SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer Reviews

I like the fact that I can visually see what my SQL server is doing over time and drill into top queries.
Alerting and notifications are not as strong as some other tools I have used.
Blocking and deadlocking features/analysis could be improved also.

Solarwinds Database Performance Analyzer is well suited in below Scenarios -
1. End to End Database Instance Monitoring.
2. Database in Clusters Monitoring such as Availability Group in MS SQL, CDB in Oracle etc
3. If you want detailed monitoring with historical analysis.
4. SQL Statement Deep Dive Analysis for WAIT Time reason, Blockers, Deadlocks etc


Solarwinds DPA is not well suited if you are looking for Detailed VM, OS monitoring where Database is installed.

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer may have a dated UI, but don't let that deter you as what it really does well is give you the data you need to find issues and resolve them with your SQL Servers. It can also do Oracle and other platforms as well. Your servers being on the cloud is NOT a problem at all and we have full visibility into our Google Cloud database instances as well as our on-prem instances within the same pane of glass. If you have MySQL or PostgreSQL you might look into Solarwinds Database Performance Monitor instead, unless you have a mixture of both and want everything in one spot.
One thing to note is that you will need to host DPA yourself, it's not a cloud solution (although you can host it in the cloud if you prefer). This also means you have complete control over where this data resides.

We have not needed to use support that much, but every time we do they are professional and courteous as well as responding within an expected timeframe.

It's well suited as a self help tool. It really saves time on our team so we don't have to provide guidance on issues or questions.

Very appropriate for use in performance testing
Very appropriate for alerting to performance issues before they become critical
Can be challenging when monitoring an Oracle active-active RAC database, as each instance is effectively a separate database.

[SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is] well suited for historical performance metrics. Well suited for alerting based on custom queries. Not well suited for real-time metrics or session-level debugging.

The product works incredibly well when trying to understand blocking and overall performance issues. It produces minimal load on the database server and provides a wealth of information. After you use the product to assist with urgent performance issues, it then alerts you to trends on your database server that may require your attention. By review these trends and adding indexes or modifying query patterns, you can substantially improve the performance and reduce the resources needed to running your database server. The software does require someone that understands query performance and optimization -- by no means does it do all of the work for you - but it does offer suggestions that are typically viable and worthwhile.

The one time I contacted support, they were easy to speak to and resolved my question quickly.

If your operation is data driven, then you need to improve performance where SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer helps. It is helpful if you have a big environment where your databases are dependent on timely fixes. It can also be used for resolving application deadlocks and the health of the database--also setting up alerts and adding more custom graphs.

If you have high transactional database then this is very useful [for] getting resource usage information and understanding the usage of the databases. Wait time graphs helps us understand the database bottlenecks.

They are very supportive

Solarwinds Database Performance Analyzer is well suited for general monitoring. If you are interested in overall trends and issues that have a significant affect on performance, then this tool works well. It is less appropriate for deep dives into specific issues. When trying to monitor new changes, the impact must be big enough to display a difference in the charts.

I find the number of databases we support is high compared to the staff DBAs available. The DPA product is a good product here. If you had just a couple of databases it wouldn't be necessary.

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer can smoothly work with different databases such as MS SQL Server, Oracle database and more. Also, it supports physical, virtual, cloud, etc.

Database Performance Analyzer is really helpful for capturing DB procs and other info. However, it was not able to capture the data we needed like the application jobs running on the database, etc.

It's very helpful to have the robust reporting features available when you have a mission-critical database. We need to be aware of what is happening on our server and be able to tune and adjust as required to keep things running fast and smooth. SolarWinds DPA allows us to do this.

I think it is well suited for mission-critical databases where every percent performance is a must. Maybe it would do great work in a data warehouse too, especially in detecting performance loss in ETL jobs. Actually, I think it is well-suited in all the use cases, if you have enough licenses :).

It is good to set up alerts on the database server. some of the alerts described in previous answers can be improved. Help on setup can be improved. As described earlier, we still do not have our DPA site set up with the security certificate and customer service did not help much.

very good. Respond within a day

Very intuitive and easy for operations organizations to ensure that any symptoms which could lead to performance concerns on the database tier can be easily identified and looked at.
To ensure these issues can be given highest priority as and when any performance bottlenecks arise, the simple layout provided with the tool is really effective.

The historical record aspect to view performance over time is invaluable, to be able to go back and see when things change which can then be related to application changes is great. Additionally, the live reporting current detail is brilliant for out of the blue and immediate issues that have to be dealt with.

I have had to use their support on a few occasions, for reasons that I am not clear about until recently I have always had problems upgrading the software (although the last 2 updates have gone without issue which I am very pleased to say).

On those unfortunate occasions, the support has been brilliant with either excellently documented guides on how to resolve the issue by myself or have been hands-on with calls and screen sharing to remotely fix the issue. Every time the problem was sorted and more importantly, nothing was lost (apart from a bit of time). And as I stated above whatever the problem was that was causing my upgrade issues appears to have been resolved in the last 2 updates.

Very good at query help and resource information. Not so good at DAG HA designs. We have a DAG setup and SolarWinds DPA can not even see the local HA if this is setup. That is kind of a bummer since we need the HA information and DAG is an older tech.

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer (DPA) is great for monitoring Oracle and SQL databases for performance anomalies. When a user calls and says "It's slow" we have one [place] to go to review the data, zero on the problematic query and take action to resolve. In addition to being a great troubleshooting tool DPA also provides query tuning advice based on captured long-term analysis to spot inefficient patterns.

Good support, fast response, knowledgeable engineers, easy to access.

Recommended overall for database operations and management. The tool is key and has played a good role in providing key information for troubleshooting. It can, at times, present information in a way that can be confusing. But, the application is also very useful for maintaining application-specific metrics that can be used in SLAs and performance metrics.

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is great for any company that uses some form of SQL server in their environment. Whether it's Microsoft SQL Server, Oracle, Sybase, etc, SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer provides insight into your environment's health.
In order to fully utilize and appreciate SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer, I do recommend you have some experience with SQL queries and databases, as some of the suggestions and issues that could arise needs to be fully understood prior to implementing the suggested fixes.

DPA is really good at displaying real time performance issues.

Well suited as an SQL server execution plan analyzer. Also, provides advice on the tunning part.

In an environment where many developers and DBAs are often working separately from each other on some projects and together on others, it gets difficult to see where the lines are between applications and databases. SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer allows me as a manager to pinpoint issues and to get our developers or DBAs involved as appropriate to resolve issues that happen, and address issues that haven't happened yet. SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is worth a whole 9 of uptime in and of itself.