SolarWinds Database Observability Reviews & Product Details

Database Observability is a type of monitoring solution designed to help users maintain optimal performance of their databases by providing insights into their operational health. This solution is tailored for database teams who require a robust tool to monitor, diagnose, and optimize their database systems, ensuring they function efficiently across various environments, whether on-premises or in the cloud. Targeted primarily at database administrators, DevOps teams, and IT professionals, Database Observability addresses the critical need for real-time insights into database performance. Its capabilities are essential for organizations that rely heavily on data-driven decision-making and require their databases to operate without interruption. With the increasing complexity of database environments, including hybrid setups that combine on-premises and cloud resources, the need for a comprehensive observability solution has never been more pressing. The key features of Database Observability include the ability to monitor key performance metrics, which allows users to track the health of their databases continuously. By detecting early warning signs of potential issues, teams can proactively address problems before they escalate into more significant disruptions. This feature is crucial for maintaining service availability and ensuring that end-users experience minimal downtime. In addition to monitoring, the solution offers diagnostic capabilities that enable users to rapidly identify and resolve performance challenges, such as slow queries and resource bottlenecks. This functionality is vital for maintaining optimal performance levels and ensuring that databases can handle increasing workloads efficiently. Furthermore, the optimization features allow users to fine-tune their database performance through query optimization, effective indexing strategies, and better resource utilization, ultimately leading to greater scalability. One of the standout aspects of Database Observability is its ability to provide a unified view of databases across various environments. This cross-environment visibility ensures that database teams can manage their systems effectively, regardless of where they are hosted. By consolidating insights into a single platform, users can streamline their monitoring processes and enhance their overall operational efficiency, making Database Observability a critical tool for modern database management.

Product Website

Seller

SolarWinds Worldwide LLC

Discussions

SolarWinds Database Observability Community

Languages Supported

English

Overview by

Sarah Geaney

Pricing

Pricing provided by SolarWinds Database Observability.

Flexible Database Performance Analyzer for virtualized environments or SQL Sentry license per instance

$1,399.00

Per Year

View More Pricing Information

SolarWinds Database Observability Integrations

(8)

Verified by SolarWinds Database Observability

SolarWinds Database Observability Media

SolarWinds Database Observability Demo - Cross-platform Database Home Page

Single-pane-of-class visualization of your cloud and on-premise databases.

SolarWinds Database Observability Demo - Database Instance Monitoring

DPA can monitor database instances you manage on both physical and virtual servers or Amazon RDS instances hosted in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)

SolarWinds Database Observability Demo - Table, Query, Index Advisors

Query advisors provide information to help you improve the performance of a specific query, including what type of waits were responsible for significant wait time, whether the statement was blocked by other sessions, and whether execution plans include potentially expensive steps such as full ta...

SolarWinds Database Observability Demo - Database Instance Resources

Use the resource metrics in DPA to monitor the health of your database and to correlate contention for resources with increases in database wait times

SolarWinds Database Observability Demo - Response Time Analysis

DPA graphically shows you where the longest wait times are, and it also identifies time periods when wait times that are longer than expected (anomalies)

SQL Sentry Quick Demo

Official Downloads

(1)

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From Monitoring to Mastery: Optimizing Database Performance With Observability

SolarWinds Database Observability Reviews (216)

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Cláudia J.

Projetos

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

12/27/2017

"Easy tools and efficient"

5/5

What do you like best about SolarWinds Database Observability?

Interface friendly, easy customizations, emission reports, creations alerts, instalations and show where have problem in data base, do what it says. Easy for add and remove data base, i think is better do work in option of remove the daba base only monitoring, but not lost your informations, and if after the user beed see her can do. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about SolarWinds Database Observability?

Months ago I have a problem in migrations server, when I try a new integrations with NPM. After more troubelshotter and grant help solarwinds team, all was it ok. Maybe to work in to simplify this process is better. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering SolarWinds Database Observability:

Ah add another tada base for monitoring. EX: Postgre, and Dababase not SQL . Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is SolarWinds Database Observability solving and how is that benefiting you?

Whem a daba base server os sistem are slow we can see before of the final user, for us this is a great reasons for user DPA. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Rasik R.

Consultant

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

12/28/2017

"DPA to trust your database"

4.5/5

What do you like best about SolarWinds Database Observability?

When a SQL Server database instance includes Availability Groups (AGs), the DPA homepage provides the following information:

The AG status icon AG_status_icons.png identifies database instances that include AGs. An AG status summary box shows the number of database instances with partially healthy or unhealthy AGs. As with other status summary boxes, click the filter next to a status to display only those instances. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about SolarWinds Database Observability?

