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Filter 461 vetted SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor reviews and ratings
Reviews (1-25 of 233)
January 27, 2020
My Opinion on SolarWinds SAM
The IT department uses SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor to monitor our entire server environment, both physical and virtual. We are mainly a Windows shop and do additional monitoring of Active Directory, SQL, Citrix and custom apps or specific services we are looking to monitor. It keeps track of server up/downs, memory/CPU and application outages.
- Server health, using insight through WMI for what Microsoft is seeing from within the box.
- Monitoring services/apps through AppInsight and being able to add specific services not included or for other applications.
- Sometimes and easy button would be nice to simplify the views and data collected.
- Sales calls are persistent for anyone who has any involvement, which is just plain annoying.
We currently use Solarwinds Server & Application Monitor for monitoring and alerts for all our Servers. It is used primarily to help keeps us informed on the status of any of our servers. Such as space and capacity planning, uptime, CPU utilization, and allows to keep tabs on the many servers across our data center.
- It does a good job of letting us know when a server goes offline, or when it is rebooted.
- It warns us when we are getting low on disk space.
- It lets us know if a node on the network, such as a switch or other critical network device, is offline.
- It provides feedback in the case of an outage, letting us know time and the resources that were impacted by the outage.
- Most alerting tools are a challenge to get fine tuned, Solar winds is no exception to this.
- The GUI for managing the Alerts is pretty klunky and could use a face lift.
- The application monitor portion is a little more challenging to get setup. To the point that we don't use it very much.
February 28, 2020
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor Review
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor module is used across our entire infrastructure. It gives visibility into a lot of data and issues across the organization.
- SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor was able to give info on certs that are going to expire, which helped us renew before they caused an outage.
- SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor module gave us insights into resource utilization for multiple servers due to which the debugging and fixing of issues was very easy.
- Alerting is broken for us. When we asked about it, we were told it is a bug and to upgrade our SolarWinds. It is a very huge upgrade. We didn't even get a workaround.
- Support is sometimes very slow.
October 31, 2019
Monitoring with Solarwinds SAM
Currently, we have different applications that need to be monitored using SNMP and windows WMI. We connect to the host/system to be monitored using the OS service(s), this keeps the monitoring footprint small. There are several groups that use this software and we continue to expand as others see the value. There are instances where the application is windows specific so integration is very simple to monitor. There are plenty of guides to help you implement the monitoring, so if you need to keep track of IIS or SQL, for example, someone has set it up and the tutorial/guide is very straight forward.
- It integrates with MS Windows, so you can keep track of services, processes or nic utilization/bandwidth.
- You can also view the history of a lot of the monitor you choose. It can be helpful to isolate an issue if it's happening at a regular interval.
- Linux and non-Windows OSs are supported using SNMP and even an agent if want to take advantage of other Solarwinds features.
- It plays nice with other software, so you won't have conflicts with monitoring. Always a plus if more than one team is looking at data on the host.
- Not much to say here. If you think of something, check the community. Not really a con, just like anything, do some research.
February 14, 2020
SolarWinds Server/Application Monitor review.
It is being used by Server Support/Application Support IT groups and IT management. Network Support group uses the modules to troubleshoot server performance and application slowdown issues.
- Provides thw ability to look at specific application counters/parameters and their values.
- Pinpoints bottlenecks in application flows.
- Ability to recommend specific remediation steps for addressing issues.
- Better application flow visibility.
February 07, 2020
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor Review
SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor is being used by the IT department to monitor the activity, health, resources, etc. of the servers within the organization. It provides us with a realtime dashboard of what is currently happening within the server environment and enables us to respond quickly to any problems encountered, thus maximizing productivity due to minimized business downtime.
- It provides agentless server monitoring. This is useful since some application owners aren't fond of having agents installed on their servers.
- It provides root cause analysis enabling us to identify why certain application servers are slow.
- There is no real downside to using this product as they have many features.
- Can become expensive due to the licensing costs.
Currently, SolarWinds is being used in our IT department only. We use it mainly for granular alerts on our VM environment servers, both critical and non-critical. Its granularity is excellent, allowing me to administer my infrastructure in a very detailed and organized way. Works as it should, but one of the business problems I can see is that it is all module-based, but allowing different admins (such as system and network) to create their own alerts and topology of our infrastructure gives them ownership of their job descriptions.
