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A SolarWinds DPA Alternative for Oracle: More Detection, Less to Run, a Public Price

3 November 2026

SolarWinds Database Performance Analyzer is a wait-time tool, and says so: "Instead of database health metrics, DPA focuses on application and end-user wait times." That is one slice of what an Oracle DBA has to watch. Scops is the most capable Oracle monitoring platform: the wait time and every session, sampled every 5 seconds, plus the 75+ detectors of Radar Engine, Scops AI with 40+ agentic tools, automation, Archiving and Compression. It installs nothing in your databases, needs no repository database of its own, and its price is on the website. Every DPA statement below comes from SolarWinds' own documentation for DPA 2026.2.

At a glance

Criterion	Scops	SolarWinds DPA 2026.2
Inside the monitored database	Nothing. One read-only account with CREATE SESSION and SELECT_CATALOG_ROLE.	A monitoring user and a utility package, installed as SYSDBA or by a user with the DBA role, in every instance; each PDB registered separately.
What you run	One Windows server with two services. The repository is an Oracle schema on a database you already run.	A DPA server (4 cores, 10 GB, 40 GB for up to 20 instances) and a repository database on SQL Server, Azure SQL, MySQL or Oracle (6 cores, 8 GB cache, 240 GB for the same 20), which must not be an instance you monitor.
Detection	Radar Engine: 75+ detectors that forecast, catch pile-ups and anomalies, and name the cause. The live detectors report on the first day.	Anomaly detection on hourly wait time: up to 90 days of history, nothing shown for the first three days; warning at the prediction plus two standard deviations, critical at three. Alerts in four categories: Wait Time, Resources, Administrative, Custom.
Backups, standbys, jobs, accounts	Built in: backups late or failing, standby lag and gap, scheduler jobs failing, passwords expiring, invalid objects, ASM and fast recovery area space.	No alert for RMAN backups, Data Guard, scheduler jobs, password expiry, ASM or the fast recovery area on the alert types page; anything beyond the list is a custom SQL alert you write.
AI	Scops AI: 40+ agentic tools over the live database, the history and the findings, with your own model.	AI Query Assist: rewrite suggestions for one query; "the sanitized data is sent to a secure enterprise LLM". No assistant over live database state is described.
Automation	Automation, one-click fixes proposed by Scops AI, and the Archiving and Compression modules.	Not stated.
Oracle versions	12c to 26ai, Standard Edition 2 and Enterprise Edition, RAC and Data Guard, no Oracle pack.	19c, 21c, 23ai and 26ai self-managed; Amazon RDS for Oracle 19c and 21c. Editions and packs: not stated.
Price	Community: free for 2 databases. Professional: $499 per database a year, each further database 5% less.	Quote only. A subscription per instance; when it lapses, "DPA does not continue to collect new data".
Verdict	Everything DPA shows, the rest of the DBA's day on top, and nothing in your databases.	Wait-time analysis with a package in each instance, a second database to run and a quote to request.

What DPA needs to run

From the DPA 2026.2 system requirements and the registration guide:

A DPA server. 4 cores, 10 GB of RAM and 40 GB of disk for 1 to 20 monitored instances, more with many active sessions or large caches.
A repository database. SQL Server, Azure SQL Database, MySQL or Oracle, sized at 6 cores, 8 GB of cache and 240 GB of disk for the same 20 instances. SolarWinds says not to host it on an instance you plan to monitor, so it is one more database to install, patch, back up and, on SQL Server or Oracle, license.
Something in every monitored instance. Registration creates or configures a monitoring user and, in SolarWinds' words, "a utility package is added, and execute permissions for that package are granted to the DPA monitoring user". The script runs as SYSDBA, or DPA runs it with an account that holds the DBA role. A container database is registered one PDB at a time.
A subscription per instance. DPA sells subscription licenses, one for each instance you monitor. An instance whose subscription expires keeps its history, and DPA stops collecting for it.

Scops needs one Windows server with two services, used from a browser, and one read-only Oracle account per database with CREATE SESSION and SELECT_CATALOG_ROLE. Its repository is an Oracle schema on a database you already run, Enterprise Edition or Standard Edition 2. Nothing is installed in the monitored databases, no SYSDBA step, no package, and the price is $499 per database a year after the two free ones.

What DPA watches, in its own words

DPA's approach page: "Instead of database health metrics, DPA focuses on application and end-user wait times." Its anomaly detection works on the hourly wait time of an instance: "Up to 90 days of historical hourly data is used for learning", it "requires a minimum of three days of learning data", and an alert fires when an hour's wait time passes the prediction by two standard deviations for a warning or three for a critical. Its alert types come in four categories, Wait Time, Resources, Administrative and Custom. For Oracle the administrative list is tablespace free space, the alert log, long-running transactions, unarchived redo, log switching frequency, the session limit, stale statistics, archiver errors and PDB availability; anything else is a custom SQL or procedure alert you write and maintain yourself. There is no alert on that page for RMAN backups, Data Guard, scheduler jobs, password expiry, ASM disk groups or the fast recovery area.

