We have been using Netpath since it came out, and it has worked very well for us until recently.  Two weeks ago, we had our normal Windows patching weekend.  A couple of days later, I discoverd that all of our Netpath probes were no longer displaying in NPM.  All of them have the following error:

No Data Found

Netpath has no data about this time interval.  If this happens often, consider increasing the probing interval by 5 or 10 minutes.

We have almost 20 Netpath servers that stopped working.  I have reinstalled the agent on one of our Netpath servers.  I also rebooted our main poller and it started to display Netpath data, but it stopped eventually.  Today I rebooted it and the amount of time displayed was even shorter before all of them stopped showing data in NPM.

I do have a case open on this, but that almost two weeks ago so I'm looking to see if anyone else has any recommendations.

NPM 12.2 has shipped and we're hard at work building the next release.  Here's what we're working on, in no particularly order.

• Network Insight for Cisco Nexus - Covering things like FEX, VPCs, VDCs, and better handling of large interface counts.
• Scalability Improvements - For example, increasing total element count per instance and adjusting UI workflows to work better in scale environments.
• Remote Collector - New, agent based collector for distributed environments and hybrid deployments
• Orion on RDS - Support for Amazon RDS as the repository for the Orion database
• Next Generation Orion Mapping
• Centralized Upgrades
• New Scalability Engines Installer
• Orion Agent AIX
• TLS 1.2 Support for Legacy Tools

I am not sure why, but I downloaded the AIO Offline installer and it would not run until I gave my server internet access.  Can someone explain this to me?

How are these things not identified during the Beta and RC runs?  When an upgrade becomes GA, the only problems that should exist should be related to customization.

Can anyone assist with this?  NPM has a node that no longer exists but I haven't removed it yet because it still contains the last jobs/configs.  I figure before removing the node from NPM and NCM I would need to pull the configs off the web console first.  Any assistance will be greatly appreciated.

We wanted to do an update just to IPAM from 4.5.2 to 4.6 and I thought I could just download that update and apply it.  When I went to do this today the only option I had was to update all of my Orion modules.  Is there anyway to just update one module and not all of them?  Thanks -Dave

So, I've been experimenting around with different ways to monitor my DMVPN tunnels on remote routers.  If the physical circuit they're running over is still in an "up" state even though there is no Internet connectivity, the state of the DMVPN tunnel tends to stay "up" also, causing monitoring nightmares.   I've been doing a lot of playing with EIGRP status and alerting on that, but the EIGRP alerts are difficult to translate to a "down" state on the node summary or details pages, not to mention the issue with how often EIGRP is polled by default.   So, I finally broke down and decided to look closer and custom MIBs and such to monitor the tunnels with.  While doing so I think I found a much MUCH easier way!!

Was looking for resources on how to monitor DMVPN via SNMP and came across this article:

DMVPN Tunnel Health Monitoring and Recovery  [Support] - Cisco Systems

I got specifically interested in the part about "interface state control".  Now, this is only useful from the remote routers perspective because what it does is make the state of the interface (ie: whether its up or down) dependent on whether there are any active NHRP sessions for that tunnel.   And all you have to do to configure it is put "if-state nhrp" on the tunnel interface, super easy!

Now, this might not be perfect, but its pretty good.   Why not perfect you might ask?

Let's say you have dual DMVPN hubs and the connection to one of the hubs isn't working on a given tunnel due to a routing misconfiguration or something.  Since there would be one active NHRP session on the tunnel interface, this wouldn't find it.

This also does nothing for monitoring the tunnels from the head-end perspective, if for some reason monitoring the remote routers wasn't how you wanted to do this.  Once again, not useful.

You might also say if all your DMVPN tunnels weren't functioning, that this wouldn't help, but in that case the whole node should be down so I think we can discount that!

Not much to lose, and pretty easy to configure up, give it a try and let me know what you think!

Hi,

I am working in the airline head-quarter which have multiple airport all around and which are being monitored by Solarwinds. Since the polling interval of Nodes/Interface (60 Sec) which bring lots of escalation in environment because of slow polling of the interface. we need the real time monitoring.

Please let me know how can we monitor interface and nodes in real time.

I built my first wireless Heat Maps in NPM today, hoping to compare how NPM and Network Atlas might replace my Cisco Prime for Wireless information.

Prime's Heap Map shows clients associated to the AP's:

NPM shows no clients associated to the same AP's at all:

Questions for you Thwackers and NPM / Wireless experts:

1. Why is aren't clients displayed in the Heat Maps?

To make sure this should happen, I've selected the "Show connected wireless clients on the map" option.

But the clients don't show up in NPM's Heat Maps.  I've followed SW's instructions here:  View the location of clients connected to access points in maps - SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. Help and Support  by placing the six AP's for this area on the Heap Map, and then using the Signal Sample discovery option to find my wireless laptop in the Heat Map and record its signal strength in NPM.  Finally I selected "Show connected clients" and "Show every client connected to any AP on the map."  Any suggestions to get this working to show clients on the map?

3. With NPM configured to show clients, the default client signal strength poll is 5 minutes, so why don't clients show up (preferably with signal strengths)?

Many 5-minute periods have passed since creating the maps, and I don't see any clients or signal strengths.  What am I missing to get clients to show up?

Hello, community.

I just had a ticket for EIGRP closed under the guise of SolarWinds support considering my inquiry to be a "feature request."  I couldn't believe it, but they indicated recording the Autonomous System (AS) ID for the node not currently supported by the product.   Can this really be accurate?

NPM can recognize that a node is participating and running an EIGRP routing process but, for whatever unfathomable reason, it appears NPM does not record the Autonomous System (AS) ID of the EIGRP processes of which the node is a member.  I mean, that just seems like the most basic information to collect in the process of determining whether or not the node is running EIGRP.  Again, can this really be the case?

EIGRP support is, actually, the #5 on the list of requested NPM features, and that feature request been open since 2013.  Surely, a "mature" product like this could not have overlooked that piece of the puzzle.

If anyone from SolarWinds is reading this, my ticket was called "EIGRP Processes and Autonomous System (AS) Memberhip" (Ticket No. 38726).  I believe this might be the case with other Routing protocols as well (we have the same issue with BGP and OSPF).  With BGP, the "Autonomous System" field only records the neighbor router's AS.

Again, this seems so basic, and that's even more frustrating considering the level of attention to the actual feature request.

Hello,

I need to add a list nodes that have been powered down for a while and do not resolve to an IP address. I have tried different polling methods and via network discovery but no luck. Any idea's would be greatly appreciated.

I got the ASA Insight on my firewall to check Remote Access VPN Status, but I got twice or even three times the information for the session with the same user, the profiles I'm checking just have permission for 1 concurrent session.

As you can see in the image, it has both the same information, but there are some cases where the information differ for the same user.

Hey all,

I've got a question regarding the wifi heat maps.  I've created a map in Network Atlas, taken signal samples to improve quality, and have it displaying in NPN.  However, when I disable an access point and set the map to update in Solarwinds, there is no change to the map.  It shows that the access point is down but the actual heat map stays the same, showing strong signals around that access point.

I would assume that the map would update with the new signal strength.  Is that not the case?  Or am I missing a step along the way?

I am not sure why, but I downloaded the AIO Offline installer and it would not run until I gave my server internet access.  Can someone explain this to me?

How are these things not identified during the Beta and RC runs?  When an upgrade becomes GA, the only problems that should exist should be related to customization.

Overview

This article provides information about FAQs asked by the customer based on the environments combined.

Environment

Orion Platform versions above NPM 10.6

Strongly recommended to have latest version of Orion

Detail

All of us know SolarWinds SLX license you can monitor up to 12000 Elements and beyond this you will need an Additional Polling Engine to monitor.

Use additional polling engines for 12000 or more monitored elements if you plan to monitor 12000 or more elements, Solarwidns recommends that you install additional polling engine on separate server to help distribute the work load.

What is Stackable Additional Polling Engine idea is ?

Its another engine on the existing system hardware you have , using full  capacity of your current hardware . This engine will be stacked with your existing engine seamlessly running on the same hardware boosting the existing polling capacity of current host without any additional cost to maintain another system host.

Idea is exactly adding another stackable switch within existing chassis to add more capacity . So if your existing chassis can take it you can add more stack into .

With the latest version of SolarWinds NPM, you can now install up to three unique polling engines on a single polling server, sharing a single IP address. Stackable polling engines enable you to effectively triple the polling capacity of a single server so you can get benefit of available server hardware within the existing installed environment

Further it will help you to monitor more Elements ( Nodes/Volumes/Interfaces/Services ) without having any dedicated servers to be confirmed and manage so its less overhead for the I.T staff to manage .

Benefits :

No overhead to manage or arrange another system hardware just using existing Server hardware capacity (Very cost effective )

No management approval process waiting time for system deployment

No infrastructure change required

No troubleshooting and I.T management resources to dedicate  for another hardware

No extra IP address needed to be allowed for the devices for the polling / Downloading the configuration with NCM - Less overhead

No downtime required during installation

No configuration wizard need to run

No services need to restart during this process on production environment

No FOE licenses per server to cover more elements for HA (Very cost effective )

Freedom to extend any Poller (Primary Polling Engine OR Existing Additional Polling Engine ) (Very cost effective )
Finally within few minutes you will be ready to  polling more elements within the existing infrastructure without making a single change and  wasting the time / resources /  money.

How can i check my Server current hardware meeting this requirments

For more informaiton MINIMUM Hardware Requirments see below.

SolarWinds Orion server hardware requirements

How many Stackable Poller license I can have on the Single Server?

Up to three total polling engines may be installed on a single server (i.e. one primary NPM
polling engine with one or two additional polling engines on Primary Server  or three additional polling engines on
the Additional polling server ).

Note: A stack requires only 1 IP address, regardless of the number of APEs

Can I install Stackable Poller on my existing Additional Polling Engine?

Yes 'Stackable Poller' extending capability on the Poller  you can have multiple Stackable poller up to 3  on your existing Additional Poller It can be update by Smart Bundler 

How can I update my  Poller for Stackable Poller?

On the  Poller it can be updated by Smart Bundler.

It means that by additional poller package downloadable from customer portal (not the Individual Downloads, but the Main Additional Poller Installer also called Smart Bundler).

How to install Stackable Poller on my Primary Polling Engine?

In this example I am assuming we are implementing Stackable Poller on the Main Poller (that has enough resources to tackle additional load)
As you are aware a single poller can tackle upto 12k elements
Also there is no special installer for Stackable Poller
You will need a license to be purchased as for Additional Polling Engine
You will go into your Customer Portal & download the Additional Poller Smart Bundler  (not the Individual Downloads, but the Main Additional Poller Installer also called Smart Bundler)
Basically when you will run Additional Poller Smart Bundler this installer will say on the main poller that everything is already installed and ask you if you want extend license.
Now simply key in the license of the Additional Poller in the wizard
It will never install anything on main poller it only just update the license and will deploy the stack Engine seamlessly
So the customer has got extra capability to fully utilize his server hardware
Also after the license has been applied you can open the License Manager and you will see another entry in the Lincense Manager as following

On Primary Polling Engine it will take up to 2 MAX Additional Polling Engine license keys

On Additional Polling Engine it will looks like this

You will have the message "The machine has reached to license limit" after that therefor it will only be able to take up to 3 licenses.

So if I have have mutiple modules installed on the Primary Poller (do I have to install all the other modules as well , because Smart bundler will download say APE SAM , APE UDT , APE NPM)
When I will run the Smart Bundler on the Primary poller (it will not say that Primary Poller is already installed on this machine)

Yes, it will say on main that everything is installed and ask you if you want extend license so it will never install anything on main (as the required services are already installed and doesn't required any extra service to be installed  ) , Just update license and deploy the stack Engine seamlessly the main propose and stack functionality .So it does make necessary changes required without installing any service or software that's how its by design to work .

If I will install Stackable Poller on my primary server it will increase the capacity to 24K elements to tackle?

It will ask you on main to add license key for additional poller (means 24k elements). Once you run it again, you can add another AP license (means 36k elements) and if you run it third time,

it will say  This machine has reached its license limit .  The same functionality is for Additional Poller installation  and yes, Stackable poller

I have SLX Licenses why i still need the Additional Polling Engine license ?

The SLX license is based on throughput, not elements. This is a completely different type of license than our element tiers.

