This article showcases the main user interface for SQL Agent Insights, explaining all of the options available to the version(s) noted above.
About Dialog
The About dialog is shown upon first starting SQL Agent Insights, and has the following tabs described below. Additionally, one can access the About dialog by selecting Help from the menu bar and then clicking on About SQL Agent Insights.
General
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Outlines basic copyright information, provides the user with some contact information, and gives kudos to the websites and software that has helped in the making of SQL Agent Insights.
License Information
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Details the current active SQL Agent Insights license. Of particular note, the Expiry Date shows the date on which SQL Agent Insights will cease functioning.
The Days Until Expiry indicates the number of days until the noted expiry date above.
When you are approaching the expiry date, simply download an updated version of SQL Agent Insights from the download page located here.
File Versions
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Displays all of the Brentec libraries that are being used with SQL Agent Insights. This is helpful for support purposes.
End User License Agreement (EULA)
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Important information that outlines your usage of the product and what you are agreeing to by using SQL Agent Insights.
Main User Interface (UI)
As soon as the EULA is accepted, and the OK button is clicked on the About dialog, SQL Agent Insights gets to work. You will notice in the status bar, in the bottom left, the Enumerating all (visible) supported versions... message. SQL Agent Insights is enumerating all instances of SQL Server® that it can find on the local network segment.
Some SQL Server instances on your network may not appear in SQL Agent Insights after enumeration. This could be for a number of reasons, including but not limited to:
Windows® firewall settings on the machine running the SQL Server® instance itself, or
Windows® firewall settings on the client machine running SQL Agent Insights, or
The SQL Agent Browser service on the machine running the SQL Server® instance may not be running, or
A physical network firewall blocking the traffic from the SQL Server® instance to the client.
User Dockable Windows
Available Instances
Upon completion of the enumeration, if any SQL Server® instances are found, they will be shown in the Available Instances pane. Beside each named instance will be a row header color indicating if the discovered instance of SQL is local to the client running SQL Agent Insights (blue) or if the enumerated instance is remote to SQL Agent Insights (gray).
Double-clicking a server instance name from within this pane will automatically open the Connection dialog.
Alternatively, the Connection dialog can be opened by selecting an instance and clicking on the Connect to selected instance button in the upper-right of this pane.
It is highly suggested that you do NOT run SQL Agent Insights directly on your SQL Server® machine to monitor the instance(s). Pick a client machine to run SQL Agent Insights per the System Requirements. No matter how much testing SQL Agent Insights undergoes, running any monitoring software directly on your SQL Server® instance uses resources (CPU/RAM) that would be better allocated to the SQL engine directly.
Connected Instances
The Connected Instances pane actively shows all currently monitored SQL Server® instances. Beside each named instance will be a color indicating its current status, either one of green (Healthy), yellow (Warning), red (Critical) or gray (Maintenance).
When a connection to any SQL Server® instance is successful, the instance name is saved into the Previously Monitored Instances pane for quick future reference.
Double-clicking a server instance name from within this pane will automatically open the Connection dialog.
To give your Insights more screen real estate, toggle the expand/collapse button in the menu bar to either show/hide the toolbar.
Additionally, for the dockable windows mentioned above, one can either pin/unpin them. Unpinning them will retract the window to a sidebar with an appropriate caption. Clicking on this caption will reveal the unpinned window while the mouse hovers over it, until it is pinned.
Location of the expand/collapse and pin buttons.An example of the entire SQL Agent Insights working area with all panes/toolbars collapsed.
Tool bar
SQL Agent Insights' main toolbar.
The main toolbar consists of the most common actions within SQL Agent Insights. From left to right they are:
New Insight
Allows the connection to and monitoring of a SQL Server® Agent.
Enumerate
Forces a rescan of the network and refreshes the Available Instances pane.
Dasboard
Displays the Dashboard and Alarms window.
Alarms
Will also display the Dashboard and Alarms window, however, this icon will appear red in color for any new alarms raised since the last polling interval.
Preferences
Opens a dialog to configure Preferences for SQL Agent Insights.
Exit
Closes SQL Agent Insights, but first will confirm if any SQL instances are actively being monitored.
Microsoft®, Windows® and SQL Server® are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries.
Some icons courtesy of Icons8
