I'm pleased to announce that the Network Performance Monitor (NPM) 12.4 Beta 1 is now available!

This beta includes certain items that are mentioned in What We're Working on for NPM (Updated June 1st, 2018) post.

At SolarWinds, being customer-driven and responsive to customer needs is a fundamental part of how we build software. Beta feedback is one of the key avenues we use to inform and adjust what we're building so that it can fit your needs and your environment. We'll take feedback anytime we can get it, but now is the best time to provide feedback that can affect the product.

As an added incentive, beta users who submit feedback will receive 3,000 THWACK® points to buy swag at the THWACK Store. That's enough points to score yourself all sorts of stuff.

To get access to the beta, you need to be a customer on active maintenance for NPM and sign up here. To share feedback, please post on the NPM Beta forum.

Sincerely,

NPM Team

NPM 12.3 has shipped and we're hard at work building the next release.  Here's what we're working on, in no particularly order.

• Cisco ACI Monitoring - See NPM Monitor Cisco ACI and Support of a Cisco ACI networks in Network Performance Monitor.
• Remote Collector - New, agent based collector for distributed environments and hybrid deployments.  See NPM Micro Polling Engine.
• Next Generation Orion Mapping - First version delivered in NPM 12.3 via Orion Platform 2018.2.  Working on the next version.  See Network Atlas Update?, Network Atlas Overhaul, and Granular Link Speeds in Network Atlas.
• Centralized Upgrades - See Easier Upgrades/Update/Hotfixes for Sites with Additional Pollers and Web Servers, and Modify Orion Platform to display all recommended hot fixes and Buddy Drops as alerts in the top of NPM's header when they're not already installed.  Then make the upgrades happen with one click.
• Website & Database Performance Improvements
• Windows Device Guard Support
• SAML Authentication Support - See Support SAML.
• Replace syslog/trap with the functionality from our new Log Manager product - See One alerting engine.

Would love to hear all opinions of the OpsGenie product and how it can revolutionize our alerting and on call scheduling work flow.

How has it changed the way in which you approach SolarWinds alerting?

Thank you!

Hi

I want to keep track of the date where equipment has been added to our solarwinds installation.

I have 365 days of rentention on the Audit events so I will start to fill out the existing Nodes manually.

But what I really would like is if I could find a way that will automatically fill out the Node added custom property when you import/create the Node.

Have any of you worked with this and poissibly found a way?? or just a pointer to how it could be done!

Regards Jens

After receiving lots of queries i will try to explain in screen shots what steps needs to take if you wish to use custom properties logic to send email alerts to respective location / or team responsible for that node and group.

Basically when you have bunch of Nodes and you just wanted to send emails to the related department / Engineering Team only

Or You may have monitoring nodes for multiple customers where you would like to send emails to related customer for the nodes for that customer /

This post  can help in order to configure .

Step #1 Creating Custom Property

Start with Custom properties

Settings > manager custom properties.

Add Custom Properties

Leave it blank and Submit

Step #2 Assigning email to the nodes

Go to Settings Manage Nodes.

(Select multiple Node you wish to assign the email ) and click Edit Properties.

Now assign the email you wish to assign so all the alerts will be sent to respected email for these nodes .

And Submit to save changes.

Step #3 Using Custom property name under Alert Trigger Condition

Now in Alert use the custom property name to send the email for required email address for each node.

Select the Alert you wish to Edit and Edit Trigger Action > Send an email /page.

Add Trigger Action

When the alert will trigger it will use the email you have assigned to the Node.

***** Adding CC you can create more custom properties to include CC emails such as an example below ****

${Email}

${EmailCC}

PLEASE NOTE:- THIS SOLUTION WILL ONLY WORK FOR THE NODES

Is there a way to get the acknowledged note, timestamps and acknowledged by from active alerts and pull that from each node's view?

So we have several Cisco UCS chassis with B200 blades, each half of the cluster has its own dns name and ip address and then there is a dns name and ip address for the cluster.

I have used the cluster name and ip to be the managed entity and then set the blades to be managed via icmp only however this then adds them to "Unknown" category under managed nodes - surely this cannot be right , so what is the right way ?

Hi everyone, we're running a survey to understand more about alert management products you may (or may not) be using in your environment.  Take the following survey for 500 THWACK points and help us learn more!

UX alerting survey

I have energywise capable nodes, after i configured energywise on the swich I want to enable monitoring it on solarwinds,

It cant move node from energywise capable to energywise enabled.

I have to remove and add node to make it work.

Any thougthts ?

Hello All,

During our recent Thwack Camp 2018 Tips & Tricks session with Dez and KMSigma there was a brief mention of being able to offload the Solarwinds website off the main poller onto an additional web server. I tried to get some more detail on this during the live session chat but there was so much going on that Dez and the team just did not have enough time. Im really interested in doing this if it can be done successfully without any issues. Can you just blow away the website and adjust the entries in the database? Will the configuration wizard rebuild the site during the next product upgrade? Any information will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

mcordero

Hi All,

In Network Atlas we've created a map and placed various NPM monitored switches on it.

Afterwards also the connections between them. The connection showed the Bandwidth Utilization in percentage fine in the NPM Orion webconsole.

This worked fine yesterday, however opening the NPM Homepage today we see only red dotted lines with no Bandwidth Utilization percentage shown,

Looking at the connection details, is says there is no connection between the nodes anymore

Clicking on any Interface details shows everything up and collecting performance counters etc,

Does anyone know how to get the Map showing the Bandwidth Utilizations again?

Thanks in advance.

Those that have been part of the Thwack Community a while may be familiar with the long running Tell us your "Unknown" devices! thread which had been active since 2007. That thread had become too unwieldy, and most of the user submissions had been implemented many years ago. I recently reviewed each and every posting in that thread, verified what had been implemented in-product, and which ones had not so they could be included in a forthcoming release. With that done, it was time to lock that thread for good and start anew. This time, providing a bit more guidance along the way to ensure everyone is successful in providing the necessary information required to properly identify these devices.

What is an 'Unknown' Device anyway?

Orion does its best to automatically identify and classify nodes as they're added to Orion. There are however, new device types and models released all the time. It's entirely possible you might be managing a device right now that Orion is unable to properly identify. You can find these easily by going to [Settings - Manage Nodes], changing the 'Group by:' option to 'Machine Type' and clicking on the 'Unknown' category. It's also helpful to add the 'Polling Method' column to the layout, as this thread pertains exclusively to SNMP managed nodes.

Any SNMP managed nodes listed under the 'Unknown' Machine Type category are prime candidates for submission to this thread. All that's required is that you provide the devices SNMP System Object Identifier (SysObjectID), as well as the Make & Model of the device associated with that SysObjectID. This post is an excellent example of the perfect submission.

What Exactly is a SysObjectID?

I have yet to find a clearer definition for what the SysObjectID (System Object Identifier) is then the following excerpt which can typically be found written in virtually every vendor's MIB file verbatim.

Object Name: sysObjectID
Object ID: 1.3.6.1.2.1.1.2.0
Object Syntax: OBJECT IDENTIFIER
Object Access: read-only
Object Status: mandatory
Object Description: The vendor's authoritative identification of the  network management subsystem contained in the  entity. This value is allocated within the SMI  enterprises subtree (1.3.6.1.4.1) and provides an  easy and unambiguous means for determining `what  kind of box' is being managed. For example, if  vendor `Flintstones, Inc.' was assigned the  subtree 1.3.6.1.4.1.4242, it could assign the  identifier 1.3.6.1.4.1.4242.1.1 to its `Fred  Router'.

Essentially, it's a string of numbers in dotted notation that is (hopefully) unique to at least the manufacturer, and in most cases, to the specific make and model of the device being monitored. It's how we identify for example, that the device vendor is 'Cisco' and the model is a 'Nexus C7018'. All System Object ID's begin with '1.3.6.1.4.1' followed by a number which uniquely identifies the manufacturer. The numbers which then follow typically identify the specific model of the device.

Where Can I Locate the SysObjectID?

If the device is already managed as a Node in Orion then you can locate the SysObjectID in the 'Node Details' resource as shown below, when viewing the node in the Orion web interface.

Node Details

NET-SNMP

Alternatively, you can use NET-SNMP to query the following SNMP OID to return the unique SysObjectID.   1.3.6.1.2.1.1.2.0   Below is an example of the 'snmpget' command line arguments which will return you the SysObjectID for the device.   snmpget -v2c -On -c public 10.199.5.103 1.3.6.1.2.1.1.2.0   The example above is executed against a device with the IP address of '10.199.5.103' using SNMPv2c, with the community string 'public'. Below is a screenshot of the resulting output from that command. The string of numbers and periods highlighted in yellow below is this device's unique SysObjectID.

My Device Incorrectly Appears Listed as 'NET-SNMP'

Linux hosts, virtual appliances, and even some network equipment built on Linux, FreeBSD, etc. are often identified as 'NET-SNMP'. This is because the SNMP Daemon running on those hosts is, you guessed it, NET-SNMP. Unfortunately, these vendors for some reason, have chosen not to implement their own unique SysObjectID, and instead kept the default SysObjectID '1.3.6.1.4.1.8072.3.2.10' which is designated for NET-SNMP. If you have a device such as this, fret not. There are a few options available to you if you'd like these devices to be properly identified by their appropriate vendor's make & model within Orion.

Install The Orion Linux Agent

The easiest solution would be to install the Orion Linux Agent on the device which is reporting itself to be 'NET-SNMP'. The Linux Agent does not rely upon SNMP to identify the machine type or vendor. Instead, the Agent will report the Vendor as 'Linux' and the 'Machine Type' as the Linux distribution running on the device as depicted in the screenshots below.

Red Hat	Citrix XenServer

Modify NET-SNMP Configuration

Another approach is to customize NET-SNMP and Orion to properly reflect the Vendor and Machine Type. Simply following the steps outlined by adatole's post entitled No More Net-SNMP Nodes. This method uses a script osname.sh which is executed when a particular OID is is queried. Next, you would create a custom Device Poller to query that newly created OID and populate the Machine Type value in Orion for that device.

If you find it more fun to follow along, you can watch adatole walk you through the entire process in the following video.

Can't I Just Upload My Vendor's MIB File Here And You figure it Out?

While it would be nice if that's how it worked, unfortunately many (or most) vendors don't include this information within their MIB files. MIB files include a listing of all possible OIDs which could be polled across a wide variety of different devices (typically an entire product family), but it doesn't include the values which are returned by the devices (Enums notwithstanding). For that reason we need users, such as yourself, to post the SysObjectID's in this thread, along with the device vendor and model information so it can be included in our database.

If you'd still like your device's MIB file included in the Orion MIB database, for use with Network Performance Monitor's Universal Device Poller, or the Orion Platform's SNMP Trap Receiver, simply follow the steps outlined in KB article at the link below.  The latest version of the MIB database, containing your submissions, can always be downloaded from within the Customer Portal.

Request additional MIBs to the SNMP MIB browser database - SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. Help and Support

I have several HP/Aruba switches I would like to get a report on what firmware is currently on them. Anyone know a way in NPM I can setup a report to show me the firmware versions on all the HP switches I have in my infrastructure?

I have devices in the field that are reporting GPS coordinates information. I created a Universal Device Poller and am able to see the Latitude and Longitude listed. I would like to have this information displayed on the Node Details as static information such as Lat xx.xxxx Lon -xx.xxxxx. The only option that I have been able to find is to display these items as two separate fields using radial gauges. Is there a way to display the coordinates properly?

Hi,

I am getting an error when clicking on edit node " " Unexpected Website Error

The formatter threw an exception while trying to deserialize the message: There was an error while trying to deserialize parameter http://schemas.solarwinds.com/2008/Core:GetNodeWithOptionsResult. The InnerException message was 'Member '_compareInfo' was not found.'. Please see InnerException for more details"

I have traced the https packets and it is getting aborted. Can you please let me know what can be the reason for the same?

This is a super simple, single file, single line, edit.

ESTIMATED TIME TO INSTALL/PERFORM MODIFICATION:<1 Minute

DIFFICULTY LEVEL:1-Youngling

1. Youngling(Easiest/Most Basic; no coding experience required, no config wizard required, no system restart required, no system downtime.)
2. Padawan (Easy/Basic; no coding experience required, possible config wizard required, possible system/services restart required, limited/no downtime.)
3. Jedi Knight (Moderately Difficult/Advanced; some coding experience required/recommended, config wizard required, possible system/services restart required, limited/short duration downtime.)
4. Jedi Master (Most Difficult/Advanced; advanced coding experience required, config wizard required, system/services restarts required, 30+ minutes downtime/maintenance window recommended, and other things that I do not even know I would need to know, required...)

For all of those "tabbers", "shift-clickers", and "middle-button mashers" out there, that know the only way to truly use a tabbed browser, is to open so many tabs that you can even see the tabs anymore... this one is for you... And, of course, by you, I mean us...

This simple little modification may have been mentioned elsewhere before, however, I was not fortunate enough to have found it before I figured out how to do it. So, if it has been mentioned before, well, here it is again...

This modification will change the default behavior when clicking on a link within a SWQL Custom Query resource. (Any link, formed within the query, using the "_LinkFor_" alias.)

By default, clicking on a link will load the link in the same page/tab as the source was in.

The new behavior, after making this change, when clicking on a link, will load the link destination in a new tab/page, without the need to shift-click, or middle-mouse button click.

THINGS TO KNOW:

• I have countless SWQL Custom Query resources scattered throughout my SolarWinds environment.
• I cannot stand directly clicking links, having them open in the same page/tab.
• If I can still see the icons on the tabs of Chrome, then I must be sleeping.
• I am a very inexperienced, and untrained, amateur (with the exception being all things Star Wars related, which does you absolutely no good here...)
  • Always backup your system/files BEFORE making any changes, and/or test with a demo/dev system before making changes to your production environment.
  • Please don't break your system, then blame it on me.
    • If you break your system, then blame it on me, please know, "I don't give a care...", "I told you so...", and/or "Nanna nanna boo boo, stick your head in doo doo..." will most likely be my response...

**WARNING! THE INFORMATION YOU ARE ABOUT TO READ COMES FROM THE MIND OF AN UNTRAINED AMATEUR, AND IS MOST LIKELY FAR, FAR FROM THE BEST PRACTICE**

Filename:

CustomQuery.js

File Location:

\inetpub\SolarWinds\Orion\NetPerfMon\Resources\Misc\

Open the file, and look for the line that has "if (cellInfo.linkColumn) {" (it should be on/around line 160)

The change you will be making will need to be done on the next line, line 161.

Change the RED part, of the line below,

            element = $('<a/>').attr('href', rowArray[cellInfo.linkColumn]);

To match the GREEN part, of the line below,

            element = $('<a Target="_blank" />').attr('href', rowArray[cellInfo.linkColumn]);

Save your file, and you are done!

HERE IS HOW THE DEFAULT CODE LOOKS, BEFORE ANY CHANGES:

        var element;        if (cellInfo.linkColumn) {            element = $('<a/>').attr('href', rowArray[cellInfo.linkColumn]);        } else {            element = $('<span/>');        }

AND HERE IS HOW THE CODE SHOULD LOOK AFTER YOUR CHANGE:

        var element;        if (cellInfo.linkColumn) {            element = $('<a Target="_blank" />').attr('href', rowArray[cellInfo.linkColumn]);        } else {            element = $('<span/>');        }

Now, you should be able to use the "_LinkFor_" column alias in your SWQL query, on a Custom Query resource, and when you click the link, on the query results, it should, by default, automatically open in a new tab/window.

If you have any questions, or comments, please leave them below, and I will do my best to follow up with you.

Thank you,

-Will

--If you are interested in customizing, and/or modifying your SolarWinds environment, CourtesyIT has put together a terrific "Page of Pages" (PoP), "List of Links" (LoL), okay, you get the idea... Please visit his page, How to do various customizations with your Solarwinds, and discover a better way to enhance your SolarWinds environment. Make sure to bookmark, like, and rate his page, as it will help you, as well as others after you.

Hi all

I need to know how that poller works with juniper devices ..

what oid its use and do we use get bulk?

Hi

I want to keep track of the date where equipment has been added to our solarwinds installation.

I have 365 days of rentention on the Audit events so I will start to fill out the existing Nodes manually.

But what I really would like is if I could find a way that will automatically fill out the Node added custom property when you import/create the Node.