The NPM SL100 license is based on elements. The NPM SL100 is a hard limit of nodes, interfaces, and volumes. You can modify the polling intervals, but you cannot exceed 100 nodes, interfaces, and volumes.

With an NPM SLX most customers can manage about 12,000 elements at default polling intervals today. Many customers modify polling intervals and can manage many more elements because we do not cap the number of elements.

Our development team made multiple performance improvements and increased the throughput a SLX license and APE can poll. Over the last 5 years we’ve increased the throughput so that at default polling intervals a customer could go from monitoring 8,000 elements to 10,000 and now to around 12,000 elements. While I can’t commit to increasing this again in the future, we have a consistent track record of doing so.

Why this often gets over simplified to “SLX == unlimited”. For the vast  majority of customers who purchase an SLX, the difference  doesn’t matter because they are happy with the default polling intervals and don’t have near enough elements to run in to the throughput restriction.

Installing  Stackable Poller  Orion NPM 12.x and above

In order to stack license there's no need to run installer anymore. It's enough to use License Manager on main server.

Please follow instructions from that page:

Activate stackable poller licenses - SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. Help and Support

All you have to go to your license Manager and use the license key .

Steps#

Settings > All Settings > (Scroll Down) > License Manager > Top left side (Add / Upgrade license ) >

Add your APE license there .

For more details, please see the post below:

http://thwack.solarwinds.com/community/solarwinds-community/geek-speak_tht/blog/2013/06/19/not-so-stupid-poller-tricks

http://www.solarwinds.com/documentat...Guidelines.pdf

Activate stackable poller licenses - SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. Help and Support

I forgot the Sql Database Password which is required to run Configuration Wizard in Orion NPM.

Hello Guys,

I would like to ask for your help with Additional Web Server.

I am evaluating a possible scenario with many SolarWinds accounts for one NPM installation.

Do you know if it is actually possible to connect multiple Additional Web Servers to one NPM installation?

The idea would be to have many users spread across few Additional Web Server machines, which would also be in different locations.

Do you know if this is possible?

Thanks in advance!

Kind regards,

Marcin.

Today i was planning the upgrade of my solarwinds installation.

We have additional polling engines in remote locations, the main poller is in Belgium, and the additional polling engines are in India, Brazil and the US.

The solarwinds orion installer was always failing because of timeouts.

There is a workaround described Installer fails with a socket connection message when installing from the main poller - SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. Help …

But this can only be done when you start the upgrade, so planning is not an option here. before this new installer there where offline installer packages for the additional servers, now there isn't one anymore.

I'm currently already 8hours in the upgrade fase and still not done, it will probably still take me a couple of hours and this all because we can't plan ahead and copy all files over before we start.

It would be great if the offline installers are back available. i'm quite sure that the new installers works fine in a lab environment and when the polling engines are local for me this is not an option.

Hi Guys and Gals

We manage a client's wan network, and SolarWinds is our go to tool for any support and information needed from our clients WAN network,   Our client's wan link line tag's is configured as a description on the wan facing interface of the router, I need to extract a monthly report from SolarWinds that includes all router's with their respective line tag's both primary and secondary. Also with be good to include the average percent utilization and peak utilization and percentage format.

Our Security Department continually probes our devices' IP interfaces, and always wants the latest list of Network Assets.  It seems that the list of devices managed by NPM is the right list to start with, when building a report for Security to receive monthly.

But I'd like to tweak such a report in a few minor ways:

1. It should include ALL the IP addresses of a device.  A Core and a Distribution switch, and Branch Routers, will have multiple IP addresses.  If Security saw they all belonged to the same switch or router, they could stop hammering on every one of them separately, and stop believing they're all separate devices.
2. The report should NOT included devices NPM is monitoring for other departments.  NPM monitors the status of Lab devices, HVAC gear, security cameras, sometimes only via ICMP, sometimes via WMI or snmp.  Those devices aren't owned by my Network team, and we don't want Security to take this report and assign remediation for vulnerabilities on those devices for which other teams are responsible.
3. The report should include:
   1. The device name
   2. All IP addresses reachable via ICMP to the device
   3. The Vendor
   4. The Machine Type

Are you aware of such a report already built in NPM?

If not, what's the most efficient way to build such a report that includes ALL IP addresses on a Network-Team-Owned device, and that omits all other devices and their addresses?