- The granularity in its alerts and reporting gives me access to critical information, especially in compliance.
- Its LDAP integration with Active Directory really helps in keeping organized our "Master List" of network-connected devices.
- Once, when my Windows Server Update Service was unavailable, was able to implement patches through it.
- The GUI is very user intuitive.
- I would much like to see the modules sold in categorically grouped bundles, such as a networking bundle which would include all modules relating to the network.
- Would love to see an addition of an API or something like that to connect to VMware Vcenters.
- Found that if you acknowledge alerts, it makes it very difficult to remediate them inside of the program.
January 22, 2020
SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor saves on budget
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) is used by IT to monitor our system that provides the services to the business. With having a non-profit budget (and personnel can be tight) as well as being in retail the need to be able to bring money is in critical. With SAM we are able to monitor our services that allow us to continue business. With what SAM can do for us we are able to monitor everything with little interaction.
- Shared application templates
- Application alerting
- Adding new features
- Setup can take time.
- Some settings are difficult to find if you don't spend a lot of time in the system.
- There are a lot of templates which is good and bad, writing your own takes knowledge not all have.
January 21, 2020
Solid, affordable, basic monitoring that could use work
SolarWinds is being used as our primary monitoring tool for our servers and critical IT infrastructure. It is used by Technical IT to provide up/down monitoring of the majority of our in house IT infrastructure including networking equipment and servers. It is also being used in a limited sense as our CMDB to feed our ticketing system.
- Low cost
- Easy to install
- Poor UI
- Difficult to use beyond basic functions
January 07, 2020
SolarWinds Application and Server Management -- An Upcoming Force to be Reckoned With
Because of the network intensity of the customer solution, there was a high degree of value to bring the network monitoring and the application/service/server stack monitoring and management onto a single platform. While the integration was not seamless, it did bring a commonality of tools, techniques, and outputs across the SaaS delivery model, and thus visibility led to efficient response for infrastructure, application, and even security events.
Overall, this approach brought visibility to business application issues, thus reinforcing the business objectives while also gaining more foothold on the infrastructure.
Overall, this approach brought visibility to business application issues, thus reinforcing the business objectives while also gaining more foothold on the infrastructure.
- In general, the slough of SNMP Traps and Monitors is a good start.
- Automation beyond the SNMP layer is easy.
- The integration with other products could use a bit of polishing. It's not hard or impossible, just a bit clunky.
- Implementation of the application monitors is a small challenge to learn, but once you have the hang of it, it is overall elegant.
December 30, 2019
Small business, but big on tools!
Our environment is casually small compared to an enterprise-sized system. SaM is used to monitor smaller SQL DB's and has proved valuable for us to ensure optimized functionality of resources. Our applications are heavily dependent on SQL(and other) databases due to the nature of our business, primarily security and CCTV applications. Without clear insight into our critical applications, we could certainly be under stress and/or a situation that could impact our security infrastructure.
- Ease of use and configuration.
- Level of detail provided.
- GUI could be a bit more altered to indicate real potential issues.
December 29, 2019
SolarWinds has been helpful in managing our infrastructure
We use SolarWinds Application Monitor to keep tabs on many of our on-premise servers to ensure that they are up and running and functioning as needed to provide the services our users need. We monitor various aspects of the machines to ensure any potential problems can be addressed before they become real problems.
- Hard drive space.
- Memory usage.
- It is kind of slow to start-up, especially the first time.
- Can sometimes get almost too complicated.
December 18, 2019
Solarwinds breeze
Across the entire organization, Solarwinds is used to monitor up and downtimes of network configuration items. We push application install and Windows' updates on clients' devices. Netpath monitor is a tool I find intriguing.
- I like the port monitor alert. It's in real time with alert.
- Netpath helps me push my ISP when they are not being truthful about their downtimes.
- I would lean more towards the bugs repair for now.
- The PMS connect error issue.
December 17, 2019
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor the best option for Network.
We do not have the system installed in our organization, but I have had the experience of working with it with some clients, which have it addressed in the entire infrastructure area which makes the monitoring and workload for the workforce much more optimized.
- Customizable server monitoring.
- Assignment of infrastructure units.
- Apache server monitoring.
- AWS cloud monitoring.
