Sentry One - the good and the bad
To alert us of any issues with our SQL Server estate and to identify bottlenecks such as slow running queries so we can tune them for …
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What is SolarWinds SQL Sentry?
SolarWinds SQL Sentry is designed to help data professionals optimize SQL Server database performance in physical, virtual, and cloud environments. SQL Sentry delivers metrics to help users find and fix database performance problems and provides scalability, boasting demonstrated success monitoring 800+ SQL Server…
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Popular Features
- Performance dashboard (102)9.292%
- Top SQL (102)8.686%
- Historical trend data (100)8.686%
- Intelligent alerting (96)7.979%
Pricing
Plan Explorer (SQL Server Query Tuning)
$0
On Premise
Free
SQL Sentry for Azure SQL Database
$161
On Premise
Per year per database (annual subscription)
SQL Sentry
1,450
On Premise
Per year per instance (annual subscription)
Entry-level set up fee?
- No setup fee
For the latest information on pricing, visithttp://www.sqlsentry.com/portal/store
Offerings
- Free Trial
- Free/Freemium Version
- Premium Consulting/Integration Services
Product Demos
SQL Sentry - Live Demo
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Product Details
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- Integrations
- Tech Details
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What is SolarWinds SQL Sentry?
SolarWinds SQL Sentry is designed to help data professionals optimize SQL Server database performance in physical, virtual, and cloud environments. SQL Sentry delivers metrics to help users find and fix database performance problems and provides scalability, boasting demonstrated success monitoring 800+ SQL Server instances with one monitoring database.
With SQL Sentry, the user can monitor:
- SQL Server
- Azure SQL Database
- SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS)
- SQL Server on Hyper-V or VMware VMs (including host)
- SQL Server on Azure SQL Database Managed Instance
- SQL Server on Amazon RDS
- SQL Server on Amazon EC2
- SQL Server on Linux
Although a SQL Sentry license can be used to monitor Azure SQL Database in a hybrid environment, dedicated licensing is available for large Azure SQL Database environments.
SolarWinds SQL Sentry Features
SQL Performance Monitoring Features
- Supported: Performance dashboard
- Supported: Intelligent alerting
- Supported: Top SQL
- Supported: Historical trend data
- Supported: Virtualization support
Additional Features
- Supported: Query plan analysis
- Supported: Blocking and deadlock analysis
- Supported: Event Calendar
- Supported: Advisory Conditions
- Supported: AlwaysOn Availability Groups monitoring
- Supported: Index analysis
- Supported: Storage Forecasting
- Supported: SQL Sentry Portal (installed SQL Sentry web interface)
- Supported: Environment Health Overview
- Supported: Tempdb analysis
- Supported: SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) monitoring
SolarWinds SQL Sentry Screenshots
SolarWinds SQL Sentry Integrations
SolarWinds SQL Sentry Technical Details
| Deployment Types | On-premise |
|---|---|
| Operating Systems | Windows |
| Mobile Application | No |
SolarWinds SQL Sentry Downloadables
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Reviews and Ratings
(162)Attribute Ratings
Reviews
(1-25 of 85)Companies can't remove reviews or game the system. Here's why
September 29, 2022
Sentry One - the good and the bad
It provided a much better feature set
January 19, 2022
[SolarWinds SQL Sentry] in a Nutshell
[SolarWinds] SQL Sentry was tested against multiple monitoring systems, but [it] topped them all as [it] was a monitoring tool that was created to pinpoint SQL Server and nothing else. It has features that a lot of other monitoring systems don't have and are not even developing and that's why [SolarWinds SQL Sentry] is a better pick in my eyes.
January 18, 2022
SQL Sentry is a must if you have Microsoft SQL databases
- Percona Monitoring and Management (PMM)
I wasn't involved in the decision-making for SQL Sentry, but having previously used PlanExplorer, I felt confident that SQL Sentry would be a good fit to monitor our Microsoft SQL Instances. I would recommend this platform to others that have Microsoft SQL that is in need of monitoring.
July 28, 2021
Great performance tool for the experienced DBA
SQL Sentry has a LOT more information in it than the SolarWinds DPA product. Its reporting tool isn't as good either.
The IDERA product isn't as reliable as SQL Sentry and its reporting isn't nearly as good. The IDERA UI is a resource hog and isn't as intuitive.
The IDERA product isn't as reliable as SQL Sentry and its reporting isn't nearly as good. The IDERA UI is a resource hog and isn't as intuitive.
We chose SolarWinds SQL Sentry because it met more of our requirements than any other single tool. Proactive monitoring, quick collection times (every few seconds vs minutes), flexible custom alerting as well as in-depth data for performance analysis (Top SQL is by far my favorite feature).
April 22, 2021
Sentry One a comprehensive monitoring tool
Detailed presentation of problems with details and graphs. This was lacking in the profiler. SQL Server has its canned reports, but not as useful as Sentry One. More variety of problem detection. For all Servers at one place. All affected servers in red are shown a one stop shop to see all affected servers.
- Idera SQL Diagnostic Manager
SQL Sentry was just a more slick application to use versus Idera. Visually it was easier to navigate and manage, and the ability to move licenses about to Instances was a benefit.
April 21, 2021
SQL Sentry makes my job easier
It has been a while now since using the Idera product, but SQL Sentry seems to provide greater configuration and alerting options. SQL Sentry offers 12 different options, all of which are configurable individually for each alert. It can be done at the global level as well as by a server. Even when configured at a global level, it can be changed to an individual server level or group of servers as needed.
April 21, 2021
Why Switch to SQL Sentry?
