SQL Sentry 2023.3 System Requirements

SolarWinds strongly recommends that you install SQL Sentry on a server that is protected from unauthorized access by the public. If your use of SQL Sentry does not need to be public or internet-facing, install it on a server that is neither public, nor internet-facing. To learn about best practices for configuring your SQL Sentry installation securely, see Best practices to secure SolarWinds Products.

SQL Sentry Components

For information about the SQL Sentry components, see the SQL Sentry Components and Architecture article. The Installation Recommendations article provides details on where to install each component, as well as detailed implementation examples for installations of various sizes.

Important:  For performance reasons, it's not recommended that the SQL Sentry client, monitoring service, or SQL Server (including the instance housing the SQL Sentry database) run simultaneously on the same computer.

SQL Sentry Client Machine

• Windows version from supported list below
• Microsoft .NET 4.8 (included in the setup package)
• Minimum single 1.6 GHz CPU, 1 GB RAM

SQL Sentry Monitoring Service Machine

• Windows version from supported list below
• Microsoft .NET 4.8 (included in the setup package)
• Minimum 4 cores 2.0+ GHz and 12 GB RAM
  • Important:  These are the minimum requirements for a standard 5 target installation. Review the Installation Recommendations article for detailed guidance on requirements.

Note:  The Microsoft .NET 4.8 (included in the setup package) involves a system restart. 

SQL Sentry Database Machine

Important:  SQL Sentry version 2021.12 or newer does not support hosting the SQL Sentry Database on SQL Server 2012 (Standard, BI, and Enterprise).

• SQL Server 2014 (Standard, BI, and Enterprise)
• SQL Server 2016 (Standard, BI, and Enterprise)
• SQL Server 2017 (Standard, Linux OS, and Enterprise)
• SQL Server 2019 (Standard, Linux OS, and Enterprise)
• SQL Server 2022 (CU1 and above versions)
• Azure SQL Managed Instance
• Supported versions of SQL Server running on AWS RDS for SQL Server
• Minimum 4 cores 1.6 GHz, 8 GB RAM, and 10 GB storage
  • Important:  These are the minimum requirements for a standard 5 target installation. Review the Installation Recommendations article for detailed guidance on requirements.

Note:  SQL Sentry no longer supports hosting the SQL Sentry database on SQL Server 2008 and SQL Server 2008 R2.

Note:  Azure SQL Database isn't currently supported as a host for the SQL Sentry database.

Note:  SQL Server Express Edition may be used to host the SQL Sentry database. The scale limits placed on this edition make it suitable for smaller environments where only a few targets are being monitored. Having an unusually high number of databases or disks to monitor on your targets may mean reaching these limitations with only a few targets.

SQL Sentry Portal Service Machine

Installing the SQL Sentry Portal is optional, but we highly recommend that you install the SQL Sentry Portal and see everything it has to offer. Review the SQL Sentry Portal Configuration article for additional requirements, including security.

• 64-bit Microsoft Windows Server 2012 or greater
• Microsoft .NET Core 3.1 Runtime
  • Install the Runtime and Hosting Bundle if you are hosting in IIS
• Microsoft .NET Framework 4.8 Runtime

Note:  Both Microsoft .NET Runtime prerequisites need to be installed on the Windows Server that will host SQL Sentry Portal.

Supported Operating Systems (SQL Sentry Components)

Supported Operating Systems (x64)

• Windows Server 2016
• Windows Server 2019
• Windows Server 2022
• Windows 8.1
• Windows 10 (Anniversary update, Creators update, or Fall creators update)

Note:  For more information, see .NET Framework system requirements for additional details on 4.8 requirements. Windows server 2008 is no longer supported.

Watched Targets and Instances

Important:  SQL Sentry version 2021.12 or newer does not support Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008R2, Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8 targets or instances.

Watched (monitored) Windows Targets

• Windows Server 2012
• Windows Server 2012 R2
• Windows Server 2016
• Windows Server 2019*
• Windows Server 2022
• Windows 10

Important:  *Windows Server 2019 may have some issues honoring firewall rules. You may need to explicitly enable a Remote Event Log Management rule in the firewall to watch a Windows Server 2019 target.

Watched Data Warehouse Targets

• Microsoft analytics platform system (AU3)
• Azure SQL Data Warehouse

Watched (monitored) SQL Server Instances

Important:  SQL Sentry version 2021.12 or newer does not support SQL Server 2005,SQL Server 2008, or SQL Server 2008R2 instances.

• SQL Server 2012
• SQL Server 2014
• SQL Server 2016
• SQL Server 2017
• SQL Server 2019
• SQL Server 2022

Watched (monitored) SQL Server Analysis Services, Tabular and Multi-dimensional Modes

Important:  SQL Sentry version 2021.12 or newer does not support SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008, or SQL Server 2008R2 targets.

• SQL Server 2012
• SQL Server 2014
• SQL Server 2016
• SQL Server 2017
• SQL Server 2019

Watched (monitored) Azure SQL Server Instances

• Azure SQL Database V12 or higher
• All service tiers
• Azure SQL Managed Instance

Note:  When monitoring a Windows cluster with Performance Analysis for Windows, it's recommended to monitor cluster nodes individually.

Watched (monitored) Amazon Web Services (AWS) Instances

• Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS) for SQL Server Instance
• Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) Instance

Features with Additional Requirements

• SQL Sentry Portal has additional requirements as outlined in the SQL Sentry Portal Configuration article.
• Storage Forecasting requires a SQL Sentry database on SQL Server 2016 or later with R/ML Services in-Database enabled for Advanced Disk Forecasting. There are no additional requirements for Standard Disk Forecasting.
  • Important:  For Advanced Disk Forecasting, you must turn on the external scripts enabled option in SQL Server for the instance hosting the SQL Sentry database. See the External Scripts Enabled server configuration option article in Microsoft Docs for instructions on setting that option. The SQL Server Launchpad service must also be running before using Advanced Disk Forecasting. See the SQL Server Launchpad service configuration article from Microsoft Docs for more information. If these were not in place, you should restart the SQL Sentry client after setting them and then select the Advanced Disk Forecasting mode.
• Deadlock tab and associated data in Performance Analysis for SQL Server is available on SQL 2005 and higher.
• Execution plan collection requires SQL 2005 SP2 or higher.
• Monitoring analysis services with Performance Analysis requires SQL Server 2005 or higher.
• Indexes tab and Fragmentation manager require SQL Server 2005 or higher.
• Monitoring the Windows event log with Performance Analysis for Windows is only supported for Windows vista or higher.    
• Hyper-V virtualization is supported for Hyper-V v2 (included with Windows Server 2012).
• Monitoring VMware hosts requires vCenter 5.5, vCenter 6, vCenter 6.5, vCenter 6.7, and vCenter 7.0 to get vCenter-related metrics.
  • vCenter 6.5 is only supported by SQL Sentry in version 11.2 or higher.
  • vCenter 6.7 is only supported by SQL Sentry in version 19.0 or higher.
  • vCenter 7.0 is only supported by SQL Sentry in version 2022.4 or higher.
• Monitoring Azure SQL database targets requires access to the SQL endpoint (over outbound port 1433) with the appropriate Azure SQL firewall rules created.

Note:  Windows Vista introduced Task scheduler 2.0. Task scheduler 2.0 is backwards compatible with Task scheduler 1.0; however, Task Scheduler 1.0 isn't forwards compatible with Task Scheduler 2.0. To watch or synchronize Task scheduler 2.0 instances, you must have a SQL Sentry monitoring service and SQL Sentry client running Windows Vista or higher. Windows 8 and Windows 2012 also introduced changes to Task scheduler. To watch or synchronize Windows 8 and Windows server 2012 targets, you must have a SQL Sentry monitoring service and SQL Sentry client running Windows 8 or Windows 2012.

Warning:  We do not support Synchronous-commit mode for the Availability Group hosting the SQL Sentry database in large or high latency network environments.