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SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor

SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor

Overview

What is SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor?

SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) delivers application and server monitoring capabilities. SAM allows for self-service for easy setup, 1200+ monitoring templates, and customization options, as well as integrate with other SolarWinds products.

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Recent Reviews

TrustRadius Insights

SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor is a versatile tool that has been widely used across various industries and departments for …
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True Insight

10 out of 10
January 27, 2022
Incentivized
I use SolarWinds Server Application Monitor to monitor my infrastructure as well as applications within that environment. It provides a …
Continue reading
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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

Popular Features

View all 12 features
  • Server availability and performance monitoring (269)
    9.8
    98%
  • Application monitoring (266)
    9.0
    90%
  • Threshold alerts (271)
    9.0
    90%
  • Out-of-the box templates to monitor applications (256)
    7.9
    79%
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Pricing

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What is SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor?

SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) delivers application and server monitoring capabilities. SAM allows for self-service for easy setup, 1200+ monitoring templates, and customization options, as well as integrate with other SolarWinds products.

Entry-level set up fee?

  • No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttp://www.solarwinds.com/products/pric…

Offerings

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

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Features

Application Performance Management

Application performance management software monitors software to ensure performance and availability

8.7
Avg 7.6
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Product Details

What is 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.

SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor Features

  • Supported: Single Web interface to monitor multi-vendor applications and server infrastructure.
  • Supported: Out-of-the-box monitoring templates for 200+ enterprise applications.
  • Supported: Easily extend monitoring to virtually any custom or home-grown applications.
  • Supported: Gain contextual visibility of relationships and dependencies between applications and physical and virtual servers.
  • Supported: Monitor server hardware health, perform capacity forecasting, and manage asset inventory. Remediate server issues remotely with built-in management actions.
  • Supported: Monitor VMware and Hyper-V environments to identify problems impacting application performance.
  • Supported: Centrally manage IT asset inventory and keep track of server hardware and software information.
  • Supported: Leverage the wealth of built-in alerts and reports, and easily customize them as needed.
  • Supported: SAM is an agentless monitoring software. Optional agent installation extends monitoring to the cloud.

SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor Screenshots

Screenshot of Multi-vendor application performance monitoringScreenshot of Multi-vendor server monitoringScreenshot of Application dependency mapping with AppStackâ„¢ dashboardScreenshot of Microsoft Exchange performance monitoring with AppInsightâ„¢ templateScreenshot of Microsoft IIS performance monitoring with AppInsightâ„¢ templateScreenshot of Server hardware health monitoringScreenshot of Built-in virtualization monitoring for VMware and Hyper-V environmentsScreenshot of Easily extend monitoring to any custom or home-grown application

SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor Videos

An introduction to and a brief overview of SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
In this video, the TrustRadius team is going to take a look at Solarwinds Server and Application Monitor, a powerful tool that can help you monitor your systems and identify issues early. We'll explore the overview, user sentiment, pricing, top features, and use-case, and help...
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Watch SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor Training Videos

SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor Competitors

SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor Technical Details

Deployment TypesOn-premise
Operating SystemsWindows
Mobile ApplicationNo
Supported LanguagesEnglish

Frequently Asked Questions

SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) delivers application and server monitoring capabilities. SAM allows for self-service for easy setup, 1200+ monitoring templates, and customization options, as well as integrate with other SolarWinds products.

Progress WhatsUp Gold, Nagios Core, and Tivoli Monitoring (legacy) are common alternatives for SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor.

Reviewers rate Server availability and performance monitoring highest, with a score of 9.8.

The most common users of SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor are from Enterprises (1,001+ employees).
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Comparisons

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Reviews and Ratings

(650)

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!

SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor is a versatile tool that has been widely used across various industries and departments for monitoring and managing servers, applications, and network infrastructure. Users rely on the software to ensure that critical systems are up and running smoothly. With its ability to monitor servers, applications, and network nodes, customers appreciate the comprehensive insights it provides into their IT environments.

One of the key use cases of SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor is its role in proactive monitoring and alerting. Users have praised the software's capability to detect issues such as CPU utilization, memory usage, response time, and low disk space. By setting up corresponding alerts, users can address potential problems before they impact end-users. This proactive approach helps prevent system failures and ensures optimal performance.

Another important use case of SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor is its ability to provide detailed insights into server metrics and application performance. Users can monitor various elements such as CPU, memory, and disk usage on servers, as well as track the health of applications like Exchange, SQL, IIS, and SharePoint. The software's integration with other products in the SolarWinds Orion family enhances network management capabilities, allowing for a unified view of segmented networks.

