Event Objects Overview

At a high level, an event object is simply any job, task, or other event type that can be managed using SQL Sentry. There are two general types of events: active event objects and status events. The two are actually completely different, with the exception that their event instances both occur at some measurable point in time, and therefore can be represented chronologically in calendar and list views. A third sub-type is hybrid event objects which contain some characteristics of both active and/or status events.

Why is it important to differentiate the types of event objects?

When you view a calendar in SQL Sentry , you will see a combination of various types of active and status event instances. Active event objects include SQL Agent Jobs, DTS Packages, Maintenance Plans, and Reporting Services Reports, along with Windows Task Scheduler Tasks. Status events include SQL Agent Alerts and SQL Agent Log records. Since busy calendars can include some or all of these event types, it's important to be able to differentiate them to make the most of the information presented. The SQL Sentry Client facilitates this by indicating the type of event object using a small glyph on each event instance, as well as in event instance popup windows.

It's also important to understand why, for example, active event objects have runtime and performance graphs, as well as runtime and performance conditions, while status events do not.