SharePoint is Microsoft's collaborative platform used for creating websites and sharing data. It is a highly secure portal that helps store documents and files, organizes them, and shares with team members to work together and deliver the best results. One can access data from any device and operate on web browsers like Chrome, Internet Explorer, Firefox, etc. The platform uses workflow applications and databases to share information among team members. You can also run the portal on other platforms, like Windows, Android, macOS, and iOS.
Here is our list of the best SharePoint tools:
- SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor – FREE TRIAL A popular monitoring that improves an application's uptime and helps manage SharePoint performance. Get a fully functional 30-day free trial.
- ManageEngine SharePoint Manager Plus – FREE TRIAL A web-based monitoring and auditing solution best for SharePoint platforms. It helps configure bulk user permission changes and can collaborate data and resources in the cloud as well as on-premises. Access a 30-day free trial.
- Paessler PRTG Network Monitor – FREE TRIAL Another monitoring platform that has helped many businesses. The PRTG Network Monitor comprises pre-configured sensors to manage SharePoint servers and applications. It is one of the best tools if you are looking to monitor the performance of linked servers. Get a fully functional 30-day free trial.
- SolarWinds Access Rights Manager – FREE TRIAL is one of the best tools to protect your business from data loss and breaches. The administrator tool assists in quick provisioning, de-provisioning, auditing user rights, and more. A fully functional 30-day free trial is available.
- eG Enterprise One of the best SharePoint monitoring solutions that use a single user interface to track web applications, logs, events, and other web parts. Thousands of companies have shown interest in the powerful SharePoint Tool across the globe.
- SPDoCKit This popular SharePoint administration tool generates audit reports, best practice reports, SharePoint documentation, and more.
- Metalogix Diagnostic Manager Monitors the entire SharePoint environment, supports SharePoint Server 2016, Server 2010, Foundation 2010, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP1, and more old versions as well.
The best part about using SharePoint is you can collaborate with users and make documents more accessible to each other. Thus, having a Sharepoint site on your organization's private network helps users stay up-to-date and enhances team collaboration. These sites are flexible and can be edited as per the need.
It is time to empower your teamwork, collaborate, and find information quickly with SharePoint. The platform provides dynamic and productive team sites for each department to share resources easily and faster. Communicate and discover information with team members inside and outside your organization for better results. Using SharePoint's excellent features, you can share documents with multiple users across multiple portals, and create a digital experience for devices. SharePoint Online (cloud-based) and SharePoint Server (an on-premises solution) are the two main versions of the web-based tool. In addition, SharePoint is scalable and beneficial for all business types. Further, one can customize the web-based portal as per the organization's requirements.
Why do we need a SharePoint administrator tool?
SharePoint comprises a wide range of services, which also means the users at some point or the other will face daunting situations. There can be instances when users are dealing with the problem of insufficient space at crucial times, unauthorized access to classified content, etc. To help manage everyday tasks easily and quickly, you need a SharePoint administrator to fix these issues. The SharePoint Administrator is responsible for supervising the installation, configuring, upgrading system, and content management platform. They also provide training and support for usage and creating SharePoint data backups. A SharePoint administrator might also supervise the SQL server database and manage single or multiple servers.
With a SharePoint administrator tool, users can monitor issues and perform better. Even a small issue can cause bigger impacts. Thus, having a SharePoint administrator tool will help supervise, monitor, and track the SharePoint performance at all times.
SharePoint Monitoring Best Practices
Follow some of the best practices when managing and monitoring SharePoint performance. If you do not keep an eye on the SharePoint operations or check on their faults or reason for failure, you may surely find difficulty in management. Also, you will face issues in delivering a better end-user experience and business continuity. Following some of the below-listed SharePoint monitoring practices will save you from such failures and prevent businesses from unwanted issues. Further, these practices will assist in yielding the most out of the SharePoint setup and its features. Here are a few best practices for SharePoint monitoring:
- Keep an eye on the health reports First and foremost, make sure to monitor the SharePoint infrastructure health reports on a regular basis. It will help your business keep track of the performance and ensure no alert is missed. Further, checking on health reports will help ensure smooth functioning. Various factors are covered in these reports, including CPU performance, web page loading time, latency, database request response times, and capacity. Keeping an eye on the health reports will help in discovering the problems before they cause any damage or effect on end-users.
