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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 …
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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%
  • Threshold alerts (271)
    9.0
    90%
  • Application monitoring (266)
    9.0
    90%
  • Out-of-the box templates to monitor applications (256)
    8.0
    80%
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Pricing

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Unavailable

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 AppStack™ dashboardScreenshot of Microsoft Exchange performance monitoring with AppInsight™ templateScreenshot of Microsoft IIS performance monitoring with AppInsight™ 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

(653)

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

(201-225 of 278)
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Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It is well suited to heterogeneous environments with a mix of different server brands, types and software. If you have a single vendor solution, generally, that vendor's monitoring solution will be more appropriate. It also helps to have someone familiar with the software teach you how to use it, as it can be difficult to learn and tune on your own.
Nathan Tennant | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
We have found it very useful for monitoring static devices, less useful for monitoring devices that are mobile or change often. So it's been really good for infrastructure devices, less so for end-users and end-user devices.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor is well suited for large environments that need constant monitoring with a dedicated support staff who can configure and adjust the settings. It may be less appropriate in smaller environments where the support staff is unable to focus on maintaining the software and keeping it fine tuned. A simpler solution may be better if looking for something quick to stand up.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I think this tool can be used for small and large companies. You don't really need a full time admin of SW to administer it and only needs a reboot from time to time to keep the resources purring along.
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
It's very well suited to Windows, Exchange, SQL, and IIS environments. Right out of the box, it can easily detect and setup checks for these systems, whether they're Physical or Virtual.

It's not well suited for "point in time" SQL Server monitoring. If we have an issue with our SQL Server at 2am, we're unable to roll back the clock within SAM, and get detailed info regarding the state of this SQL Server. We had to go and purchase a different tool for this (SentryOne SQL Monitor).
Long Ha | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Again, inside the resources feature, you can't individually select the resource you want to monitor and don't want to monitor. There are duplicated resources within other packages, but you can't break apart.
September 04, 2018

Wow great product

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
SolarWinds can be shared with another application server and placed on a shared SQL server. This is great when considering having the upkeep with servers in one's environment. SAM has been an important tool in our strategy to be more proactive and discover/resolve minor issues before they blow up into huge issues. Abilities such as alerting on a service crashing and automatically restarting it, or specific app templates for Exchange and SQL with a large number of items to monitor give deep insight into these mission critical apps. In addition the built-in documentation does more than just tell you when something passes a threshold, it gives a reference to what the parameter means so you can determine if you need to adjust the threshold for your environment.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor is very useful for an infrastructure of any size. Regardless of how many devices or appliances, virtual or physical, that you may have, SolarWinds will give you a very easy to use monitoring system.
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor may not be as useful for non-domain environment however.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
I'd say in most scenarios, at least based on the size of the infrastructure, it's very well suited and scales easily. Especially during our expansion of our VDI infrastructure. Non-domain based infrastructure would be by best example.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
Solarwinds is well suited for our webserver environment. It detects and monitors the health of the webservers and the virtual load balancer. It monitors the services collectively across the web servers.

In Scenarios where attempting monitoring from Cloud/on-premise or on-premise/cloud deployments. This application needs further work.
Bear Golightly | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
SAM (along with the rest of the Orion suite) is a solid monitoring/alerting solution for most SMBs, with a few exceptions:

1. If you have a high change rate (adding or removing nodes/applications, etc), SAM might not be for you- there is an API, but it is not very good, so you will probably be doing most of your configuration using the web interface
2. If you have a large enough environment that it makes sense to have several staff [members] to manage the care and feeding of infrastructure monitoring, you might be better off using an open-source solution and rolling your own
3. If cost is a major factor, SolarWinds products might not be for you- everything SolarWinds sells is incredibly expensive.
Miguel Angel Merino Vega | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
If you have a hybrid environment with applications in multiple languages, SolarWinds SAM is the way to go. You can never go wrong with all the centralized monitoring it has. If you rely on Microsoft applications and consider to monitor only these systems, maybe you would prefer Log Analytics or the robust SCOM. On the other hand, if your ecosystem is small (1 or 2 application for a startup), I would recommend ad hoc tools specialized in these particular scenarios.
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