Deprecated: Starting in version 2021.8, DBA xPress is a free tool and no longer part of Workbench. This article is provided as a general guide for those still using Workbench products.
Update: SolarWinds DBA xPress is now a FREE tool. In versions 2021.8 and later it is a standalone product and no longer requires a license.
Download: See the DBA xPress product page to learn more.
Workbench Features
After the SentryOne Workbench is installed, launching the SentryOne Workbench automatically directs you to the Workbench toolbar with the Feature Finder page selected.
In the upper left corner of SentryOne Workbench is a toolbar button
that allows you to minimize and maximize the Workbench toolbar. 
The Workbench toolbar contains six options that help you navigate to or configure the following features:
| Toolbar Option | Description |
|---|---|
| Feature Finder | Allows you to navigate through the features in the SentryOne Workbench. |
| Activities | Gives you an historical record of all actions taken across each product feature during the current session, and allows you to search activities that occurred in previous sessions. |
| Open | A way to open supported files. Selecting Open automatically opens the best feature for the selected file. |
| Open Recent | Gives you a list of recently opened files. Selecting Open Recent automatically opens the best feature for the selected file. |
| Preferences | Details feature specific options, and allows you to customize the behavior of each feature as desired. |
| Help | Allows you to check for product updates, activate or deactivate licenses, and view product versions. |
Tab Preview
While using the SentryOne Workbench, you can have several features open at same time. Display multiple features lined up side-by-side in tabs above your workspace. Hover over a tab to display a preview of that tab.
Additionally, the SentryOne Workbench includes a Feature Switcher. The Feature Switcher makes switching between features much easier with a dedicated switching window that includes a preview window for each feature.
To open the Feature Switcher, enter Ctrl + Tab, which displays a pop up window, then release tab but continue to hold Ctrl. Enter tab to cycle through the currently open features. Once you've selected the desired feature, release Ctrl to navigate to that specific feature.
 |  |
Feature Finder
The Feature Finder allows you to navigate through the features in the SentryOne Workbench.
Sort the features by technology type, product family, a specific role, keywords, or use a combination of filters and/or keywords. These filters allow you to fine tune the SentryOne Workbench to your needs and make your frequently used features more readily available.
| Option | Description | Image |
|---|---|---|
| Technology | Narrow down the feature list by eliminating all features that are not associated with the selected technology. |  |
| Product | Narrow down the feature list by eliminating all features that are not associated with the selected SentryOne Product. |  |
| Role | Narrow down the feature list by eliminating all features that are not associated with your role within your organization. |  |
| Keywords | Narrow down the feature list with the search toolbar by filtering out features that don't contain a specific keyword. |  |
Activities
The Activities page gives you an historical record of all actions taken across each product feature during the current session, and allows you to search activities that occurred in previous sessions.
The Activities page also contains useful information regarding the activity's feature, title, information, status, date started or ended, and the activity log.
| Component | Description | Image |
|---|---|---|
| Feature | The upper left corner of each activity contains the feature that generated the activity. |  |
| Title | On the same line as the feature name separated by a colon (:), the title of the activity describes the action that occurred within the activity. |  |
| Information | Below the feature and activity title is a general description of the current status of the activity |  |
| Date Started or Ended | The far right of the activity displays the date the activity started or ended depending on the current status of the activity. |  |
| Activity Log | Double-click on an activity to view a more detailed activity log. |  |
Activity Status Legend
The background color of each activity visually describes the current status for the activity.
| Color | Description |
|---|---|
| Red | Activity completed with at least one error. |
| Green | Activity completed successfully without errors |
| Yellow | Activity completed with warnings |
| Blue | Activity is running, manually stopped, or completed with information. |
Activity Search
The Activity window is a search tool that allows you to search through all activities (regardless of their session). Select the Search tab to begin searching for activities with specific search parameters. Selecting Search from within the Search tab opens the Search Activity Log window.
 Activities Search Tab
|  Search Activity Log
|
The Search Activity Log contains five parameters to narrow down the search results by:
| Parameter | Description |
|---|---|
| Finished After | Filters all activities based on activities that finished after the start of a specific date parameter. |
| Finished Before | Filters all activities based on activities that finished before the end of a specific date parameter. |
| Ending Status | Filters all activities based on the specific ending status of the activity. |
| Title Contains | Filters all activities based on the whether the title contains a specific string. |
| Message Contains | Filters all activities based on the whether the message contains a specific string. |
Preferences
The Preferences page details feature specific options, and allows you to customize the behavior of each feature as desired. Including a general workbench section, each workbench product has its own preferences that can be used to customize the product's features individually. 
