Database Performance Analyzer - Subscription (Linux)

We use SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer for performance monitoring, tuning, and troubleshooting performance issues. It's mainly related to performance and the database community. Database administrators handle queries and system impacts.

The most valuable feature of SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is anomaly detection. It alerts you when things outside the norm are happening, and the feature that analyzes your indexes informs you if you have wide or overlapping indexes. It also helps identify SQL query bottlenecks, letting you know if something is taking longer than usual if a query plan has changed, and if you need to update statistics.

In terms of usage, it is straightforward to use, learn and understand. The patching process is smooth and explains each feature, including links to external resources for further reading. 

I have been using SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer for the past four years.

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is very stable. It's well-maintained, and I haven't experienced any unplanned outages.

The solution's scalability can be increased through the number of nodes in the SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer. It isn’t tricky and majorly requires payment.

The support team is excellent, very responsive, and quick to address issues based on severity.

Positive

Maintenance requires minimal effort; usually, just one person is enough to check for new packages andupgrades.

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer has significantly improved our efficiency. It makes managing database servers 90% easier. It pinpoints issues without a deep dive, identifying bottlenecks and suggesting fixes.

The pricing of the solution is average. 

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer's AI-driven analytics have enhanced our data management strategies through anomaly detection. It establishes a baseline of what is expected and alerts us to anything outside that norm, allowing for preventative monitoring and maintenance. Instead of customers reporting issues, the AI alerts us to performance-related problems in advance.

I would recommend the SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer to others. It makes management more accessible and improved my skills thanks to the extensive knowledge available in the application. It helps distinguish between normal and abnormal behaviour and has a large user community. 

Overall, I would rate SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer a nine out of ten.

Our customers' main use cases revolve around database monitoring. While many existing tools can handle basic monitoring tasks, more complex scenarios arise in enterprises. In these cases, customers need to identify bottlenecks and optimize performance. This is where a database performance tool like SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer comes into play.

In IT, problems often occur in areas such as applications, web interfaces, or databases. The tool allows users to easily determine the root cause of these issues, whether they stem from the network layer, database layer, or elsewhere.

According to our clients, one of the standout features of SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is its advanced anomaly detection capabilities. While the tool may not heavily emphasize AI or ML, its advanced analytics and machine learning functionalities monitor extremely well. 

One area where the tool could improve is by adding support for additional databases. For instance, supporting newer databases like Couchbase or MongoDB would be beneficial. 

I have been using the product for four years. 

I would rate the tool's stability as eight or nine out of ten. 

While the tool performs exceptionally well for small and medium-sized enterprises, there may be scalability issues for very large enterprises. Scalability could be improved, particularly in accommodating more servers and databases. Currently, there may be challenges with scalability, requiring the addition of multiple instances to address these limitations. My company has six to eight customers. 

The technical support has been excellent. We've had a great relationship with the support team; they've been very proactive. Whenever we needed assistance, they responded within 24 hours. 

The solution's deployment is of medium complexity. It can be completed in a few weeks. 

Customers need to pay for the subscription-based license annually.

My recommendation would be to explore SolarWinds SAM for database monitoring. SolarWinds SAM can handle alerts and cover various aspects like server, application, and database monitoring. However, if there are specific metrics or use cases that SolarWinds SAM cannot address, consider looking into SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer. 

I rate the overall product an eight out of ten. Databases are critical for large enterprises, and customer satisfaction is paramount, particularly for such businesses. Implementing tools like the product is essential to mitigate any potential dissatisfaction. It allows database administrators to address issues before customers even notice problems such as lag.

When something pops up, the solution helps us define the right area to find whatever solution we need.

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer helped us locate the performance issues quickly.

The solution’s performance could be improved.

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer should include more details on how everything works.

I have been using SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer for six years.

I rate SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer ten out of ten for stability.

I rate SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer a nine out of ten for scalability.

The solution’s technical support is good.

Positive

We previously used SQL manager.

The solution’s initial setup is straightforward.

We are using the latest version of SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer.

The solution is deployed on-cloud in our organization.

I would recommend users compare SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer with other software before choosing it.

