Documentation forSQL Sentry

Getting Started Overview

This article provides an overview for getting started with your SQL Sentry Installation. Here we will list several helpful links to our documentation, blogs, and important SolarWinds account links to help guide you through the process. For information about SQL Sentry Pricing, or to download a free trial, visit SQL Sentry | SolarWinds.

Additional Information: See the following helpful links:

SQL Sentry Blogs

SolarWinds Customer Portal

Submitting a SolarWinds Support ticket

SQL Sentry Architecture

A basic SQL Sentry installation consists of three components:

SQL Sentry Component Description
SQL Sentry Client The SQL Sentry Client displays the historical and real-time data for your monitored targets that is collected by the SQL Sentry Database.
SentryOne Monitoring Service The SentryOne Monitoring Service remotely collects data from the target servers and writes that data to the SQL Sentry Database.
SQL Sentry Database The SQL Sentry Database collects and retains performance data for your monitored targets.
Additional Information: For more information about SQL Sentry components and architecture, see the SQL Sentry Components and Architecture article.

Account Requirements

The account used for running the SentryOne Monitoring Service should be a domain account and needs to have local Windows Admin and Sys Admin rights on all the target server(s) that you want to monitor. 

Additional Information: For more information about security options in SQL Sentry, see the SQL Sentry Security Overview, SQL Sentry Monitoring Service Security, and SQL Sentry Portal Security articles.

SQL Sentry requires several ports open to collect data from target servers. 

Additional Information: For more information about the ports required to collect information in SQL Sentry, see the SQL Sentry Performance Analysis Required Ports article.

SQL Sentry Client users need allow_all permissions to the SQL Sentry Database for full access to the information collected by the SentryOne Monitoring Service. Visibility and functionality for individual users can be restricted through Rights-based or Role-based security in the SQL Sentry Client.

Additional Information: For more information about the present security options in SQL Sentry, see the SQL Sentry Rights Based Security, and SQL Sentry Role Based Security articles.

System Requirements and Installation

Before installing SQL Sentry, check the System Requirements to ensure your system meets the minimum standards to run SQL Sentry. SolarWinds recommends that a dedicated VM should host the SQL Sentry components and that no SQL Sentry components be installed directly on production servers. If a dedicated VM hosting the SQL Sentry components isn't possible, a testing or development server that does not have a heavy workload could work for an evaluation or proof of concept. 

Important:  Clients can be installed anywhere, as long as they can communicate with the SQL Sentry Database to pull data. It's not recommended to connect to the SQL Sentry database with the SQL Sentry client through a VPN because doing so can affect the SQL Sentry Client's performance. 

For more information about recommended system spec information for your SQL Sentry installation, see the SQL Sentry Installation Recommendations article.

After you have checked the system requirements, you install SQL Sentry, complete the onboarding process, and apply your license. 


Additional Information: If you are installing multiple clients and monitoring services across many targets, consider installing your SQL Sentry Installation with the Enhanced Platform Installer.


Important:  If you plan to monitor targets in other domains with various levels of trust or have targets in datacenters that span large geographical distances, modifications to the implementation may be required. 

Our two options for cross-domain monitoring are Site Configuration and Pass-Through Authentication. SolarWinds always recommends Site Configuration because Pass-Through Authentication behavior can be inconsistent.

Additional Information: For information about site configuration or watching targets across domains, see the SQL Sentry Site Configuration and SQL Sentry Watching Targets Across Domains articles.

SQL Sentry Portal

SQL Sentry Portal is a browser-based option for accessing your SQL Sentry environment data that uses your existing SQL Sentry database.

For information about Getting started with SQL Sentry Portal, see the Getting Started with SQL Sentry Portal article.