Additionally, SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor is valued for its flexibility in monitoring different types of systems and services. It supports Windows, Linux, Unix, and AIX servers both on-premises and in the cloud. Users have leveraged the software to monitor services, processes, URLs, IP addresses, MAC addresses, SMTP devices like networked cameras, and even Linux services such as IPTables. This broad range of monitoring capabilities makes it a valuable tool for organizations with diverse IT infrastructures.

Overall, SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor has proven to be instrumental in maintaining system stability by providing real-time alerts for potential issues and facilitating efficient troubleshooting. Its ease of use and customization options allow different departments and administrators to tailor monitoring and alerts to their specific needs. The software's comprehensive insights, proactive monitoring, and wide range of supported systems make it a valuable asset for organizations looking to ensure optimal performance and availability of their IT infrastructure.

Customizable Dashboard: Users appreciate the fully customizable dashboard in SolarWinds SAM, which allows them to tailor it to their specific requirements. This feature has been mentioned by several reviewers and enables users to easily access the information they need for effective monitoring.

Proactive Alerting: Reviewers have praised SAM's proactive alerting capabilities, with alerts being triggered for offline servers, low disk space, rebooted servers, and critical network device outages. This feature has been highly valued by users as it helps them stay on top of potential issues and address them promptly.

Reporting Capabilities: SAM's reporting capabilities have received positive feedback from users who find the detailed reports provided by the software helpful for meeting regulatory requirements and ensuring system stability and performance. The granularity in alerts and reporting has been mentioned by multiple reviewers as a valuable feature of SAM.

Confusing User Interface: Users have expressed frustration with the user interface of SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor, stating that it is confusing and difficult to navigate. Some users feel that there is a steep learning curve and find it overwhelming, especially for first-time users.

Lack of Comprehensive Documentation: Several users have criticized the documentation provided for SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor, stating that it is spotty and lacking in examples. They believe that more comprehensive and detailed documentation would greatly aid in understanding and troubleshooting the software.

Poor Customer Support: There have been complaints about the customer support provided by SolarWinds. Multiple users have reported that customer support has worsened over time, causing frustration due to delays in reaching the correct support team and resolving issues in a timely manner.

Users have recommended several key actions for users considering SolarWinds based on their experiences. These include:

  • Recommending utilizing the software for internal use, specifically for monitoring servers and applications.
  • Suggesting taking advantage of the free trial to test the software before making a purchase decision.
  • Advising researching and planning before implementation to ensure the software is suitable for one's needs.
  • Encouraging careful design of the environment, especially when using the software in different locations.
  • Recommending purchasing a license that matches the number of components needed for monitoring.
  • Urging cautiousness when it comes to support and potential glitches with the software.
  • Suggesting working with a detail-oriented engineer for proper setup and configuration.
  • Promoting interaction with the user community site to learn from others' experiences and share knowledge.
  • Emphasizing the need to understand the licensing model before signing up and selecting appropriate licensing based on the number of nodes to be monitored.
  • Suggesting exploring other SolarWinds offerings and using them in conjunction with this software.

While users find SolarWinds to be a valuable tool, they also mention that it may not be suitable for beginners due to its learning curve. Overall, it is recommended to carefully consider setup, pricing, and requirements before implementing SolarWinds.

Attribute Ratings

Reviews

(1-25 of 278)
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September 14, 2022

