GETTING STARTED GUIDE

Database Performance
Analyzer
Version 2023.2.100

Last Updated: Monday, July 17, 2023

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Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 2

Table of Contents
How do I get started with DPA? 4
Register a single Oracle database instance 5
Before you start 5
Register the instance 5
View performance data for the database instance 9
Examples of investigating performance issues with DPA 11
The DPA approach to investigating performance issues 11
Investigate an application performance problem with DPA 14
Investigate an increase in wait time with DPA 20
Investigate a wait time anomaly with DPA 23
Create a DPA alert to monitor SQL statement execution time 29
Create a DPA report to track wait types for a single SQL statement 33
After evaluation, activate DPA licenses 38
Activate licenses online 38
View current license allocation 39
Integrate DPA with the SolarWinds Platform 40
Benefits of integrating DPA with the SolarWinds Platform 40
How do I integrate DPA with the SolarWinds Platform? 42
Beyond Getting Started with DPA 43

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 3

 How do I get started with DPA?

How do I get started with DPA?

Welcome to the Database Performance Analyzer (DPA) Getting Started Guide.

To learn about performance monitoring with DPA, SolarWinds recommends that you complete the
following tasks:

Install DPA and create the database repository.

See the DPA Installation and Upgrade Guide for system requirements, planning checklists, and
installation or upgrade instructions.

Register the database instances you want to monitor.

Investigate performance issues.

l Learn about the DPA approach to monitoring.
l Walk through an example of investigating an application performance issue.
l Walk through an example of investigating an increase in wait time.
l Walk through an example of investigating a wait time anomaly.

Set up alerts to monitor database performance.

Create reports to track the effects of your tuning efforts and share your progress with others.

After evaluating DPA, activate a license for each instance you want to monitor.

Integrate DPA with the SolarWinds Platform

After you become familiar with DPA basics, learn about other DPA features.

When you have finished this guide, see Beyond Getting Started with DPA for information about other
DPA functionality.

Existing customers: Access your licensed software from the SolarWinds Customer Portal. If you need
any implementation help, contact our Support Reps.

Evaluators: Download your free 14-day evaluation from [Link]. If you need assistance
with your evaluation, contact sales@[Link].

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 4

 Register a single Oracle database instance

Register a single Oracle database instance

You must register all of the database instances that you plan to monitor with DPA. You can register
an individual instance using the Register Instance wizard, or you can register multiple instances.

DPA can monitor many database types, including SQL Server, Sybase, Db2, PostgreSQL, MySQL, AWS,
and Azure. This example in the DPA Getting Started Guide shows you how to register an Oracle
database with a manually created monitoring user. For information about registering other types of
database instances, see Register a database instance for monitoring in the DPA Administrator Guide.

Before you start

Before you run the Register Instance wizard, make sure:
l The database instance is a version that DPA can monitor.
l You know the password a user with the SYSDBA role (such as SYS). You will connect to the
Oracle database as that user to run a script, but you will not enter the password into DPA.

Register the instance

Run a script to create the DPA monitoring user, which is used to collect information for DPA. Then run
the wizard to complete registration.

Task 1: Create the monitoring user

1. Copy one of the following scripts to a file:
l [Link]
This is the performance-optimized option. This script creates objects under the SYS
schema. (See the Requirements Overview section of this article for more information
about the objects created.)
l [Link]
This is the reduced-permission option. This script does not create any objects under the
SYS schema. With this option, DPA cannot retrieve the names of Oracle control files. If a
wait event is associated with a control file, the Top Files trends chart cannot display the
control file name. Instead, the chart displays the placeholder "Control File(s)". All other
DPA functionality is available.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 5

 Register the instance

2. Edit the script to update the user name and password values.
3. Connect to the Oracle database as a user with the SYSDBA role (such as SYS), and run the script.

Task 2: Complete the registration wizard

1. In the upper-left corner of the DPA home page, click Register DB Instance for Monitoring.
2. Under Self-managed, select Oracle.
3. If the monitoring user prompt is shown, select I will create the monitoring user manually. Then
click Next.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 6

 Register the instance

4. Complete the Connection information panel:

a. Select the connection method, and then complete the fields required for the selected
method:

Connection
Required fields
method
Direct connect l Enter the host name or IP address of the server that hosts the
database instance.
l Verify or update the port used for the connection. The default port
is 1521.
l Specify the SID (System Identifier) or Service name of the
database instance.