Its AI is AI Query Assist, "instant, in-product suggestions to write, fix, and optimize queries": one query and its plan, sent to "a secure enterprise LLM" for a rewrite. No assistant that looks at the live database, its history or its findings is described.

What Scops watches

Radar Engine, the detection layer of Scops, runs 75+ detectors on every database, and each one earns its level from the data rather than from a threshold you set:

Forecasts. Tablespace, temp, undo, ASM and fast recovery area space with the day they run out; CPU capacity over 14 days; sequences near their MAXVALUE; partitions without a home.
Live pile-ups. Blocking chains to the root blocker, session surges, logon storms, slow single-block reads, slow commits, waits that surge against the hour before, CPU saturation, the parallel pool, PGA at its limit.
Anomalies. Each wait class and the CPU against the same hour on other days, plan changes tied to the statement they slowed, level changes tied to the parameter or statistics change of the same day.
Operations. Backups late, failing or stuck, and the archivelog backup on its own clock; Data Guard transport and apply lag; scheduler jobs failing or overdue; passwords about to expire; invalid objects and unusable indexes; errors in the alert, ASM, Grid and listener logs.

On top of the detectors: every session every 5 seconds and SQL statistics every 10 minutes, kept, so the history behind a finding is already there; Scops AI, the most capable AI assistant for Oracle, with 40+ agentic tools that read the live database, the history and the findings, explain why, propose the fix and change nothing without a click, running with your own model; automation for the routine work; and the Archiving and Compression modules that no monitoring tool has. The detector reference lists every detector with its thresholds.

Why Scops wins

Detection. 75+ detectors with forecasts, pile-ups, anomalies and operations, against one anomaly model on hourly wait time plus a fixed list of administrative alerts. Radar's live detectors report on the first day; DPA shows no anomalies for three days.
The rest of the DBA's day. Backups, standbys, jobs, accounts, schema objects and logs are detectors in Scops. In DPA they are custom SQL alerts you write, or nothing.
AI. An assistant over the live database with 40+ tools, against a query rewrite. It runs with your own model, so nothing is sent to an LLM you did not choose.
Nothing in your databases. No package, no SYSDBA script, no DBA-role account at registration. One read-only user.
Less to run. One Windows server. No repository database to install, size at 240 GB, patch and license.
Standard Edition 2, in full. Scops needs no Oracle pack, so SE2 gets the same monitoring as Enterprise Edition. DPA's pack requirements and editions are not stated.
Price. On the website: free for two databases, $499 a year per database after that, 5% less for each further one. DPA is a quote, and a lapsed subscription stops collection.
Automation, Archiving and Compression. Routine work done for you, old rows moved online in rowid chunks, Oracle compression managed from one screen. DPA's documentation describes none of this.
The interface. One window for the whole estate, Daily Overview first, built for a DBA's day with nothing to administer.

Already running DPA?

Scops installs beside it in an afternoon. A read-only account does not interfere with DPA's package, and nothing in Scops touches it. Add the databases on day one: the live detectors, the sessions and the SQL statistics are there the same hour, and the forecasts and baselines fill in over the first weeks. Compare the two views for a fortnight, then let the DPA subscription run out; by SolarWinds' own rule its history stays readable while collection stops, so nothing is lost on the way out. The package DPA added to each instance at registration is removed on your own schedule.

Which one, in three lines

DPA: wait-time analysis for a mixed estate, a package in each Oracle instance, a repository database and a quote.
Scops: the most capable Oracle monitoring platform, nothing in your databases, one server, a public price.
For Oracle, Scops. The other database products in the house keep whatever monitors them, and the Oracle side gets the detection, the AI and the price.

Questions

Is Scops a replacement for SolarWinds DPA on Oracle?
Yes, and more: the wait time and sessions DPA shows, sampled every 5 seconds, plus 75+ detectors, Scops AI, automation, Archiving and Compression. It needs one read-only account per database and nothing installed in the instance.

Does Scops need a repository database like DPA?
No separate database. Scops keeps its data in an Oracle schema on a database you already run, Enterprise Edition or Standard Edition 2. DPA requires a repository database of its own, sized at 6 cores, 8 GB cache and 240 GB for 20 instances, which must not be an instance you monitor.

What does DPA cost compared with Scops?
SolarWinds publishes no price; DPA is quoted per monitored instance, and a lapsed subscription stops collection. Scops is free for two databases and $499 per database a year after that, with 5% off for each further database.

Can Scops and DPA run at the same time?
Yes. Scops reads through the listener with its own read-only account and installs nothing, so DPA's package and user are untouched until you remove them.