- Monitor event logs and ULS logs Monitoring event logs keep you updated on the issues. Also, it pinpoints any unusual event that you might have missed in the reports. Apart from regular monitoring, you must also keep a close on the event logs and ULS (Unified Logging System) logs with the help of SharePoint.
- Keep track of SQL Server for disk space Having a full disk space often slows down requests and affects performance. Thus, it is best to avoid neglecting the section and track the SQL server for disk space. With so many requests in a queue, you may start losing the application traffic. Disk space plays a vital role.
- Watch for SharePoint server usage Servers are an important element. Thus, it is vital to watch for SharePoint server usage. Any issue on the server can affect the other section of your infrastructure. Hence, do not miss this part.
- Track web applications and their parts Slow web page loading time or delay in applications, network, or infrastructure can disappoint end-users. Thus, make sure to perform regular monitoring of the web application and its parts. It may also help in discovering small sections that might be the cause of the problem.
- Alert/Notification The platform provides an alerting system so that users can keep a close check on faults and issues. One can customize it to notify only for critical issues or at a particular period. There is no restriction to provide alerts only during business hours. SharePoint allows providing alerts at any time of day. This feature updates users as soon as an issue arises.
- Limit Access SharePoint servers and sites carry some of the crucial data and assets of the business. Thus, it is vital to restrict access and allow only users that carry the permission. Make sure to monitor this section carefully to avoid data breaches. Also, ensure you meet all your compliance obligations associated with data protection.
- Perform a regular review To avoid mishaps, it is best to not only depend on the monitoring tools. But, you should also review the reports, configurations, and other aspects by yourself regularly. Keeping an overall view of the system helps in smooth functioning and business continuity.
Best SharePoint Administrator Tools
Most companies use Microsoft SharePoint for content management and team collaboration. On a daily basis, companies generate a variety of documents and emails. Thus, to manage this valuable content and share it with specific team members, employers recommend using SharePoint. It comprises various tools that help ease the functioning and benefit the business in all aspects.
Microsoft has many products in the market that dominate business IT infrastructures. Similarly, SolarWinds provides a monitoring tool for the Microsoft environment that provides end-to-end monitoring and management of Microsoft operating systems. Before we begin with the list of best SharePoint Administrator Tools, let's understand how the SolarWinds monitoring tool – Microsoft can improve the performance. The powerful monitoring tool helps analyze performance metrics, detect CPU utilization, tracks Windows network load balancing, reboots server at crucial times, discovers failed login attempts, provides insight into an application for better performance and health. Overall, one can also practice SolarWinds Microsoft Monitoring tool to check on the health reports and other details. However, we have a list of other administrator tools as well that are cost-effective, flexible, scalable, and provide better health reports of SharePoint.
1. SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor – FREE TRIAL
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor is popular monitoring that improves an application's uptime and helps manage SharePoint performance. With the help of the SolarWinds Server & Application Monitoring tool, you no longer have to worry about the slow page load times and latency issues. Also, you can have a clear view of the issues based on location, server, and application in the dashboard. The affordable and easy-to-use solution helps monitor requests per second, throughput, and other sections. Overall, it is one of the best solutions to monitor resources and measure SharePoint performance.
Key Features
- Quick to set up
- Allows Performance monitoring for IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS
- Supports 1,200+ monitoring templates
- Dependency mapping of the infrastructure
- Supports custom app monitoring
- End-to-end administration
- Plans and checks server capacity
- The powerful tool supports all private, public, and hybrid cloud environments
- Faster Troubleshooting
- Reduces management overhead
- Supports auto-discovery feature
- Best suitable large enterprise networks
- Excellent alerting features
- Supports SNMP monitoring and packet analysis
- Customize dashboard using drag-and-drop widgets
- Great reporting system
SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor is one of the lightweight SharePoint administrator tools that can manage around 1,200 different applications, resources, and their activities. It also offers faster troubleshooting and server monitoring.
