Skip to main content
TrustRadius
SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer

Overview

What is SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer?

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer (DPA) enables deep visibility into database performance and expert advice for performance optimization and tuning.What can you monitor with DPA? OracleOracle ExadataOracle EBSMicrosoft SQL Server Azure SQL DatabaseAzure SQL Database Managed InstanceMySQLDB2 SAP ASE AuroraMariaDBDPA monitors…

Read more
Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

User-Friendly Interface: Users appreciate the SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer for its straightforward and easy-to-understand …
Continue reading

DPA: FTW.

8 out of 10
March 22, 2022
Incentivized
We use DPA to manage a very large and somewhat cranky SQL environment for ambulatory healthcare end users (from providers and office …
Continue reading
Read all reviews

Awards

Products that are considered exceptional by their customers based on a variety of criteria win TrustRadius awards. Learn more about the types of TrustRadius awards to make the best purchase decision. More about TrustRadius Awards

Reviewer Pros & Cons

View all pros & cons
Return to navigation

Pricing

View all pricing
N/A
Unavailable

What is SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer?

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer (DPA) enables deep visibility into database performance and expert advice for performance optimization and tuning. What can you monitor with DPA? Oracle Oracle Exadata Oracle EBS Microsoft…

Entry-level set up fee?

  • Setup fee optional

Offerings

  • Free Trial
  • Free/Freemium Version
  • Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Would you like us to let the vendor know that you want pricing?

26 people also want pricing

Alternatives Pricing

What is SolarWinds SQL Sentry?

SolarWinds SQL Sentry is designed to help data professionals optimize SQL Server database performance in physical, virtual, and cloud environments. SQL Sentry delivers metrics to help users find and fix database performance problems and provides scalability, boasting demonstrated success monitoring…

What is dbForge Studio (Edge)?

dbForge Studio is provided by Devart and is a universal front-end client for database management, administration and development. Devart's GUI tool provides utilities to compare, synchronize, and back up databases (e.g. MySQL, Oracle, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, etc.) with scheduling, and includes the…

Return to navigation

Product Details

What is SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer?

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer (DPA) enables deep visibility into database performance and expert advice for performance optimization and tuning.

What can you monitor with DPA?
  • Oracle
  • Oracle Exadata
  • Oracle EBS
  • Microsoft SQL Server
  • Azure SQL Database
  • Azure SQL Database Managed Instance
  • MySQL
  • DB2
  • SAP ASE
  • Aurora
  • MariaDB
DPA monitors physical, virtual, and cloud-based databases (including Microsoft Azure and Amazon RDS)

What makes DPA stand out:

  • Quick, easy, and reliable performance troubleshooting available in real time and historically

  • Machine learning anomaly analysis to bring intelligence to go beyond traditional threshold based analysis
  • Find inefficient workloads, aggregated by table, for indexing opportunities—an “X marks the spot” tuning analysis
  • Cross-platform database support for a single-pane-of-glass view into your environment
  • Blocking analysis: what is blocking and a hierarchy of what is being blocked, plus overall impact
  • PerfStack™ integration with other SolarWinds products for more complete visibility (applications, servers, storage, hypervisor, network, and more)
  • Agent-less architecture with the ability to scale from a few instances to thousands, low 1% average overhead

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer Features

  • Supported: Database monitoring
  • Supported: Tuning advisors for queries, workload, and indexes aggregated at the table level
  • Supported: Correlated resource metrics for easy diagnosis of hardware constraint impacts on end-users
  • Supported: Detailed blocking analysis for contention bottlenecks
  • Supported: I/O activity tracking at the drive/mount and file level
  • Supported: Alerts and reports
  • Supported: DPA Central to manage large and/or distributed environments
  • Supported: Always On Availability Group and RAC insights

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer Screenshots

Screenshot of DashboardScreenshot of Alerts and reportsScreenshot of Application-centric view of DPAScreenshot of Blocking deadlock analysisScreenshot of Collaboration across teamsScreenshot of Intuitive performance monitoringScreenshot of Performance intelligenceScreenshot of Query performance analysisScreenshot of Real-time & historic monitoringScreenshot of Recommendations

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer Videos

Azure Database Support Overview

Watch Product Overview

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating SystemsWindows, AWS Marketplace app
Mobile ApplicationNo

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer Downloadables

Frequently Asked Questions

Foglight, Spotlight, and Idera Uptime Capacity Monitor are common alternatives for SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer.

Reviewers rate Solarwinds Premier Support Rating highest, with a score of 10.

The most common users of SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
Return to navigation

Comparisons

View all alternatives
Return to navigation

Reviews and Ratings

(227)

Community Insights

TrustRadius Insights are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, 3rd-party data sources. Have feedback on this content? Let us know!

User-Friendly Interface: Users appreciate the SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer for its straightforward and easy-to-understand interface. They find it intuitive and user-friendly, even for new users with minimal training.

Real-Time Analysis and Support: The tool's real-time analysis capabilities and support services are highly valued by users. They mention that it helps them promptly identify and resolve performance issues in SQL databases, such as errors, long-running queries, or system-blocking problems.

Wide Range of Supported Databases: Users find the extensive range of supported databases to be a valuable feature of the tool. It allows them to monitor and analyze the performance of multiple databases from one centralized interface.

Dated and Confusing User Interface: Several users have expressed frustration with the user interface, describing it as dated, confusing, and difficult to navigate. They suggest that the user interface could be more user-friendly and have a reduced learning curve. Some users also mentioned that the navigation can be unintuitive and sometimes tough, and that some items can be confusing to find again. Overall, improvements in the cosmetic aspects of the user interface are needed.

Lack of Reporting Flexibility: According to some users, there is a lack of flexibility in both dashboard customization and reporting capabilities. They feel that the reporting feature needs improvement to provide more options for customization and analysis. This limitation hinders users' ability to obtain meaningful insights from their data.

High Cost: The cost of the software has been a major complaint among some users, particularly when it comes to adding additional instances. These users mention that the licensing timeline needs improvement as adding new instances becomes cost-prohibitive during certain periods of the year. The high cost associated with using this software can limit its accessibility for businesses operating on tight budgets.

Users highly recommend trying the free trial and evaluating SolarWinds DPA before purchasing. They suggest taking advantage of the free demo and training resources provided by SolarWinds. Users advise implementing SolarWinds DPA for monitoring and analyzing databases, especially for those who are just learning. The software is also recommended for DBAs in small to medium businesses and for integrating with other SolarWinds products for better data analysis. Additionally, users suggest comparing it with Idera offerings for SQL performance monitoring and highlighting it to DBAs as they will likely find value in it.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 113)
Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Stan York | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
This is an easy 10 because I actually have recommended this product to multiple clients and colleagues! Any shop that writes its own SQL queries will benefit from the insight provided by SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer, so they know which of their queries is causing a bottleneck. Small shops or databases with only a few tables likely will see far fewer opportunities for optimization.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I believe that SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is a great choice for an organization that does not have a specific DBA or one that is still growing into the role. SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is filled with hints, tips, and explanations of the various readings and metrics. This is very useful to help understand what is happening and why, what it means, and what some potential solutions are towards remediating any issues. This is extremely valuable for our development team, allowing them to be more proactive with the queries they write in viewing how they perform and where bottlenecks might be.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It's particularly useful if you want to see what's going on on your SQL server behind the scenes and which queries are causing bottlenecks. If the SQL server is running slow, you can quickly identify the root cause. Also, you can look at various utilizations over time.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Nikhil Kumar Sharma | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
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.
Darryl Hawes | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
The more heavily a database is used, the more useful DPA is. A lightly used database will not get a lot of benefit. The business use of the database will also correlate to DPA's usefulness. In cases where performance can make or break a company, DPA can allow for a huge impact, if done right.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
The dashboard is great when you have dozens of instances you are administering. The free version used to be great for even tiny shops but was changed to crippledware. The history it keeps lets you diagnose a problem that happened yesterday or over the weekend or to see a pattern - does it happen at the same time every day or weekly on the same day of the week, etc.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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 :).
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Jennifer Aguilar | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Database Performance Analyzer is a great fit for any database big or small. We also use it to monitor our GIS Database which is only accessed by a single user at this time. The tools assist in providing efficiency recommendations. When anyone uses a database, performance always seems to be an issue. DPA allows you to monitor systems, providing information to database administrators on how they can better manage the database. There are so many aspects to managing a database, it is really nice to have a tool that displays those granular issues that could never be solved without visibility into how the applications are interacting with the database.
Andre Du Plessis | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Currently, we use mostly use SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer for:

  • Database alerts
  • Quick Analysis of performance for both the database and the server hardware
  • Root cause analysis of historic issues
  • Suggestions on improving the databases
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It helps identify underlying issues with the database, related to database performance, slow response, and long-running queries. It pinpoints application-related issues due to database performance. It is cross-platform and can support Oracle, SQL Server, and other database platforms on Windows, Red Hat, and Solaris.
Mike Saedi | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
[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.
Joseph Dixon | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
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.
Return to navigation