Database Monitoring Tools For MS SQL Server and Oracle Servers

  • Hi, Can you please suggest me what are the TOP 5 best monitoring tools available for both MS SQL Database Server and Oracle database server. Also, the best monitoring tools for each individually.

    I do not have limit on pricing or users and number of servers it must be monitoring

    Here is what I am looking for, could you please suggest if I need any corrections to the list below:

    Specific Errors and Problems

    Server Monitoring with DMVs

    Monitoring Deadlocks

    Monitoring Database Modifications

    Server- and Database-level Resource Monitoring

    CPU, I/O and Memory Monitoring

    Space and Growth Rates (Capacity Planning)

    Backups and Jobs

    Tune the monitoring strategy

    Root Cause Analysis

    Thanks a ton.

    Esha

  • There are only a few that do both.

    Dell (formerly Quest) Foglight

    Solarwinds

    Microsoft Systems Center Operation Manager

    Personally, I'm not crazy about the job that Foglight does on SQL Server, but it works with Oracle very well. I also don't like the job that Solarwinds does with SQL Server, but that may change since they recently acquired Confio and their Ignite product (which also works with Oracle). Microsoft does a solid, if difficult to manage, job of monitoring both Oracle & SQL Server.

    I don't know Oracle only monitoring products very well. SQL Server only products would include:

    SQL Sentry

    Idera Diagnostic Manager

    Red Gate SQL Monitor

    They all do a decent job. My favorite is Red Gate, but I might be prejudiced since I work for the company. In general, I'd say that Red Gate is better with small to mid-sized businesses and with people tasked with the job of managing the server who need a lot of guidance. Accidental DBA's, Incidental DBA's, Aspiring DBA's. If you're an expert or you need large to very large enterprise level stuff, I'd suggest SQL Sentry. They do a fantastic job. They are a little expensive. If you need to cut costs, Idera does good work for a little less.

    "The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
    - Theodore Roosevelt

    Author of:
    SQL Server Execution Plans
    SQL Server Query Performance Tuning

  • We use SQL Sentry for our monitoring and investigation. It's a great product and I'd recommend it to anyone.

    I haven't used any Oracle monitoring tools myself, and don't work with it any more, but several years ago when I worked in an Oracle shop, the DBA was super-excited to get Embarcadero. He used it for years and it did everything he needed and more.

  • Ed Wagner (11/8/2013)


    We use SQL Sentry for our monitoring and investigation. It's a great product and I'd recommend it to anyone.

    I haven't used any Oracle monitoring tools myself, and don't work with it any more, but several years ago when I worked in an Oracle shop, the DBA was super-excited to get Embarcadero. He used it for years and it did everything he needed and more.

    Another vote for SQL Sentry. We use it on all our production servers and it has paid for itself many times over.

    One thing you might consider doing is demoing all these products before you buy anything. We went through a 1-2 month demo period where we tested several different monitoring solutions and choose the one that best fit our company and the level of experience of our DBA team.

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