Big, but effective

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We monitor servers and network gear to track uptime, and to alert when certain resource metrics are reached on a system (e.g., low disk space). My team does not use configuration management abilities. We're also working to integrate SNMP monitoring of data center power gear and PDUs, in order to get away from the vendor's proprietary client and to have our monitoring more standardized.
  • Server uptime monitoring
  • SNMP monitoring
  • Reporting
  • Network device monitoring
  • The web interface reloads when certain options are chosen from pop-up menus, which interrupts quick page navigation.
  • Configuring custom SNMP alerting is onerous.
  • I wish custom reporting was easier to use.
For monitoring applications that run on Windows hosts on VMware or HyperV virtualization, SolarWindows offers a nice, vertical view of both the loads and the resources. In such an environment, this makes life really good! But if you have something else -- for example, Linux hosts -- you're on your own to some extent. That is, the things it does well, it does very well -- but everything else is much less polished.
Connie Inman | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
We use SolarWinds as our inventory management tool and it is an invaluable resource that allows us to keep track of all of the computers and the software installed on our computers. This helps us keep track of who has what device(s), when it was purchased, and if the user needs more room on their hard drive when it comes time to replace their computer.
  • Inventory management
  • Software management
  • Computer age and refresh scheduling
  • Would like a Linux agent
  • Would love to be able to see when a device was first added to the database
If you have a large number of users and computers and need a reliable database that will aggregate all of the computers and users into a single database. This allows us to keep track of who has logged into a computer, and log where that computer is located. SolarWinds is a fantastic resource that lets us keep better track of all the devices we have. Even after the device is disposed of we still have a record that this device was once ours so if there is an inventory question we can confirm that the device was ours but it has been disposed of.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) is part of my company's monitoring toolset which enhances the overall value proposition of our SolarWinds Orion investment. Being a global company, we currently utilize four Orion instances across multiple data centers and public cloud providers. SAM is currently monitoring on-prem and public cloud Windows and Linux-based applications in addition to providing latency metrics for RDS endpoints in AWS. SAM provides historic metrics in addition to being part of an overall toolset to troubleshoot issues in real-time.
  • Realtime monitoring of common OS and application metrics.
  • Visibility of past performance issues for server application events/issues.
  • Fast, out-of-the-box setup.
  • Provides basic monitoring/visibility. Visibility into detailed/fine-grained issues best suited for more specialized/expensive solutions.
  • Licensing per monitored application rapidly uses up purchased license count.
  • More out-of-the-box templates or easier setup of monitoring less-common applications would make the solution more appealing given the target audience of the product.
A company that has already invested in the SolarWinds ecosystem can drive additional value by adding Server & Application Monitor. Installing and configuring the additional functionality of SAM can prove to be a very worthwhile investment in most situations. Templates for canned software make the setup quick and efficient. Companies that leverage multi-tiered/in-house applications or require precise details of performance across an entire stack will want to look at solutions from other vendors.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Little information about health and availability of applications. We need to better monitor our applications and handle applications in API format.
  • Handling API requests.
  • Monitoring SQL thresholds.
  • Monitoring DHCP pools.
  • Cover non-windows based applications.
  • API Poller doesn't provide friendly messages when getting issues to retrieve info.
  • Unable to edit Authorization Poller settings.
A good tool to use as rest API and to create different reports and alerts based on API information.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
The tool is used to monitor the entire technology infrastructure allied with other vendors. Here it is useful to identify outages, failures, and performance degradation, the scope of action involves the communication, servers, services, and business layers. Through this monitoring, alarms, reports, integration with ITIL-based tools, and other items such as e-mail, SMS, and messaging applications are generated.
  • Monitors windows and linux servers.
  • NETFLOW based data traffic.
  • Scripting and automating actions.
  • Integration with other tools.
  • Robust and well-distributed architecture.
  • Constant updates and specialized support center.
  • Training and educational content.
  • Capacity reports.
  • Modern interface.
  • Possibility to use other OS and DB as platform software, in addition to Windows and SQL Server.
It can be used in medium and large companies, the capacity resources must be measured well to be able to guarantee that the monitoring health is satisfactory and well distributed, there are architectural scenarios with high availability and the monitoring schedule does not require many resources. There are several ready-made templates and a large amount of teaching material.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I work at a University and we use SolarWinds Server Application Monitor to monitor about 250 servers. We monitor in-house servers (inclusive of physical, VMware and Hyper-V) and cloud-based Azure deployments.
  • Alerts- SolarWinds Server Application Monitor can send alerts based on high disk and CPU usage as well as Server up/down among other criteria
  • Monitor Azure Severs
  • Monitor Hyper-V
  • Monitor VMware
  • Monitor SQL instances
  • Alerts can be easier to create. I understand the need for complex alerting and appreciate that but there should also be a simple way to create basic alerts
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor is a great product for server and application monitoring. We would have bought the product just to monitor in-house servers and applications, but the bonus of being able to handle Azure cloud was a welcome bonus for us.
January 27, 2022