Makes changes to the default key bindings for features and create custom keys by selecting Key bindings... at the bottom left of the Preferences window. 
Workbench Preferences
Use Workbench Preferences to customize the behavior and properties of the SentryOne Workbench.
Appearance
| Preference | Description |
|---|---|
| Theme Name | Controls the theme used for Workbench colors. |
Behavior
| Preference | Description |
|---|---|
| Selected Products | Controls the products to filter by when starting Workbench. |
| Selected Roles | Controls the roles to filter by when starting Workbench. |
| Selected Technologies | Controls the technologies to filter by when starting Workbench. |
| Show Feature Finder | Controls whether to show or hide the Feature Finder tool in the features list. |
| Show Works News | Controls whether to show or hide the Works latest news and messages. The latest product features, discounts, and tips will be shown here. |
| Start-up Plug-in | Controls the plug-in that loads when Workbench first starts. |
| Error Reporting | Controls whether to send anonymous error reporting information to Works. |
| Usage Reporting | Controls whether to periodically send anonymous feature usage reporting to Works. |
BI xPress Preferences
Within the BI xPress Preferences, you can customize the behavior and properties of BI Compare, Data Generation, and the Monitoring Console.
Auditing Framework
| Preferences | Description |
|---|---|
| Update BI xPress Database Timeout | The timeout in seconds to allow the updating of the BI xPress database. Note: Any value less than one is considered an indefinite timeout. |
BI Compare
| Preferences | Description |
|---|---|
| Ignore case by default | Controls whether to ignore case differences in the value comparison by default. |
| Ignore line endings by default | Controls whether to ignore differences in line ending style by default. |
| Trim spaces by default | Controls whether to trim white space values before the comparison by default. |
| Automatically Open Generated Documents | When generating documents from within BI Compare, this preference controls whether or not the generated documentation automatically opens after completion. |
| Default Output Folder | The folder where generated documentation is placed by default. |
| HTML Help Workshop Compiler | The file path to the HTML Help Workshop compiler executable. |
Data Generation
| Preferences | Description |
|---|---|
| Default Values Table Load Batch Size | Controls the batch size used by Data Generation |
| Last Used Solution | The location of the last used Data Generation solution. This file opens automatically and by default when Data Generation is selected. |
Monitoring Dashboard
| Preferences | Description |
|---|---|
| Connection String | Contains the connection string that the Monitoring Console uses to connect to the BI xPress database. |
DBA xPress Preferences
Use DBA xPress Preferences to customize the behavior and properties of Data Inspector, Data Space Analyzer, Data Surf, Schema Inspector, and Schema Surf:
Data Inspector
Comparison Defaults
| Preference | Description |
|---|---|
| Compare Intersecting IDENTITY Ranges Only | Controls whether segmented identity comparisons only consider the range of identity values that are covered in both databases. |
| Data Read Timeout | Controls the timeout, in seconds, for opening the table data. |
| Default Index Preference | Controls the default index preference type. |
| Do not Compare Computed Columns | Controls whether computed columns that are not part of the key should be compared. |
| Ignore IDENTITY Values | Controls whether IDENTITY values should be ignored if they are not part of the key. |
| Ignore ROWGUIDCOL Columns | Controls whether ROWGUIDCOL columns should be ignored by default. |
| Ignore String Case | Controls whether the case of strings should be ignored. |
| Ignore String Line Endings | Controls whether differences in string line endings should be ignored. |
| Match Objects in any Schema | Controls whether object matching should consider objects with the same name in other schemas. |
| Maximum Active Threads | Controls the maximum number of threads to use in threaded comparison mode. |
| Segmented Identity Compare Block Size | Controls the number of rows in each segment for segmented identity comparisons. |
| Trim Spaces | Controls whether leading / trailing white spaces should be ignored when comparing strings. |
| Use Binary CLR Type Comparisons | Controls whether CLR types should be compared using their binary, rather than their string representation. |
| Use Case Sensitive Matching | Controls whether case-sensitive matching should be used to find or match object names. |
| Use Segmented Identity Compare | Controls whether segmented identity comparisons are used when the selected index is a single column index and the indexed column is an IDENTITY column. |
General
| Preference | Description |
|---|---|
| Grid Viewer Row Count Limit | Set the maximum number of rows to be viewable. |
| Start with deselected items | Data Inspector begins with deselected items. |
Synchronization Defaults
| Preference | Description |
|---|---|
| Batch Separator | Controls the batch separator used in between script portions. |