TNS connect In the TNS descriptor box, enter everything after NAME= in the
descriptor [Link] file. The beginning (DESCRIPTION= is necessary. For
example:
(DESCRIPTION = (ADDRESS_LIST = (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL =
TCP)(HOST = [Link])(PORT = 1521)))
(CONNECT_DATA =(SERVICE_NAME = myserver)))

TNS name In the TNS name box, enter the SERVICE_NAME value from the
[Link] file.

To use this option, Oracle Name Resolution must be configured.

For instructions, see Connect to Oracle using name resolution.

LDAP In the LDAP box, enter the LDAP distinguished name.

To use this option, Oracle Name Resolution must be configured.

For instructions, see Connect to Oracle using name resolution.

b. Under SSL mode (if SSL mode is enabled), specify the type of secure socket layer (SSL)
connections established between the instance and the DPA server.

SSL connections are not available if LDAP is selected as the Connection method.

SSL mode Description

Disable SSL encryption is not used.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 7

 Register the instance

SSL mode Description

Validate server SSL is enabled. The client verifies that the server is trustworthy by
certificate checking the certificate chain up to a trusted certificate authority
(CA).

Validate server SSL is enabled. The client verifies the certificate chain and also
certificate and verifies that the server hostname matches its certificate's Subject
match hostname Alternative Name or Common Name (CN).

c. Enter the user name and password of the monitoring user created previously. Or, if DPA is
configured to use CyberArk, enter the CyberArk credentials query for the monitoring user.
d. Click Next.
DPA validates the connection information and the privileges of the monitoring user. If the
validation is successful, the Instance options pane opens.
5. Specify the following Instance options.

The instance name and group membership can be changed after registration.

a. If your repository database is Oracle, choose the tablespace in the repository database to
store DPA performance data for this monitored instance.
By default, the performance data is stored in the default tablespace of the repository user.
However, data for monitored instances can be stored in separate tablespaces.
b. If the monitored instance contains the Oracle E-Business Suite, specify whether you want
DPA to collect additional information about the suite.
DPA can capture Oracle E-Business data to identify the screens, modules, and users
generating the database requests. This gives you increased visibility into the causes of
performance problems in the Oracle E-Business Suite, Oracle Enterprise Resource
Planning (ERP), and Oracle Applications environments.
c. Enter the name that DPA will display to identify this database instance.
The Display name field defaults to the name retrieved from the database instance.
d. (Optional) If you have manually created instance groups, you can assign this database
instance to one of the groups.

If no manual groups exist, this option is not shown.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 8

 View performance data for the database instance

e. (Optional) If you have existing alert groups, you can assign this database instance to one
or more groups.

If no alert groups exist, or the existing groups do not match this instance's database
type, this option is not shown.

f. Click Next.
6. Review the information on the Summary page. Click Back if you need to make changes. When
the information is correct, click Register.

View performance data for the database instance

If you register a database instance within the 14-day trial period, DPA begins monitoring the instance
immediately. After the trial period, you must activate a license to monitor the database instance.

When DPA is monitoring an instance, the home page shows summary information about the instance.

For the first two hours after you register the instance, data is shown only on the home page. After two
hours, all DPA pages are populated.

Click the instance name to view detailed information about that instance. For more information, see
Investigate a SQL statement causing long waits.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 9

 View performance data for the database instance

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 10

 Examples of investigating performance issues with DPA

Examples of investigating performance issues

with DPA
Learn about the DPA approach to investigating performance issues and then walk through examples
of investigating a performance issue:
l Investigate an application performance problem with DPA
l Investigate an increase in wait time with DPA
l Investigate a wait time anomaly with DPA

The DPA approach to investigating performance issues

Check out this video (4:09) on navigating the DPA interface to diagnose performance issues.

DPA provides a unique approach to investigating performance issues. Use the wait-based analysis
approach in DPA to focus on issues that provide the greatest performance improvements.

The agentless architecture in DPA uses less than one percent of database resources, so it can
monitor production systems without affecting their performance.

