While SolarWinds offers a "Free Trial," it is important to note that the production software is licensed. However, the "Free" aspect often refers to the licensing tier (which allows for unlimited nodes) or the 30-day free trial evaluation.
The database is the backbone of your NPM installation. SolarWinds recommends a separate server for the SQL database to ensure high performance: solarwinds npm 202026 system requirements free
| Component | Minimum | Recommended | |-----------|---------|--------------| | | 4 cores @ 2.5 GHz | 8+ cores @ 3.0 GHz | | RAM | 8 GB | 16–32 GB | | Disk Space | 20 GB (for product + logs) | 100 GB+ (fast storage, RAID 10) | | OS | Windows Server 2012 R2, 2016, 2019 | Windows Server 2019 (64-bit) | | Database | SQL Server 2016/2017/2019 (Standard/Enterprise) | SQL Server 2019 (separate server recommended) | While SolarWinds offers a "Free Trial," it is
20 GB to 40 GB of free space is standard, but large deployments with high data retention may need significantly more . Solid State Drives (SSD) are strongly recommended for performance . Software & Operating System SolarWinds recommends a separate server for the SQL