| Disable DML Triggers During Synchronization | Controls whether DML triggers should be disabled during synchronization. |
| Disable Foreign Keys During Synchronization | Controls whether foreign keys should be disabled during synchronization. |
| Max Rows per Batch | Controls the maximum number of rows per batch. |
| Only Update Compared Columns | Controls whether only the values selected at compare time should be updated when modifying existing rows. |
| Synchronize target DELETEs | Controls whether DELETEs on target are selected by default. |
| Synchronize target INSERTs | Controls whether INSERTs on target are selected by default. |
| Synchronize target UPDATEs | Controls whether UPDATEs on target are selected by default. |
| Use Transacted Modification SQL | Controls whether the data modification SQL should be transacted. |
Data Space Analyzer
| Preference | Description |
|---|---|
| Default Database View | Set the default Database View that displays within Data Space Analyzer when first loaded. |
| Default Server View | Set the default Server View within Data Space Analyzer that displays when first loaded. |
| Show Data Labels | Controls whether data labels displays by default. |
| Use fast loading on 2005+ | Controls whether to use faster and less detailed data about space usage. |
Data Surf
| Preference | Description |
|---|---|
| Color Inheritance | Controls whether new nodes inherit their node colors from their parent. |
| Default Layout Style | Controls the layout style that's selected. |
| Default Node Color | Controls the default color given to nodes. |
| Failed Node Color | Controls the default color given to nodes that data failed to load. |
| Graph Font | Controls the font style used for displaying text within nodes. |
| Grid Font | Controls the font style used for displaying the data within the grid. |
| Limit | Controls the maximum number of nodes that can be created in a single operation. |
| Warning Level | Controls the number of nodes above which a warning is generated for a single operation. |
Schema Inspector
Comparison Defaults
| Preference | Description |
|---|---|
| Find Constraints by Signature | Controls whether, after searching for a constraint match by name, Schema Inspector searches for it by signature. |
| Ignore Key Index Properties | Controls whether key index (primary key, unique constraint, target of foreign key constraint) properties should be ignored. |
| Ignore Partitioning | Controls whether partitioning should be ignored. |
| Ignore Referential Actions | Controls whether referential actions should be ignored. |
| Ignore WITH NOCHECK | Controls WITH NO CHECK should be ignored. |
| Ignore Full Text Catalog Default Selection | Controls whether the default property of full text catalogs should be ignored. |
| Ignore Full Text Index Accent Sensitivity | Controls whether full text index accent sensitivity should be ignored. |
| Ignore Full Text Index Change Tracking | Controls whether full text index change tracking states should be ignored. |
| Ignore Full Text Index Stoplists | Controls whether full text index stop lists should be ignored. |
| Find Object in any Schema | Controls whether schema-scoped objects can be searched for in any schema, emitting an ALTER SCHEMA statement during synchronization. |
| Ignore Corrected Object Names | Controls whether object names which have been corrected are ignored during comparison. |
| Ignore Object Principals | Controls whether object principals should be ignored. |
| Ignore Principal Logins | Controls whether principal login differences should be ignored. |
| Ignore XML Schema Collection Properties | Controls whether XML schema collection properties for columns should be ignored. |
| Use Case Sensitive Matching | Controls whether case sensitive matching should be used to find / match object names. |
| Ignore Fill Factor | Controls whether fill factor properties should be ignored. |
| Ignore Index Column Inclusion | Controls whether included column properties should be ignored. |
| Ignore Index Padding | Controls whether index padding properties should be ignored. |
| Ignore Key Ascendancy | Controls whether key sort order properties should be ignored. |
| Ignore IGNORE_DUP_KEY | Controls whether IGNORE_DUP_KEY properties should be ignored. |
| Ignore Lock Always | Controls whether allow row lock / allow page lock properties should be ignored. |
| Ignore ANSI NULLS | Controls whether the SET ANSI NULLS option state should be ignored. |
| Ignore Encrypted Object Differences | Controls whether object encryption differences should be ignored. |
| Ignore NULL on NULL Input | Controls whether NULL or NULL Input properties should be ignored. |
| Ignore Object EXECUTE AS Principals | Controls whether object EXECUTE AS principals should be ignored. |
| Ignore Permission Sets | Controls whether assembly permission sets should be ignored. |
| Ignore QUOTED IDENTIFIER | Controls whether the SET QUOTED IDENTIFIER state should be ignored. |
| Ignore Schema Bindings | Controls whether schema binding properties should be ignored. |
| Ignore SQL Case | Controls whether cases in SQL definitions should be ignored. |