Have any of you worked with this and poissibly found a way?? or just a pointer to how it could be done!

Regards Jens

it's possible to add a custom variable on the Alert Subject ?

Adding tabs is a feature request that has been around for more than a decade. While it is not yet possible to create these via the API, they can still be easily created.

Also, while this will allow you to easily create custom tabs, I do not yet have a method to hide these tabs based on user account permissions.

So, for now, everyone will see these new tabs, and be able to click on the links within.

Having said that, if the user does not have admin permission, but clicks on the new link you created which points to the admin settings page, that use will still not be able to access the page.

So user account permissions do work.

ESTIMATED TIME TO INSTALL/PERFORM MODIFICATION:<5 Minutes

DIFFICULTY LEVEL: 1-Youngling

1. Youngling(Easiest/Most Basic; no coding experience required, no config wizard required, no system restart required, no system downtime.)
2. Padawan (Easy/Basic; no coding experience required, possible config wizard required, possible system/services restart required, limited/no downtime.)
3. Jedi Knight (Moderately Difficult/Advanced; some coding experience required/recommended, config wizard required, possible system/services restart required, limited/short duration downtime.)
4. Jedi Master (Most Difficult/Advanced; advanced coding experience required, config wizard required, system/services restarts required, 30+ minutes downtime/maintenance window recommended, and other things that I do not even know I would need to know, required...)

This mod was performed on the following SolarWinds environment/versions: (It may, or may not work on other versions)

SolarWinds Orion Platform 2018.2, NCM 7.8, WPM 2.2.2, DPAIM 11.1.0, NPM 12.3, NetPath 1.1.3, CloudMonitoring 2.0.1, SAM 6.6.1 © 1999-2018 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

WHAT DO YOU NEED?

1. Orion SDK (Installed on your Primary Orion Server) Releases · solarwinds/OrionSDK · GitHub
2. SQL Server Management Studio (You can also just use the database tool on your primary SolarWinds server)
3. A list of links you want to use in your new nav tab

Before we begin,

PLEASE don't edit the system files/database without backing them up first.

If you see a friend or co-worker making changes without backing up first, please alert the authorities.

Friends don't let friends mod without backups.

"If it's not broke, then fix it until it is."

     -The smartest person ever

SHOW ME WHAT YOU'RE WORKING WITH:

This is what we are all starting with, the basic, default, nav bar tabs. (My Dashboards, Alerts & Activity, Reports, Settings)

There are a few ways to do this. You can do it all in SQL, or you can do steps 1 & 2 in SWQL Studio, and finish with step 3 in SQL.

I will show both ways, as they are both fairly straightforward and simple to accomplish.

--Creating New Menu Navigation

STEP 1:

--First, you need to create a new group.

--The groups will be displayed on the top level of the nav bar.

--TSQL

INSERT dbo.WebViewGroup (Name,DefaultTitle,Tags,SortOrder)
VALUES ('meow','Meow','navigation',5)
GO

OR, you can do this via SWQL Studio, like so:

Open SWQL Studio, navigate down to the "Orion.Web" group, and query the Orion.Web.ViewGroup table.

Then, right click on the Orion.Web.ViewGroup table and click "create".

From here, just enter the Name (I believe all lowercase, no spaces), DefaultTitle (what will be seen on the nav bar/tab), Tags (navigation is all I currently know for this), and SortOrder (I just used the next number), then click the create button.

Either way should create your new tab on the main nav bar.

Now that we have our new tab created, let's get busy filling it up with links. Again, we can do this step entirely in SQL, or follow the same procedure for SWQL Studio as we did in the previous step, only for a different table.

STEP 2:

--Next, you need to create the links you want to see/use.

--These links will be seen when you hover over the top level nav bar groups.

--TSQL

INSERT dbo.WebView (WebViewParentID, LimitationID, Name, DefaultTitle, Type, TemplateUrl, Url, Icon, IsCustom, OpenInNewWindow, SortOrder, FeatureDependencies)
VALUES (NULL,NULL,'accounts','Accounts','legacy',NULL,'/Orion/Admin/Accounts/Accounts.aspx',NULL,1,1,0,NULL)
GO

--SWQL Studio

In SWQL Studio, navigate down to the Orion.Web.View table, query the table (just to see what already exists, using the results as a rough example, so to speak), then right click the table and click "create".