True Insight

Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I use SolarWinds Server Application Monitor to monitor my infrastructure as well as applications within that environment. It provides a thorough insight into the health and availability of my infrastructure through an easy-to-read and customizable dashboard. Without SolarWinds Server Application Monitor, it would feel like I'm trying to navigate through a wildfire without visibility. Receiving alerts to issues as they are happening is a lifesaver. We have critical processes that would otherwise go unmonitored without SolarWinds Server Application Monitor. We use it for our entire virtual environment.
  • Discovers servers in our environment
  • Monitors both servers and applications in our environment
  • Monitors hardware health
  • Allow more granular control of application templates
  • Provide suggestions based on trends
  • provide a dark theme option
SolarWinds Server Application Monitor is well suited for any environment where you care about health and uptime. If you are at all concerned about your infrastructure, SolarWinds Sensor Application Monitor is your best friend. I have yet to work in an environment without SolarWinds Server Application Monitor and I can't imagine being successful at a company that doesn't have it.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Solarwinds Server & Application Monitor is a great comprehensive monitoring solution. It covers all aspects of your infrastructure via a modular approach. Server and Application Monitor module deals specifically with that: monitoring any server - physical or virtual, applications and services. It covers pretty much everything you want to monitor including hardware, performance, and system services. In addition to basic monitoring, it provides application monitoring via supplied templates for known applications such as SQL, Exchange, IIS, and Active Directory and allows to build custom monitoring templates for other applications.
  • Monitoring Windows servers
  • Monitoring applications and services
  • Alerts and reports
  • Real-time stats and status updates
  • Monitoring non-Microsoft OS
  • Database engine requires a lot of tuning and maintenance
  • Frequent updates and security vulnerabilities require immediate attention
Solarwinds Server & Application Monitor is well suited for monitoring any server - physical or virtual, applications and services. It excels in monitoring Microsoft OS and some of the major applications. It does a great job generating alerts, although that requires some time and effort investment. It also has an impressive library of canned reports that can be run manually or be scheduled. It does require additional effort and set up to monitor non-Microsoft servers, storage, and other devices
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We have around 200 servers in our network (physical and virtual) and we needed a way to monitor these for any issues. The answer to this problem was SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor which allows us to monitor applications for errors. It also provides us metrics, such as top processes which is very useful.
  • Monitor Azure Cloud Severs- We use SolarWinds SAM to monitor Active Directory and DNS on Several DCs published on Azure Cloud.
  • Monitor Hyper V and VMware - SolarWinds SAM monitors applications on both Hyper V and VMware, while also monitoring the physical host machines.
  • It also helps us monitor Warranty expiration for physical servers.
  • Server Warranty Information: We have had issues where the expiration date was wrong.
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor is well suited for monitoring virtual machines. We have multiple VMs hosted between HyperV, VMware, and Azure. SolarWinds SAM brings the info from all these systems to one place so it simplifies the monitoring process. From this one page, we can view the top applications by CPU, response times, and memory among other things. SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor is used to track warranty expiration, but I would advise double-checking the dates when adding the devices to ensure that they are correct
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) provides our organization visibility into the performance and availability of our servers and applications. It also provides email notifications so that we are able to troubleshoot any issues as they occur. It also proactively provides threshold data so that we can optimize our servers and applications before an issue occurs. We also use SolarWinds SAM for monitoring our own Windows services.
  • Application performance
  • Application reporting
  • Application insight info
  • SolarWinds SAM configuration
We can monitor all our servers - virtual and hardware servers at one time, group them by OS, and determine instantly if the servers are operational. Templates are available for used applications, for example, Windows Active Directory and DNS services.
January 20, 2022

Solarwinds SAM Review

Matthew Plourde | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Solarwinds SAM provides visibility into the performance and availability of our servers and applications. It provides email notifications so that we may be able to troubleshoot any issues as they occur and proactively provides threshold data so that we can optimize our servers and applications before an issue occurs. Excellent product!
  • Reporting
  • Thresholds
  • Visibility
  • Simplicity
  • Configuration
  • Guided resolution
Solarwinds Server and Application Monitor provides excellent visibility into our servers and applications. It allows us to optimize latency issues, storage issues, and so forth as these key items for functionality and performance begin to reach their thresholds. It helps us resolve these issues before they cause an issue in our production environment.
January 20, 2022

