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Lives up to the hype
Updated April 28, 2020

Lives up to the hype

Anonymous | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 10 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Overall Satisfaction with SQL Sentry

SQL Sentry started out being used by one division/group and has now expanded to another group and working on expanding to additional areas. It is being used to proactively discover database related issues and manage SQL jobs across different database servers.
  • SQL job management.
  • SQL server monitoring.
  • Alerting.
  • Windows task management.
  • Object hierarchy.
I personally haven't looked at others although some other departments have used Idera solution and then switched to SQL Sentry.
I would think for mid-size groups/divisions it works the best. I cannot imagine having more than 10 or so servers on one monitoring service. It is great when you have a lot of inexperienced users hitting the same database servers with ad hoc queries. SQL Sentry is much more powerful than I know I am using it for, it just takes time to figure out what is best for your own use.

SolarWinds SQL Sentry Feature Ratings

SQL Performance Monitoring
8.8
Performance dashboard
8
Intelligent alerting
9
Top SQL
10
Historical trend data
8
Virtualization support
Not Rated

Using SQL Sentry

5 - Database administrators and their backup/managers
3 - Database Administrators, need to understand servers and software
  • monitoring
  • event chains for jobs
  • troubleshooting
  • none
  • working on getting other departments using SQL Sentry
  • increased efficiency with troubleshooting
  • easier job management with event chains
makes my job much easier

Evaluating SQL Sentry and Competitors

Not Sure
  • Product Features
  • Product Usability
  • Prior Experience with the Product
features make it the best product
I wouldn't change it

SQL Sentry Implementation

we have done several upgrades over the years and moving application to new server always goes smoother than what I anticipate
  • Implemented in-house
Change management was a small part of the implementation and was well-handled - we just use it to let everyone know what is happening when we upgrade or implement in case they get alerts for jobs or servers.
  • forgetting to make sure we change database name when installing since ours is SQLSentry
  • making sure others update the client on their laptop

SQL Sentry Support

very responsive and polite
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
No - don't need it, lots of documentation online and video tutorials
years ago we had an issue with event chains hanging up and not seeing that the jobs were completing so we worked with SentryOne team to write a query to run automatically to mark jobs as completed if needed. Learned a lot from the SentryOne team.

Using SQL Sentry

great functionality and mostly easy to figure out, lots of documentation
ProsCons
Like to use
Relatively simple
Easy to use
Technical support not required
Well integrated
Consistent
Quick to learn
Convenient
Feel confident using
Familiar
None
  • event chains
  • monitoring
  • conditions and settings at the different levels