I have already added the link to the "Advanced Configuration" page, so let's add another link.

Already having an internal SolarWinds link listed, let's go ahead and add a link to a public website, thwack.com.

So, we have created a new tab ("Meow") on the nav bar, and we have created some links we want to display in/under our new tab, which leads us to our final step.

To finish our quest, we will need to find a way to tie our new items together.

This step, for now, can only be accomplished within SQL, as there is no API magic currently built out.

STEP 3:

--TSQL

--This will bind the URL you created in the 2nd step, to the group you created in the 1st step.

INSERT dbo.WebViewGroupWebView (WebViewGroupID, WebViewID, SortOrder)
VALUES (5,12,0)
GO

This query is taking our new "Meow" tab, which has WebViewGroupID 5, and our new "Thwack" link, which has WebViewID 12, and building them together.

And now we have our brand new, top level, custom menu bar tab, loaded with the links we want/need to use.

END CREDITS:

Here are some similar requests, all needing to be able to add custom tabs. Some of these appear to date back to 2007, so there have been a great many folks waiting for this.

MENU BAR AND VIEWS

Mar 27, 2007 8:45 AM

https://thwack.solarwinds.com/message/25358

ORION V10 CUSTOM TABS

May 19, 2010 2:13 PM

https://thwack.solarwinds.com/message/113077

MAIN TAB CUSTOMIZATION - ADDING CUSTOM MAIN TAB WITH SUB SELECTION OPTIONS

Oct 21, 2010 7:50 AM

https://thwack.solarwinds.com/message/126663

HOW TO ADD NEW TABS AT THE SIDE OF THE MODULES MENU TABS I ALREADY HAVE.

Nov 23, 2010 6:33 AM

https://thwack.solarwinds.com/thread/38431

CAN'T ADD MENU BARS :/

Jun 21, 2011 4:22 AM

https://thwack.solarwinds.com/message/145439

CAN WE ADD NEW TABS YET?

Feb 18, 2012 2:32 PM

https://thwack.solarwinds.com/thread/47228

WE WANT TO BE ABLE TO ADD NEW TABS TO NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITOR

Mar 3, 2012 10:08 AM

https://thwack.solarwinds.com/message/164952

CAN MENU BARS BE RENAMED?

May 31, 2012 10:57 PM

https://thwack.solarwinds.com/message/171965

IS THERE A WAY TO ADD TABS TO THE MENU BAR IN NPM

Sep 1, 2014 7:03 AM

https://thwack.solarwinds.com/message/249667

ADDING CUSTOM TABS TO ORION WEB CONSOLE

Created on Sep 23, 2014 6:16 AM by amtizo - Last Modified: Sep 23, 2014 6:16 AM

https://thwack.solarwinds.com/ideas/4478

HOW TO CUSTOMIZE TABS AT ORION WEBSITE?

Jul 16, 2015 4:39 AM

https://thwack.solarwinds.com/message/295335

ABILITY TO CREATE CUSTOM TABS!

Created on Aug 25, 2015 2:05 PM by mbrawley - Last Modified: Aug 25, 2015 2:05 PM

https://thwack.solarwinds.com/ideas/5759

CUSTOM HEADERS / TABS IN THE MENU BAR NPM 12

Created on Jun 27, 2016 12:49 PM by kalawala - Last Modified: Jun 27, 2016 12:49 PM

https://thwack.solarwinds.com/ideas/7136

ADDING ADDITIONAL MENU BARS?

Mar 17, 2017 4:23 AM

https://thwack.solarwinds.com/message/359902

EDIT HIGHEST LEVEL MENU

Oct 2, 2017 7:24 PM

https://thwack.solarwinds.com/message/376024

FEATURE REQUEST - ADD A NEW TAB IN MY DASHBOARD

Created on May 16, 2018 8:46 AM by ccandido - Last Modified: May 16, 2018 10:38 AM

https://thwack.solarwinds.com/ideas/9971

I hope this helps you along your customized SolarWinds journey.

For more ways to customize your SolarWinds environment, make sure to check out this link, by CourtesyIT

How to do various customizations with your Solarwinds

Thank you,

-Will