Server Groups help Mini DBA users organize monitored database servers by customer, environment, region, application, platform, support owner, or any other operational boundary. They make the navigation tree easier to scan and help MSP teams separate customer estates.
Where Server Groups Appear
Open the Servers panel from the left activity bar. At the top of the server tree, the toolbar includes Add, Groups, and sorting controls. The Groups button toggles the tree between a flat server list and a grouped server list when group data is available. In grouped mode, servers appear under group headings that can be expanded and collapsed.
When the grouped tree is active and group data is available, the Edit link appears next to the Groups button. Select Edit to open Server Groups Settings, which is the same as opening Settings and choosing Server Groups.
What Server Groups Are For
Use server groups to:
- Keep production, staging, and development servers separate.
- Group servers by customer in MSP mode.
- Separate regions, cloud accounts, data centers, or network zones.
- Group servers by business application or service owner.
- Make reporting and daily operational review easier.
- Reduce the risk of applying changes to the wrong estate.
Server groups are especially useful when the same console connects to more than one Mini DBA Engine. Clear group names help users understand which customer, site, or support team owns a server before they open alerts, reports, or troubleshooting pages.
Create And Maintain Server Groups
- Open Settings.
- Select Server Groups, or select Edit beside the Groups button at the top of the server tree.
- Add a group name and optional description.
- Select the group.
- Assign monitored servers to the group.
- Add Windows login users where group-based access should apply.
- Review the tree to confirm the grouped view is clear.
The Server Groups Settings page can also enable Require Explicit Group Membership. When this is enabled, users must be explicitly assigned to a group to access servers in that group. Use this carefully in MSP or shared-team deployments so new servers are assigned during onboarding.
Grouping Strategy
Choose groups that match how your team responds to incidents. A customer group is useful for MSP work, an environment group is useful for production review, and an application group is useful when one business service spans several database platforms.
Avoid creating many overlapping groups unless each one supports a real workflow. If a server could belong to several teams, decide which group represents primary operational ownership, then document any secondary ownership in the server name, description, or runbook.
Daily Workflow
During daily review, use the grouped tree to scan one estate at a time. Expand a group, check alert badges, open the affected server, and use server-level pages such as Activity, Alerts, Health Checks, Waits, and Queries. If group membership looks wrong, select Edit from the tree toolbar and update the server assignment in Settings.
Server Groups And MSP Mode
In MSP mode, group names often mirror customers, regions, or support contracts. Use clear names such as CustomerA-Production, CustomerA-DR, Internal-NonProd, or EMEA-SQL. This makes cross-engine navigation safer and helps new operators understand ownership quickly.
Server groups do not replace engine ownership. Each monitored server still belongs to one Mini DBA Engine. Groups organize the console view and access model; the selected engine still controls data collection, connectivity logs, alert history, and licensing.