- Diagnostic Manager
Diagnostic Manager has a better interface to view waits. This is an issue for me. SQL Sentry does a better job with showing SQL statments, rolling up the metrics, providing the code and is able to show the SQL plans. The alerting in SQL Sentry is easier to use. We are having issues with integrating SQL Sentry with SCOM via SNMP, SQL Sentry is working on this.
The big difference in these products is support. Both of these products have bugs and in some cases stop functioning. You can rollback to prior versions but all of this is time spent on the tool as opposed to doing the job. The support provided by SQL Sentry is magnitudes better than the support we got from Diagnostic Manager.
The big difference in these products is support. Both of these products have bugs and in some cases stop functioning. You can rollback to prior versions but all of this is time spent on the tool as opposed to doing the job. The support provided by SQL Sentry is magnitudes better than the support we got from Diagnostic Manager.
April 13, 2021
SQL Sentry to keep an eye on things
For our use, SQL Sentry is just a better fit. It's faster to implement and easier to find the data we wanted to see.
April 07, 2021
Great Performance Monitoring Tool
I have used tools from Idera, redgate, and also Solarwinds. SQL Sentry is one of the better tools out on the market in my opinion.
June 25, 2020
SQL Sentry Review
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I like SQL Sentry the best. Foglight was a long time ago and way more comprehensive tool than I needed at the time. Diagnostic Manager has some good features but I had some capacity and performance issues at times with it. SQL Sentry has been consistent and effective at monitoring our environment.
May 23, 2020
Sql Sentry, a power tool for DBAs
- Idera SQL Diagnostic Manager
Other tools in the SQL Sentry Suite helped determine the purchasing decision. In particular the SQL Sentry Event manager product allowed us to easily connect and visualize the overnight process. Previously the overnight process was schedule driven and prone to fail as a result of upstream dependent job failures. Moving to an event driven model brought a great deal of stability to the night.
- SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer for SQL Server, Sequel Pro, Dell Spotlight and Toad for Oracle
I use Toad and SolarWinds. Spotlight used too much of a server's resources. Sequel Pro was not as well-rounded for SQL reviews.
Both tools cover what you'd expect from an enterprise-grade SQL monitoring tool. Performance monitoring, alerting and diagnostics on both the tools are excellent and I cannot fault either on technical capabilities and feature offerings.
For SQL Managed Services providers, SQL Sentry shines in multi-client topology, thanks to their cloud monitoring.
I find the licensing models and subscription options available from SentryOne for SQL Sentry to be the best in the industry.
Account management support from SentryOne for SQL Sentry has been amazing. The team at SentryOne has been helpful, understanding and really involved in how we use the tool, and in enhancing our value proposition to clients with SQL Sentry.
For SQL Managed Services providers, SQL Sentry shines in multi-client topology, thanks to their cloud monitoring.
I find the licensing models and subscription options available from SentryOne for SQL Sentry to be the best in the industry.
Account management support from SentryOne for SQL Sentry has been amazing. The team at SentryOne has been helpful, understanding and really involved in how we use the tool, and in enhancing our value proposition to clients with SQL Sentry.
May 01, 2020
Splendid Sentry!
We went with demo and applicability and SQL Sentry was chosen based on our needs and reviews.
None, I've used SQL Sentry at another job in the past and recommended it to be used at my current job.
May 01, 2020
SQL Sentry Performance Advisor
sql sentry is more expensive that some of its other competitors (red gate sql monitor for example) but you do get more for money. if you have experianced database adminstrators and database developers you will certainly get value for what SQL sentry gives you. but if you are diverse team (ie not just a dba) or just learning it may give to much information that can flood you
May 01, 2020
SQL Sentry - Best of Breed
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
- Redgate SQL Monitor and Idera
Redgate is what we historically used. It is a great simple tool. However, with our complex environment, we needed something more robust. I will miss the multiple baseline graph overlays that I have only seen in Redgate.
Idera was a very close contender. We had it installed and running against our production environment. The suite of tools is very robust. But their monitoring tool hit our CPU. Their engineers and we were never able to identify the cause of the issue.
Idera was a very close contender. We had it installed and running against our production environment. The suite of tools is very robust. But their monitoring tool hit our CPU. Their engineers and we were never able to identify the cause of the issue.
May 01, 2020
Force Multiplier
SQL Sentry provided 24/7 indepth visibility and on a feature to feature comparison, simply outweighted other options available. The expertise at SentryOne is incredible, and it is reflected in their passion for the product, and the development and constant engagement with the customer base to ensure a premier monitoring product.
April 29, 2020
Great Performance Engineering Tool
AppDynamics strength lies in showing how the tiers of an application are performing. It shows some things that are good at a macro level for SQL, but it lacks the ability to dig into root cause as well as SQL Sentry. Spotlight and Foglight are also good tools in the space. There was an established user base on SQL Sentry that preferred to not switch.
April 28, 2020
Pandemonium Control
Much better alerting and more comprehensive diagnostic tool set.
April 28, 2020
Lives up to the hype
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
I personally haven't looked at others although some other departments have used Idera solution and then switched to SQL Sentry.
April 28, 2020
SentryOne Product Review
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User
With 100+ production servers to monitor, cost was the main reason we were able to switch from Idera to SentryOne. Both tools had comparable features but I was able to get more from SentryOne becasue sales reps were willing to work with us and make it a more cost effective solution.
April 28, 2020
Essential for any production server
Every resource has a different way of allowing users to access performance data and events, I simply think that SQL Sentry does it the best by displaying a dashboard that allows seeing the data in angles that no other has.