SolarWinds SAM review

Nick Darnell | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
SAM is used to monitor all of our existing production environment.
  • Hardware Monitoring
  • Alerting for down systems
  • Statistical information
  • None really, I just use what it provides.
Large companies or users who work remotely will find SAM useful for monitoring issues with servers in their production environment. It is much easier to have one application monitoring their systems then to manually monitor their systems one by one.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor (SAM) is used for monitoring servers, applications, and databases in our environment. We have many [SolarWinds] SAM templates defined to monitor applications (JMX, Tomcat, AD, etc). We use [SolarWinds] SAM to monitor event logs, custom logs, and run Database Queries. The [SolarWinds] SAM templates also support running custom PowerShell, Perl, and Python scripts to monitor your environment. Additional Templates are available to monitor Database, SQL Server, Oracle, MYSQL, [and] Storage Monitoring. There are over hundreds of [SolarWinds] SAM Templates available to address your monitoring needs.
  • Custom Script (Windows, Powershell, Python, Perl, [etc.])
  • Performance Stacks (Dashboards) based on data collected from [SolarWinds] SAM Templates
  • Application dependency Mapping for some [SolarWinds] SAM Templates
  • Additional Templates for monitoring applications (JBoss, JMX, etc.)
  • Dependency Mapping for these applications
  • More Application Performance Management features
SolarWinds SAM is suited to configure custom monitoring. This includes monitoring log files, error messages in logs, running database queries, and executing custom scripts. This data can be displayed in [an] intuitive dashboard for the NOC team. The [SolarWinds] SAM templates can also be used to manage application availability and uptime for all critical applications. Alerts can be defined for monitoring the [SolarWinds] SAM templates.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
[My organization] installed SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor for complete Infrastructure on both physical, virtual, and cloud environments [for] monitoring of system resources utilization [on] over 50+ devices. [It] worked great with Windows and Linux servers and an additional advantage on monitoring some custom-made services with ease. Alerting services helped to a [greater extent] to act in [a] timely fashion. A great and fantastic product to use and recommend to anyone without [needing a] second opinion.
  • [Provides] detailed monitoring [on] Windows server
  • Virtual Infrastructure monitoring capabilities
  • Linux environment and custom services monitoring
  • Alerting services
  • Grouping applications
  • Assigning services to individual systems for monitoring
  • MAPs creation
A great product for monitoring systems on [a] Windows platform of any version, easy to use and configure. [The] user-friendly discovery services [for] Linux monitoring is made really easy. Custom applications and custom devices monitoring is good but needs to improve a bit in configuration of applications grouping and assigning services to the systems. MAPs need to be enhanced for creation and built-in icons.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it to monitor our employee and student information services. Specifically, it lets us see what servers are running hotter than normal so we can adjust our resources.
  • Monitor server applications.
  • Monitor services and logs.
  • Alerts from servers.
  • Adding more features
  • Allow for virtual versus physical specifications
We use it to explore our server applications and web interfaces. Using the network connections we are able to see where we could improve our network traffic to and from various servers.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It's a very powerful product, we are using for Servers and Applications monitoring for HQ and DR sites. We found it very powerful for Microsoft Services like DHCP scope issues, Exchange, AD, IIS, SQL, etc.
  • Monitoring Servers Uptime.
  • Monitoring Application and Services.
  • CPU and RAM utilisation alert.
  • Microsoft Services.
  • Virtualisation.
  • Database.
  • I found SAM already updating and improving day by day.
It helped us to find the root cause for SQL services, DHCP scope issues, IIS web issues, high utilisation alert, unreachability issues many more.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
ResellerIncentivized
[SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM)] is a good friend for administrators of the Orion. The extensive WAN activity monitoring needs of my customer are met for and exceeded by SAM. It is especially useful when you have a large infra with complicated, very distributed infra operations. It is used to monitor critical network applications like DHCP, AD, DNS, etc [...]
  • WAN activity monitoring
  • Critical network applications monitoring
  • Seamless integration with the Orion platform
  • Software App monitoring would be good.
  • Scaled down versions would be good.
  • Budget friendly for SME use version would be good.
The auto discover feature is a good starting point to discover all the servers and applications in the network. This is then followed by an overview of the dependencies which will show the gaps and spots of poor performance.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We utilize SAM to monitor our Windows servers and Linux servers for CPU Load and Physical Memory usage and drive capacity. We also utilize SAM to monitor the custom applications on our Linux server environment to make sure that the applications are up and that they are functioning properly.
  • Monitor CPU and Memory.
  • Monitor drive capacity.
  • Monitor hardware.
  • I would like the ability to modify custom application groups.
SAM is well suited for monitoring applications, Component response time, monitoring process and the CPU load that they are using, and monitoring the processes by the physical memory that they are using.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
At my current company, we use SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) to monitor both internal and externally hosted servers. This includes both virtual and physical boxes as well as both Windows Servers and LINUX flavors. We use Server & Application Monitor (SAM) in everything from Up/Down monitoring to memory, disk, CPU usages. We monitor processes and services and can create alerts based on these monitors.
  • SAM keeps historical data on usage so it is great to forecast resource needs such as RAM and CPU.
  • Alerts can be greatly customized and anyone from the local admin to the app owner can be alerted on the issue.
  • Hard to say what features are missing since it's more of the training of the user and their imagination which is most likely the bottleneck in most deployments.
We have both physical and virtual machines deployed not only in the U.S. but also in Canada and our SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) deployment monitors it all for us.
January 19, 2022

SAM I AM

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use it as part of our internal IT monitoring solution. We generate proactive support tickets for systems coming close to outage thresholds and we use it to page out different teams when their application isn't responding. We support 3500+ servers and datacenter infrastructure that where a good portion is in SolarWinds.
  • The simple addition of nodes.
  • Lots of templates that help with application monitoring.
  • Community input is very helpful.
  • Some of the documentation doesn't make much sense to a new user, need to show use cases.
  • Creating graphs and custom dashboards seems overly complicated.
  • Having to use SQL queries in several scenarios for various widgets shouldn't be needed.
For IT infrastructure teams, SAM is a great fit, and even including the Linux side seems to be getting better. The application aspect is great but understanding the alerting of application issues vs node issues is a little complicated at times. If we could work on module integration so a simple build of a system that included all applications, node, and infrastructure monitoring would be great.
January 19, 2022

Solarwinds Review

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Solarwinds provides us insights as to what is going on within our environment. We receive alerts on Solarwinds on Hardware failures or when drives start filling up, We will also receive alerts if the server goes down. This is helpful to us on the server team as it allows us to check in and see what happened while we were out of the office.
  • Hardware Health Overview.
  • Predicted Datastore Space Depletion.
  • Top 10 Volumes by Disk Space Used.
  • Lag when switching between pages.
The server team had a need for an application the provided comprehensive server monitoring. Solarwinds full filled that need.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
As the IT Operations teams, we use SW for our daily monitoring and checks. We also created dedicated consoles for our local IT teams and other teams (MES, SAP, etc...). SW has become the source for knowing at any time how each and every service/server is doing. We have a dedicated team managing it and through the agile process, we continuously adjust the thresholds, the alerts, and the reports/KPI.
  • live alerting in a timely manner
  • nice customization for various sets of users with different expectations
  • simple and fast discovery and implementation on servers
  • KPI aggregation and high level reporting (for non technical people)
Fit for purpose for server, VMware esx, and virtual servers
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We currently use it to monitor our AD environment along with a few other Azure resources such as IaaS and PaaS, with response time monitoring.
  • AD monitoring
  • IaaS monitoring
  • PaaS monitoring
  • User interface
  • simplified management console
SolarWinds Server and App monitor are a good solution if you need something affordable and have a hybrid infrastructure in place. Being able to hook into AWS, Azure for IaaS and PaaS is a huge plus.
January 18, 2022

SW Review :)

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We use SolarWinds to manage our servers and networks in our organization.
  • Network Monitoring
  • Alerts
When our Network goes down, it alerts us that our Network is down and which Network is down. It makes it easy to pinpoint.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We make use of SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor throughout the whole organization. It has solved many issues for us, from quickly monitoring our infrastructure and alerting when systems are down, when resources (eg disk space) are running low to giving us a single view into our virtualization, network, as well as server environment. It is our number one tool for monitoring of the environment and allows us to not only be proactive when it comes to potential outages, but also allows us to quickly diagnose faults and incidents and resolve the outage quickly so that staff are able to carry on working.
  • The layout and feel of the product first and foremost. You can have a product which can do everything under the sun, however if it's lacking visually or hard to navigate, it's not very useful.
  • Seamless integration of assets between the various modules of SolarWinds, makes it a breeze to monitor or report on the environment.
  • Customisation - All aspects of the software is customisable, whether its reporting or when it comes monitoring configuration, SolarWinds SAM allows you to customise it fully to your environment so you achieve the best outcomes when it comes to monitoring and alerting.
  • The get the best out of it requires a decent amount of knowledge of the product. In saying that, you could absolutely get the basics up and running using their how-to's and built in wizards, and with continual use find your way around and customise it further to your environment to best serve your organisation/objectives.
Absolutely I would recommend the product. If you want a single product to monitor and manage your whole environment, whether it's hardware, servers (physical or virtualised), networking and all from a single "portal" Solarwinds SAM is what you want to use. You could quite easily start off with SAM, and then decide you wish to monitor the networking side of things, you can obtain the NTA/MPM module, if you wish to monitor IP address usage, or IP conflicts, DHCP etc., you can install the IPAM module. It all neatly integrates into the same portal, meaning you go to one address and all the information is there at your fingertips.
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