Pros:
- Offers “done for you” dashboards, monitors, and templates designed for your environment
- Provides live monitoring through its agentless architecture
- Supports auto-discovery that builds network topology maps and inventory lists in real-time based on devices that enter the network
- Can map applications, networks, and infrastructure as well as highlight bottlenecks and dependencies
- Uses drag and drop widgets to customize the look and feel of the dashboard
Cons:
- SolarWinds SAM is a feature-rich enterprise tool that can take time to fully explore
Website Link: https://www.solarwinds.com/server-application-monitor/use-cases/custom-application-monitoring
Download: Click here for a fully functional 30-day free trial
2. ManageEngine SharePoint Manager Plus – FREE TRIAL
ManageEngine SharePoint Manager Plus is a web-based monitoring and auditing solution best for SharePoint platforms. It helps configure bulk user permission changes and can collaborate data and resources in the cloud as well as on-premises. The tool also comprises SharePoint Usage Analytics to deliver quality search and traffic reports. It also ensures that the audit reports are available in different formats such as HTML, PDF, XLS, and CSV. As a result, making it easier for other team members to download and read.
Key Features
- Provides pre-built reports
- Optimization of query performance depending on the search history
- Easy to access from any location
- Monitor all activities in your SharePoint infrastructure
- Supports a central console for managing critical tasks
- Provide real-time alert and audit solutions
- Reports are available in different formats
You can download the popular ManageEngine SharePoint Manager Plus on Windows as well. Most companies look for an administrator tool that provides better analysis, monitoring, and auditing from a central console. If you are looking for a similar monitoring tool, go for ManageEngine SharePoint Manager Plus. However, there is a drawback to the tool as it lacks a few performance monitoring features. It is available in three versions – Trial Edition, the Standard Edition, and the Professional Edition.
Pros:
- Built specifically for Sharepoint, integrates well with existing organizational structures and SP permissions sets
- Can monitor SharePoint performance and utilization with prebuilt reports in the Usage Analytics section
- Can optimize query performance based on user search history
- Can be accessed anywhere via the web portal
Cons:
- Lack some performance monitoring features such as infrastructure monitoring and baseline analysis
- The interface could use redesigned to be easier to navigate, especially around the permissions section
Website Link: https://www.manageengine.com/sharepoint-management-reporting/
Download:Register for the 30-day free trial.
3. Paessler PRTG Network Monitor – FREE TRIAL
Paessler PRTG Network Monitor is another monitoring platform that has helped many businesses. The PRTG Network Monitor comprises pre-configured sensors to manage SharePoint servers and applications. It is one of the best tools if you are looking to monitor the performance of linked servers.
Key Features
- Keeps track of all systems, devices, and applications
- Require no additional plugin
- The easy-to-use administrator tool is suitable for all business types
- Manage bandwidth for devices and applications
- Provides detailed statistics and insights
- Manages and monitors all cloud computing services
- Real-time monitoring of servers
- Monitors local networks, routers, servers
- Customizable dashboard options with Drag and drop editor
- Uses SNMP, WMI, and packet sniffing for network reporting
- Provides alerts using SMS and email
Windows IIS Application Sensor, PerfCounter IIS Application Pool Center, WMI SharePoint Process Sensor are a few pre-configured sensors that help manage and monitor the resources. Talking of WMI SharePoint Process Sensor, it is the amazing one that covers current page requests, template cache size, CPU utilization, SQL queries, etc. Each sensor provides alerts on discovering issues. On finding a predefined threshold in the sensor, the tool instant updates the administrator.
For instance, if the SharePoint server CPU usage crosses a certain limit, the tool immediately updates on the situation using SMS, email, or push notifications. For small enterprises, we recommend trying the free version with less than 100 sensors. However, the paid version covers 500 sensors.
Pros:
- Uses a combination of packet sniffing, WMI, and SNMP to report network performance data
- Fully customizable dashboard is great for both lone administrators as well as NOC teams
- Drag and drop editor makes it easy to build custom views and reports
- Supports a wide range of alert mediums such as SMS, email, and third-party integrations into platforms like Slack
- Each sensor is specifically designed to monitor each application, for example, there are prebuilt sensors whose specific purpose is to capture and monitor VoIP activity
- Supports a freeware version
Cons:
- Is a very comprehensive platform with many features and moving parts that require time to learn
Website Link: https://www.paessler.com/sharepoint-monitoring
Download: Click here for a fully functional 30-day free trial
4. SolarWinds Access Rights Manager – FREE TRIAL
SolarWinds Access Rights Manager is one of the best tools to protect your business from data loss and breaches. The administrator tool assists in quick provisioning, de-provisioning, auditing user rights, and more. It also helps monitor login attempts. SolarWinds Access Rights Manager is great at monitoring SharePoint and provides customized reports with a few clicks. If you are looking for a tool that reduces IT workloads, saves time, analyzes user authorizations and access permissions, switch to SolarWinds Access Rights Manager.
Key Features
- Faster Audit Reports
- Automated Provisioning of SharePoint
- Supports Active Directory Provisioning and Reporting Tools
- Reduces Insider Threats
- Alerts instantly on any changes made to the permissions
The powerful tool helps with the creation of user accounts, de-provisioning of user access, reviewing user permissions, and more to keep the data and resources secure. You can reduce the impact of insider threats with the help of the SolarWinds Access Rights Manager. Further, the tool helps highlight the SharePoint permissions and authorized users. Also, one can find out if anyone made changes to these permissions to SharePoint. It is one of the affordable IT management software that supports all applications available in the cloud or on-premises environment.
Pros:
- Provides a clear look into permission and file structures through automatic mapping and visualizations
- Preconfigured reports make it easy to demonstrate compliance
- Any compliance issues are outlined after the scan and paired with remediation actions
- Sysadmins can customize access rights and control in Windows and other applications
Cons:
- SolarWinds Access Rights Manager is an in-depth platform designed for sysadmin which may take time to fully learn
Website Link: https://www.solarwinds.com/access-rights-manager
Download: Click here for a fully functional 30-day free trial
5. eG Enterprise
eG Enterprise is one of the best SharePoint monitoring solutions that use a single user interface to track web applications, logs, events, and other web parts. Thousands of companies have shown interest in the powerful SharePoint Tool across the globe. Track your end-users real-time experience, stimulate their actions, and monitor application performance using eG Enterprise. The tool alerts on any performance issues even before the user finds them. Furthermore, you can discover SharePoint applications and infrastructure dependencies automatically with the help of eG Enterprise.
Key Features
- Supports Topological maps
- Provides Real-user monitoring
- Accessible for on-premise as well as cloud-based deployments
- Supports application monitoring
- Supports digital workspace monitoring
- Flexible deployment options are available
- Provides automated configuration for all environments
- Access to end-to-end visibility
- Flexible integrations options are available
- Supports auto-discovery features
There are various versions available in the market for businesses, such as free cloud-based Easy Evaluation package, SaaS cloud-based version, on-premises Subscription version, and more. Look for yourself what suits your business needs. One can also try the free trial.
Pros:
- Can monitor a wide range of virtual host environments, making this truly suited for larger enterprises or MSPs
- Threshold-based altering can notify when VMs go offline, or become slow due to resource-related issues
- Offers root-cause analysis to help technicals solves issues faster, resulting in more uptime
Cons:
- No freeware version
Website Link: https://www.eginnovations.com/sharepoint-monitoring
6. SPDocKit
Generate audit reports, best practice reports, SharePoint documentation, and more with the popular SharePoint administration tool – SPDoCKit. You no longer have to manually add data to the platform if you have created farm documentation. SPDocKit supports farm documentation and creates it by scanning the network and configuring settings from resources. The tool also provides real-time user permissions, supports SharePoint Analytics, and Usage Reports.
