Item: SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor
Rating: 9
Author: Tim Kovars

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

The IT department uses SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor to monitor our entire server environment, both physical and virtual. We are mainly a Windows shop and do additional monitoring of Active Directory, SQL, Citrix and custom apps or specific services we are looking to monitor. It keeps track of server up/downs, memory/CPU and application outages.

Pros and Cons

Server health, using insight through WMI for what Microsoft is seeing from within the box.
Monitoring services/apps through AppInsight and being able to add specific services not included or for other applications.

Sometimes and easy button would be nice to simplify the views and data collected.
Sales calls are persistent for anyone who has any involvement, which is just plain annoying.

Return on Investment

Being able to see servers in a down state to resolve them before it is an issue/a major issue.
Not having an outage because a disk becomes full.

Alternatives Considered

None, it was in-place when I got here.

Likelihood to Recommend

I feel it shines in monitoring a mix of virtual and physical servers. There are other products that have issues with that physical piece, but SAM doesn't care which one it is. While a bear to maintain at times, the custom-ability is another place it does well. Being able to monitor things not included/out of the box is a key feature. The user community is strong and has a lot of useful input.

My Opinion on SolarWinds SAM

Overall Satisfaction with SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros and Cons

Return on Investment

Alternatives Considered

Likelihood to Recommend

SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor Feature Ratings

SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor Premier Support