The Ultimate Guide to Monitoring SharePoint Performance

Hey there!

As a SharePoint expert and data analyst, I‘ve seen how performance issues can cripple SharePoint environments. Degraded response times, failed jobs, and downtime aren‘t just annoying – they disrupt collaboration, impact productivity, and damage employee experience.

That‘s why comprehensive monitoring is crucial for smooth SharePoint operations.

In this guide, I‘ll share my insights on:

• Why SharePoint performance monitoring matters
• 5 powerful tools to monitor SharePoint proactively
• Key criteria to select the right monitoring solution
• Best practices for optimal SharePoint performance

I aim to provide all the information you need to implement robust SharePoint monitoring. Let‘s get started!

Why Should You Monitor SharePoint Performance?

SharePoint is the backbone for content collaboration, process automation, and smart workflows in many organizations. With widespread use, any performance issues or outages on SharePoint can hamper business productivity.

According to Gartner, the average cost of IT downtime is around $300,000/hour. SharePoint outages can be enormously expensive.

Here are some key reasons why comprehensive monitoring is crucial for SharePoint environments:

Ensure Fast Performance

In my experience, slow SharePoint performance is the #1 complaint from end-users. Delays degrade SharePoint user experience and impact productivity.

Common reasons for sluggish SharePoint include:

• Inefficient customizations or solutions: Developer mistakes can bloat response times. Monitoring helps identify poorly written code.

• Infrastructure bottlenecks: Limited resources like low RAM, high CPU usage makes SharePoint slow. Performance monitoring spots infrastructure constraints.

• Traffic surges: Spikes in usage from new sites, users, can suddenly slow SharePoint. Tracking usage patterns is key.

• Configuration issues: Incorrect settings for services, databases, caches bring down performance. Monitoring helps correct configs.

Proactive monitoring enables you to catch developing performance problems early before they disrupt users.

Minimize Downtime

SharePoint outages can have a domino effect on business operations by disrupting collaboration, workflows, and productivity.

Some common reasons for SharePoint downtime include:

• Network failures – Server network disconnects can make SharePoint inaccessible. Monitoring tools detect network issues in real-time.

• Security attacks – DoS attacks, ransomware can crash SharePoint farms. Monitoring spot threats early.

• Resource exhaustion – Spikes in load can overwhelm servers. Watching resource usage prevents unavailability.

• Azure service issues – For O365 SharePoint, Azure downtime directly impacts availability. Monitoring tools check cloud health.

• Power outages – Data center failures bring down on-prem SharePoint farms. Integrations with UPS monitoring can help prevent downtime.

Performance monitoring combined with uptime monitoring provides the data you need to maximize SharePoint availability.

Optimize Infrastructure

SharePoint farms should be right-sized – not too small that they get overwhelmed during usage spikes, and not too large to waste resources.

Monitoring provides data to optimize infrastructure:

• Historical usage and load patterns help predict future capacity needs

• Identifying over/under utilized servers lets you scale farms correctly

• Knowing peak traffic timings helps schedule maintenance during low usage

• Tracking growth of sites, users, content, allows you to plan expansions

Optimization reduces costs while delivering better performance. Monitoring metrics are indispensable for right-sizing SharePoint.

Quickly Troubleshoot Issues

When performance problems or outages happen, time is of essence. Monitoring data helps troubleshoot issues faster:

• Performance trends show if a problem is intermittent or persistent

• Granular metrics pinpoint whether issue is at web, app, database or network layer

• Correlating server and application logs accelerate root cause analysis

• Historical usage patterns help differentiate normal vs abnormal behavior

Comprehensive monitoring data aids rapid troubleshooting to minimize disruption.

Meet SLAs

Many organizations depend on SharePoint to meet SLAs like:

• 99.95% uptime during working hours
• Sub-second response for search queries
• Content deployment within 24 hours

Performance monitoring provides the real-time visibility to validate if SLAs are being breached:

• Uptime metrics determine overall availability
• Transaction monitoring validates response times
• Deployment workflows are tracked

This allows you to take corrective actions to consistently meet SLAs.

Enhance Security

Unusual traffic spikes, suspicious access patterns, abnormal usage levels – can all indicate security issues or attacks. Performance monitoring helps strengthen SharePoint security:

• Alerting on usage anomalies and traffic surges detects attacks
• Monitoring failed login patterns uncovers brute force attempts
• Tracking file access detects unauthorized operations

Integrations with SIEM solutions enhance security with performance data.

Summary

• Fast performance ensures happy users
• Max uptime keeps business processes running
• Optimized infrastructure reduces costs
• Rapid troubleshooting means quick fixes
• Meeting SLAs improves customer satisfaction
• Robust security protects against breaches

Comprehensive monitoring tackles all these critical aspects of managing enterprise SharePoint environments.

Now let‘s look at some powerful tools to monitor SharePoint performance.

Top SharePoint Performance Monitoring Tools

With a crowded marketplace of monitoring solutions for SharePoint, how do you select the right one for your needs?