December 13, 2019
Easy to set-up with solid performance
SolarWinds brings our uptime up by allowing fewer people to monitor applications and servers in a single application with a great notification system. Previously, I had been using a variety of programs that this new one suite can do. It is easy to use. In addition, the option to prioritize notifications allows for better and more accurate resource allocations.
- Ease of use, simple and easy to set-up and issue.
- Priced right for our organization.
- Having so many modules, can take some doing to understand what you need or want.
- Additional mobile app/device monitoring.
Solarwinds allows our company to monitor our servers 24/7. When we have emergencies, downtimes we instantly get a notification via the app and SMS. Their monitoring process has literally saved us thousands of dollars!
- Monitor website downtimes.
- Monitor apps downtimes.
- Please provide integration via Cloudflare.
- Extend trial periods for startups.
December 06, 2019
My SolarWinds Life
We use SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor to monitor our servers, switches, and routers. We need to be aware of resource usage, preventative maintenance issues, and quick reporting of failures. We also like to watch trends in usage and the application provides good tools for monitoring. Using the data allows us to plan accordingly for maintenance events and hardware upgrades.
- Monitors Windows IIS for responsiveness.
- Monitors SQL servers and gives us insight into what resources need to be modified.
- Monitors our applications on our LInux DHCP/DNS servers for responsiveness.
- Need a tie to firewall/security applications.
- More templates, easier template creation.
- More feedback when adding applications, hard to know what is failing when setting up.
November 23, 2019
Solarwinds TO be or NOT to be.
We use SolarWinds to monitor critical Network connections and also DB on servers in conjunction with 'Relic' and wanted to use AppDynamics but we opted to expand our SolarWinds footprint. The product is used by the IT department to support our ever-expanding Network and the DB environment needs to support 90+ clinics that operate 6 days a week supporting our critical patient operations.
- It is relatively easy to install and operate which helps a lot when you have a small IT staff.
- It does not have a large compute/ram need, thus it is sitting in the background and does its job without getting noticed.
- It provides a solid overview of network performance. I would like to have more control over the reporting capabilities and get more graphical (like a show of the US map with our POPs, etc).
- The DB monitor recommendations are great the tool helps my DBA greatly.
- I like to have control over the reports for the network. For example, I like the show of the US map with our POPs.
- Ability to trend over time much like AppDynamics AI that knows on Mondays we had heavy usage thus it is normal and does not alarm us. SMART metrics that is.
November 22, 2019
SolarWinds for a more reliable infrastructure
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor is being used explicitly by our IT staff, however, it's capabilities stretch to various departments. One of the key components allowed us to monitor our online banking environment and know exactly when an issue happened, and exactly what happened. We were able to monitor windows services and task schedules to provide real-time value and analytics to fix issues immediately.
- Consistent service monitoring.
- Schedule task execution status.
- Reliability!
- Set-up is cumbersome!
- The GUI for services is clunky.
- Sometimes downed services don't report.
November 19, 2019
Infrastructure at a glance with DB as a side note
We currently use SolarWinds to monitor our network infrastructure for 90+ clinics as well as our DB environments to ensure optimal data transmission takes place. At Peoplefinders.com I used the product, both to monitor the Network performance for our various websites for B2B and B2P operation, as well as to proactively respond to poorly performing sales figures, as there was a direct correlation between 'Website access speed' and 'Sales $.' Thus, the tool allowed us to eliminate the network as a possible root cause.
- It monitors many devices, which gives it flexibility.
- It has a solid graphics interface, and with some API use one can present graphical reports that are strong.
- It does not require much maintenance, and the upgrade path is relatively painless.
- I would like the ability to set trending 'capacity' thresholds. For example, I would like to know that someone is pushing 10Meg of data per min on the pipe for 3 minutes. I would like to get notifications on that.
November 14, 2019
One of the best APM tools!
We are using SolarWinds organization-wide. It's used for network alerts, space alerts, server up-down alerts, CPU and memory alerts, to generate reports, debug the issues, and monitor the server and application logs. It's a super useful monitoring tool, and it's very easy to use it.
- High quality Performance monitoring tool
- Centralized monitoring tool
- One of the best APM software in the market
- The costs are one of the factors, as there are so many.
- The GUI could be more user-friendly and improved for users.
November 12, 2019
SAM has eased monitoring headaches.
