July 27, 2004 at 4:49 pm
Comments posted to this topic are about the content posted at http://www.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/dcorey/reviewlogpi.as
All the best,
Dale
Author: An Introduction to SQL Server 2005 Management Studio
August 23, 2004 at 8:23 am
I was a bit disaapointed that the review did not focus on the actual usage of Log PI.
We downloaded a few weeks ago and tested it. It seems quite slow, and had a bug which prevented Log PI from accessing multiple transaction backups in the same disc file. Considering that we backup transactions every hour, its a critical feature -- without it the application is fairly worthless. We contacted the vendor and they have acknowledged the bug. We're waiting to see if the next release fixes the problem.
I realize they are sponsors and the application hasn't been out very long, but a balanced review should highlight such a critical flaw.
Paul
August 23, 2004 at 9:04 am
Paul,
My review took 16 hours to complete and was extremely thorough (it's over 20 pages). Believe me, the product was "actually" used. However, I did not test multiple transaction backups. Thank you for pointing out this bug. I am sorry to hear you were disappointed in the product. I thought it was outstanding.
Please note: The assumption is that "multiple transaction backups" mean that the user was putting differential and log back ups to the same file. This is a not a highly recommended practice.
All the best,
Dale
Author: An Introduction to SQL Server 2005 Management Studio
August 23, 2004 at 5:35 pm
I also downloaded LOG PI in expectations of being able to search a transaction log for a dropped table, or altered table. I had a very difficult time installing and getting the application to run. I felt the installation is poor, the performance is poor and I too want to use more than one transaction log at a time.
As was pointed out the dot net version it installs is out of date and there is no removal for this and that is very troublesome. I have as of yet to get the product to work, after two weeks, and based on my experience I would recommend people not bother with this product. It is more hype than substance.
August 24, 2004 at 8:01 am
Gary,
From your comments, it seems that you had more problems installing, rather than, using the product. In fact, it sounds like you never did use the product. Please identify the particular features you found to be of issue besides the installation and the one that Paul identified (which is extremely obscure). What did you think of the following (please describe your experience)?:
If you had looked at the "actual" screen shots in the review, you would understand how much more detailed this product is then some other competitors (i.e., Apex).
All,
I have some comments from Log P.I. to submit in this forum concerning Paul and Gary's comments:
"We would like to thank both parties for taking the time to review the product and respect both parties’ views and comments, we do not wish to be drawn into a public debate and are more than happy to discuss these, one on one with the individuals concerned, but would like to clarify the following:
- The impression is created is that Log PI cannot search on a back up file containing multiple log backups, which is not correct in all scenario’s, we have confirmed this bug with the party involved but we do feel the need to clarify the misconception that may arise from the comment. This bug only presents itself when a differential backup is done to the same file as the log backups. The bug is currently being attended to and will be fixed in the new version, due out shortly.
- All parties that experience installation problems are more than welcome to contact support@logpi.com.
We will endeavor to satisfy all requests, however we do acknowledge that in certain scenario’s that it is not always possible to please all parties.
Kind regards
Log PI Management"
I encourage you to contact Log P.I. support at (345) 945 0873 anytime if you are having problems with the installations, etc. I was very pleased with their level of support. Also, if you feel that there are better/comparible products out there, please feel free to note that in this forum. We are always willing to take a look. However, Log P.I. is well worth the cost. It is packed with features (please see the review).
All the best,
Dale
Author: An Introduction to SQL Server 2005 Management Studio
August 24, 2004 at 10:22 am
Mr. Corey, I am not in the habit of lying, as you comments imply, and I am highly insulted by your remarks. If you want me to provide feedback on this ineffective product then sign a contract with me to debug this software otherwise keep your insults to yourself.
Gary Fairchild
August 24, 2004 at 12:03 pm
I was not insulting you. I was only asking for evidence of your actual review of this product and was looking for details to prove that you had checked it out.
Also, you may address me as Mrs. Corey.
Thank you.
All the best,
Dale
Author: An Introduction to SQL Server 2005 Management Studio
October 2, 2004 at 5:14 pm
Dale,
this is Brian from ApexSQL - one of my products was mentioned in review and LogPI website so I thought I would chime in a bit.
#1 - I appreciate your review. It was obvious you spent much time reviewing and understanding the product. These reviews are sometimes "hit or miss" and ratings are subjective but overall I thought it was one of the better reviews I have read on this site.
#2 - We can all appreciate this particular vendors efforts in helping to eliminate the monopoly that had existed in Log Auditing software for quite sometime. Customers of Log Auditing products - whether they purchase this particular product or a different one - can expect some price relief from the added competition vendors like this introduce.
In the spirit of improving all tools in this log auditing niche and expanding on the benefit your review has produced, I would very much appreciate it if you could download the recent version of our ApexSQL Log tool and give us an update of some of the deficiencies you feel still exist. I feel that you are in a unique position to evaluate log tools based on your experience in this review. Such feedback would be welcomed whether private or public and would have direct effect of improving our software.
We have worked hard in latest releases to fix problems and add many features like DDL Auditing. I think we offer powerful passive auditing capability for a fraction of the cost of some of these other log tools. For example, in this case where $5,000 was quoted as price of LogPi for the number of servers you had you would pay only $699 for ApexSQL Log. Upgrades and Support are free.
thank you for your consideration.
Brian Lockwood
President
ApexSQL - SQL Developer Essentials
October 2, 2004 at 7:29 pm
I would love to look at it outside of Log PI's product review. Please contact Steve Jones.
Professionally yours,
Dale Corey
All the best,
Dale
Author: An Introduction to SQL Server 2005 Management Studio
October 4, 2004 at 9:25 am
Dale,
I'll be in touch
thx - Brian
Brian Lockwood
President
ApexSQL - SQL Developer Essentials
February 14, 2005 at 8:18 am
I have to also put in my two cents worth on LogPI. I also found that it was not intuitive in the installation. Also there is a lack of adiquate documentation, especially for the install.
We backup our transaction logs every hour on 99% of our databases to seperate logs. Some of those transaction log backups can get to be 1 to 2 Gb in size. Also a lot of our current transaction files can get up to 14gb in size. When I try and do a log analysis on a database that has only a 30Mb log, it take about 3 to 4 minutes to come back with any results. Multiply that by at least 10 for a 1 Gb file and it would take 2 hours. That is if it would even return anything. I usually get a timeout error, a big message box and then the application would shutdown. Not what I would call stable.
Even if it did return anything, that is just way to long for it to return anything. It would be cost prohibitive and I could have done a restore of the database off our main tape drives, restored the database and gotten any records back in that time.
Also, I have been in the Log analysis window and then wanted to quit the current analysis and go to a different database to do another one and it will die on me doing that as well.
Paying this much money for a 50 server license, I expected a better performing application than this. I do have the latest version of the application (2.2.1816) and have been in contact with tech support. They even offered for us to be a BETA test site. I thought this was supposed to be a completed application.
Can anyone tell me if I am doing something wrong or this application is really this buggy?
Thanks,
Michael LeVere
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