XorMon is an open-source, on-premises alternative to SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor and Server & Application Monitor for teams running IBM Power, virtualization, storage and SAN. It collects data from the HMC, storage arrays and SAN switches, covers these layers in one platform, and has a published support price. This page compares both on ten criteria.
XorMon is an alternative to SolarWinds for IBM Power, storage, SAN and server infrastructure monitoring. SolarWinds offers Storage Resource Monitor as one module of its Orion platform, next to Server & Application Monitor, which SolarWinds lists for more than 250 applications and systems (solarwinds.com, checked 2026-11-03). The sections below show where each tool fits.
Last updated: November 3, 2026. We review this comparison at least once a year, and whenever SolarWinds or XorMon changes its core positioning.
The table sets XorMon against SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor and Server & Application Monitor on ten criteria. Each SolarWinds cell comes from an official SolarWinds page, checked on 2026-11-03.
| Criterion | XorMon | SolarWinds |
|---|---|---|
| Supported technologies | XorMon: IBM Power Systems (AIX, IBM i, VIOS, Linux on Power, HMC), VMware, Nutanix, Kubernetes, SAN, storage, LAN, databases, backup, tape, cloud and mainframe. Storage from NetApp, IBM, HPE, Lenovo, Dell EMC, Hitachi, Huawei and other vendors; SAN switches from Broadcom (Brocade), Cisco and QLogic | SolarWinds: Storage Resource Monitor: SANs, NAS systems, storage arrays, LUNs and disks, down to RAID groups, volumes, storage pools and controllers; named vendors include Dell EMC, Hitachi, HPE (Nimble, 3PAR, StoreVirtual), IBM, NetApp, Pure Storage and Huawei. Server & Application Monitor: Windows, Linux, VMware, Azure and AWS environments, more than 250 applications and systems [1] [2] [3] |
| Agentless collection | XorMon: Agentless architecture, with an optional agent for deeper data. SAN switches through SNMP, the Brocade REST API or SANnav v2; storage through a source that depends on the storage model; IBM Power through the HMC REST API. OS agents in AIX, VIOS and Linux on Power LPARs add metrics | SolarWinds: Storage Resource Monitor: agentless polling via SNMP, SMI-S and REST APIs. Server & Application Monitor: agentless options (SNMP, WMI, RPC, PowerShell, API poller) and agent-based options (DaemonSets, cloud integrations) [1] [2] [3] |
| Granularity (intervals, retention) | XorMon: Storage and SAN: sampled and collected every 5 minutes. IBM Power (HMC): sampled every minute, collected every 20 minutes. Storage and SAN retention: 5-minute averages for 3 months, hourly for 6 months, 6-hour for 1 year, daily for 3 years; retention can be adjusted without data loss | SolarWinds: Storage Resource Monitor: configurable polling intervals, to balance monitoring frequency with storage device load [1] |
| Capacity planning | XorMon: Capacity per pool, captured once an hour. Enhanced Predictions forecasts capacity usage and shows the days left until 90% and 100%; prediction alerting warns when a metric is predicted to reach its threshold within a set number of days | SolarWinds: Automated capacity forecasting projects when arrays, pools, LUNs and volumes will reach their limits [1] |
| Alerts | XorMon: Threshold alerts on any collected metric, event alerts from the health status, SAN port events, prediction, anomaly and ping alerting. Sent by email, SNMP trap, ServiceNow, Zabbix, Discord or Telegram, or to any tool with a REST API or webhook through the Integration builder | SolarWinds: Configurable alerts at warning and critical levels, with customizable thresholds [1] [2] |
| Indicative price | XorMon: Free to download and run in production. Enterprise support contract: typically 7,000 to 11,000 USD per year for a medium-sized environment, depending on the number of monitored devices. A three-month trial license is included with the installation package | SolarWinds: Quote-based (Get a Quote, Contact Sales); fully functional 30-day free trial [1] [2] |
| License | XorMon: Open source, GNU GPL v3. Free edition with per-device limits; the Enterprise edition, unlocked by a support contract, removes all device and feature limits. One contract covers XorMon, LPAR2RRD, STOR2RRD and XorMon Original | SolarWinds: Server & Application Monitor: node-based subscription. Storage Resource Monitor: custom quote from SolarWinds sales [1] [2] [3] |
| Deployment | XorMon: On-premises, with no SaaS dependency. Virtual appliance (Debian 13) for VMware, Nutanix, Proxmox and Microsoft Hyper-V, or Docker and Podman | SolarWinds: Orion module, also available as part of SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted, with a main poller plus additional pollers. Server & Application Monitor is also available as a standalone Orion module [1] [2] [3] |
| IBM Power and IBM i | XorMon: HMC REST API for IBM Power servers, CPU pools, shared processor pools and AIX, IBM i, VIOS and Linux on Power LPARs, plus OS agents in AIX, VIOS and Linux on Power. IBM i: C-language agent for IBM i V6R1 or later, collecting CPU, jobs, memory pools, ASP storage, disk and LAN data every minute | SolarWinds: AIX: SolarWinds Platform agents for IBM AIX 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3; two Server & Application Monitor templates, AIX and AIX LPD [4] [5] |
| Reporting | XorMon: Reporter: PDF reports from any collected data, created manually or on a daily, weekly, monthly or yearly recurrence, sent by email or saved on the server; one report in the Free Edition. Historical reporting for IBM Power, VMware, storage and SAN | SolarWinds: Predefined and custom reports, scheduled, exported or sent by email [1] [2] |
SolarWinds column. Source: solarwinds.com, checked 2026-11-03:
XorMon column: Data frequency, Data retention, Storage monitoring, SAN monitoring, IBM Power monitoring, IBM i monitoring, Enhanced Predictions, Alerting, Alerting integrations, Reporter, XorMon appliance, Docker, Pricing.
XorMon fits when you need IBM Power, IBM i, storage and SAN monitoring in one open-source (GPL v3) platform that runs on-premises.
Sources: XorMon documentation and pricing pages listed under the table above.
SolarWinds fits when you want storage, server and application monitoring as modules of one Orion platform, bought on quote and, for Server & Application Monitor, licensed per node.
Sources: solarwinds.com pages [1], [2] and [3] above, checked 2026-11-03.
SolarWinds Storage Resource Monitor (SRM) is a module of the SolarWinds Orion platform that tracks the health, performance, capacity and availability of storage infrastructure, including SANs, NAS systems, storage arrays, LUNs and disks. SolarWinds describes agentless polling via SNMP, SMI-S and REST APIs, automated capacity forecasting and alerts at warning and critical levels. It is also available as part of SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted (solarwinds.com, checked 2026-11-03).
Yes, for storage, SAN and server infrastructure. XorMon monitors storage from NetApp, IBM, HPE, Lenovo, Dell EMC, Hitachi, Huawei and other vendors, and Fibre Channel switches from Broadcom (Brocade), Cisco and QLogic. It is open source under GPL v3 and runs on-premises. XorMon also covers Linux, VMware and databases such as Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, Db2 and PostgreSQL. If you mainly need application-level monitoring, SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor lists more than 250 applications and systems (solarwinds.com, checked 2026-11-03).
Yes. SolarWinds documentation lists SolarWinds Platform agents for IBM AIX 7.1, 7.2 and 7.3, and Server & Application Monitor provides two AIX templates, AIX and AIX LPD (documentation.solarwinds.com, checked 2026-11-03). XorMon collects AIX data at two levels: OS agents in AIX and VIOS LPARs, and the HMC REST API, which adds LPAR, VIOS, CPU pool and server-level views of the whole IBM Power machine.
XorMon monitors IBM Power servers, CPU pools, shared processor pools and LPARs running AIX, VIOS, IBM i and Linux on Power. It reads the HMC REST API with a read-only user, with data sampled every minute, and adds OS metrics from agents in AIX, VIOS and Linux on Power LPARs. On IBM i V6R1 or later, a C-language agent collects CPU, jobs, memory pools, ASP storage, disk and LAN data every minute.
XorMon is open source under the GNU GPL v3 and free to download and run in production, with per-device limits in the free edition. An Enterprise support contract removes all device and feature limits and typically costs 7,000 to 11,000 USD per year for a medium-sized environment. SolarWinds sells Storage Resource Monitor on quote, with a fully functional 30-day trial, and licenses Server & Application Monitor through a node-based subscription (solarwinds.com, checked 2026-11-03).
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