List / edit / delete Spotlight Connections from Windows Powershell / the command line.

Basic commands

List Spotlight connections

Get-Connection

Delete a Spotlight connection

See also Remove many connections.

Remove-Connection -Name connectionName -PassThru

Add a Spotlight connection

Windows authentication (using Diagnostic Server credentials)

See also Add a list of connections.

Add-Connection -Address address -Technology connectionType -Tag tag -Enabled -PassThru

Supply User / Password details

See also Add a list of connections.

Add-Connection -Credential $(get-credential) -Address address -Technology connectionType -Tag tag -Enabled -PassThru

Command-Line Procedure for Establishing Linked Database and OS Connections:

To add 2 linked connections using the command line, the following conditions must be met:

The user must add exactly 2 connections (not more or less) using a single Add-Connection Command. Out of the 2 connections, one must be a database connection and the other must be an OS connection. The user must explicitly pass the -LinkHost parameter in the command to indicate that the connections need to be linked. You can link 2 existing or new connections (one database connection and another OS connection) using the following command template:

Command template:

Add-Connection -Address <Address1>,<Address2> -Technology <technology1>,<technology2> -Enabled -PassThru -LinkHost

Replace:

  • <Address1> with address of the first connection

  • <Address2> with address of the second connection

  • <technology1> with connection type (technology) of the first connection

  • <technology2> with connection type (technology) of the second connection

Example:

Add-Connection -Address <SQL Server instance name>,<hostname> -Technology sqlserver,windows -Enabled -PassThru -LinkHost

Change the authentication used to monitor a Spotlight connection

Supply User / Password details

Get-Connection -Name connectionName | Set-Connection -Credential $(get-credential)

Change to Windows authentication (using Diagnostic Server credentials)

Get-Connection -Name connectionName | Set-Connection -UseDSAuth

Update Tag (using Diagnostic Server credentials)

Get-Connection -Name connectionName | Set-Connection -Tag tag

Disable monitoring a Spotlight connection

Get-Connection -Name connectionName | Set-Connection -Disabled

Re-enable monitoring a Spotlight connection

Get-Connection -Name connectionName | Set-Connection -Enabled

Windows Powershell / Command line parameters

-Name connectionName

Supply the name of the connection.

Connection names are not case sensitive.

-Address address

Supply the address of the Spotlight connection as per the form of the address entered in the Spotlight Client | Configure Connections | Properties | Details | Address field. For example: the Server Name, Server Instance Name, or IP address.

-Technology connectionType

Supply the connection type in Internet MIME format. For example: os/windows, os/vmware. More free form forms are accepted such as windows, vmware, hyperv, sqlserver, sqlazure, analysisservices, replication and availabilitygroups.

-Tag tag

Supply the tag of the connection, not case sensitive, input one of tags or all of the tags, no need input the # sign.

-Credential $(get-credential)

Use the -Credential parameter to specify User / Password details as per the connection type. For Add-Connection, where the -Credential parameter is not specified, Windows authentication (using Diagnostic Server credentials) is assumed.

The -Credential parameter requires a PSCredential object, which is a Powershell built-in object.

It can be used via a temporary variable (preferable if you want to add many connections) as per:

$c = $(get-credential)

Add-Connection -Credential $c -Technology sqlserver -Address my.host.name\instance -Enabled

It can be used inline as per:

Add-Connection -Credential $(get-credential) -Technology sqlserver -Address my.host.name\instance -Enabled

-Enabled

Enable Spotlight monitoring on this connection.

-Disabled

Disable Spotlight monitoring on this connection.

Add a list of connections

Add a list of connections where all connections are of the same technology / connection type. Separate each address with a comma. Supply one technology type.

Add-Connection -Address address1,address2,address3 -Technology connectionType -Tag tag -Enabled -PassThru

Add a list of connections where there are varying connection types. Separate each address with a comma. Provide a list of technology types where the first address corresponds to the first technology type, the second address corresponds to the second technology type etc.

Add-Connection -Address address1,address2,address3 -Technology connectionType1,connectionType2,connectionType3 -Enabled -PassThru

Remove many connections

Remove all connections

Remove-Connection -Name *

Remove all connections of a specific type (technology)

Remove-Connection -Technology connectionType

For example to remove all connections where the connection type is SQL Server:

Remove-Connection -Technology sqlserver

Remove a list of connections. Type the name of each connection. Separate each connection name with a comma.

Remove-Connection -Name connectionName1,connectionName2,connectionName3

Remove a list of connections where the connection names form a pattern.

Remove-Connection -Name connectionName*

For example to remove all connections where the name begins with the characters “address”:

Remove-Connection -Name address*