We use SolarWinds SAM to monitor our entire environment, from network equipment to servers and applications and storage.
- Very customizable so you only get what you are looking for.
- Works great out of box with the built in templates.
- User templates uploaded to Thwack allow you to find a solution to a monitoring problem without implementing it from scratch.
- Too integrated into the suite of products. Fields that are needed for network equipment must be filled out for servers and applications.
November 08, 2019
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor is a Solar WIN when it comes to monitoring!
We use Solarwinds to monitor our infrastructure and server environment. It allows us to track traffic and remove blocks in the system before the end-user realizes there were problems. Since our school district is one to one Chromebook and iPad district. Keeping the network up and running is crucial. Being able to monitor devices as applications and pull real-time data allows us to determine our future upgrade path.
- Real-time data reporting - During mandatory state testing periods, it allows us to keep servers load balanced and running under 50% load.
- Application monitoring - I have several UPS's deployed throughout our district. The application monitoring allows me to see runtimes, schedule battery replacements, monitoring of loads.
- Our database servers are crucial to our daily operations. By monitoring the databases, our DBA's can keep up with database programming to keep things from slowing down and build efficient reports that won't slow the system down.
- Better documentation. Documentation is in a true technical format. Some easier documentation would help the new people entering into monitoring engineering get their software instance up and running quicker.
November 04, 2019
SolarWinds are Warm and Strong
Currently, SolarWinds is being used by our IT engineering team to monitor switches, servers, and devices across our network. We monitor uptime and performance. We also utilize the alerting features to let us know if a server, switch, or switchport goes offline. Without this functionality, we would be blinded to the state of devices on our network.
- Better up-time of devices. SolarWinds does a great job of letting us know when a system goes offline. Either via a failed ping response or WMI query to the Windows-based server, or even SNMP to a network device.
- Service monitoring. We have used SolarWinds to monitor Windows services on various machines. It can alert us if the service fails and even restart that service if would like it to.
- Configuration change. SolarWinds help us deploy switching configuration changes. It also has an HTML based SSH console for switch management that is very convenient.
- The UI still need a large refresh. The system seems very slow at times.
- Editing a "node" property is slow and clunky. There are long wait times dues to entire pages refreshing.
- No PowerShell scripting support to control SolarWinds for mass changes.
November 04, 2019
SolarWinds SAM Review
We use SolarWinds SAM to monitor, alert and maintain applications across the company. It is only monitored by the IT department but sends alerts to other users as needed.
- Provides accurate reporting on server and application uptimes
- Presents data in an easy to read format, which can be customized to user's needs
- Easily customizable to monitor complex applications
- Can be complicated to learn, if you are managing multiple products
- Possibility for information overload and clutter without customization
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor Scorecard Summary
Feature Scorecard Summary
About SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) delivers application and server monitoring capabilities for IT pros enabling them to diagnose and troubleshoot issues faster. The vendor’s value proposition is that this solution prevents slow applications and downtime from impacting end-users and business services. Users can use this tool to pinpoint the root cause of application issues across various layers of the IT stack.
The vendor says SolarWinds SAM is affordable, easy to deploy, use and customize. Users can automatically discover their systems environment and start monitoring in about an hour. No professional services or consultation needed.
SAM is built on SolarWinds Orion® platform enabling native integration with Network Performance Monitor and other IT management software from SolarWinds.
Categories: IT Infrastructure Monitoring, System Monitoring, Application Performance Management (APM)
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor Screenshots
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor Videos (2)
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor Downloadables
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor Integrations
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor Competitors
Ipswitch WhatsUp Gold, Nagios Core, IBM Tivoli Monitoring, Microsoft System Center, DX Application Performance Management (formerly CA APM), SiteScope (formerly HP SiteScope), ManageEngine Applications Manager
Pricing
- Has featureFree Trial Available?Yes
- Does not have featureFree or Freemium Version Available?No
- Does not have featurePremium Consulting/Integration Services Available?No
- Entry-level set up fee?No
SAM pricing starts at $2,995.
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor Support Options
| Paid Version | |
|---|---|
| Phone | |
| Forum/Community | |
| FAQ/Knowledgebase | |
| Video Tutorials / Webinar |
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor Technical Details
| Deployment Types: | On-premise |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems: | Windows |
| Mobile Application: | No |
| Supported Languages: | English |