Documentation forDatabase Performance Analyzer

Integrate DPA with the SolarWinds Platform

Storage administrators, network administrators, and DBAs often function within silos, using tools that give them an incomplete view of the factors that affect performance.

Integrating DPA with the SolarWinds Platform expands the information available in the SolarWinds Platform Web Console, making it easier to determine the root cause of performance problems. You can view database instance information alongside other environmental factors to get a more comprehensive view of issues affecting users and your IT infrastructure.

After integration, the SolarWinds Platform displays DPA-specific resources that poll information directly from DPA. Integration also expands the information available in other SolarWinds Platform resources. Information from DPA, such as database wait time, improves your ability to troubleshoot slow response times or pinpoint database instances that need additional resources.

Benefits of integrating DPA with the SolarWinds Platform

After integrating DPA with the SolarWinds Platform, you can:

  • View information from multiple DPA servers

    If you integrate multiple DPA servers with the SolarWinds Platform, the Databases Summary view displays aggregated data from all servers. You can drill down to see information from a specific server.

  • Integrate with SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) or the server and application monitoring capabilities in Hybrid Cloud Observability Essentials

      See this video: How to Integrate DPA with SAM on the Orion Platform.

    If you have SAM or Hybrid Cloud Observability Essentials, integration with DPA adds views and resources that are available only with integration. For example, you can see which applications are querying a database, and then click through for information about response time.

    This information gives you an application-centric perspective of database performance and helps you determine if the root cause of performance problems is in the application or the database. Database administrators and system administrators can use this integration to:

    • Analyze database performance within the context of a specific application.

    • Monitor applications, databases, and server performance from a single interface, and drill down to find the root cause of slow application performance.

    • Understand the relationships and dependencies among the layers of infrastructure from the perspective of an application.

    In addition, a Database Instance category is added to the Application Stack (AppStack) provided in the SolarWinds Platform. Use the Database Instance category to assess the overall health of your database instances and to troubleshoot performance and availability problems.

  • Integrate with SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor (SRM)

    If you have SRM, integration with DPA adds views and resources that are available only with integration. You can see contextually relevant information on storage objects related to databases monitored by DPA, and correlate storage health and performance with the databases mapped to the storage objects.

    This information gives you a storage-centric perspective of database performance and helps you determine if the root cause of performance problems is in the storage object or the database.

  • Build SolarWinds Platform alerts and reports using information from DPA

    You can create alerts in the SolarWinds Platform Web Console that are triggered by data collected from database instances. You can also select DPA resources when you create reports in the SolarWinds Platform Web Console.

  • Include DPA data in Performance Analysis (PerfStack™) dashboards

    When you include DPA metrics with metrics from other SolarWinds Platform products, PerfStack dashboards can show how queries and database wait times relate to application and infrastructure performance. Both DBAs and non-DBAs can use DPA data in PerfStack to answer the question "Is it the database or the application?"

How do I integrate DPA with the SolarWinds Platform?

For integration instructions and information about using these features, see information about viewing DPA data in the SolarWinds Platform Web Console.

If you have Hybrid Cloud Observability or multiple SolarWinds Platform products installed, SolarWinds does not recommend installing DPA and the SolarWinds Platform products on the same server. For more information, see Requirements for the DPA Integration Module.