SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer Information Reviews & Insights

Score5.6 out of 10

229 Reviews and Ratings

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

User-Friendly Interface: Users appreciate the SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer for its straightforward and easy-to-understand interface. They find it intuitive and user-friendly, even for new users with minimal training.

Real-Time Analysis and Support: The tool's real-time analysis capabilities and support services are highly valued by users. They mention that it helps them promptly identify and resolve performance issues in SQL databases, such as errors, long-running queries, or system-blocking problems.

Wide Range of Supported Databases: Users find the extensive range of supported databases to be a valuable feature of the tool. It allows them to monitor and analyze the performance of multiple databases from one centralized interface.

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer Reviews

19 Reviews

InformationComputer Software10Internet2Telecommunications2Information Services4Online Media1

Hands Down: SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer Beats SQL Profile and Database Engine Tuning Advisor

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

April 21, 2022

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Spitfire deploys a software platform backed by a Microsoft SQL Database with over 140 tables and more than 650 procedures. The size of the database typically surpasses millions of records and several hundred GB. SQL creates query plans that differ for each client depending upon their unique distribution of data. Some have only a few dozen projects a year - others a couple of thousand. Clients create budgets with different levels of detail and then create material purchases - sometimes one line each, others 500 lines. So a one-size-fits-all query is a challenge. SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer gives us real-time, ongoing visibility into the performance of our queries across a real-world deployment.

Likelihood to Recommend

This is an easy 10 because I actually have recommended this product to multiple clients and colleagues! Any shop that writes its own SQL queries will benefit from the insight provided by SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer, so they know which of their queries is causing a bottleneck. Small shops or databases with only a few tables likely will see far fewer opportunities for optimization.

Pros

Identifies objects causing bottleneck by real wait time
Identifies specific section of a large query that needs attention
Lets you see what index is actually being used
Helps you see if CPU, RAM or DISK is the limiting resource

Cons

View Plan Details is actually a bit weaker than SSMS because all the lines are the same width
The "View SQL Text" viewer could be fancier - but it does clearly identify the problem section

Stan York

VP of Development in Information Technology at Spitfire Management, LLC (Computer Software, 11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

View profile

DPA offloads developers onto a tool rather than a person

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

December 19, 2020

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

It is being used mostly by the development team as a self service gateway to view the database transactions that they don't have physical access to. This allows the database team to not have to take time out of their day to perform query analysis, etc..

Pros

It allows us to have a gateway to the databases that the users would not normally have access to.
It allows the database admins to not have to provide analysis as users can do their own through the interface.
It's a quick place to do an initial view into performance issues for DBA.

Cons

Would be nice to have more granular permissions.

Likelihood to Recommend

It's well suited as a self help tool. It really saves time on our team so we don't have to provide guidance on issues or questions.

daniel harty

Operations Manager in Information Technology at Kayak software (Internet, 1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

Real ROI that added a 9 to our uptime.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

February 27, 2020

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Our business lines span many industries and have a vast array of projects in production. Many of the environments we have must be segregated, and SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer offers us a clear, detailed view of these environments through a single pane. Our DBAs can more quickly address issues and quickly settle the "hardware versus software" debate between engineers and developers.

Pros

Alerts us of current issues affecting system performance
Alerts us of potential issues that will affect system performance

Cons

The licensing timeline needs improvement. Adding new instances becomes cost-prohibitive at some times of the year due to the locked-down renewal period.

Likelihood to Recommend

In an environment where many developers and DBAs are often working separately from each other on some projects and together on others, it gets difficult to see where the lines are between applications and databases. SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer allows me as a manager to pinpoint issues and to get our developers or DBAs involved as appropriate to resolve issues that happen, and address issues that haven't happened yet. SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is worth a whole 9 of uptime in and of itself.

Steven Pangilinan

Systems Administrator in Corporate at AdComp Systems Group (Computer Software, 11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

Just works!

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

January 29, 2020

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We have been using the database analyzer to monitor any changes that have occurred or any issues currently prompting. It has helped when looking at the trends around the flow of information and possible connection issues. We use it on a regular basis within two of the main departments. It is a great product.

Pros

Analyzing data flows.
Connection issues clarified.

Cons

Would love a bolder UI font.

Likelihood to Recommend

We have used the product in more than one situation. One time we were analyzing an SQL database and had issues connecting. We used the software to see how we could correct any issues by the attempts it made to connect and to determine if there were any conflicts and how to work with the results.

Verified User

Team Lead in Information Technology (Information Services company, 1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

4 years of experience

Stop buying hardware to improve your SQL server performance. Try DPA first!

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

November 19, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Discovering data performance issues. Creating an index based on the suggestions by DPA. It can be accessed by all developers to review their query or performance-related issues.

Pros

Suggest indexes.
Indicate the wait time for all processes, so you rank the issues and fix them by priority.
You can send URL/ links to other to show them the exact point of problem. Easy for collaboration.

Cons

Bookmark of problem, so we can revisit the issue and compare it before and after the changes.
More details on deadlocks/blocking, etc.
Notification, kind of monitoring, if wait time exceeds some threshold.. or review the wait time of specific bookmarks or issues.

Likelihood to Recommend

We may have navigation issues ... The back button is not very consistent on all pages. Sometimes we have to go back to the home page and start over on the server again.

Some queries, which only run very rare, but require a lot of waiting time whenever they do run (all queries that take longer than 60secs).

Dave Cheng

Computer and Information Systems Manager in Information Technology at Interdev Technologies Inc. (Computer Software, 11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

Solar Winds DPA provides the best trend charts

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

July 27, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

To support performance monitoring for SQL servers across the organization.