Here are 5 leading tools that I shortlisted based on capabilities, user reviews and market presence:

1. PRTG Network Monitor

PRTG by Paessler is my recommended pick for comprehensive SharePoint monitoring.

It delivers out-of-the-box monitoring for SharePoint covering all critical components – web servers, application pools, databases, services, sites and more.

With data aggregation across layers, customizable dashboards, and powerful alerting, PRTG provides a unified view of SharePoint health.

Here are some standout capabilities:

• Automatic discovery – PRTG auto-maps SharePoint topology and dependencies for quick sensor setup. This simplifies configuration effort.

• In-depth coverage – Over 200 built-in sensors monitor web servers, SQL, IIS, services, sites, libraries, workflows and more. Custom sensors can also be added.

• Unified dashboard – The single pane of glass UI correlates metrics for easy troubleshooting across SharePoint stacks.

• Threshold-based alerts – Configurable alerting on critical performance metrics helps detect issues proactively.

• REST API – The API enables monitoring data integration with SIEM, ITSM, and analytics tools.

• Hybrid deployments – PRTG monitors on-premises, cloud, and hybrid SharePoint environments.

PRTG is trusted by enterprises like Coca-Cola, Airbus, NASA to monitor business-critical applications. The solution scales to monitor large SharePoint deployments with thousands of sensors.

It‘s easy to trial PRTG with a free version covering up to 100 sensors. Paid licenses start from $1,600 and add advanced functionality, unlimited sensors, and enterprise support.

Overall, it‘s my top recommendation for comprehensive SharePoint monitoring. The combination of ease of use, out-of-the-box dashboards, flexible alerts, and scalability makes PRTG a great fit for most organizations.

2. SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor

SolarWinds is a popular name in network monitoring tools. Their Server & Application Monitor (SAM) delivers powerful monitoring capabilities for SharePoint environments.

It provides deep visibility into all aspects of SharePoint – services, application pools, web servers, databases. This helps optimize infrastructure performance.

Some key capabilities:

• Monitoring of critical performance metrics – load times, requests, connections etc.

• Track health and usage of backend SQL databases

• Identify high resource utilization across server tiers

• Built-in SharePoint monitoring profiles

• Customizable alerts and reporting

• Capacity forecasting and planning

SolarWinds SAM also supports monitoring custom applications, servers, and virtualization.

For SharePoint monitoring, SAM provides great flexibility to track on-prem and Office 365 environments. Its customized dashboards are useful for visualizing SharePoint health metrics.

In my testing, the level of granular details wasn‘t as comprehensive as tools like PRTG or ManageEngine. But SAM makes up for it with powerful alerting and troubleshooting capabilities combined with an easy learning curve.

Pricing starts at $2,505 for up to 50 monitors. A free 30-day trial is available to test drive SAM.

3. ManageEngine Applications Manager

ManageEngine Applications Manager is a feature-packed monitoring tool for SharePoint deployments.

It provides 360-degree visibility spanning across all layers of SharePoint – sites, libraries, lists, web apps, services, databases, load balancers, workflow configurations and more.

Some key aspects:

• Threshold-based alerts for performance and availability of SharePoint components

• Auto-discovery of SharePoint topology and dependencies

• Custom alerts, historical reports, and analytics

• REST APIs for integration with ITSM and analytics

• Support for on-premises and SharePoint Online

Compared to SolarWinds SAM, I found the depth of monitoring metrics to be more granular in ManageEngine. It provided excellent tracing for workflows, server resource usage, and site collections.

The default dashboards are information-rich presenting a holistic SharePoint health view. ManageEngine also offers advanced troubleshooting capabilities when performance problems occur.

Pricing is economical starting at $945/year for the Professional edition. A free 30-day trial is available to test the product.

Overall, ManageEngine Applications Manager is an enterprise-ready monitoring platform covering end-to-end SharePoint performance management.

4. eG Enterprise

eG Enterprise from eG Innovations adopts a different approach to monitor SharePoint performance.

It digs deeper into the application stack looking at code-level metrics in addition to infrastructure layer. This provides a holistic view across all tiers.

Key capabilities:

• Auto-discovery and mapping of SharePoint topology

• Monitor web servers, services, workflows, databases

• Deeper code diagnostics to detect bottlenecks

• Track KPIs like load time, bandwidth usage, throughput

• Threshold-based alerting for performance and faults

• Usage reporting for capacity planning

• Customizable dashboards and reporting

The code-level instrumentation was unique in eG Enterprise compared to other tools. It helped identify hidden bottlenecks related to solutions, workflows or farm configurations.

eG Enterprise scales to monitor large SharePoint Online and on-premises deployments. The unified dashboard correlated metrics across layers for faster troubleshooting.

Pricing is based on the number of monitors needed, starting at $190 per element. A free trial is available to experience eG Enterprise.

5. Quest Metalogix Diagnostic Manager

Quest Metalogix Diagnostic Manager adopts a diagnostics-driven approach to monitor SharePoint environments.

It collects metrics across content databases, configuration databases, services, workflow configurations, and more. The data is correlated to provide a holistic SharePoint health view.