Alerting needs to be more promising

Custom Report for Resources for a Program in DPA

Automatic exporting for DPA logs should be added into newer versions Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering SolarWinds Database Observability:

Great tool!!!

Ease of access

Ease of use

Easy to deploy

Very light weight

Data integrity is maintained Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is SolarWinds Database Observability solving and how is that benefiting you?

Its ease of use makes itself more prompt than the other tools.

The application is mostly used for the AWS environments.

Oracle 10gR2 (10.2.0.5) is not supported with DPA 10.2.579

Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Richard P.

Senior Network Engineer

Information Technology and Services

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

12/26/2017

"Excellent insight into what your Databases are really doing"

5/5

What do you like best about SolarWinds Database Observability?

The simple, yet very powerful interface makes DPA (Database Performance Analyzer) a product that is easy to implement and use. The power of the product gives insight that would otherwise only be available through hours of trial and error testing and processing. SQl can be complex to diagnose, but with DPA that time and effort is greatly reduced. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about SolarWinds Database Observability?

While the product is very complete it can't make users actually pay attention. Our DBAs have access, but don't rely on the product as much as they should. But then this is a shortcoming of pretty much anything. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering SolarWinds Database Observability:

Download the free trial and you'll find it easy to install configure and use. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is SolarWinds Database Observability solving and how is that benefiting you?

We had some slow performing SQL databases and DPA helped us identify underlying issues that couldn't be solved just be adding more CPU or memory Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Chad B.

VTC/AV Server Administrator

Telecommunications

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

12/21/2017

"Solarwinds DPA"

5/5

What do you like best about SolarWinds Database Observability?

I love the integration with the existing Orion platform, as we also use Network Performance Monitor and Network Configuration Management. Agentless architecture. Gives direct insight on database performance, showing top queries, wait times, identifying database problems in real time. We currently only use SQL Server, but as our company grows, it's nice to know that there's cross-vendor support all from this one interface, in case we acquire an office that uses Oracle or MySQL. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about SolarWinds Database Observability?

I'd like to see more input on solutions to the detected problems. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering SolarWinds Database Observability:

Database Performance Analyzer is an absolute must for all DBAs, especially in the small to medium business world since we're often multitasking different roles beyond database administration. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is SolarWinds Database Observability solving and how is that benefiting you?

Getting our SQL servers to run more efficiently. As a relatively inexperienced DBA, DPA has helped me more easily identify sources of problematic performance. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Luke D.

Software Engineer

Information Technology and Services

Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.)

12/22/2017

"Sometimes the SQL is better than the original"

4/5

What do you like best about SolarWinds Database Observability?

I really liked the capability of monitoring the SQL performance of different queries Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about SolarWinds Database Observability?

If I had to pick a least favorite piece of the whole process, it would be installing the application in the first place, because no one ever likes that, even though the documentation was very well done. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering SolarWinds Database Observability:

Definitely download the trial and try running some of your more processor intensive queries and actions. See what the software can really do and see what it is the best at. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is SolarWinds Database Observability solving and how is that benefiting you?

I was optimizing queries so that I could have the least amount of server impact Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Mark M.

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

12/28/2017

"DPA for non-DBAs"

4.5/5

What do you like best about SolarWinds Database Observability?

Integrates well for a robust application monitoring and troubleshooting experience. When using APM and node groups we are able to utilize AppStack views, reports, and dashboards to provide end-users, admins, and execs the right view and information levels. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about SolarWinds Database Observability?

The interface is not as good as other Solarwinds modules. There is a learning curve even for regular Solarwinds users. The cost and licensing can become a concern. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering SolarWinds Database Observability:

The power of this product is in its ability to scale and implement with other Solarwinds products. I highly recommend having all of your infrastructure be involved in the planning and implementation phases to get the most out of this product. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is SolarWinds Database Observability solving and how is that benefiting you?

Critical application monitoring and database connection statistics for real time alerting and troubleshooting.

Reporting for historical root cause analysis Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Information Technology and Services

Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.)

12/25/2017

"Database administration and performance troubleshooter"

4.5/5

What do you like best about SolarWinds Database Observability?

Quick visual of performance bottlenecks and the drill down within every screen is a great feature in trying to get to the bottom of fixing an error troubleshooting query performance. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about SolarWinds Database Observability?

