November 6, 2017 at 1:28 pm
Good afternoon,
Has anyone ever used or have an opinion on the ApexSQL Monitor tool? I am currently evaluating the product and have mixed feelings regarding the tools depth and usability. My team has been trying for years to get a monitoring tool but have had resistance due to pricing of the Top Tier tools, like Idera, SentryOne, RedGate etc. So I've been evaluating the ApexSQL Monitor tool, understanding it's not as feature rich as the three I listed in the hopes that I can at least get something in house to show the value of a product like this to our team.
Don't get me wrong, the ApexSQL Monitor tool provides a ton of data in a relatively easy to use dashboard, but it's in the drill down capability that I am most in question. I have been trying to find reviews online but have some up short, besides a review by Brent Ozar of an earlier version of the product, which wasn't exactly sparkling.
I'm hoping I can find at least a couple real-world users of this product that could point me in the direction of some actual experience with it.
November 7, 2017 at 6:52 am
The silence is deafening.
November 7, 2017 at 6:58 am
I'd love to answer this for you, but I don't know the answer. Plus, I work for Redgate, so you know what I'm going to suggest.
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt
Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning
November 7, 2017 at 7:46 am
KJKKPSI - Tuesday, November 7, 2017 6:52 AMThe silence is deafening.
I know. The whole internet was down yesterday. 😉
Please try the following search. I don't use any type of monitoring software and so I can't even begin to tell you anything about APEX or any other monitoring software.
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
November 7, 2017 at 8:14 am
I'd get in touch with Apex and ask them for a demo with their technical specialist to take you through the product in detail about what it can and cant do for you.
If you have specific issues, their tech support is actually pretty good.
Or make a list of the features that RedGate, Idera, SentryOne, Quest products do that you cant figure out how to do in Apex or would like to see in Apex and again mail their support, if its possible to do it they'll let you know otherwise they may consider it a feature for implementing on a next release.
November 7, 2017 at 9:18 am
KJKKPSI - Monday, November 6, 2017 1:28 PMGood afternoon,Has anyone ever used or have an opinion on the ApexSQL Monitor tool? I am currently evaluating the product and have mixed feelings regarding the tools depth and usability. My team has been trying for years to get a monitoring tool but have had resistance due to pricing of the Top Tier tools, like Idera, SentryOne, RedGate etc. So I've been evaluating the ApexSQL Monitor tool, understanding it's not as feature rich as the three I listed in the hopes that I can at least get something in house to show the value of a product like this to our team.
Don't get me wrong, the ApexSQL Monitor tool provides a ton of data in a relatively easy to use dashboard, but it's in the drill down capability that I am most in question. I have been trying to find reviews online but have some up short, besides a review by Brent Ozar of an earlier version of the product, which wasn't exactly sparkling.
I'm hoping I can find at least a couple real-world users of this product that could point me in the direction of some actual experience with it.
Not the monitor tool, no...but we did attempt to use their source control product. It looked the part, the functional model was good, but it was a buggy nightmare. Generous assistance from their support team couldn't disguise the fact that it wasn't going to work for us - once the majority of the bugs were ironed out it was just too damned slow.
We do have a monitoring tool, Paessler PRTG. It's cheap and it's endlessly configurable. I've had sole responsibility for setting up monitoring on all of our significant instances and it does exactly what we want, monitoring everything from simple service up/down to reads/writes/stalls/locks/deadlocks/diskspace/dataspace and even canary tables and undistributed commands for Transactional Replication.
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November 7, 2017 at 9:32 am
Jeff Moden - Tuesday, November 7, 2017 7:46 AMKJKKPSI - Tuesday, November 7, 2017 6:52 AMThe silence is deafening.I know. The whole internet was down yesterday. 😉
Please try the following search. I don't use any type of monitoring software and so I can't even begin to tell you anything about APEX or any other monitoring software.
Thanks for the link. I ran similar searches myself, but found very little reviews that weren't directly from the parent company, and that's something that concerned my team.
November 7, 2017 at 9:36 am
Grant Fritchey - Tuesday, November 7, 2017 6:58 AMI'd love to answer this for you, but I don't know the answer. Plus, I work for Redgate, so you know what I'm going to suggest.
Thank you Grant.
(Great job at Summit...BTW)
November 7, 2017 at 9:41 am
anthony.green - Tuesday, November 7, 2017 8:14 AMI'd get in touch with Apex and ask them for a demo with their technical specialist to take you through the product in detail about what it can and cant do for you.
If you have specific issues, their tech support is actually pretty good.Or make a list of the features that RedGate, Idera, SentryOne, Quest products do that you cant figure out how to do in Apex or would like to see in Apex and again mail their support, if its possible to do it they'll let you know otherwise they may consider it a feature for implementing on a next release.
Thank you Anthony, This is my first purchasing action in my new role at my company and I'm trying to make the most informed decision possible within the constraints our budget. I personally value first hand opinions on products from my peers. I've used other tools in their stack, and found they were very useful.
November 7, 2017 at 9:44 am
ChrisM@Work - Tuesday, November 7, 2017 9:18 AMKJKKPSI - Monday, November 6, 2017 1:28 PMGood afternoon,Has anyone ever used or have an opinion on the ApexSQL Monitor tool? I am currently evaluating the product and have mixed feelings regarding the tools depth and usability. My team has been trying for years to get a monitoring tool but have had resistance due to pricing of the Top Tier tools, like Idera, SentryOne, RedGate etc. So I've been evaluating the ApexSQL Monitor tool, understanding it's not as feature rich as the three I listed in the hopes that I can at least get something in house to show the value of a product like this to our team.
Don't get me wrong, the ApexSQL Monitor tool provides a ton of data in a relatively easy to use dashboard, but it's in the drill down capability that I am most in question. I have been trying to find reviews online but have some up short, besides a review by Brent Ozar of an earlier version of the product, which wasn't exactly sparkling.
