Network Management

Quick Orion database health check guide

This guide will help you address the most common questions and issues related to the Orion database performance check and configuration.

First published date

10/30/2018 2:19 PM

Last published date

5/11/2026 11:52 PM

Overview

This guide will help you address the most common questions and issues related to the Orion database performance check and configuration. These questions include: 

  • I have a huge Orion database. What should I check?
  • I have database performance issues. How can I improve my database performance?
  • I have deadlock errors in my Orion database.
  • Why do my Orion database tables have high fragmentation?
  • Why is my Orion database growing so quickly?
  • Why does my Orion performance decrease each day?
  • Why is my Orion Web Console loading data at a slow rate?
  • How can I store a large number of Syslog and Trap files?

To access data gathered by Active Diagnostics that may help resolve issues:

  1. Click Settings > My Deployment.
  2. Switch to the Deployment Health tab.
  3. Review individual items. Sort issues by priority in descending order to determine which issues should be resolved first. For details, see Troubleshoot Orion Deployment issues with Active Diagnostics .

Related topics include:

Product section

Orion Platform

Cause

Bad SQL performance; SQL settings and errors found in Orion diagnostics; Failing database maintenance or errors; SQL resources not adequate for the environment; Improper database retention settings; Database recovery model set incorrectly.

Resolution

Caution: Before you make any changes in your environment, create a full backup of your Orion database. See Back up the SolarWinds Orion database using SQL Server Management Studio for details. 

Step 1: Check the Orion database server properties  

See also Get to know your monitoring environment - Orion SQL database server properties.


RAID configurations 

For best practice, configure your SQL database server components in a RAID configuration, as listed below.  

COMPONENTRAID CONFIGURATION
Operating System2X RAID 1 (Mirroring) disk
Database files4X RAID 1+0 (Striping and mirroring) with separate partitions for the data and log files
Page file2X RAID 1 (Mirroring) disk
Applications
Ad hoc components


If you plan to virtualize your SQL Server, review the recommendations

Follow best practices for your SQL Server edition and virtual machine.

See SQL Server and Virtual Machines for more details: SQL Server - Performance optimization and best practices


Use SQL with SSD 

For more demanding environments, SolarWinds recommends you to have the Orion SQL DB on SSD.  

Traditional Microsoft SQL Server database deployments required large data storage, typically composed of arrays of rotating hard disk drives (HDD) configured in a storage array network (SAN) over a network connection. 

As data volume increases, the database performance quickly degrades due to increasing I/O and network bottlenecks. 

Replace the slower HDDs with faster solid-state drives (SSD) to relieve I/O bottlenecks and improves performance.

See Microsoft SQL Server* on SSD Improving Database Performance 


Use SQL on a dedicated server. 

SolarWinds strongly recommends that you maintain your SQL Server database on a separate physical server. This is due to performance issues as SQL server is highly instance on memory and resource-demanding application also SQL Express edition limited to single CPU due to the licenses limitation, therefore, is not recommended to install and use the SQL Server on the same system where you have installed the application in a production system. 

You can use the SQL Express on the same machine as testing the evaluation only however, again, it is strongly not recommended to install and use the SQL Express in the production environment.

See Plan your production deployment for additional details. 

Step 2: Check your Orion database settings and configuration 

You can optimize your deployment by changing how often the data is polled, the time after which the detailed data is aggregated and summarized, and how long you need to keep historical data in the database.


Manage your traps and Syslog files 

  • How can I manage my traps and syslogs with a huge Syslog & Traps table in the Orion database? Tips and tricks for managing traps and syslog in Orion NPM
  • How can I optimize Syslogs and Traps tables?
  • SolarWinds Log & Event Manager is an optional security information and event management (SIEM) appliance for more demanding environments. The appliance uses logs for security, compliance, and troubleshooting. You can create and customize widgets to display critical events across your IT environment and monitor file activity for potential data theft.
  • Starting with Orion 2019.4 and later, syslogs and traps will be managed through the Orion Log Viewer (Please see the landing page for OLV). This brings the processing filters into the Orion web console rather than standalone applications. 


Reclaim database space 

  • Check your default database retention settings, described in Polling Settings. Any settings change can enlarge your database and impact performance in your SQL database server. 
  • Reduce your Orion Database size to reclaim free unused space in the database to improve your database performance: Shrink the size of the Orion Database.

See also, I have a large transaction file in the Orion DB, and my database is quickly losing space. What should I check?

Step 3: Fine-tune SQL Server and database settings 

See SQL Server Settings in SQL Server configuration best practices.

Frequently asked questions about database performance 

The following questions provide links to resources that can help you resolve your database setting and configuration issues.