SQL Server Monitoring Tools

Author: Petar Petrov

Before we start with explaining SQL Server Monitoring Tools, we want to present some details to our readers who have less knowledge of the topic. First, what is SQL? It stands for Structured Query Language. It is a language to be used to communicate with a database. SQL statements, simply a set of instructions, are used to update or retrieve data from these databases.

Now let’s explain what monitoring tools are. A server monitoring tool is a piece of software that is used to monitor your server, applications, and interface performance. The monitoring tool can track and predict some future issues that may occur with your server, so you can solve them and react in advance. This is important because if you use such tools, the chance of detecting and preventing a critical issue is very high. This, in our opinion, is probably the best reason why you need such software.

Back on track, after briefly explaining both terms, we want to focus your attention on who uses SQL Monitoring Tools. Well, the people who make use of them are most commonly known as IT specialists, computer specialists, or whatever term comes to your mind. In different places or situations, the term may vary, but we all know what we mean. Most of the time, they are the ones who use and maintain these tools.

While talking about it, we can’t miss the opportunity to mention how important they are, because they can point out the weakest link in your servers. The reason for that is simple. Databases hold all the information and are the thing you should care most about. Because these databases are within the scope, they may prove to be a weak link that endangers your project. With this in mind, many database administrators use the SQL monitoring tool. Let’s put it that way. We already have explained one of the best features of monitoring tools. Now add that you have something important, which you want to prevent from damaging, and voila. You get a reason to use your budget and invest in good SQL tools, which can be used to monitor your infrastructure and prevent any problems before they happen. If you decide to ignore the importance of SQL Monitoring Tools, you risk having performance issues. If this happens, at worst, you will lose a lot of money and time, and it will be downtime for the people and their hard work.

Examples of SQL Server Monitoring Tools

In this section, we will focus on listing some of the best SQL monitoring tools available on the market today. Keep in mind that our ranking is based on both our and customer opinions. We will name some of the tools, provide information about them, and lastly, their price.

Here are the tools are chosen by us: Datadog SQL Server Monitoring, SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer, Site24x7 SQL Server Monitoring, Paessler PRTG

Datadog SQL Server

Starting with our favorite Datadog SQL Server Monitoring. When it comes to Datadog, you can only expect good things. The tool is perfect for monitoring by its already existing system. This, as you can see from their site, is not enough. You can install the plug-in you specifically need. In our case, this is the one called SQL Server. Now you’ll wonder how to get it and if it works. Welp, the answer to this is simple. You just need Datadog AMP. AMP stands for application performance monitor, and this is where you can add the mentioned above plug-in. The platform itself is very well built, with a friendly design that sometimes can be hard to understand by non-professionals. Although this may pose a problem for some, we strongly advise you to check it as the monitoring tool can observe many processes and apps. This by itself makes it worth its price, which by no means is high (40 dollars per month). In our opinion, this is one of the best SQL Server monitoring tools you can use, and it is worth it.

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is one of the best known on the market. Designed to be the ultimate SQL server monitoring tool, it has all the features you need. The SolarWinds DPA, understandably, is focused on monitoring SQL database instances. Examples of what the tool can monitor are Oracle, DB2, MySQL, and, of course, SQL Server.

Some of its best features are that it can do its work in real-time while giving you a bunch of notifications when needed. To be honest, this is great as it will let you react on time in most situations. The dashboard, like in Datadog, can be customized in a way you’ll like it the most, based on your or your team’s needs. Another good feature is that it is highly scalable, so it is even appropriate for larger businesses that need many instances.

Site24x7 SQL Server Monitoring

Another great SQL server monitoring tool offering many great features is Like the previous one, it can monitor various databases. Examples of this are SQL Server, Cassandra, Oracle, and MySQL. Another great addition is that it permits database administrators to see dependencies inside the application stack. This is useful for building up service-level agreements. Something we like is that this SQL monitoring tool can unify SQL monitoring across many multi-cloud environments. In the end, this one is great because of its features, and although it may not have some of the features like the previous ones on the list, it has its pluses. Given that its entire infrastructure is on cloud service, it is easier and faster to get. Add to that the lower price, which is several times less than some of the other SQL monitoring tools.

Paessler PRTG

Another well-known platform, the Paessler Router Traffic Grapher, is another platform that can monitor most of the systems, apps, and services. The platform itself has a friendly interface and is extremely easy to install. Being able to monitor SQL SERVER, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and ADO SQL. It offers great quality and many features. Although we gave a few examples, this tool can do much more. If you need any additional sensors, you can just look for them, as most of them are pre-built in or can be added.

Maybe one of the biggest pros of PRTG is that it has a free version. If it’s free, though, you can not expect to have all the features of the paid ones, but you won’t be disappointed. Even the free version has about 100 free sensors included. While talking about sensors, we can point out that this tool permits users to create one according to their specific needs! If this is not enough, we can add that the sensors you have and can tailor for yourself can be deployed for use very quickly. The only possible negative we can think of is that there are so many sensors that you’ll have to spend some time to fully explore PRTG.

Conclusion

In conclusion, we can say there are many different SQL monitoring tools. Given that they are many, we only choose to compliment a few of the best. We want to say that the various SQL monitoring tools offer almost the same features. Each of them covers the most important features, and in this aspect, you will get what you need. On the other hand, some have a friendlier interface, which makes it easier for their users. Others have free versions which are fully functional and, in fact, great. In the end, be it a free one or a paid one, as long as it has the features you need for your project, it’s all good! We did explain what SQL is and what a monitoring tool does, and then listed one of the best on the market. Given that, we hope our article was helpful and thank you for staying with us through it.