SQL Agent Insights:Documentation:Main User Interface

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This article showcases the main user interface for SQL Agent Insight, explaining all of the options available to the version(s) noted above.

About Dialog

The About dialog is shown upon first starting SQL Agent Insight, and has the following tabs described below. Additionally, one can access the About dialog by selecting Help from the menubar and then clicking on About SQL Agent Insight.

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 Insight.

License Information

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  • Details the current active SQL Agent Insight license. Of particular note, the Expiry Date shows the date on which SQL Agent Insight 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 Insight from here.

File Versions

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  • Displays all of the Brentec libraries that are being used with SQL Agent Insight. 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 Insight.

Main User Interface (UI)

As soon as the EULA is accepted, and the OK button is clicked on the About dialog, SQL Agent Insight gets to work. You will notice in the status bar, in the bottom left, the Enumerating all (visible) supported versions... message. SQL Agent Insight is enumerating all instances of SQL Server® that it can find on the local network segment.

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Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Info

Some SQL Server instances on your network may not appear in SQL Agent Insight 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 Insight, 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 Insight (blue) or if the enumerated instance is remote to SQL Agent Insight (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.
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Error creating thumbnail: Unable to save thumbnail to destination Tip

It is highly suggested that you do NOT run SQL Agent Insight directly on your SQL Server® machine to monitor the instance(s). Pick a client machine to run SQL Agent Insight per the System Requirements. No matter how much testing SQL Agent Insight undergoes, running any monitoring software directly on your SQL Server® instance could cause unwanted performance / capacity issues.

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).
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Previously Monitored Instances

  • 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.
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Expand/Collapse Buttons

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 Insight working area with all panes/toolbars collapsed.

Tool bar

The main toolbar consists of the most common actions within SQL Agent Insight. 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 SQL Servers 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 Insight.
  • Exit
    • Closes SQL Agent Insight, but first will confirm if any SQL instances are actively being monitored.

Menu bar

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SQL Agent Insight's menubar, near the top of the application.

File

  • New Insight...
    • Allows the connection to, and monitoring of, a SQL Server® Agent.
    • Shortcut key CTRL+N
  • Exit
    • Closes SQL Agent Insight, but first will confirm if any SQL instances are actively being monitored.
    • Shortcut key CTRL+E

Options

  • Enumerate SQL Servers
    • Rescans the network for SQL instances and updates the Available SQL Servers pane.
  • Preferences...
    • Opens a window to configure preferences for SQL Agent Insight.
    • Shortcut key CTRL+ALT+C

Window

  • Dashboard
    • Displays the Dashboard and Alarms window.
    • Shortcut key CTRL+D
  • Close All Windows except Insights
    • A good way to clean up all open secondary windows, except Insights of course.
    • Shortcut key CTRL+SHIFT+O
  • Available Instances
    • Restores a closed Available Instances window to it’s last known location.
  • Connected Instances
    • Restores a closed Connected Instances window to it’s last known location.
  • Previously Connected Instances
    • Restores a closed Previously Connected Instances window to it’s last known location.
  • Save Window Layout
    • Saves the dockable window layout to the ApplicationState.xml file within the SQL Agent Insight working folder.
  • Load and Apply Window Layout
    • Loads a previously saved dockable window layout and applies it to the current working session.
  • Reset Window Layout
    • Resets all dockable windows to the left-hand side of the main window.

Help

  • Check for Updates...
    • Makes a request to the Brentec website and checks to see if there is a newer version of SQL Agent Insight to download.
  • About SQL Agent Insight
    • Displays the About dialog described earlier.
  • Brentec Website (via Browser)
    • Opens your default browser to this Brentec website.
  • Support Development – Consider a Donation (via Browser)
    • Opens your default browser to the donation page on the Brentec website.

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