobility program through Software Assurance that permits CenturyLink to perform activities described in the proceeding sections.

Access

Customers are given full administrative control to Managed Microsoft SQL Server. CenturyLink shall not be liable for any failure to perform in the event of Customer’s error.

Patch Releases

Due to the level of integration some Customer Environments have with Microsoft SQL Server, CenturyLink prohibits Microsoft SQL Server from being patched on a regular basis. CenturyLink does test and approve patches for Microsoft SQL Server, but CenturyLink relies on customers to determine what service pack level is required and compatible with their Environment. CenturyLink does proactively notify and schedule patching for any security vulnerabilities that may be identified, but CenturyLink will not do the same for service packs or updates unless requested to do so by the customer. Any Outages directly caused by Customer's failure to accept the implementation of a critical patch will not be subject to SLA Service Credits.

Additional Services

AlwaysOn Availability Groups

An optional add-on service of configuring and managing MS-SQL AlwaysOn Availability Groups for additional fees. This add-on service supports up to a five node (1 primary/4 secondary) Availability Group in MS-SQL 2012 and a 9 node (1 primary/8 secondary) Availability Group in MS-SQL 2014 and 2016. MS-SQL AlwaysOn Availability Groups is only available for MS-SQL Enterprise Edition.

Database Mirroring

An optional add-on service of configuring and managing local or remote database mirroring for an additional fee. Local mirroring requires the primary and replicant databases to be housed within the same data center and can be provided on MS-SQL Standard Edition or MS-SQL Enterprise Edition. Remote mirroring allows the replicant database to be housed in a different data center than the primary database and is only available with MS-SQL Enterprise Edition.

Database Snapshots

An optional add-on service of configuring and managing local MS-SQL database snapshots for an additional fee. Snapshots are scheduled for every 4 hours by default, but can be adjusted to any hourly schedule. The snapshot provides a read-only copy of the database from a point-in-time on MS-SQL Enterprise Edition only.

Failover Clustering

Also known as AlwaysOn Failover Cluster Instances, an optional add-on service for configuring and managing a MS-SQL failover clustering for an additional fee. This add-on service supports up to a 16 node cluster for MS-SQL Enterprise Edition and a 2 node cluster for MS-SQL Standard Edition and is only available on the Intelligent Hosting Platform.

Integration Services

SSIS for extraction, transformation and load (ETL). SQL Server Integration Services provides mission-critical confidence with greater uptime, breakthrough performance, and enhanced security features for OLTP and Data Warehouse workloads.

Reporting Services

SSRS for web based reporting. SQL Server Reporting Services is a server-based reporting platform that supports report authoring, distribution, management, and end-user access.

Analysis Services

SSAS OLAP for cube analysis. SQL Server Analysis Services helps build comprehensive, enterprise-scale analytic solutions with integration into the .NET Framework. Many new features extend the data mining and analysis capabilities of Analysis Services.

VERITAS NetBackup Agent

Hot backup agent for MS-SQL Server. The VERITAS NetBackup tape backup system provides daily incremental file system backups with weekly full backups (see Definitions).

Dedicated Database Administrator

Customers that do not have a Database Administrator (DBA) can purchase additional services through CenturyLink. These services can be initiated through a one-time service request to the CenturyLink Operations Center or they can be scheduled in advance based on predictable requirements. (SOW required.)

Tasks performed on behalf of the customer include:

Licensing

  • Maintain licensing and Software maintenance with Microsoft for CenturyLink provided licenses

Installation

  • Prepare server for application service (OS specific parameters)
  • Configure failover clustering when purchased for Microsoft SQL Server installation
  • Install Microsoft SQL Server (including available options and features)
  • Install applicable Microsoft SQL Server Service Packs
  • Harden Microsoft SQL Server to CIS Level 1 and CenturyLink standards
  • Install CenturyLink Monitoring
  • Perform quality assurance against Microsoft SQL Server installation/hardening

Configuration

  • Create/Configure Microsoft SQL Server service accounts and SPNs
  • Configure supported protocols (TCP/IP, Named pipes, TCP Port, IP Address and SSL Certificate allocation)
  • Configure login auditing
  • Configure Database Mirroring, Snapshots and/or Always On, if purchased
  • Configure CenturyLink Monitoring
  • Configure CenturyLink approved and provided Database Backups and Maintenance Jobs
  • Install and configure CenturyLink Disk/Tape Backups, if purchased

Administration

  • Rebuild broken database mirrors or AlwaysOn availability groups and failover cluster nodes, if purchased
  • Perform Database Backups and Restores; limited to managed backup services
  • SQL Server Log Monitoring
  • Restart/stop/start services
  • Update managed servers with all recommended security patches, service packs and hot-fixes upon customer request

Maintenance and Support

  • Coordinate patching with Customer during maintenance hours
  • Perform incident related failover/failback of AlwaysOn, Database Mirrors or failover clustered instances, if purchased

Monitors

Monitors for Microsoft SQL Server Service

Monitor

Description

Frequency

MS-SQL Error Log The MS-SQL error log is polled for errors and failures Instant
Windows Event Log The Event log is polled for MS-SQL Server errors Instant
MS-SQL Server Service The MS-SQL Server Service is not running 1 Minute
MS-SQL Agent Service The MS-SQL Server Agent Service is not running 1 Minute
MS-SQL SSIS Service Alarms if the MS-SQL SSIS Service is not running 1 Minute
Database Unavailable Alarms when a database is not online 5 Minutes
Blocking Alarms on any SPID is blocked by another SPID or a Full Scan 10 Minutes
Failed SQL Job Alarms on any CenturyLink managed SQL job with a failure status 15 Minutes
Database Last Backed Up Alarms when a database has not been backed up in the past 24 hours or more. 15 Minutes
Datbase File Free Space Alarms when a database's data or log files percentage of free space is below X. Only applies to databases that are not set to auto grow. 15 Minutes
MSSQL Failover Cluster Instances and Availability Groups Alarms for health of cluster service, cluster errors, non-user-initiated failovers or Availability Group errors 1 Minute

Monitors for Microsoft SQL Database Mirroring

Monitor

Description

Frequency

Log Send Queue Size Alarms when the Log Send Queue size is above 256MB 5 Minutes
Redo Queue Size Alarms when the Redo Queue size is above 256MB 5 Minutes
ACK Latency Alarms when the ACK Latency time is above 700 ms 5 Minutes
Mirro Status Alarms when a Database Mirror is in an Invalid state 5 Minutes

Monitors for Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services

Monitor

Description

Frequency

MS-SQL OLAP Error Log The MS-SQL Analysis Services error log is polled for errors and failures Instant
MS-SQL OLAP Service State The MS-SQL Analysis Services Service is stopped 1 Minute
MS-SQL OLAP Connection Failures Alarms when an application cannot successfully connect to the MS-SQL Analysis Services Service 5 Minutes
MS-SQL OLAP I/O Errors Alarms when an I/O error is incurred in the OLAP cube 5 Minutes

Monitors for Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services

Monitor

Description

Frequency

MS-SQL SSRS Error Log The MS-SQL SSRS error log is polled for errors and failures Instant
MS-SQL SSRS Service State The MS-SQL SSRS Service is stopped 1 Minute
MS-SQL SSRS Errors Alarms when an HTTP 400 or 500 error is thrown 5 Minutes
MS-SQL SSRS Server Busy Errors Alarms when an HTTP 503 error is thrown for insufficient server resources 5 Minutes

Definitions

See Definitions for Managed Database Services.