SolarWinds® Server & Application Monitor
A server application monitor tracks server and application health, availability, and performance, including CPU, memory, response time, resource use, and dependencies.
Monitor servers, applications, and dependencies in one place so you can find issues sooner and keep critical services running smoothly.
Visibility
Eliminate blind spots across on-prem, hybrid, and cloud environments.
Gain full visibility into your IT environment with continuous app server monitoring. SAM tracks every server and application component — CPU, memory, disk, response time, and availability — so you can detect issues early and maintain optimal performance. Cross-stack correlation connects server health to application behavior, helping teams troubleshoot faster and reduce downtime.
Capacity
Forecast growth and avoid bottlenecks before they impact users.
Monitor server capacity to plan for future growth with confidence. SAM tracks CPU, memory, and storage usage trends, giving you actionable insights to right-size resources and prevent bottlenecks. Accurate server capacity planning helps ensure your applications always have the resources they need to perform at their best.
Custom Apps
Flexible monitoring for the apps that matter to your business.
SAM offers in-depth custom application monitoring with over 250 out-of-the-box templates and the flexibility to build your own. Track performance metrics, detect bottlenecks, and troubleshoot issues specific to your applications — whether they run on Windows, Linux, or in the cloud. This flexibility makes it a powerful application monitor for diverse, evolving environments.
Dependencies
Visualize relationships to see exactly where problems start.
Visualize server and application relationships with powerful application dependency mapping. SAM automatically discovers and maps dependencies across your environment, so you can quickly identify which component is causing the issue and reduce downtime.
Hybrid Cloud
Monitor cloud infrastructure without switching consoles.
Monitor Azure in real time alongside your existing applications and infrastructure. SAM tracks performance, availability, and dependencies for cloud-native apps, virtual machines, and cloud databases — all from the same console as your on-premises servers. Manage cloud infrastructure the same way you manage on-prem, making it an essential part of your server application monitor strategy.
Explore the mechanics behind faster resolution and proactive monitoring.
SAM monitors over 250 apps and systems out of the box, covering the vendors and platforms your teams already rely on.
What is a server application monitor?
A server application monitor is a software tool that tracks the health, availability, and performance of servers and applications by monitoring metrics such as CPU, memory, disk, response time, resource utilization, application health, and dependencies. It helps IT teams detect performance problems quickly, identify root causes, and maintain application availability across on-premises, hybrid, and cloud environments. SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) provides this visibility from a single console with over 250 prebuilt monitoring templates.
What servers and applications does SAM monitor?
SAM monitors over 250 application types out of the box, including application servers, authentication servers, database servers, web servers, and more. It tracks metrics across Windows, Linux, VMware, Azure, and AWS environments. Specialized AppInsight™ templates provide deep-dive monitoring for Microsoft SQL Server, Exchange, IIS, and Active Directory. You can also create custom templates for proprietary or commercial applications using component monitors for services, processes, ports, URLs, and performance counters.
How does app server monitoring work in SAM?
SAM collects performance data using both agentless and agent-based methods. Agentless polling uses SNMP, WMI, scripts including PowerShell, RPC, and a customizable API poller for static infrastructure. For ephemeral environments or Kubernetes workloads, SAM supports agent-based collection with DaemonSets and direct cloud integrations. You assign prebuilt or custom templates to nodes, and each template creates individual application monitors that actively collect data via polling. Cross-stack correlation then links server metrics to application health for faster root-cause isolation.
Is SolarWinds SAM agentless or agent-based?
SAM supports both agentless and agent-based monitoring. Agentless polling uses SNMP, WMI, scripts including PowerShell, RPC, and a customizable API poller — ideal for static infrastructure where deploying agents isn't practical or permitted. For ephemeral environments or Kubernetes workloads, SAM supports agent-based collection with DaemonSets and direct cloud integrations. This flexibility lets you choose the right approach per workload rather than being locked into a single collection model.
What is the difference between SolarWinds SAM and SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted?
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) is a standalone Orion module focused on server and application monitoring. SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted is the broader platform that includes the capabilities of SAM alongside network, infrastructure, database, virtualization, and log monitoring capabilities. SAM is also available as a standalone module for teams that need server and application monitoring without the full platform. If your monitoring needs grow beyond servers and applications, you can upgrade to Observability Self-Hosted without losing your existing configuration.
Do companies use SolarWinds for server and application monitoring?
Yes. Thousands of organizations rely on SolarWinds SAM for server and application monitoring across hybrid IT environments. For example, RigNet, a Viasat company, uses SolarWinds Observability alongside SAM to monitor approximately 8,000 nodes across 10 polling engines, empowering the company to proactively detect issues and maintain consistent service quality for oil and gas customers worldwide. SAM's 250+ out-of-the-box templates and automated discovery make it a proven choice for IT operations teams of any size.
How much does SolarWinds SAM cost?
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor is licensed via a node-based subscription model. Pricing scales with the number of monitored nodes and the tier of features you need. SAM is also available as part of SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted, which bundles multiple monitoring capabilities into a single platform. For a custom quote based on your environment size, request a quote or contact our sales team.
SolarWinds® Server and Application Monitor (SAM) features are also available as a standalone Orion® module. Contact Sales for a custom quote.
SAM collects monitoring data using both agentless and agent-based methods. Agentless polling uses SNMP, WMI, RPC, PowerShell or other scripts, and a customizable API poller — ideal for static infrastructure where deploying agents isn't practical or permitted. For ephemeral environments or Kubernetes workloads, SAM supports agent-based collection with DaemonSets and direct cloud integrations. You assign prebuilt or custom templates to nodes, and each template creates individual application monitors that actively collect data via polling. Cross-stack correlation links server metrics to application health, so you can isolate root causes faster without juggling multiple collection tools.
SAM collects monitoring data using both agentless and agent-based methods. Agentless polling uses SNMP, WMI, RPC, PowerShell or other scripts, and a customizable API poller — ideal for static infrastructure where deploying agents isn't practical or permitted. For ephemeral environments or Kubernetes workloads, SAM supports agent-based collection with DaemonSets and direct cloud integrations. You assign prebuilt or custom templates to nodes, and each template creates individual application monitors that actively collect data via polling. Cross-stack correlation links server metrics to application health, so you can isolate root causes faster without juggling multiple collection tools.
