Item: SolarWinds SQL Sentry
Rating: 8
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Monitor production and development instances for benchmarking, baselining and troubleshooting. we shared access with devs, dbas and ops team to give full insight to the sql server performance. gave everyone a single view of issues and way to share issues or concerns across all teams. with enough rbac controls to keep things simple and secure

Pros and Cons

In-depth monitoring
Vast array of customisation
support

Documentation of customization
Configuration
explain what is being monitored and default alert values

Alternatives Considered

Redgate SQL Monitor

sql sentry is more expensive that some of its other competitors (red gate sql monitor for example) but you do get more for money. if you have experianced database adminstrators and database developers you will certainly get value for what SQL sentry gives you. but if you are diverse team (ie not just a dba) or just learning it may give to much information that can flood you

Other Software Used

Snyk, WhiteSource Bolt, SonarQube

Likelihood to Recommend

Great for indepth monitoring where you can plug in 3rd party tool and know you are gathering everything needed to troubleshoot issues. If you dont have a datbase administrator, the amount of details gathered may be to large and set you off down the wrong path / give you red herrings for some issues

Return on Investment

shared knowledge
indepth monitoring
cusotmization

Support Rating

9

Great support from the team both pre and post purchase

Business Processes Supported

alerting of sql server performance issues
review history of sql server performance
large collection of logs collected against sql server to give an overview of current or passed events

Key Differentiators

Product Features
Product Reputation
Vendor Reputation

Users and Roles

5 - dba/dev/ops

Support Headcount Required

3 - dba/dev/ops

Innovative Uses

check install is following best practices
allows all teams to share and review the same performance issues

Future Planned Uses

covering more environments

Likelihood to Renew

5

depending on the amount of time you have to review and update code based on the tool. if you are looking for low hanging fruit to fix this may be overkill, if you looking to run a business critical app that you need to fine tune to as much as your dev/dba can this is a good option

Products Replaced

No

Evaluation Lessons Learned

if you could run multiple tools against a similar workload with known issues that would help you highlight the differences in each tool and show if one tool is easier to you than other.

Implementation Rating

8

got offered free support for one of the sql sentry experts to come and review our workloads was a nice extra touch to see how to performance tune using there tooling

Implementation Details / Implementation Partner

Implemented in-house

Implementation Phases

No

Change Management Lessons

Change management was a small part of the implementation and was well-handled

Implementation Issues

customized configuration
changing default settings
alerting

Training Types Used

in-person training

Pros	Cons
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