Item: SolarWinds SQL Sentry
Rating: 9
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

The dashboard view of our server allows us to monitor the activity on our primary system and at a glance know if there is an issue. Getting to travel back in time and isolate performance issues is a huge bonus for us. We have been able to optimize and reduce issues with our database allowing our users to have a better experience with the dependent software. We also use it to monitor and plan our ETL jobs to not interfere with each other. In our regional community, we recommend others to SQL Sentry to monitor their Microsoft SQL instances.

Pros and Cons

Real-Time Monitoring
Top Long Running SQL
Performance troubleshooting
Job Monitoring/Planning
Procedure and Query Statistics
Shiny Easy to use interface for those not comfortable with writing Queries

Integration with Azure Data Studio
A Containerized, platform agnostic web client
Support for Other Operating Systems
Support for other databases

Key Insights

Do you think SolarWinds SQL Sentry delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with SolarWinds SQL Sentry's feature set?

Yes

Did SolarWinds SQL Sentry live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of SolarWinds SQL Sentry go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy SolarWinds SQL Sentry again?

Yes

Alternatives Considered

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.

Other Software Used

Docker, SUSE Rancher, Google Data Studio

Likelihood to Recommend

Just had an end-user approach me about a long-running report. I was able to utilize the Top SQL tab and view the long-running report, copy the SQL being executed so I can place it in a notebook for later review for performance optimization. My manager looked in on the DBA Space earlier this morning to inquire about login issues for an application. As we had the dashboard loaded on our primary monitor, we were able to quickly glance and identify that the issue was not with the database. The issue was with a specific web server that was identified with other tools. We received a lot of calls in a short period of time with reports of 504 issues in the application. Using the Top SQL tab, identified that there was a report query being run multiple times that was causing table locks to not release. All these issues were identified in seconds with SentyOne. Most were resolved in under 60 seconds from the initial report of concern.

SQL Sentry is a must if you have Microsoft SQL databases

Overall Satisfaction with SolarWinds SQL Sentry