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Real-Time Activity

The ASH Viewer is the real-time monitoring centerpiece of PMP4PG. It lets you observe your PostgreSQL instance's activity as it happens, with sub-minute granularity.


Accessing the ASH Viewer

From the Global Dashboard or Server Detail page, click ASH Viewer for the server you want to monitor.

You can also navigate to ASH Viewer from the top menu and select your server using the server selector dropdown.

{screenshot: ash-viewer-main-page}


Time Window Selection

The ASH Viewer supports two operating modes:

Live Mode

In Live mode, the viewer continuously polls the backend for the latest ASH samples and updates all panels automatically.

Select a refresh interval from the dropdown:

IntervalUse Case
5 secondsActive incident investigation — high refresh rate
10 secondsRoutine real-time monitoring
30 secondsLight monitoring during normal operations
60 secondsLow-overhead background monitoring

{screenshot: live-mode-refresh-selector}

Sliding Window Mode

In Sliding Window mode, the viewer displays activity over a recent time window without continuous refresh. Select a predefined window:

WindowDescription
Last 15 minutesVery recent activity
Last 30 minutesShort-term view
Last 1 hourRecent hour analysis
Last 2 hoursMedium-term view
Last 4 hoursHalf-workday view
Last 8 hoursFull workday or shift view

{screenshot: sliding-window-selector}


Custom Time Range (Zoom)

In any mode, you can zoom into a specific time interval by clicking and dragging on the Activity Timeline chart. The selected range is highlighted, and all panels below update to reflect only that interval.

{screenshot: ash-custom-zoom-selection}

To reset the zoom, click Reset Zoom or select a new time window from the selector.


Page Sections

The ASH Viewer page is composed of several analysis panels, all driven by the same selected time window:

PanelDescription
Activity TimelineInteractive chart of active sessions over time
Top SQLTop 10 queries by execution count, time or average time
Top Wait EventsDistribution of wait event types
Session StatesBreakdown of active, idle and idle-in-transaction sessions
Top DimensionsTop users, applications, databases, client hosts
Lock ContentionBlocking and blocked session pairs

Each panel is described in detail in the following pages.


Selecting a Different Server

Use the server selector dropdown at the top of the page to switch to a different monitored server without navigating back to the dashboard. The selected time window is preserved.

{screenshot: ash-server-selector}


Next Steps