October 10, 2008 at 5:13 pm
We are evaluating two products that can monitor our SQL Server's: Idera's SQL diagnostic Manager and Quests SQL spotlight. Does anyone have any experience with either one? What are the license costs involved, how is the support of one Vs. the other etc.,
Any and all feedback appreciated!!
October 10, 2008 at 5:15 pm
We use spotlight, never had any issues with it. I suggest you request a demo for spotlight at http://www.quest.com.The licensing and all issues can be asked for with the support staff.
The_SQL_DBA
MCTS
"Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives."
October 11, 2008 at 7:34 am
Also use spotlight quest 24 hours - wouldn't be without it.
October 11, 2008 at 6:38 pm
The_SQL_DBA (10/10/2008)
We use spotlight, never had any issues with it. I suggest you request a demo for spotlight at http://www.quest.com.The licensing and all issues can be asked for with the support staff.
Ditto, except I used Diagnostic Manager. Download demos of both & compare for yourself to which is better for you.
October 13, 2008 at 10:49 am
I have used a number of monitoring tools over the last 10 years or so. I can tell you the one that I keep in my tool belt is the SQL Sentry Performance Advisor. Just a couple of days ago I was spending time looking at an issue with Blocks and Deadlocks and was having a difficult time finding the source of the problem. I registered the server with my copy of Performance Advisor and I was able to pull up some of the sources of the problem.
One of the things that I really like about this product is what they call a Quick Trace I believe. In short what this does is if your servers reach a preset point let’s say for example you want to see what is going on when you hit 70% Processor Utilization. Performance Advisor will kick off an Quick Trace and then you can go back at a later point in time and take a look at it.
October 13, 2008 at 10:52 am
Hello,
We use Idera's diagnostic manager where I am at. We compared it with Quest and found Idera's, setup and client to be a much better fit for us. Idera is a zero footprint deployment on the server boxes. Quest was not.
One month after we purchased Idera's product SQL Sentry came out with performance advisor. http://www.sqlsentry.com/performance-advisor/sql-server-performance.asp
I have seen this product demonstrated and we are looking at it to possibly replace Idera.
I was bummed out after I realized we missed out on the product by just a month.
I would check it out as part of your evaluation. Also, the company seems to be very easy to work with.
Paul
October 13, 2008 at 3:20 pm
Thanks everyone - I appreciate your inputs.
We have been test driving Diagnostics Manager & Spotlight for the past few weeks. We liked both tools, but we found that Idera's Diagnostic manager seemed to have the edge in flexibility and reporting. SQL DM makes it very easy to plug in other perfmon counters or add custom counters, besides allowing custom reporting since it is full integrated with Reporting Services. They even publish the datamodel of the repository making it very convenient to write your own reports. spotlight on the other hand, offers some very interesting insights into I/O metrics(Per database file etc.).
However, Idera licenses per instance, and Quest licenses per physical server. Our multi instance server license costs can run up pretty quickly with Idera but can still be very cost effective with Spotlight. still undecided ....
The SQL Sentry post was quite interesting - we had not looked at that. I will be downloading that and test driving it shortly. Any feedback with SQL Sentry will also be appreciated !
October 13, 2008 at 3:25 pm
There is a Quest performance monitor also that you can run too that will show you the exact SQL code that is being run at the time. Lets say you went to lunch and some one said hey what happened you can then go back in time and see the exact line of code that was executed.
Also you can then find out what other users are running with this.
I use both the Quest Spotlight and Performance Manager. I do know there is the reporting from here too but i use the performance manager to give me the reports each day.
Kind of depends what reports your looking for.
Thanks for update.
October 13, 2008 at 5:08 pm
I wouldn't let Idera's list price scare you away. They are willing to make deals, especially around quarter or year end. We just finished up our negotiations and will be running DM. We also picked Idera over Quest due to the centralization of data (Quest requires a db on each monitored server) and the good over view of your entire environment (or subset). The Quest GUI looks alot cooler, but just didn't perform as well.
Tim
October 13, 2008 at 5:29 pm
Also from support point of view - try putting a couple of support tickets in and see if you get the support you require on product. I also have idera tool set but the support was only email only. Quest i get a person. Price list shouldn't be an option it is whether it does what you need it to do.
Quest does put database on each server but it just a temporary control table - the main table is on the monitoring server point.
Good luck with your new tools.
October 13, 2008 at 6:09 pm
Tim Peters (10/13/2008)
I wouldn't let Idera's list price scare you away. They are willing to make deals, especially around quarter or year end. Tim
True .... you can get a pretty steep discount. Just remember that future support costs are based on a percentage of MSRP, not the price you paid.
October 14, 2008 at 11:59 am
homebrew01 (10/13/2008)Just remember that future support costs are based on a percentage of MSRP, not the price you paid.
Everything is negotiable, everything 😀
Tim
October 15, 2008 at 7:23 am
I have interacted with all of the products over the years, and I too am starting to lean towards the new SQL Sentry Performance Advisor. Those guys and gals have put together a pretty darn spiffy product. I am about to pull the trigger on a referral program with them (and I don't do that on a whim - my reputation is at stake when I recommend a product or company), so if you wish to get a discount AND provide a few dollars for my daughters college fund, drop me an email or PM. 😀
Best,
Kevin G. Boles
SQL Server Consultant
SQL MVP 2007-2012
TheSQLGuru on googles mail service
June 4, 2015 at 6:59 am
I have used Idera since its version 6.0 and its spot on. many configurable options and query monitor is a key along side reporting side of it. if you have any issues, turn query monitor on and find out issues.
i am using version 9.0 of diagnostic manager and is ever improving from product point of view. haven't used anything else apart from manual sql server monitoring through our company developed processes which i have stopped or partially stopped due to redundancy of stuff happening manually and through Idera DM.
also, its about ease of use. you can always download trails for different products and see the difference yourself.
hope this help.
Thanks,
Tahir
January 5, 2018 at 2:24 am
This was removed by the editor as SPAM
Viewing 15 posts - 1 through 14 (of 14 total)
You must be logged in to reply to this topic. Login to reply