Item: SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer
Rating: 9
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

DPA is currently used by our development and support team to monitor our core database to keep an eye on performance day to day to avoid any rogue queries or new application causing issues for our business as a whole. In the early days of our business platform it was used to refine our queries to provide a better user experience.

Pros and Cons

Highlights abnormal query performance
Provides historical base line
Gives detailed insight and these days recommendations on how to improve performance

Not be written in JAVA and run on Apache
Upgrades are always a problem for us

Return on Investment

In the early days of our application this proved to give an invaluable insight to improve performance
It has also helped prevent issues before users have reported them which is great

Alternatives Considered

Redgate SQL Monitor

At the time of evaluation, this product was similar in terms of cost but DPA was far better to access query performance issues which were the most important aspect for us. Redgate at the time was heavier on resource monitoring which was less important at the time.

Likelihood to Recommend

The historical record aspect to view performance over time is invaluable, to be able to go back and see when things change which can then be related to application changes is great. Additionally, the live reporting current detail is brilliant for out of the blue and immediate issues that have to be dealt with.

Support Rating

I have had to use their support on a few occasions, for reasons that I am not clear about until recently I have always had problems upgrading the software (although the last 2 updates have gone without issue which I am very pleased to say).

On those unfortunate occasions, the support has been brilliant with either excellently documented guides on how to resolve the issue by myself or have been hands-on with calls and screen sharing to remotely fix the issue. Every time the problem was sorted and more importantly, nothing was lost (apart from a bit of time). And as I stated above whatever the problem was that was causing my upgrade issues appears to have been resolved in the last 2 updates.

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer Customer Support Pros and Cons

Pros	Cons
Quick Resolution Good followup Knowledgeable team Problems get solved No escalation required Immediate help available Support cares about my success Quick Initial Response	None

Premium Support

No - Don't require it. DPA is hugely useful but not considered mission-critical so premium support would be wasteful.

Bug Resolution

Exceptional Examples of SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer Support

As alluded to earlier I have had a number of issues during upgrading the software, despite following the guides for the process I had often been left with something not right, and on one occasion the service flat out refused to start. Troubleshooting guides didn't offer any solution so I contacted support. Within a short while I actually received a call from Solarwinds support to go over the problem, and following their clear given advice I was still not able to get the service started. The support engineer escalated the issue, whilst on the call, and almost immediately had someone available screen share to the server. They went thought the installation scripts and rather quickly found why the service wasn't starting, which they promptly resolved. I have to say to this day I think this was the most responsive, timely and impressive support call I have ever experienced.

I would like to close on the fact that this was a couple of years ago and more recently upgrading the software (at least on the last 2 occasions) has been problem-free for me.

SolarWinds DPA - perfect for query performance analysis.

Overall Satisfaction with SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer