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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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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

(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

(176-200 of 278)
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January 23, 2019

SAM Review

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • We found AppInsight for exchange very useful. The level of detail on the inner workings is almost too much.
  • User experience monitors are also very useful. We use them to verify web form logins, SSH, and other processes are up and running.
  • Windows process monitors are great too! Very easy to set up and a quick way to monitor services.
  • AppInsight takes up 50 licenses: a bit steep. With a base 150 license count, we can't run AppInsight for SQL, Exchange, and IIS without running out of licenses.
  • We get a lot of timeouts monitoring external websites. Still, we haven't determined why this happens. We have dual 2gig pipes to the internet.
Dan Watson | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Monitoring - I can easily use built-in templates for most things, but I can also easily create custom monitors for things that are more unique to my environment.
  • Alerting - It takes some work to get it exactly right, but you can tune your alerts to ensure you are not crying wolf.
  • Application insights - the templates for monitoring Exchange and SQL performance really allow you to quickly and easily pinpoint and attack problem areas in these critical applications.
  • Licensing - while the model is simple, it can be frustrating. New features, like AppInsight, use a ton of "monitors" so you will always need/want to upgrade to the next level. The difference in licenses/pricing can be startling. For example, if you need 301 you have to buy 700. Finding more flexibility here would make happier customers.
  • Sales - the sales team is unnecessarily aggressive in their tactics. They will call and email every listed contact they can find repeatedly offering account reviews, quarter end sales, etc.
Jennifer Aguilar | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Triggered Alerts
  • Custom Thresholds
  • Integration with IIS, Exchange, Active Directory out of the box!
  • Top 10 Lists - Monitored,
  • Integrationg with Orion
  • I would like to see SolarWinds Server & Application monitor have 2 modes or themes available; day time or what you currently have available. I would like to see a second option available, a dark theme.
  • I would like to see SolarWinds Server & Application monitor to allow for unlimited nodes and applications to be monitored with a base license. The end user is responsible for resources!
  • I would like to see SolarWinds Server & Application monitor have additional configuration features available to the end user on the Settings page. For example, SMTP configuration specifically for SAM.
January 22, 2019

AM Review

Zack Davis | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Alerts on failed tasks.
  • Helps us plan for disk space growth.
  • Aid in analyzing over/under utilization of system resources.
  • Maintenance on keeping things clean is time consuming.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Very powerful and configurable.
  • Very difficult to get alerts configured quite right
  • Very little troubleshooting options available if an alert doesn't fire as expected
stephen schleeper | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Monitor voice network and quality
  • Monitor exchange databases
  • Monitor network connectivity
  • Server uptime
  • The ability to remove modules without having to rebuild the whole system. The recent test of WPM has shown that when using the trial version it becomes embedded and difficult to remove all parts
  • The requirement for 3.5 dot net. The system is old and should be updated.
  • I like the SolarWinds help group, but sometimes you don’t get replies for weeks regarding some of the more obscure problems. Easier to open tickets than have to wait for help from others.
Valery Mezentsau | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Huge variety of options for monitoring.
  • Flexible configuration.
  • infrastructure mapping.
  • Performance and storage monitoring.
  • Single console for virtualized assets management.
  • Alert management.
  • Integration with other solutions for better monitoring and control.
  • More details on monitoring Exchange, SQL, IIS, etc.
  • In most cases, the interface is overloaded with information that is not important for quick monitoring check and takes time to understand all the functions.
December 10, 2018

Love at first SAM

Khamsay Phimmasanh-Baig | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Users By % Mailbox Quota Used is great for notifying users to archive.
  • Mailbox Database Size and Space Use is great for monitoring your DB size quickly and the alerts are a plus.
  • Critical Processes and Services is great because it shows the health status... I check it daily and have alerts set to notify me if there are any warnings.
  • I would like to add a widget for "Users By % Mailbox Quota Used" to my SolarWinds home page summary dashboard but this option is not available.
  • More widgets for alerts.
  • Cisco Jabber integration would be nice.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Track service uptime.
  • Track dependencies and control alerting accordingly.
  • Easy to configure and get a basic foundation working quickly.
  • Can take a while to get all facets of the program configured.
  • Needs multiple servers to be installed as recommended.
  • Can be complicated to integrate alert notifications into other ticketing systems.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Provides up/down/reboot notifications via customizable alerts to impacted parties
  • Provides insight on exchange, sql and other environments to assist with troubleshooting
  • Provides historical and forecasting data that can be used to assist with resource or server issues
  • Better seamless integration with vcenter, as in an api plugin
  • Better linkage for virtualization within the home page
  • Better details available for VMs
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Monitors on Prem and Cloud Assets
  • Easy to configure alerts
  • Wide variety of templates and applications it can monitor out of the box.
  • Deployment is pretty easy but could be simplified.
  • Integration with other SolarWinds products could improve.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Ease of use and operability. User friendly and intuitive console.
  • Great dashboard capabilities.
  • Easy to manage. Add devices to monitor in a step by step process that's very easy to follow even for a not so technical person.
  • Reporting of critical issues through some type of notification other than email would be a great add-on.
  • Sometimes you need to remove a device from a console and re-add if its not reporting properly.
  • AI for monitoring would rule out human error. That could be a great future enhancement for this tool.
December 02, 2018

Enjoy SAM

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • SAM templates allow me to customize components and thresholds on the fly.
  • SAM templates allow me to create dynamic and useful NOC pages for non-technical users.
  • SAM allows me to test without deployment and confirm settings before I deploy into production.
  • It allows me to tap into the Thwack community to pull in custom templates and choose components that may work for me without having to use all of them. I can pick and choose the items that work best for my needs.
  • I am not always familiar with the specifics of the components with scripting or usage and I sometimes find the documentation spotty in helping me achieve what I am attempting to do. I would likes to see more examples.
  • I would like better metrics provided to me on the performance of SAM and how it relates to poller performance.
Kay Peek | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 7 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Uptime reporting
  • Memory Utilization reporting
  • CPU Utilization reporting
  • Managing and sending alerts
  • Adding servers is not as intuitive as I'd like. It seems like there are multiple places to add, but only one method is correct.
  • There's a learning curve for new users to have to get past in understanding the administrative portions.
  • Sleeping email alerts for times during maintenance windows is not something we have gotten fully worked out.
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Asset discovery.
  • Custom MIBs
  • Interoperability
  • HA installations are hard to upgrade.
  • HA deployment has an active node that is plugged into the network and a standby node that is not. This makes patching the server much harder to do.
  • Upgrades in general can be very time consuming.
Ashton Bellah | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Monitoring individual services.
  • AppInsight for applications.
  • Automation of tasks.
  • Better integration with mapping the network. We are not a fan of Network Topology Mapper.
  • Better insights for SQL without buying another add-on.
  • Seems the focus is on adding new applications to sell instead of improving the current lineup.
November 07, 2018

SolarWinds helps uptime

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • If a server is down or not responding SolarWinds will tell us exactly which server needs attention.
  • When a switch goes down or loses connection SolarWinds will tell us so we can have the network group fix the problem.
  • SolarWinds does not provide much help with slow response problems.
November 07, 2018

SAM Saves the Day!

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • SAM's included templates target the most commonly needed application monitors.
  • SAM links directly to a community lead custom application monitor repository, for those monitors that are not included out-of-the-box.
  • Custom SAM monitors are easy to build, and have virtually no limits. If it exists, it can be monitored.
  • Linux support is still pretty young. Most of the monitors are geared for MS Windows Server applications.
  • As with any customizable/powerful application, there can be a steep learning curve.
  • SAM seems to lack a discovery tool that helps you build your own custom monitors. You have to have a good understanding of the application you are monitoring before you can really get started.
November 07, 2018

Happy to Use the Tool

Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Ability to keep an eye on key systems.
  • Ease of use by those who have limited experience with monitoring solutions.
  • Robust enough to be tuned to a specific use-case.
  • NCM helps us make sure we have backups of our configs should we lose a switch and need to RMA.
  • Sometimes the demand of additional pollers gets tiresome, and becomes very obvious when there are not adequate resources.
  • Bulk adding of nodes is a clunky and cumbersome process.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • The broad based alerting is great! Our virtual environment alone is a full time job to monitor and this makes it easy using the alerting console.
  • the ability to fully customize your thresholds for alerts and the ability to turn off the functions you do not want to be alerted on is great.
  • We love the fact that it will monitor and alert on a huge array of functions on both our Linux servers and our Windows boxes is great. One multi-purpose tool...the Swiss Army knife of server and app monitoring.
  • Large environment polling frequency.
  • Hooks into more storage centric variables. (EMC)
  • Ability to hook into other management platforms to correct issues through the same interface.
November 06, 2018

SolarWinds at a glance.

Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Identify hardware issues
  • Identify interface over utilization
  • Provide application service level monitoring.
  • Allow customization alert prioritization of importance. While an alert on node A may be very important for it an Alert for node B is larger scheme of things is more important when looking at a list of things with problems. May even be same type of service but B is more important and in large data centers if multiple things are going wrong have list of most to least important would allow quicker response time.
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Easy to configure over other solutions. Works with the built in MS SQL Express. Easy to migrate to SQL standard if needed.
  • Easy out of the box reports. Most of what you want to know is there from the get-go. Sometimes you need a different angle and the report writer is your friend.
  • Alerting isn't confusing. Other products sometimes don't make sense when they send an alert out. SolarWinds SAM can tell you exactly what is up, down, warned, and you can link the alert message right to the node with the problem. Get email. Click. There. Simple.
  • While it is generally easy to get going with SAM and the Orion platform, getting into the weeds can be difficult and overwhelming.
  • SAM opens the door to monitoring and reporting on a verity of things. I think Orion is designed to leave things out so you buy more.
  • Fine tuning thresholds can be confusing. SolarWinds defaults on somethings that don't make sense in a real environment. But not all environments are the same. They could give you more guidance.
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
Incentivized
  • Setup and configuration is well documented and I don't remember any issues with install.
  • SAM allows us to catch an app in "normal" state and compare to current performance.
  • Flexible enough to be used in multiple situations with multiple applications.
  • More template like functionality to increase use cases for the product.
  • The ability to bring additional apps into the product that are supported out of the box.
  • Support calls can take a while to get routed to the correct team for the right support.
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