Key highlights:

• Unified performance monitoring for on-premises and SharePoint Online

• Advanced analytics to determine the root causes of issues

• Historical analysis of usage trends

• Custom alerts based on critical performance thresholds

• API support for integrations with SIEM, analytics, etc.

In my testing, the advanced analytics capabilities of Quest Metalogix helped accurately pinpoint sources of bottlenecks across tiers. This enabled the right fixes to optimize SharePoint performance.

The solution scales to monitor large on-premises SharePoint deployments. The dashboard provided at-a-glance visibility into overall SharePoint health.

Pricing details are available on request. Quest Metalogix provides a free trial to test drive the solution.

How to Select the Right Monitoring Tool?

With many tools out there, it can get overwhelming to select the ideal monitoring solution for your SharePoint environment.

Based on my experience, here are the top criteria to evaluate options:

Monitoring Depth & Breadth

First, understand monitoring needs across the breadth of the SharePoint stack:

• Servers (web, app, database)
• Services and processes
• IIS, SSL certs
• Topology and configuration
• Workflows and code performance
• Usage and growth trends

Then, shortlist tools that provide the depth of desired metrics across these layers. PRTG, ManageEngine, and eG Enterprise excel in monitoring depth.

Alerting & Notifications

The tool should support flexible alerting based on performance thresholds, system health, and compliance checks.
Alerting channels like email, SMS, Slack ensure notifications reach the right people.

Dashboards & Visualization

A single dashboard providing a unified view of SharePoint farm health is vital for quick daily checks. Metrics should be visually correlated to spot interdependencies.
Customizable dashboards are useful to build views by technology stack.

Reporting & Analytics

Historical reporting provides usage trends for capacity planning and forecasting. Analytics help derive insights from monitoring data.
PRTG, ManageEngine have excellent default reports. Quest Metalogix adds advanced analytics.

Ease of Deployment

Auto-discovery of SharePoint topology through agentless monitoring simplifies setup. Preconfigured sensors and templates accelerate monitoring.

Scalability

The solution should scale up to monitor large on-premises or Online SharePoint deployments spread across servers worldwide.

Integration & API Support

APIs help integrate monitoring data with other systems like SIEM, ITSM, analytics. This expands the value derived from performance data.

Pricing & Licensing

Evaluate if pricing fits your environment requirements and budgets. Consider extensibility available via paid licenses or optional modules.

By mapping tool capabilities to your specific needs, you can narrow down the ideal monitoring solution for your SharePoint environment.

Next, let‘s look at best practices to optimize SharePoint monitoring.

Best Practices for SharePoint Performance Monitoring

To get the most out of SharePoint monitoring tools, leverage these proven best practices:

Set Performance Baselines

Determine average load times, CPU usage, requests per second, etc for SharePoint in normal state. Measure deviations to detect problems.

Monitor Usage Trends

Keep historical track of sites, users, content volume, and bandwidth. Analyze growth to forecast capacity needs.

Tune SQL Databases

Optimize SQL Server for responsiveness. Check fragmented indexes, slow queries, caching settings.

Configure Threshold Alerts

Set threshold breach alerts on metrics like CPU, disk space, response time. Get notified before issues arise.

Check Error Logs

Application logs and events in the Unified Logging Service (ULS) provide troubleshooting clues during SharePoint issues.

Monitor Storage Capacity

Manage content bloat by tracking storage utilization. Add storage proactively to prevent performance dips.

Update and Patch

Keep SharePoint versions and infrastructure software up-to-date to benefit from performance fixes.

Right-size Deployments

Scale up or scale out SharePoint web servers and databases based on load patterns. Avoid overprovisioning.

Know Its Quirks

Every SharePoint release brings new quirks. Stay updated to avoid misconfigurations that cause problems.

By following SharePoint monitoring best practices, you can stay ahead of issues and deliver optimal user experience.

Now let‘s recap the key takeaways from this guide.

Conclusion and Next Steps

If you made it this far, hopefully you now have clarity on SharePoint monitoring and how to do it right.

Here‘s a quick recap of what we covered:

• Why comprehensive monitoring is crucial for SharePoint uptime and performance

• Top tools like PRTG, SolarWinds, ManageEngine, eG Enterprise and Quest Metalogix to monitor SharePoint proactively

• Key criteria like depth of monitoring, alerting, analytics when evaluating monitoring tools

• Best practices to optimize monitoring and streamline troubleshooting

My suggestion would be to start with a free trial of PRTG since it provides the most comprehensive out-of-the-box monitoring for SharePoint.

Evaluate if the pre-configured sensors provide the visibility you need into SharePoint performance across various tiers.

Check how easily the default dashboards correlate metrics across layers for troubleshooting. Verify if the map view clearly depicts SharePoint dependencies.

Confirm if the alerts can be customized based on thresholds specific to your environment.

This approach will help validate if PRTG maps to your SharePoint monitoring needs before considering other tools.

I hope this guide presented a structured approach to evaluating SharePoint performance monitoring. Please feel free to reach out if you need any help picking the right monitoring solution.

Happy SharePoint monitoring!