If we can get more tips on database related messages as it seems the recommendations are sometimes very general in nature Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering SolarWinds Database Observability:

DPA is easy to install and very lightweight so no worries on the analyzed database or instance taking a performance hit. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is SolarWinds Database Observability solving and how is that benefiting you?

DPA has helped me get to the bottom of a long standing performance issue with a client ERP on SQL server and we have now stabilized the performance. DPA showed me where and which time the major bottlenecks where coming from. Now we can move to tuning the queries with DPA. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Sagar B.

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

1/8/2018

"DPA a good solution to monitor performance of your Databases."

4/5

What do you like best about SolarWinds Database Observability?

SQL query tuning advice.

Identifies database problems in realtime .

DPA can monitor database instances that you manage running on physical or virtual servers. It can also monitor Amazon RDS instances hosted in the Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about SolarWinds Database Observability?

Overall a very good but as all products have some flaws, it too has one which is sometimes experiences slowness. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering SolarWinds Database Observability:

My recommendation to others considering DPA is that they should install a 15 days evaluation version of DPA, to checkout if this product meets their requirements. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is SolarWinds Database Observability solving and how is that benefiting you?

Identifies Blocking sessions and deadlock for a query.

Generates an alert for a query taking longer to execute.

Gives an advice for better query execution.

Minimum system requirements. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Staffing and Recruiting

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

1/8/2018

"Easy install opens deep doors into your db performance"

5/5

What do you like best about SolarWinds Database Observability?

DPA is very easy to install and takes little time. The demo was up and running within an hour after spinning up the host VM. This gave our DBA team a change to try it out before we made a purchase. Other tools are a full project to get running and leave agents and tracks all over the environment. DPA does not, if you uninstall there is nothing left behind excect the account used to monitor the databases. These accounts can be quickly deleted and there is no trace of DPA left behind. This is important for beta testing. We were able to test in our Prod env and got a real look at what we were buying. The ease of use makes everyone in the NOC a value adding DB performance monitoring guru. SW products are mostly very user friendly, DPA also fits this description. The data provided is top shelf from engineer, to dev, to IT executive. Built in reports give you great data from day 1 and a little customizing makes you look like a DB Performance Monitoring Master. Low cost solution that gives you a ton of value. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about SolarWinds Database Observability?

Nothing to note as of yet. Since DPA is a newer product from SW I am not sure how support will be if we ever do need to engage. I have to assume it will be similar to the other products in the suite.. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering SolarWinds Database Observability:

Do the demo and see what you think. Install is very quick and simple so its an hour of your time and then turn the DBA team lose. The cost is much lower than most other tools on the market so ROI is not a factor. Install is easy to remove if you don't like the product after the beta and no agents or other tracks left after removal. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is SolarWinds Database Observability solving and how is that benefiting you?

Viewing db. issues/health is a breeze now. As a lifetime IT Ops person we tend to learn that app slowness is always the network first, then firewall, then IIS/web server, and possibly the app but never the database. DPA rules out the guessing with a few clicks. Prove its the DB or not the DB instantly. Historical trending is spot on. ROI is outstanding as we have been empowered to better allocate IT funds where needed. DBA team has embraced the tool and made our deployment a huge success. In the end DPA has been a significant win for our IT teams as well as business partners. And its cheap (when compared to other similar products). Also great integration to the Solar Winds platform if you are already there. DPA has been the easiest monitoring tool deployment in my 20 plus year career. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Verified User in Information Technology and Services

Enterprise (> 1000 emp.)

12/21/2017

"DPA is a pretty great tool"

4.5/5

What do you like best about SolarWinds Database Observability?

The best thing I've used it for was looking for root blockers and monitoring deadlocks but just from the features that I looked at while in the trial period it can do so much more. It was easy to use and the setup didn't take much time. I know that a lot of time can be put in on it but that is something else I liked about DPA. If you are willing to spend the time and develop it, it could be a one stop shop Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What do you dislike about SolarWinds Database Observability?

There wasn't much that I didn't like, there were times went the program seemed slow however that could have been due to the limitations on the database I was trying it on Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Recommendations to others considering SolarWinds Database Observability:

It's a great tool for analyzing your database with. I would highly recommend it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What problems is SolarWinds Database Observability solving and how is that benefiting you?

We were having issues with deadlocks happening during the middle of the day and DPA helped to quickly identify where they were coming from and who was causing it. (It was someone running 52 different reports in Orion for hardware monitors at the same time.) The benefits to me seem to be endless plus if given the opportunity within my current company I would like to see about getting it implemented Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.