I'm hoping I can find at least a couple real-world users of this product that could point me in the direction of some actual experience with it.
Not the monitor tool, no...but we did attempt to use their source control product. It looked the part, the functional model was good, but it was a buggy nightmare. Generous assistance from their support team couldn't disguise the fact that it wasn't going to work for us - once the majority of the bugs were ironed out it was just too damned slow.
We do have a monitoring tool, Paessler PRTG. It's cheap and it's endlessly configurable. I've had sole responsibility for setting up monitoring on all of our significant instances and it does exactly what we want, monitoring everything from simple service up/down to reads/writes/stalls/locks/deadlocks/diskspace/dataspace and even canary tables and undistributed commands for Transactional Replication.
Thanks for the suggestion. I've been using the Complete and Refactor products and they work well, but have found that they tend to run my SSMS out of memory locally after long sessions. The Monitor in my personal experience is stable and lightweight on the instance side but I believe it may be a lack of knowledge on my part that is driving my concerned.
November 7, 2017 at 10:03 am
KJKKPSI - Tuesday, November 7, 2017 9:32 AMJeff Moden - Tuesday, November 7, 2017 7:46 AMKJKKPSI - Tuesday, November 7, 2017 6:52 AMThe silence is deafening.I know. The whole internet was down yesterday. 😉
Please try the following search. I don't use any type of monitoring software and so I can't even begin to tell you anything about APEX or any other monitoring software.
Thanks for the link. I ran similar searches myself, but found very little reviews that weren't directly from the parent company, and that's something that concerned my team.
I wouldn't want reviews from the parent company... that would be like the mouse guarding the cheese. 😉
--Jeff Moden
Change is inevitable... Change for the better is not.
November 7, 2017 at 10:04 am
KJKKPSI - Tuesday, November 7, 2017 9:36 AMGrant Fritchey - Tuesday, November 7, 2017 6:58 AMI'd love to answer this for you, but I don't know the answer. Plus, I work for Redgate, so you know what I'm going to suggest.Thank you Grant.
(Great job at Summit...BTW)
Thank you!
"The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood"
- Theodore Roosevelt
Author of:
SQL Server Execution Plans
SQL Server Query Performance Tuning
November 8, 2017 at 6:44 am
I can give you my insights. I looked into as well because a lot of the VM level monitoring was restricted in my org because we were so large they had a global IT team taking care of that where I just maintained the service (SQL Server) on the VM I owned. Obviously issues with SQL can stem outside of the service itself and in a virtual environment where resources are shared, you really need to understand is it me or is it them?
The main issue I ran into was the fact a lot of what I was looking for was attainable in my hands already. They essentially were just making it easier to scale out and giving you a pretty GUI to analyze. SQL Server and others are so powerful in analyzing what's going on without needing a monitoring tool if you just spend the time putting something together yourself. However, I really wanted the tool to tap into VMware and Hyper, which I was locked out of and I believe Apex could.
Unfortunately, I moved to Azure shortly after and just checking today, they still have TBA beside Azure SQL Database, Azure Data Warehouse, and Amazon Web Services. I don't even see options for Azure Data Lake Store or Azure Data Lake Analytics (if those are even possible to also be considered with monitoring). Azure itself has it's own tools to help monitor within their own GUI for that anyways along with all those other scripts too.
November 8, 2017 at 4:21 pm
Hi,
Like you, I have evaluated APEX and REDGATE tools to manage, monitoring and develop, in our SQL servers. After several weeks of trials, finally we choosed APEX full suite. It is hard for me express this in a RED GATE related web page, but I need to clarify some aspect of my choose. First of all, I was newbie in the management/development in SQL servers so, one of my first need was obious: an easy platform. The second criterya was the performance. Since I have more than 270 databases I needed a tool to compare the differences and changes between all my databases. In this point, I have to say, APEX performed better with the tool aimed for that. Finally, I evaluated the support for the tool and I was pleased with the service offered from APEX.
Red gate tools, are great. I possibly have a wrong point of view, but I believe that Red gate, will be more useful for experienced SQL dba´s. But if you are a master in SQL, probably you don´t need any set of tools like APEX nor REDGATE!
I probably gained a great boo, from all the fellow folks that uses or work for RED GATE, but this was my experience.
To soft the things more, with the gain of expertise in SQL technology, I´m considering seriously to purchase RED GATE tools in the coming year.
Hope this helps.
November 9, 2017 at 8:58 am
mig28mx - Wednesday, November 8, 2017 4:21 PMHi,
Like you, I have evaluated APEX and REDGATE tools to manage, monitoring and develop, in our SQL servers. After several weeks of trials, finally we choosed APEX full suite. It is hard for me express this in a RED GATE related web page, but I need to clarify some aspect of my choose. First of all, I was newbie in the management/development in SQL servers so, one of my first need was obious: an easy platform. The second criterya was the performance. Since I have more than 270 databases I needed a tool to compare the differences and changes between all my databases. In this point, I have to say, APEX performed better with the tool aimed for that. Finally, I evaluated the support for the tool and I was pleased with the service offered from APEX.Red gate tools, are great. I possibly have a wrong point of view, but I believe that Red gate, will be more useful for experienced SQL dba´s. But if you are a master in SQL, probably you don´t need any set of tools like APEX nor REDGATE!
I probably gained a great boo, from all the fellow folks that uses or work for RED GATE, but this was my experience.
To soft the things more, with the gain of expertise in SQL technology, I´m considering seriously to purchase RED GATE tools in the coming year.
Hope this helps.
Thank you Mig, we are in a very similar position. We've never had a monitoring tool and there is an last of experience in management and administration as well.
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