Wait-based analysis
Traditional database monitoring tools focus on database health metrics to troubleshoot performance
problems. DBAs can spend hours tuning the database to improve these metrics, only to find that their
changes had little or no effect on performance.

Instead of database health metrics, DPA focuses on application and end-user wait times. DPA
graphically shows you where the longest wait times are, and it also identifies time periods when wait
times that are longer than expected (anomalies). You can drill in to find the root cause of a
performance issue and get advice on how to fix it. When you use DPA to find and fix the issues that
are directly responsible for long wait times, you can deliver performance improvements that get
noticed.

Use the DPA home page to quickly identify database instances with high wait times or anomalies, and
then drill down for details.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 11

 The DPA approach to investigating performance issues

Query performance analysis

To help you investigate the root cause of a query's performance problems, DPA intelligently
assembles the most relevant data about the query and displays it on the Query Details page. Use this
information to:
l Find out what type of waits are affecting performance, and view detailed information and
recommendations about each type of wait
l Review query and table tuning advisors
l Examine statistics and metrics charts to correlate query wait times with other events

DPA uses the predominant type of wait and other information to automatically select the most
relevant statistics, blocking, plan, and metrics charts. When you scroll down to view these charts, the
Top Waits chart remains visible so you can correlate query wait times with other events during the
same time period. This information provides the context you need to identify the root cause of
complex performance problems.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 12

 The DPA approach to investigating performance issues

Table tuning advisors

You must consider many factors when you're determining how to improve the performance of an
inefficient query—that is, a query that reads a large number of rows but returns relatively few. DPA's
table tuning advisors help you make informed decisions. Each day, DPA identifies tables that had
inefficient queries run against them. For each table, the Table Tuning Advisor page displays
aggregated information about the inefficient queries, the table structure, and any existing indexes.
This information can help you answer questions such as:
l Which steps should I focus on when I review the plan for the query?
l How many indexes currently exist on the table and what do they look like?
l Can I add an index to improve performance?
l Are statistics stale?
l How much churn (inserts, updates, and deletes) does the table undergo?

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 13

 Investigate an application performance problem with DPA

Anomaly detection
DPA uses an anomaly detection algorithm to identify unexpected increases in wait time. During
certain time periods, high wait times might be normal. DPA uses historical data to "learn" what normal
is and makes predictions based on this data. When wait times for a time period are significantly
higher than expected, DPA reports an anomaly.

Investigate an application performance problem with DPA

The following example shows how DPA can be used to find the root cause of an application
performance problem.

The problem
Users are complaining about the performance of an application developed in-house. The performance
problems always occur around 2 PM, during core business hours.

The investigation
1. From the DPA home page, click the database instance that the application runs against.

The Top SQL Statements trend chart shows the 15 SQL statements with the highest wait times
for the past 31 days.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 14

 Investigate an application performance problem with DPA

2. Click a bar that represents a day when users experienced slow performance.
The chart shows the top SQL statements for each hour. During the 2 PM hour, one SQL
statement caused significantly longer waits than all the others.

3. Point to that segment in the bar to display additional information about the SQL statement. Note
the SQL hash.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 15

 Investigate an application performance problem with DPA

4. In the chart legend, click the hash value that represents the SQL statement.
The Query Detail page displays DPA's analysis of the query performance, including the types of
waits, query advisors, and the most relevant charts. By default, the time period is the same as
the period that you selected on the trends chart.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 16

 Investigate an application performance problem with DPA

5. To make this statement easier to identify in charts and reports, name the SQL statement:
a. In the upper-right corner, click SQL Properties.
b. In the SQL Properties dialog, enter the name and click OK.
Legends and reports now identify the SQL statement by name instead of by hash value.
6. Look at the Top Waits chart to see what type of waits are causing delays.
The chart shows that this SQL statement spends most of its time in Memory/CPU waits.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 17

 Investigate an application performance problem with DPA

7. Click the information icon next to the wait type in the legend to see more information about
Memory/CPU waits.
DPA provides detailed information about this wait type, including possible solutions.