Overall, I rate SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer a nine out of ten.

The primary use cases involve identifying database performance issues, such as long-running queries, wait times, deadlocks, and other read-and-write performance-related issues.

Long-running queries are particularly common, and customers find the tool useful for pinpointing such issues.

DPA  has been helpful in providing recommendations to improve DB performance. The Table tuning advisories, causes for long-running queries, reasons for wait-times & deadlocks have helped tune the databases to give optimal performance.

Index Advisories, Query Advisories & Table Advisories are the most valuable features of DPA . They provide valuable insights into the issues that cause performance degradation on our databases. Identifying indexation issues, long running queries & tuning tables.

There's room for improvement on the dashboarding side. Specifically, the health dashboard of the database instances. Some of my customers deal with a large number of monitored database instances. 

It would be beneficial if they could have a single dashboard for instances, for example, from number one to thirty. This way, I could monitor all these 30 instances and quickly identify any performance issues on any of them. The dashboarding capability definitely needs improvement.

In future releases, there should be custom reports and dashboards are crucial. Not everyone needs to see the same page every time. For example, if I'm interested in MYSQL databases, I should have a view that focuses only on MYSQL databases. Customization like this, where users can tailor their dashboards to specific needs, is essential for improving the product.

I have been using this solution for more than 2 years. 

It is a pretty stable product. 

It is scalable. In my current environment, I haven't faced challenges in adding more instances for monitoring.

The solution is usually highly recommended for larger enterprises. Large companies often face challenges with database administrators struggling to manage a large number of database instances. So, they could benefit from using this product. 

For smaller setups, a tool may still be valuable, especially if they have a few database instances to monitor. They might manage with native tools like MSSQL  Management Studio, which can provide indications if not detailed, performance statistics. However, the significant benefit of this tool is realized more by larger organizations

The initial support (Level 1) might struggle with DPA issues, but escalated cases receive proper support. There is room for improvement in Level 1 support.

Neutral

We exclusively work with SolarWinds for database monitoring.

The initial setup is pretty straightforward. The best part is that SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer  (DPA) can be used as a standalone tool or integrated seamlessly with other SolarWinds tools. For instance, it can integrate with server and application monitoring. 

DPA is a specialized tool for databases, while server and application monitoring is a generic tool for all applications, including databases

We mainly deploy the SolarWinds stack for our customers.

The pricing is fairly reasonable, and it becomes more cost-effective with larger volumes of instances.

Maintenance support is included for the first year, and subsequent years require payment for software and subscriptions.

I would suggest carefully charting out critical database instances and figuring out if the user is facing application slowness issues. If yes, they should first use simple server and application monitoring to determine whether the issues lie outside the database or within. It could be an underlying storage, server, or network-related problem.

To pinpoint network or server-related issues it can get complex. There could be physical server issues, virtual server issues, host layer problems, or underlying storage or SAN environment concerns, if they have any.

Overall, I would rate the solution an eight out of ten. The areas where it currently lags are in reporting and dashboarding. The reports and dashboards are somewhat static, and we cannot create custom dashboards for specific customer needs.

We use the tool for sharing and monitoring Microsoft SQL server databases.

The platform solves and prevents delays in receiving answers from databases. We can view several factors and compare queries. We can monitor potential problems for delays from hardware resources as well. We can investigate and tell where the problem is or where the problem could be in the future.

There is room for improvement with the pricing of the platform. It could be cheaper.

I have been working as a partner with SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer for five months.

The stability of this platform is a ten out of ten.

Scalability-wise, the platform is perfect.

The initial setup is simple and agentless. It is deployed on-premises in our organization. As it is connected to the databases, we only need to let it work for two weeks or even a little more so it can understand the wait times, and later monitor the changes.

I rate the platform’s pricing a seven out of ten. It could be less expensive.

If you buy the hybrid cloud severability license, you get several modules like network performance, the network traffic analyzer, etc. Additionally, DPA integrates very well with server and application monitoring solutions. There is a product called SAM, which is about monitoring the servers. You can have good integration between those two solutions.

I rate the platform a nine out of ten.