| Ignore SQL Comments | Controls whether comments in SQL definitions should be ignored. |
| Ignore SQL White Space | Controls whether white space in SQL definitions should be ignored. |
| Ignore WITH CHECK OPTION | Controls whether WITH CHECK OPTION properties should be ignored. |
| Ignore WITH RECOMPILE | Controls whether WITH RECOMPILE properties should be ignored. |
| Ignore Event Notification Broker Instances | Controls whether event notification broker instances should be ignored. |
| Ignore Event Notification Service Names | Controls whether event notification service names should be ignored. |
| Ignore Maximum Queue Readers | Controls whether maximum queue readers property should be ignored. |
| Consider Column Order | Controls whether column order for tables and table types will be considered. |
| Ignore Boundary Value Alignments | Controls whether boundary value alignments on partition functions should be ignored. |
| Ignore Collations | Controls whether collations should be ignored computed column persistence should be ignored. |
| Ignore Column Sparsity | Controls whether column sparsity should be ignored. |
| Ignore Computed Column Persistence | Controls whether computed column persistence should be ignored. |
| Ignore Data Space Default Selections | Controls whether data space default selections should be ignored. |
| Ignore File Group Assignments | Controls whether file group assignments should be ignored. |
| Ignore IDENTITY | Controls whether IDENTITY properties should be ignored. |
| Ignore IDENTITY Seed and Increment | Controls whether IDENTITY seed and increment values should be ignored. |
| Ignore Maximum Length | Controls whether the maximum length property should be ignored. |
| Ignore NOT FOR REPLICATION | Controls whether NOT FOR REPLICATION should be ignored. |
| Ignore Nullability | Controls whether nullability should be ignored. |
| Ignore Precision and Scale | Controls whether precision and scale properties should be ignored. |
| Ignore ROWGUIDCOL | Controls whether row GUID column properties should be ignored. |
Documentation
| Preference | Description |
|---|---|
| Default Report Type | Controls the type of report generated by default. |
| Include Equivalent Objects in Comparison | Controls whether to include details of objects that are equivalent while generating comparison documentation. |
| Include Modification DDL in Synchronization | Controls whether to include the data definition language (DDL) script used while generating synchronization documentation. |
| Create New Folder | Controls whether to create a new folder when generating HTML reports. |
| Default Output Folder | Controls the default output folder for HTML reports. |
| Generate Page Headers | Controls whether to generate page headers in the documentation. |
| Custom Style Sheet File | Controls the location for a custom style sheet that will be used. |
| Use Collapsible Table of Contents | Controls whether to use a collapsible table of contents containing JavaScript. |
| Use Default Style Sheet | Controls whether to use the default Schema Inspector style sheet. |
| Comment Color | Controls the color of comments. |
| Default Output Folder | Controls the default output folder for RTF reports. |
| Text Color | Controls the color of text. |
| Function Color | Controls the color of functions. |
| Identifier Color | Controls the color of identifiers. |
| Keyword Color | Controls the color of keywords. |
| Link Color | Controls the color of links. |
| Number Color | Controls the color of numbers. |
| Operator Color | Controls the color of operators. |
| String Color | Controls the color of strings. |
| Table Background Color | Controls the color to use for table rows. |
| Table Header Background Color | Controls the color to use for table headers. |
General
| Preference | Description |
|---|---|
| Group Comparison Results by Types | Controls whether to group the results of the comparison by type. |
| Start with deselected items | Controls whether to start with items deselected when viewing comparison results. |
Generation Defaults
| Preference | Description |
|---|---|
| Allow System Named Constrains | Controls whether system name constraints are emitted without names, to be named by the system on the target. |
| Always Load Definable Objects Direct from Server | Controls whether definable object definitions should always be loaded direct from the server. |
| Always Specify Collation | Controls whether collation should always be specified, even if it is the same as the database default. |
| Auto Create Files for File Groups | Controls whether, when creating file groups, files should be created in the same location as the first entry in sysfiles. |
| Batch Separator | Controls the batch separator used in between script portions. |
| Do not Warn About Unsafe Assemblies | Controls whether script generation warnings about unsafe assemblies should be suppressed. |
| Emit Generation Warnings in Output SQL | Controls whether warnings generated while generating SQL are emitted in the output. |
| Emit Table Constraints in Line | Controls whether table constrains are emitted with CREATE TABLE statements. |
| Fix Object Names in Definable Objects | Controls whether object names in definable objects should be corrected. |
