Complete monitoring of SQL server
November 21, 2019

Complete monitoring of SQL server

Richard Bober | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 9 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with SQL Sentry

We use the product to identify performance issues as they occur, with the goal of improving our processes and software to eliminate these issues going forward. We also use the product to monitor the health of our servers and to identify developing issues well before they actually make an impact on the environment.

Pros

  • Monitors running processes and reports when they exceed runtimes well beyond those that are considered normal.
  • Tracks resource utilization on the SQL Servers and makes recommendations on reconfigurations that would improve performance.
  • Tracks troublesome and long-running SQL queries and provides insights into improvements that could be made.

Cons

  • The user interface is intimidating, and not very friendly. You really have to study and work with the product in order to find what you're looking for.
  • The product is SO feature-rich that it is hard to get started simply.
  • The warning messages for various server conditions are great, but the "as shipped" values don't work very well with our environment, so there's a tremendous amount of setup necessary.
I evaluated both and thought that SQL Sentry was a much more mature and complete product for approximately the same cost.
It's great for making sure your environment is performing well. I love the fact that I can monitor my entire SQL Server estate from 1 screen. However, the setup and customization to ensure your inbox doesn't get inundated with warning messages are tedious and time-consuming.

SolarWinds SQL Sentry Feature Ratings

SQL Performance Monitoring
8.6
Performance dashboard
9
Intelligent alerting
7
Top SQL
9
Historical trend data
9
Virtualization support
9

SQL Sentry Support

Very seldom do I need to wait an hour for a response, and the support techs are knowledgeable and really work to make sure your problem is resolved.
ProsCons
Quick Resolution
Good followup
Knowledgeable team
Problems get solved
Kept well informed
No escalation required
Immediate help available
Support understands my problem
Support cares about my success
Quick Initial Response
None
I found that I needed to re-deploy the monitoring process because I wanted to get it installed on a dedicated server rather than my personal workstation. I got complete, step-by-step instructions from the support rep, plus a couple of recommendations from him when we discussed what my plan was and what the ultimate goal was.

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