---
title: Configure using OpenTelemetry Collector Contribution for Microsoft SQL Server
source: https://docs.newrelic.com/docs/opentelemetry/database/mssql/cncf
---

You can use the OpenTelemetry Collector Contribution for Microsoft SQL Server to monitor your instance. The OpenTelemetry Collector Contribution is a community-supported project that provides a way to collect telemetry data from Microsoft SQL Server and send it to New Relic.

By default, the OpenTelemetry Collector Contribution collects metrics from Microsoft SQL Server and sends them to New Relic. However, these are limited metrics. In order to send query performance metrics, wait-time metrics, session metrics, and other advanced metrics, you will need to configure the OpenTelemetry Collector Contribution. This guide provides instructions for configuring the OpenTelemetry Collector Contribution to collect advanced metrics from Microsoft SQL Server and send them to New Relic.

## Prerequisites [#prerequisites]

-   OpenTelemetry Collector Contrib (`otelcol-contrib`) installed & configured on your system. You can download the latest release from the [OpenTelemetry Collector releases](https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-collector-releases/releases) page.

## Enable UI metrics [#enable]

You can enrich your New Relic platform experience by adding and enabling the various metrics in your `otelcol-contrib` configuration file. Using the configuration provided in this section, you can populate data for following pages in the New Relic platform:

-   Overview
-   Query performance
-   Wait events
-   Sessions
-   Clients

**Enable Overview page metrics**

The Overview page displays a high-level view of your Microsoft SQL Server instance, including key metrics such as database count, I/O, latency, operations, tempdb space, deadlock rate, and more.

To populate data for the Overview page in the New Relic platform, add the following configuration to your `otelcol-contrib` configuration file:

```yaml
receivers:
    sqlserver:

        # Enable comprehensive database metrics
      metrics:
        sqlserver.database.count:
          enabled: true
        sqlserver.database.io:
          enabled: true
        sqlserver.database.latency:
          enabled: true
        sqlserver.database.operations:
          enabled: true
        sqlserver.database.tempdb.space:
          enabled: true
        sqlserver.database.tempdb.version_store.size:
          enabled: true
        sqlserver.deadlock.rate:
          enabled: true
        sqlserver.os.wait.duration:
          enabled: true
        sqlserver.processes.blocked:
          enabled: true
        sqlserver.memory.grants.pending.count:
          enabled: true
        sqlserver.memory.area:
          enabled: true
```

**Enable Query performance, session, wait, and client metrics**

You can populate data for the following pages in the New Relic platform:

-   Query performance: Displays detailed information about the queries running on your Microsoft SQL Server instance in following tabs:
    -   Normalized queries: Displays the execution and average CPU time graphs.
    -   Query samples: Displays individual query executions including start time, duration, wait type, wait time, database, DB user, and client host.
-   Wait events: Displays information about the wait events occurring on your Microsoft SQL Server instance. The Query samples view shows queries currently waiting along with their wait type and wait time.
-   Sessions: Displays information about the sessions connected to your Microsoft SQL Server instance, including session counts, session states, avg active session duration, blocked sessions, and individual session details.
-   Clients: Displays information about the clients connected to your Microsoft SQL Server instance, including active sessions, blocked sessions, connected DB users, and client host details.

To populate data in these pages, add the following configuration to your `otelcol-contrib` configuration file:

```yaml
receivers:
    sqlserver:

        events:
            db.server.query_sample:
                enabled: true
            db.server.top_query:
                enabled: true

        top_query_collection:
            lookback_time: 45s
            max_query_sample_count: 100
            top_query_count: 30
            collection_interval: 30s

        query_sample_collection:
            max_rows_per_query: 100
```

**Enable all waits in Wait event tab**

The All waits view shows instance-level wait time broken down by wait category and individual wait type.

To enable All waits in the New Relic platform Wait event tab, add the following configuration to your `otelcol-contrib` configuration file:

```yaml

receivers:
    sqlserver:

        metrics:
            sqlserver.os.wait.duration:
                enabled: true

```

### Restart the OpenTelemetry Collector

Restart the OpenTelemetry Collector to apply the configuration changes. You can do this by running the following command:

```bash
Restart-Service -Name "otelcol-contrib"
```