8. In the Query Advisors section, notice that DPA's analysis shows that a full table scan is being
performed and suggests adding an index.
You can click the full table scan link for details, or click the plan hash on the right to view the
plan.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 18

 Investigate an application performance problem with DPA

Before you add the index, you decide to find out more about where this query comes from.
9. Click the Supporting Data tab, which shows that the query is being run by Accounting.

Rather than add an index immediately, you decide to first contact the Accounting team and ask if they
can tune the SQL statement. In this scenario, the Accounting department replies that the SQL
statement cannot be changed. With this information, you decide to add the index.

After you add the index, you can add an annotation to let the rest of the team know what
changed and to help determine whether the change is effective.

The new index improves the execution time of the SQL statement, and users no longer complain
about slow performance when it runs.

Next steps
l To make sure this SQL statement doesn't cause problems in the future, you can add an alert to
notify you if the average wait time for this statement increases.
l You can create a report to track wait times and determine if your tuning efforts were effective.
l For other examples of using DPA to investigate a performance issue, see:
o Investigate an increase in wait time with DPA

o Investigate a wait time anomaly with DPA

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 19

 Investigate an increase in wait time with DPA

Investigate an increase in wait time with DPA

The following example shows how DPA can be used to find the root cause of an increase in wait time.

The problem
The wait time for a SQL statement that runs regularly has increased significantly.

The investigation
1. From the DPA home page, click the database instance that the SQL statement runs against.
2. In the Top SQL Statements trend chart legend, click the SQL statement's name or hash value.
The Query Details page shows the wait times for the past 30 days. You can see that the wait
time started to increase around April 23.

3. Scroll down the page to review the charts. Notice that:

l The Statistics chart shows that the Number of Executions is unchanged but Wait Time Per
Execution increased significantly around April 23.
l DPA detected a plan change and displayed the Plans chart automatically. The Plans chart
shows that the increase in wait time occurred at the same time the plan changed.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 20

 Investigate an increase in wait time with DPA

4. On any chart, click the bar that represents April 23 to see more details about that day.
The Top Waits and Statistics charts confirm that the wait times started increasing during the
hour that the plan changed. You can also see that charts in the Instance Resource Metrics
section don't indicate any resource pressure.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 21

 Investigate an increase in wait time with DPA

After determining the root cause, you can click the hash values in the Plans section to display each
plan and find out what changed.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 22

 Investigate a wait time anomaly with DPA

Learn more
Learn more about the DPA approach to investigating performance issues. For other examples of
using DPA to investigate a performance issue, see:
l Investigate an application performance problem with DPA
l Investigate a wait time anomaly with DPA

Investigate a wait time anomaly with DPA

DPA uses an anomaly detection algorithm to identify unexpected increases in wait time. The
following example shows how DPA can be used to find the root cause of an unexpected increase in
wait time.

The problem
When you click a database instance from the DPA home page, DPA displays the Anomaly Detection
chart below the Top SQL Statements chart. In this example, the chart shows that DPA detected
critical anomalies for January 24.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 23

 Investigate a wait time anomaly with DPA

The investigation
1. On the Anomaly Detection chart, click the bar that represents January 24.
The one-day Anomaly Detection chart shows that the anomaly occurred during the 2 AM hour.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 24

 Investigate a wait time anomaly with DPA

2. Click the bar that represents the 2 AM hour.

The chart shows the top SQL statements that were executed during that hour. In this example,
the COMMIT TRAN SQL statement had significantly higher wait times than any other statement.
It is likely to be the cause of the anomaly.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 25

 Investigate a wait time anomaly with DPA

3. Click the name of the COMMIT TRAN SQL statement to open the Query Details page, which
shows detailed information about that SQL statement's performance during the selected time
period (2:00 AM to 3:00 AM in this case).
Notice that the predominant wait type during that hour is HADR_SYNC_COMMIT. This wait
indicates that the primary AG replica is waiting for secondary replicas to commit their data. The
most likely issue is that there are slowdowns within the AG environment.

4. To get an idea of what is normal for COMMIT TRAN, click the date control in the top center of
the screen and choose Last 90 Days.
The chart displays wait times for the COMMIT TRAN SQL statement during the last 90 days.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 26

 Investigate a wait time anomaly with DPA

You can see that:

l The SQL statement had long HADR_SYNC_COMMIT waits from November 15 through
December 10, but the waits were not as severe as January 24.
l From December 10 through January 24, there were almost no issues.
l Unusually long waits occurred on January 24, and DPA reported an anomaly.
l Even though the waits are not as severe as on January 24, the problem continues to occur.
5. Click the AG status tab, and then click the availability group name to view information about the
AG status. In this case, you find that there are noticeable delays.

