Connecting to an Instance of SQL Server®

This article will assist in connecting to an instance of SQL Server® to start monitoring the SQL Agent in that instance quickly. There are multiple ways to connect to a SQL Server® instance with SQL Agent Insights, including:

Clicking on the New Insight button in the toolbar,
Selecting New Insight... from the File menu,
Double-clicking a server name from the list of Available Instances, post enumeration,
Double-clicking a server name from the list of Previously Monitored Instances, or,
Pressing the key sequence, CTRL+N

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The option to manually enter a server / instance name is always available; just start typing when the focus is in the Server dropdown menu of the Connection dialog. A successful connection will place that SQL instance into the Previously Connected Instances pane for quicker connections in the future.

When entering a SQL Server® instance name manually, ensure to follow SQL Server® instance naming conventions. Additionally, if the SQL Server® instance requires a specific port, it can be included after the instance name, separated by a comma.

The Server dropdown will always contain any instances of SQL that have been enumerated. Post server/instance selection, toggle Windows Authentication on or off. Turning off Windows authentication will enable the SQL User and SQL Password textboxes for entry.

The Connection dialog tooltip showing examples of entering a SQL Server® instance manually.

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At the time of this writing, the user account (Windows or SQL) must have sysadmin privileges for the SQL Server® instance.

After deciding on the authentication method (Windows or SQL), the connection dialog has an option to start the Insight in maintenance mode. Starting the Insight in maintenance mode has the following benefits:

All metrics immediately go into a state of maintenance (they will appear grey within the Insight),
No new alarms for this instance will appear in the dashboard,
No email notifications are sent, if they are enabled for the Insight, and,
No warning or critical logging of threshold breaches will occur within the Insight log.

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Enable Start Insight in Maintenance Mode initially, until the configuration of all individual metric thresholds have been set to prevent unnecessary Insight logging and email notifications from occurring.

Additionally, the option to Start Insights in Maintenance Mode automatically can be enabled in Preferences.

When all connection options are set satisfactorily, click on the Test Connection button. Passing all actions successfully enables the option to Open the Insight.

In some cases, not all actions will pass verification, as indicated by the red row header of the action that failed. Additionally, the Open Insight button is disabled. To see further information regarding any errors during verification, click on the Errors tab, correct any issues identified, and click on the Test Connection button when resolved.

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