| Keep Trigger Order | Controls whether FIRST and LAST statements should be issued for triggers. |
| Replace User-defined SQL Types with Base Types | Controls whether user defined SQL types should be replaced with base types in the target script. |
| Use Object Presence Checks | Controls whether object presence checks should be emitted with generated SQL. |
| Use Online Index Building | Controls whether, if possible, the ONLINE ON clause should be emitted when creating indexes. |
| Use Store and Restore for CLR Type Alterations | Controls whether table data should be stored in another table and restored again afterwards when altering CLR Types. |
| Use Transacted Schema Modification SQL | Controls whether generated SQL should be transacted. |
Schema Surf
| Preference | Description |
|---|---|
| Default Layout Style | Controls the layout style that's selected. |
| Default Levels Shown | Controls the number of dependency levels to be shown. |
| Default Node Color | Controls the color given to nodes. |
| Graph Font | Controls the font style used for displaying text within nodes. |
DOC xPress Preferences
Within the DOC xPress Preferences, customize the behavior and properties of Data Dictionary, DOC xPress, and Lineage Analysis:
Data Dictionary
| Preference | Description |
|---|---|
| Enabled | Controls whether or not auto save is enabled. |
| Interval | Controls the number of minutes between auto saves. |
DOC xPress
General
| Preference | Description |
|---|---|
| Automatically Open Generated Documents | Controls whether to automatically open documents once they generate. |
| Default Output Folder | Controls the default folder where generated documentation is placed. |
| HTML Help Workshop Compiler | Controls the file path to the HTML Help Workshop compiler executable used by CHM documentation generation. |
| Snapshot Combination Time | Controls the number of minutes between snapshot updates where the two updates are considered to be a part of the same snapshot update. |
| Automatically Update Default Output | Controls whether the default output folder for generated documentation should update whenever a new output folder is selected. |
Metabase
| Preference | Description |
|---|---|
| Command Timeout | Controls the timeout applied to operations against the DOC xPress metabase. |
| Connection String | Controls the connection string used to connect to the DOC xPress metabase. |
Templating
| Preference | Description |
|---|---|
| Disable Data Dictionary Output | Controls whether to suppress data dictionary elements from being generated in documents. Disabling Data Dictionary output does reduce memory usage. |
| Disable Lineage Output | Controls whether to suppress Lineage Analysis images and tables from being generated in documents. Disabling Lineage Analysis output does reduce memory usage. |
| Source Folder | Controls the folder where templates are loaded to apply to objects when documenting. |
Lineage Analysis
Appearance Options
| Preference | Description |
|---|---|
| Show Technology Type Adornments | Controls whether to show the name of the technology next to each node within the graph. |
| Input Link Color | Controls the color of input links in the lineage display. |
| General Link Color | Controls the color of general links in the lineage display. |
| Modification Link Color | Controls the color of modification links in the lineage display. |
| External Dependency Color | Controls the color of external dependency nodes in the lineage display. |
| Selected Item Color | Controls the color of selected nodes in the lineage display. |
| SQL Server Color | Controls the color of SQL Server nodes in the lineage display. |
| SSAS Color | Controls the color of SSAS nodes in the lineage display. |
| SSIS Color | Controls the color of SSIS nodes in the lineage display. |
| SSRS Color | Controls the color of SSRS nodes in the lineage display. |
Behavior Options
| Preference | Description |
|---|---|
| Double-click Mode | Controls whether to refocus the graph around a double-clicked node, or to extend from it. |
| Default Follow Mode | Controls the default link following mode applied to graphs. |
| Default Detail Level | Controls the default detail level applied to graphs. |
| Default Layout Type | Controls the default layout type used to lay out graph nodes. |
| Default Legend Visibility | Controls whether or not the legend is visible by default. |
| Default Dependency Levels | Controls the number of dependency levels shown by default. |
| Track Selection by Default | Controls whether selection tracking is active by default. |
| Default to Trace Mode | Controls whether trace mode is active by default. |
| Default View Mode | Controls the default view mode for interacting with lineage information. |
| Trace Mode Route Limit | Controls the maximum number of routes that can be found with trace mode. |
| Cache Lineage Sets Locally | If lineage sets are cached locally, then lineage will open faster the second time you view a particular solution snapshot. |
| Cache Path | This is where the lineage sets are stored so that lineage opens faster. Faster storage will result in faster operation of lineage. |
