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Home » Network License » SolarWinds » Database Performance Analyzer (DPA)
A SolarWinds DPA license is what unlocks advanced database performance monitoring and analysis capabilities on the Orion Platform. After you purchase it, activation and management happens through the SolarWinds License Manager, your central hub for tracking all license records. Each record holds the key details: customer account info, subscription dates, how many database instances you’re licensed for, polling engine allocations, and any edition-specific entitlements. You can apply the license right through the user interface, and it’ll usually assign itself automatically to your Orion server. If you’re managing multiple databases or running a distributed environment, you can distribute capacity manually across polling engines to fit your setup.
Working in an air-gapped network or a regulated environment? Offline activation is available using a UDI file (Unique Device Identifier). The process is straightforward: generate the UDI from your Orion server, take it to a machine with internet access, upload it to the SolarWinds Customer Portal, and download the key file they provide. Import that key back into your License Manager, and you’re done, no direct internet connection needed on your production server. This keeps everything secure and compliant for restricted infrastructure.
The licensing model is subscription-based with a fixed term, so you get continuous access to feature updates, performance improvements, and technical support during that period. If you need to monitor more databases as your environment grows, license stacking lets you combine multiple entitlements into one deployment without starting over. Once your SolarWinds DPA license is activated, whether online or offline, you’ve got full access to database performance analytics, query monitoring, wait-time analysis, and integration with other Orion modules.
Once SolarWinds DPA is running, you get deep visibility into database performance and resource utilization. The real strength here is wait-time analysis, it shows you exactly why queries are running slow and where resource contention is happening. Instead of guessing what’s causing the bottleneck, you get actionable data you can actually use. By tracking both real-time and historical performance, your team can optimize query execution proactively rather than scrambling when things fall apart.
SolarWinds DPA works with a wide range of database engines: SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and others. That makes it pretty flexible for hybrid or multi-platform environments where you’re not locked into a single vendor. The agentless architecture is a nice touch too, it minimizes overhead and makes deployment simpler since you’re not installing agents everywhere. Plus, intelligent baselining means the system automatically learns what “normal” looks like and alerts you when something deviates from that pattern.
On the reporting side, you get interactive charts, dashboards, and trend analysis tools that help you understand performance over time. This is useful not just for troubleshooting, but also for capacity planning, you can see usage trends and make informed decisions about when to scale up. And because SolarWinds DPA integrates with the Orion Platform, you can see applications, servers, and databases all from one interface instead of juggling multiple tools.
The end result? Faster troubleshooting, less time spent on manual analysis, and the ability to optimize performance before problems impact users. That translates to better application responsiveness, less downtime, and more efficient use of your database resources.
When you’re ready to buy SolarWinds DPA, start by figuring out how many database instances you need to monitor and which edition makes sense for your use case. Pricing scales with capacity, so getting an accurate count upfront helps ensure you’re not over-buying or under-provisioning. You can request a quote through the official SolarWinds store or work with authorized partners and resellers. To get accurate pricing, have these details ready: which edition level you need, your instance counts, any polling engine requirements, what support tier fits your team, and how long you want the subscription to run.
The cost depends on several things: how many database instances you’re monitoring, subscription length, any optional feature packs you add, and your support level. Multi-year subscriptions and volume purchases typically bring down the total cost of ownership, which helps when you’re budgeting for the long haul. As your environment grows, license stacking makes scaling easier, you can add capacity without deploying new monitoring infrastructure or disrupting what’s already running.
After you complete the purchase, the entitlement appears in your License Manager. You can activate it online for immediate use, or if you’re in a secure network, follow the UDI offline activation process we covered earlier. Once it’s activated, the system syncs your database instance capacity and you’re ready to start analyzing performance right away.
Want to try it out first? Trial versions are available so you can test the functionality before committing. You can grab the latest installers and documentation from the SolarWinds DPA download page. When you’re ready to move forward, you can initiate pricing and quote requests through authorized resellers or use the Buy SolarWinds DPA portal. There are also different SolarWinds DPA models available depending on your organization’s size and needs, which gives you flexibility in how you approach the purchase.