Key Features
- Save time with automation of administrators’ tasks
- Enhance data security features are available
- Great for auditing and administration
- Provides built-in reports and analytics insights
- Suitable for larger SharePoint deployments
- Quick creation of farm documentation
- Supports SQL Server configuration
- Provides database permissions
The main purpose of designing the tool was to help in Sharepoint auditing and administration. Also, one can create and delete SharePoint groups with a few clicks using this tool. The pricing model of SPDocKit is categorized into Farm (manages on-premises farms) and Consultant (enterprises with clients). Enjoy the pre-built reports and analytics insights with SPDocKit.
Pros:
- Built specifically for Sharepoint auditing and administration
- Comes prebuilt with best-practice reports permission audits, and analytics insights
- Designed for larger SharePoint deployments, great for enterprise use
Cons:
- Lacks the ability to monitor infrastructure, network statistics, or other applications other than SharePoint
- Pricing is high when compared to similar tools on the market
Website Link: https://www.syskit.com/products/spdockit/
7. Metalogix Diagnostic Manager
Looking for a tool that monitors the entire SharePoint environment? Go with Metalogix Diagnostic Manager. The powerful tools support SharePoint Server 2016, Server 2010, Foundation 2010, Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007 SP1, and more old versions as well. It provides a clear view of the health status of SharePoint resources in the dashboard. It categorizes resources and marks them as Critical, Warning, Ok so that you can accordingly take strict actions. It also provides an alert system to notify of any issue. Set performance thresholds to configure alerts on Metalogix Diagnostic Manager. No matter if the resources are available in the cloud or on-premises, the tool keeps you updated using an alert system.
Key Features
- Provides SQL and content database insights
- Treats the platform as a whole rather than separate servers
- Monitors the impact of migration activities
- Troubleshoot issues across various applications and servers.
- Provides clear view of SharePoint environment
- Notifies about under-performing servers
- Prepares custom reports targeting issues
- Provides automated notifications
- Supports 24/7 SharePoint monitoring
- Performs capacity planning using Metalogix Diagnostic Manager
Get better insights and reports focussing on issues with the help of the Metalogix Diagnostic Manager. It also helps fix troubleshoot issues across various applications, networks, and servers. Enjoy 24/7 SharePoint monitoring support.
Pros:
- Offers straightforward monitoring for SharePoint, supporting versions as old as SPS 2007
- Can sort metrics by farm, servers, pages, and groups
- The Diagnostic Manager offers a straightforward way to monitor the overall health and performance of your SharePoint system
Cons:
- Must contact sales for pricing information
- The interface is cluttered, could be redesigned to be more user friendly
- Does not support additional monitoring outside of SharePoint
Website Link: https://www.quest.com/products/metalogix-diagnostic-manager/
Final Thoughts
SharePoint is a popular collaboration tool and content management software solution. It has been in practice by some of the high-profile companies over many years. The platform helps monitor health checks of the sites and resolves security problems, performance, and other aspects. Most organizations choose the tool to create web applications and manage documents and files. It is incredibly versatile, creates insightful reports, and provides other details instantly. The best part about sticking to SharePoint is anyone can customize the tool as per their business needs.
Empower your teamwork, collaborate, and find solutions using SharePoint. However, to manage and monitor the SharePoint performance, you must switch to SharePoint administrator tools. The above-listed tools help in installation, configuring, upgrading systems, and managing content. You can also supervise the SQL server database and manage single or multiple servers using some of the popular SharePoint Administrator Tools. These monitoring tools help in monitoring event logs, ULS logs, SharePoint server usage, web applications, SQL Server for disk space, and more. Also, you can view how many people have user permission. Users are also notified if any issue is found or changes in the user permission have been made. SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor, SPDocKit, Metalogix Diagnostic Manager, Paessler PRTG Network Monitor, and ManageEngine SharePoint Manager Plus are a few top-notch monitoring tools available in the market. Compare each one and then make a final decision. You can find some of the tools with various editions. Thus, no matter if they are free or paid, look what meets your business requirements.
