What is our primary use case?
SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor's primary use cases are to identify configuration changes within the server, at an operating system, application, binaries, libraries, or as low as a driver level. It can identify any change in the inventory of the server.
How has it helped my organization?
It will help a customer identify any kind of configuration changes within the environment and identify whether those configuration changes have anything to do with, performance, or application issues that they might be facing.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature of SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor is version control. For example, if we began on the first of the month and we considered that as the configuration of the server, I could set that configuration as my baseline. On a daily basis, if there was the operations team that did, for example, server patching, the tool will maintain all levels of versions.
Another example, on the 1st of August, we set the baseline configuration. The subsequent versions, such as patches, drivers, or any kind of application update which happened, the tool will maintain versions on a daily basis or on a per change basis.
We can start doing a comparison as to baseline. I know exactly, between the baseline and the changes that happened. We know exactly where the changes are and what the changes are. It's very easy for a customer, then to roll back on to the previous version and get back the server to the same state.
What needs improvement?
We are in touch with the management of the SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor team, and we have made recommendations to them for quite a few changes.
One area that could improve is the configuration download. Instead of only showcasing the differences between the baseline and the current configuration, or a specific version of the configuration, they should show the entire configuration getting downloaded. It could be in the form of a flat file or in the form of a binary file. If it is a flat file, it can use as a reference, and preserved for auditing purposes. That is one area where the product can see quite a lot of improvement.
They have a feature where you can download by section, what I mean is, you can download the configuration of the hardware, software, or driver information, or the file folder settings or permissions. It is a section download, but not a complete download. That is one area of improvement.
The other area of improvement is specific to the customer use cases. They would like to compare two servers as to what the configuration drift is but not only within the server comparison. For example, I would like to take a server in the DR setup that is in the primary data center to do a comparison between the primary server and the DR server. Currently, the configuration comparison is within the server itself.
In a feature release, they could enhance the reporting. However, we have not evaluated this part of the solution extensively.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor for approximately one and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor is highly stable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The scalability of SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor is good. We have deployed the solution for a customer that has over 1,600 servers.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support from SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor has not been used often, but whenever we have used them, we had a fairly good response.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup of SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor was easy. The process took approximately two and a half hours.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price of SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor is not reasonable, it is slightly on the higher side.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
I don't know of any alternatives to SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor.
What other advice do I have?
SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor is a good-to-have solution for all customers who are under audit pressure, especially from regulatory authorities. For example, if there are insurance, banking, stock market companies, or any other kind of regulations, this is a very good auditing tool.
You will know what changes have happened in your environment, thoroughly on the server, configuration, and inventory. You know exactly what changes have happened. You can present a lot of evidence which is one of the key aspects of any kind of audit mechanism.
I rate SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor an eight out of ten.
The solution has two or three shortcomings but hopefully, they improve in the future.
*Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Reseller