Based on this data, your team uses SolarWinds SAM to investigate further, and you identify network
issues between the primary and replica databases as the underlying cause of the anomalies.

You also configure a Database Instance Wait Time anomaly alert to notify you when anomalies are
detected.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 27

 Investigate a wait time anomaly with DPA

Learn more
Learn more about the DPA approach to investigating performance issues. For other examples of
using DPA to investigate a performance issue, see:
l Investigate an application performance problem with DPA
l Investigate an increase in wait time with DPA

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 28

 Create a DPA alert to monitor SQL statement execution time

Create a DPA alert to monitor SQL statement

execution time
Use DPA alerts to send notifications about potential problems so that your team can take steps to
resolve the issue before it affects end users.

A previous example showed how to use DPA to resolve performance problems that were caused by a
long-running SQL statement. This example adds an alert to notify the DBA group if the average
execution time of that SQL statement is above the specified threshold. If this alert is triggered, the
team can stop the query before end users notice a performance problem.

1. On the DPA menu, click Alerts.

2. Click the Manage Alerts tab.
3. For the Alert Category, select Wait Time.
4. For the Alert Type, select Average Wait Time for a Single SQL.

5. Click Create Alert.

6. Enter a unique name, select the execution interval, and enter the email notification text.

SolarWinds recommends an execution interval of at least 10 minutes. This allows time for
valid samples and prevents unnecessary alerts from a single slow execution.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 29

 Create a DPA alert to monitor SQL statement execution time

7. Select the database instance that the SQL statement runs against.

8. Select the SQL statement the alert monitors.

a. Click Search next to the SQL Hash field.
b. Because this SQL statement has a name, leave Name and Hash selected as the SQL
Search Type.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 30

 Create a DPA alert to monitor SQL statement execution time

c. Select the name of the SQL statement from the list.

d. Click OK. The hash value of the SQL statement is displayed in the SQL Hash field.
9. Specify the thresholds for each alert level you want to enable.
In this example, a High alert is triggered if the average wait time of the SQL statement during an
execution interval is 30 seconds or more.

10. Select the person or group who gets notified when an alert level is triggered and when the alert
is broken. (The alert status is set to Broken if an error occurs during execution.)

If you have not added the person or group as a contact in DPA, click Add Contact or Add
Contact Group. See Create contacts and contact groups in the DPA Administrator Guide.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 31

 Create a DPA alert to monitor SQL statement execution time

11. Click Test Alert to verify that no errors occur when the alert is executed.
12. Click Save.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 32

 Create a DPA report to track wait types for a single SQL statement

Create a DPA report to track wait types for a single

SQL statement
Use DPA reports to identify database trends and track the results of your performance tuning.

The following example creates a report to track wait types for a specific SQL statement. If you made
changes to reduce a specific type of wait for a SQL statement, you can use this report to determine if
your tuning efforts were effective.

1. On the DPA menu, click Reports.

2. Select the database instance and the report type.
For this example, choose Top Waits for single SQL.

3. Click Search and locate the SQL statement.

If you named the statement, enter part of the name and make sure Name and Hash is selected.
Then click Search.
The Search Results lists all SQL statements run against the selected database instance that
match your criteria.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 33

 Create a DPA report to track wait types for a single SQL statement

4. Select the SQL statement, and click OK.

5. Click Report Options.
This report can show the top waits, or it can show specific wait types (regardless of their wait
times).
6. For this example, complete the following steps to specify db_file_scattered read waits and
Memory/CPU waits.

a. Under Waits to Display, select User-Defined Waits and click Add.

b. Enter part of the wait name (for example, scattered), and click Search.
The Search Results section lists all waits that match your search criteria.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 34

 Create a DPA report to track wait types for a single SQL statement

c. Select db file scattered read, and click OK.

d. Repeat the previous steps to add Memory/CPU waits, and click OK.

7. Under Dates to Display, specify the dates that the report should include.
In this example, the date range is the current month, and the report includes only weekdays.

The Data Range at the bottom of this section shows the time period for which data is
available.

8. Under General, complete the following fields.

Report Enter a unique name to identify this report in the report list.
Name

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 Create a DPA report to track wait types for a single SQL statement

Report Title (Optional) Enter a title to display at the top of the report. If you leave
this field blank, the report title defaults to the report type, database
instance, and time period.

Report (Optional) Enter a description to explain the report's content or

Description purpose.

9. In the New Report section at the top of the window, click Display Report.
The report opens. In this example, the drop in wait times after September 7 shows that the
tuning efforts were effective.

10. Click Save and then OK to save the report.

11. To return to the list of reports, click Reports in the breadcrumb navigation at the top of the
window.

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 Create a DPA report to track wait types for a single SQL statement

You can view the report from the Reports tab at any time, or schedule the report to run automatically
and be emailed to a group of recipients.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 37

 After evaluation, activate DPA licenses

After evaluation, activate DPA licenses

After the DPA trial period ends, DPA monitors only licensed instances. If your DPA server uses
individual licenses, you must activate a license for each database instance that you want to monitor.
Make sure you have the correct license types for the instances you want to monitor.

Activate licenses online

If your DPA server is connected to the Internet, you can activate licenses online. Create a user profile
in the SolarWinds Customer Portal if you do not already have one.

If your DPA server is not connected to the Internet, you can activate your licenses offline.

1. Complete the following steps to retrieve your license activation key from the Customer Portal.
If you are evaluating DPA and have received a license activation key from a SolarWinds
representative, continue with step 2.
a. Log in to the SolarWinds Customer Portal.
b. Choose Licenses > Manage Licenses.
c. Locate the license, and expand it.
d. Copy the activation key.
2. On the DPA home page, click License Management. Then click License Manager.
3. Click Enter Activation Key.

4. Select Online Activation, and click Next.

5. On the Online Activation page, paste the activation key into the correct field.
6. In the Amount to Activate section, select All Available or Specify Amount.

Unactivated licenses can be activated later. You can reuse an activation key on a different
DPA server and activate remaining licenses there.

7. Enter the remaining information, and click Activate.

When you activate a license, DPA automatically allocates the license to a registered database
instance if you have enough licenses to monitor all registered instances in that license category. If
you do not have enough licenses to monitor all registered instances, you must manually allocate
licenses to the instances you want to monitor.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 38

 View current license allocation

View current license allocation

Use the License Allocation page to see how many activated licenses are available and how many
have been allocated.

1. On the DPA home page, click License Management.

2. See the current license allocations in the summary boxes near the top of the License Allocation
page.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 39

 Integrate DPA with the SolarWinds Platform

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:
l 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.
l Integrate with SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM)

Check out this video (3:44) on integrating DPA and SAM.

If you have SAM, 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.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 40

 Benefits of integrating DPA with the SolarWinds Platform

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 the DPA and SAM
integration to:
o Analyze database performance within the context of a specific application.
o Monitor applications, databases, and server performance from a single interface, and drill
down to find the root cause of slow application performance.
o 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
by SAM. Use the Database Instance category to assess the overall health of your database
instances and to troubleshoot performance and availability problems.
l 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.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 41

 How do I integrate DPA with the SolarWinds Platform?

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.
l 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.
l 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 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.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 42

 Beyond Getting Started with DPA

Beyond Getting Started with DPA

Now that you've gotten started with DPA, check out the DPA Administrator Guide to learn more about
using other DPA features. For example, you can:
l Register multiple database instances at once
l Add other DPA users and assign user privileges
l Use table tuning advisors to make informed decisions about how to improve the performance of
inefficient queries
l Identify blocking sessions and deadlocks
l Learn about monitoring SQL Server Availability Groups (AGs) and Oracle multitenant databases
(CDBs)
l Create DPA alerts
l Use alert groups to simplify alert configuration
l Schedule reports for email delivery
l Stop monitoring a database for a specified time period

You can also connect with the SolarWinds DPA user community on THWACK, where you'll find
training videos, blog posts, and information about what the DPA team is working on.

Getting Started Guide: Database Performance Analyzer page 43