Hi I need to purchase some Sql software to compress and quickly backup data
files, proactively monitor a whole range of servers in real time and I need
auditing at the log level for ddl events and rollbacks in case of emergencies.

Idera SQL Diagnostic Manager --for monitoring
Aspex ApexSQL Log --for logs
Quest LiteSpeed --for backups

I believe these to be the best products for each task but my problem is they
are all from different vendors. Would you purchase what you thought was the
best or just get everything from one vendor and compromise slighlty on the
product?

thanks for any real world advice on this matter.

Sammy

For monitoring I much prefer SQL Sentry's tool (Performance Advisor) over
both Quest's and Idera's offerings.

I use Red Gate's product for backups (where I don't just use native), and am
completely satisfied with it, though I never did any due diligence comparing
it to LiteSpeed.

I would never get everything from one vendor for some perceived simplicity.
If that vendor had the best tool in each category, then maybe, but that is
not the case here in my opinion. So for the high end products you're not
going to save much money and even less hassle by sticking to one vendor (and
potentially suffering in the long run by taking an inferior product in one
discipline because they had a better product in another).

Of course, my real world advice, or the next guy's, or anyone's for that
matter, does not really dictate that your experience will be the same.
Instead of picking what you believe to be the best products for each task,
why don't you try them in a real world scenario, so you know if they work
for you? The big ticket items all have trial editions, and this is exactly
what they are for...

You might also want to consider looking at HyperBac for backups. Personally
I am not using it in production, even though it compared favorably to
RedGate, but only because we already had an investment in RedGate (both
license costs and automation around it). There are some advantages it has
over others that may be valuable in your case, for example fewer
services/XPs, and an easier transition to native backups when you move to
2008+ (since commands are native).

Basically, you should not just pick the product you think is best because of
your perception, how often you've heard the name, or what some yonker like
me in a newsgroup might say about it... You should actually try them,
because no matter what you read or hear, your experience in your environment
might be completely different.

On 8/26/08 6:07 PM, in article
A162E3CC-0A7E-4B4D-A443-FD57689F964B@microsoft.com, "Sammy"
discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:

Thanks Aaron,

Yes I downloaded Redgate after your previous post and the speeds and
compression are very good and the product is very intuative. I'll also have
a look at HyperBac but Redgate is the best I've tried so far.

"Aaron Bertrand [SQL Server MVP]" wrote:

On Aug 26, 6:07 pm, Sammy discussions.microsoft.com> wrote: