What "tool" to use for monitoring instances and where to store this data? I have three SQL Server instances in my DW project, development, test and production. I also have two SSIS servers (dev/test, production). My intention is to query data from these three SQL Server instances for monitoring purposes. My problem is what "tool" to use and where to store this administration data. My choices are


Create an admin database for each instance and store monitoring
data, queries and stored procedures separately
Create an admin database for e.g development database and query data from all instances into this database
Use SSIS to gather data from all instances and store this data into admin database (dev instance)?
Use PowerShell to query data from all instances and store this data into admin database (dev instance?)


What other choices do I have?
sql sentry
Quest spotlight for sql server enterprise
Microsoft Operations Manager
Various RedGate tools
Your own scripts, data collectors and jobs
Windows Performance monitor