Likelihood to Recommend

Pros

Monitors both SQL query performance and back end VM resources.
Easy to read trend charts, bottlenecks or spikes show up immediately.
East to drill-down into specific issues.
Very good settings for alerts.

Cons

Poor interface for managing alert times or blocking out alerts at times of the week. Very tedious process.

Kev Shawhan

Sr Database Administrator in Information Technology at Real Estate Digital (Information Services, 11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

6 years of experience

SolarWinds DPA review

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

July 23, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

It is used as our central database monitoring tool across the whole organization, used especially to improve query performance, resolve blocks and to analyze trends.

Pros

Deep queries analyses, provides good advice for performance improvements.
Allows us to create our own custom alerts and reports.
Has a very intuitive and well-explained interface. It is split up for different objectives to analyse or monitor as trends, tunning, current activities and resources.

Cons

None identified

Likelihood to Recommend

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer offers great query analysis relying on different monitoring categories like trends, current activities, resources and tuning.

Muraru Adrian-Cezar

Senior MSSQL Database Administrator in Information Technology at Basware (Computer Software, 1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

3 years of experience

View profile

DPA: Great web application for wait stats and trends. Not the tool for those needing actionable alerts.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

July 19, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use DPA on one team in our department. We have a team of 12 that has access to the tool, although it is mainly just three of us that use it. We do export reports and send to people outside of our team. The tool addresses anomalies that come up across the environment, and patterns before and after changes. We also use it a lot to see what was going on after-hours or when we had an issue come up when no one was available.

Pros

Capturing wait statistics is a great way to monitor performance on a SQL Server instance. This is the main source of info for DPA.
Web app: no client install required. Easy to login from a web browser, share info and manage everything from a browser tab.
Drill-downs from one time interval to seconds to see database activity is intuitive and easy to use.

Cons

Alerts seem to be lacking in DPA compared to competitor's tools. They can be setup but are not quite as easy or as helpful as some other tools I have used.
Grooming/pruning the repository database isn't very easy. We don't manage a lot of instances but our repo DB has grown pretty significantly.
At times when I am drilled-down to a chart, it can be difficult to navigate around from that point to another time range/query/metric.

Likelihood to Recommend

DPA is well suited for an environment where a web app is preferred. Especially if there are several users accessing the reports and data. I would also say it's suited for teams with a good amount of SQL knowledge pertaining to wait types. It would be less suited for teams that need a tool to recommend changes to SQL queries to improve performance, as well as those looking for a tool to send out actionable-alerts that can be turned on or off based on actions.

Verified User

Team Lead in Information Technology (Online Media company, 501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

DPA -- The Wait stats king

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

June 20, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

DPA is a great tool if you are looking for a performance monitoring solution for your database servers. It's intuitive to use, and it can be used to pinpoint the root cause of a performance issue -- both during and after the event. It can highlight the specific statement within a stored procedure that is causing a performance issue, and capture the query plan to allow detailed analysis of the issue. It captures various useful performance counters, and you can add your own custom metrics, but it's the wait analysis where this tool really shines.

Pros

The best tool for wait analysis.
A simple, intuitive web interface.
A quality product that is improving over time.

Cons

The wait analysis at the statement level has it's pros/cons. I would like to see higher level stored procedure.
It's a good performance monitoring tool, but not good for monitoring health -- backups, log shipping etc.
The query plan viewer in the web is only good for simple query plans. It's easy to download the plan to view in SSMS, Plan Explorer, etc. though.

Likelihood to Recommend

DPA is very useful as a performance monitoring tool for your database servers. If you want a tool to monitor your waits, this is the best tool for the job. Dynamic SQL can be an issue for DPA if you are generating a lot of unique statements, as DPA works at the statement level. Working at the statement level can be a good thing, but a performance issue can sometimes be diluted at this level.
DPA is a performance monitoring tool, and it's good at this task. It doesn't monitor things like backups, log shipping, etc.

Verified User

Employee in Information Technology (Computer Software company, 10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

8 years of experience

Best product for tuning performance issues

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

May 28, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is being used by DevOps and MDO teams to troubleshoot issues and get an Idea on Load on the system, bottleneck and find culprit rogues queries and SQL to solve issues.

Pros

Ease of use.
Graphical presentation of load and system information.
You can edit, rename, and customize the SQL queries that are run often to facilitate identifying them later.

Cons

It would be great if it has a pulse page that summarizes the state of the environment as a whole.
If it can be integrated with other applications like OEM.
If it can monitor replication as well.

Likelihood to Recommend

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is very well suited for Pl/SQL developers and DBA to troubleshoot performance issues.

Verified User

Administrator in Information Technology (Information Services company, 11-50 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

Loading Reviews List....

DPA: Great web application for wait stats and trends. Not the tool for those needing actionable alerts.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

July 19, 2019

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Capturing wait statistics is a great way to monitor performance on a SQL Server instance. This is the main source of info for DPA.
Web app: no client install required. Easy to login from a web browser, share info and manage everything from a browser tab.
Drill-downs from one time interval to seconds to see database activity is intuitive and easy to use.

Cons

Alerts seem to be lacking in DPA compared to competitor's tools. They can be setup but are not quite as easy or as helpful as some other tools I have used.
Grooming/pruning the repository database isn't very easy. We don't manage a lot of instances but our repo DB has grown pretty significantly.
At times when I am drilled-down to a chart, it can be difficult to navigate around from that point to another time range/query/metric.

Likelihood to Recommend

Verified User

Team Lead in Information Technology (Online Media company, 501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience