How is Orion APM licensed?
Hi Pattu,
The license for APM are based on monitors.
i.e. Four types of monitors are available in Application Performance Monitor: port monitors, user experience monitors, Windows service monitors, and process monitors.
For example, an APM AL50 can be configured for up to 50 monitors. 50 monitors might include the Windows services associated with SQL server, port monitors for a DNS or FTP server, user experience monitors for a web application, and processes running on a Linux server.
Thank you Krishanth
Okay I am confused. I am running the exchange 2007 monitor and there are at least 34 underneath that one that we are using. So you are telling me that our licensing are based off of each individual monitor? If so I was misled with the Sales department. I thought it was based off of nodes. I love Solarwinds but man this is really starting to become crazy for the amount of money we pay for each module. Seems to be repetative with NPM only thing you see different is that it adds application stuff. Why can't this all just be included with the NPM application just as you did with the wireless portion?
Yes, you are correct. All of the 34 monitors for your exchange server count toward your total number on your license. APM really is a lot different than NPM if you look at things from both a functional and OSI layer standpoint. I personally find APM to be my favorite part of Orion as it seems to wield the most power for us.
As far as pricing is concerned, you are correct in that it is all very expensive. However, when I compared Orion with other comparable solutions I found that there prices were resonable. The recent changes they made with the licensing of their modules and additional pollers helped with pricing as well.
I realize all of the expenses can be frustrating but if you want commercial software it's the price you pay. There are good open source solutions available that are less expensive but you will most likely end up spending a lot more time on implementation and custom development for them.
Bryon,
Thanks for your reply. I love Solarwinds trust me. It is a great application for network/systems monitoring. I would not use anything else I have been using it since I was in the Army back in 1998. Now that I am in the commercial business sector, I still find it to be the best applicaiton for monitoring. I just remember when it was first developed before the company moved to Austin everything used to be included minus APM other new modules that have been developed the years.
I just think the licensing for APM kind of sucks and wished it was per node instead of per application monitor.
Pricing is still the best overall compared to what is out there but I miss the old Solarwinds Product when everything was included. APM seems like it is going to be a valuable tool for us to use. But I guess we will have to wait until next year's budget to go to the unlimited licensing since at the time it was too expensive for the company to afford currently.
There is one thing that is maybe still not clear in that relation.Let's stay with the Exchange example, although this is maybe not very realistic in my calculation:
You have this 34 monitors Exchange template assigned to one server = 34 on License count.Now you assign the same template to a 2nd server = again +34 License count.
So if you assign the same template to 10 servers, you have to calculate your 34 monitors * 10 servers = 340 on License count, am I right?
Yes, each "instance" of monitor is counted so if you have one template assigned to 10 nodes, you have to count number of monitor in template and multiple it by 10.
So the basically, the 50 monitor license is just about worthless. (as I can't see anyone wanting run APM if they only have 1 or 2 servers).
[RANT] When I first saw Orion (and APM) I was impressed (and excited to start using it), the more I learned, the less I liked. so many damn got ya' like this license structure basically sucks for $2995 I can monitor 2 servers (if that), instead I could buy tools like Redgate's SQL Monitor for $600 per server and it will give much better details about what is going on. (ie 3k less features vs 1200 more features, that's an easy decision).
So the basically, the 50 monitor license is just about worthless. (as I can't see anyone wanting run APM if they only have 1 or 2 servers).[RANT] When I first saw Orion (and APM) I was impressed (and excited to start using it), the more I learned, the less I liked. so many damn got ya' like this license structure basically sucks for $2995 I can monitor 2 servers (if that), instead I could buy tools like Redgate's SQL Monitor for $600 per server and it will give much better details about what is going on. (ie 3k less features vs 1200 more features, that's an easy decision).
If you were to compare Orion to other products that do what it does, you will find that Orion is very competitively priced; it's a solid value proposition. I have been working with Enterprise management software for about 10 years now and have worked with and evaluated dozens of different Enterprise monitoring solutions, from this experience I can tell you that other similar products will be priced similar if not more than Orion. (If you wish to compare see products such as CA Unicenter, HP OpenView, Manage Engine OpManager, or Science Logic EM7)
If you are looking for a monitoring solution for a very specific thing then a point solution is likely a better option.
It ultimately comes down to your needs, you need to compare your needs against different solutions and find the one that works right for you.
