Case Study banking
SpareBank 1 SR-Bank
Data Warehouse Monitoring and Diagnostics
Real-time notification and analysis of errors in time-critical data loading processes
A Seq customer since 2016, SpareBank 1 SR-Bank uses Seq’s flexible query language, dashboards, alerting,
and email notifications to understand and quickly react to operational issues.
Senior Analyst Erling Brandvik discusses the move from database-table logging, to adopting Seq.
“I work mainly with SpareBank 1 SR-Bank’s Data Warehouse. Before Seq, we did most of our logging to databases
and were quite happy with that, but as we moved towards more and more live data/data streaming we needed better
tracking and control of our processes. We also needed a way to track down errors fast in order to reach the data
load deadlines. I looked into Seq, being a Serilog user, and decided to try it out. It didn’t take long before
we bought our first Seq license.”
SpareBank 1 SR-Bank adopted a logging architecture that includes using SQL
Server Service Broker to connect data warehousing processes to Seq’s HTTP API.
“We’ve implemented a logging solution that uses SQL Server’s Service Broker
to deliver log events to Seq. That way we offload the Seq HTTP calls to a Service
Broker Queue [and minimize logging latency]. The logging procedure is used
throughout the Data Warehouse so we standardize all common log properties.”
Fast access to relevant events
Seq Signals are used extensively in combination with structured log data to quickly
drill into relevant events.
“When it comes to Seq usage, signals are by far the most used feature. By standardizing
log properties like DatabaseName and ApplicationName, it’s easy to configure new
signals and get the information we need.”
Flexible alerting using Seq Apps
Dashboards and alerts are used for monitoring. SpareBank 1 SR-Bank employs a custom-built
Seq App, written in the C# programming language,
to route notifications through an SMS delivery gateway.
“We needed a way of alerting the person on duty and implemented our own Seq app
for sending text messages.”
“Currently we have standardized on Serilog for all .NET projects and use Seq as our primary sink,” writes
Brandvik. “We are really happy we started using Seq – it’s a ‘life saver’ when you’re woken
by a text message in the middle of the night and need to fix the error fast!”
Datalust would like to thank SpareBank 1 SR-Bank and Erling Brandvik for their kind
assistance with this case study.
