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Unmatched
No other solution is providing a full fledged framework for administering, maintaining and monitoring SQL Servers.
Individual products exists to cover single areas, but none of these matches the functionality of Performance Store.
Compared to other monitoring solutions
A few examples of areas, where Performance Store excels compared to other third-party monitoring solutions:
- Auditing. Everything is audited including server configuration changes, schema changes and SQL Agent job changes
- Automated license handling. If an event triggers a change in the SQL Server licensing model, an alert is send, e.g. if a VM vMotions to a different host with a different licensing model, if a non-readable secondary suddenly becomes readable, if a Developer Edition is used in production, if a secondary is having databases that is not a part of an Availability Group, etc. new license requirements are immediately calculated and alerted
- Monitors when a database was last accessed
- Sends an alert if a user has a default database set, and the database suddenly is not available for the user anymore
- Maintains integrity. Sends an alert, if the primary- and secondary are not identical, no matter if it is a difference in e.g. security, configuration or NTFS cluster size
- Capture login errors
- Sends an alert if a user takes a non-copy-only backup
- Automatic detection of unused databases with an option to automatically set them offline. Option to automatically delete the offline databases if they have been offline for a given time period
- Sends an alert if the primary- and secondaries are placed on the same physical host
- Scripts all logins, roles, etc. on a server to easily and quickly be able to get up running again in a disaster scenario
- Execution plans with live query statistics, actual values and passed parameters are captured
- Monitoring if connections are connecting using a listener or not
- Directly being able to compare performance on a database after migrating it to a new server
- Baselines for any metric at any time
- Captures all errors
- All changes to schemas, objects, settings etc. can be shown directly on the timelines, making it possible to directly see an impact of a change
- AD group controlled access to view the SQL Server log. Not just a delayed log fetched by a priviledged service account, but the actual real SQL Server log. Even accessible if the SQL Server is not running
- Statement level audit. Can be used to e.g. audit all operations for non-service account users or audit when a user was last logged in
Two of the most used SQL Server monitoring products are Redgate SQL Monitor and SolarWinds SentryOne:
The following shows Performance Store compared to these two products.
| Functionality | Redgate SQL Monitor | SolarWinds SentryOne | Performance Store |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agentless |  |  | |
| Auditing | | | |
| License monitoring | | | |
| Failover integrity monitoring | | | |
| Shows multiple servers on single dashboards | | | |
| Baselining on all metrics | | | |
| Error monitoring | | | |
| Obsolete objects monitoring | | | |
| Linux support | | | |
| Works even when the monitoring server is down | | | |
| Number of alerts | 46 | 24 | 66 |
| Price pr. server pr. year | $1055 | $1450 | $996 * |
* Based on a server with 4 cores
Compared to other auditing solutions
Two of the most used SQL Server auditing products are Apex SQL Audit and Quest Change Auditor.
Apex SQL Audit compared to Performance Store:
- Agent will have to be installed on all SQL Servers
- Very limited number of events are audited (e.g. only 7 drop events). No SQL Server Agent audit
- You will have to manually include things to audit. Not all thing are audited by default
- No option to view audited events visually on a timeline and e.g. correlate with performance issues
- No third party integration to e.g. DynaTrace
- No alerting
- No security auditing
- No error auditing
- No activity auditing
- No license auditing
- No failover auditing
- No patch auditing
Quest Change Auditor compared to Performance Store:
- Agent will have to be installed on all SQL Servers
- Limited number of events are audited. No SQL Server Agent audit
- No option to view audited events visually on a timeline and e.g. correlate with performance issues
- No third party integration to e.g. DynaTrace
- No alerting
- No security auditing
- No error auditing
- No activity auditing
- No license auditing
- No failover auditing
- No patch auditing
| Functionality | Apex SQL Audit | Quest Change Auditor | Performance Store |
|---|---|---|---|
| Agentless | | | |
| Audit all events incl. SQL Server Agent audit | | | |
| Automatically audit events instead of manually defining what to audit | | | |
| Visually correlate audited events with performance statistics | | | |
| Third party integration to e.g. DynaTrace | | | |
| Alerting | | | |
| Security audit | | | |
| Activity audit | | | |
| Failover audit | | | |
| Patch audit | | | |
| Supports SQL Server 2022 | | | |
| Must be installed on a local SQL Server | | | |
| Uses SQL Server Trace | | | |
| Price pr. server pr. year | $3353 | $2969 * | included ** |
* Based on a company with 1000 employees and a one-time purchase price of $11876
** Included as a part of Performance Store