Solarwinds Orion plugin

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SolarWinds

Monitor key metrics and states from your SolarWinds environment.

An on-prem data source uses a relay agent to connect SquaredUp to a data source running on your internal network.

A relay agent is installed on a server on your internal network, and has access to your data source.

Using a relay agent means that you don't need to open your firewall to allow access.

Adding a data source

To add a data source click on the + next to Data Sources on the left-hand menu in SquaredUp. Search for the data source and click on it to open the Configure data source page.

Before you start

If you are adding a plugin marked as On-Prem, you will need a relay agent that can access the server hosting your on-prem data source. You do not need a relay agent for cloud plugins.

If you have already created a relay agent in SquaredUp that can access this data source, then you can skip this step and choose the agent group you want to use while Configuring the data source.

You can install an agent on either Windows or Linux:

The Solarwinds data source requires a user account (username and password) to access the Solarwinds API. The user account is created and managed under Settings > All Settings > User Accounts > Manage Accounts in the Solarwinds console. Creating a user with default permissions (i.e. no admin rights) is usually sufficient.

Configuring the data source

  1. Display name:
    Enter a name for your data source. This helps you to identify this data source in the list of your data sources.

  2. Agent group:
    Select the Agent group that contains the agent(s) you want to use.
  3. Server URL:
    Enter the URL to your Solarwinds environment in the following format:
    https://server.domain.name.
  4. Server port:
    If you don't use the default port 17778, enter your port here. If you use the default port 17778, you don't need to change this field.
  5. Username and password:
    Enter your username and password for your Solarwinds environment.

    The Solarwinds data source requires a user account (username and password) to access the Solarwinds API. The user account is created and managed under Settings > All Settings > User Accounts > Manage Accounts in the Solarwinds console. Creating a user with default permissions (i.e. no admin rights) is usually sufficient.

  6. Restrict access to this data source:
    Optionally, enable this toggle if you only want certain users/groups to have access to the data source, or those with the permission to link it to new workspaces. See data source access control for more information.

  7. Click Test and add to validate the data source configuration. SquaredUp will now attempt to connect to SquaredUp using the provided authentication method.

    • Testing passed – a success message will be displayed and then the configuration will be saved.
    • Testing passed with warnings – warnings will be listed and potential fixes suggested. You can still use the data source with warnings. Select Save with warnings if you believe that you can still use the data source as required with the warnings listed. Alternatively, address the issues listed and then select Rerun tests to validate the data source configuration again. If the validation now passes, click Save.
    • Testing Failed – errors will be listed and potential fixes suggested. You cannot use the data source with errors. You are able to select Save with errors if you believe that a system outside of SquaredUp is causing the error that you need to fix. Alternatively, address the issues listed and then select Rerun tests to validate the data source configuration again. If the validation now passes, click Save.

    You can edit data source configurations at any time from Settings > Data Sources.

Next steps

Data streams

You can use these data streams to create new tiles to show data, or if there are preconfigured dashboards installed you can copy or edit those.

Data streams standardize data from all the different shapes and formats your tools use into a straightforward tabular format.

While creating a tile you can tweak data streams by grouping or aggregating specific columns.

Depending on the kind of data, SquaredUp will automatically suggest how to visualize the result, for example as a table or line graph.

Data streams can be either global or scoped:

  • Global data streams are unscoped and return information of a general nature (e.g. "Get the current number of unused hosts").
  • A scoped data stream gets information relevant to the specific set objects supplied in the tile scope (e.g. "Get the current session count for these hosts").

See Data Streams for more information.

The following data streams are installed with this plugin.

Data stream
Description
Alerts
Retrieves the active alerts for the objects in scope
Disk / Average Queue Length
Returns the AvgDiskQueueLength metric from the VolumePerformanceHistory table for host and volume metrics
Disk / Average Reads
Returns the AvgDiskReads metric from the VolumePerformanceHistory table for host and volume scopes
Disk / Average Transfer
Returns the AvgDiskTransfer metric from the VolumePerformanceHistory table for host and volume scopes
Disk / Average Writes
Returns the AvgDiskWrites metric from the VolumePerformanceHistory table for host and volume scopes
Dynamic Host Properties
Returns a set of key and dynamic/live properties for the Host.
Dynamic Interface Properties
Returns a set of key and dynamic/live properties for the Interface.
Dynamic Volume Properties
Returns a set of key and dynamic/live properties for the Volume.
Health State
Returns the current health state of the nodes in scope
Memory / Average
Retrieves the average memory metric for the last 24 hours
Memory / Average Percent
Retrieves the average memory percentage metric for the last 24 hours
Memory / Maximum
Retrieves the maximum memory metric for the last 24 hours
Memory / Minimum
Retrieves the minimum memory metric for the last 24 hours
Processor / Average
Retrieves the average processor metric for the last 24 hours
Processor / Maximum
Retrieves the maximum processor metric for the last 24 hours
Processor / Minimum
Retrieves the minimum processor metric for the last 24 hours

Configurable data streams

The following data streams installed with this plugin have configurable Parameters.

Data stream
Description
Parameters
Host Metrics
Get configurable metrics for hosts
  • Metric Table:
    Select a specific table to pull metrics from (some nodes may not have data here), for example: CPU/Memory History.
  • Timestamp Property:
    Select a field to use as a timestamp. For example, Date Time.
  • Value Property:
    Select a property to return as the value for this data stream. For example: Minimum CPU. Load.
Interface Metrics
Get configurable metrics for interfaces
  • Metric Table:
    Select a specific table to pull metrics from (some nodes may not have data here), for example: CPU/Memory History.
  • Timestamp Property:
    Select a field to use as a timestamp. For example, Date Time.
  • Value Property:
    Select a property to return as the value for this data stream. For example: Minimum CPU. Load.
Metric
Retrieves metric data for the objects in scope
Metric:
Specify a metric to return.
Node Metrics
Get metrics for a subset of nodes
  • Category:
    Select a category to filter by, for example: Server.
  • Vendor:
    Select a vendor to filter by, for example: Windows.
  • Machine Type:
    Select a machine type to filter by, for example: Windows 2019 Server.
  • Node Name Filter. %
    Select a name to filter by. Using a % will match anything, for example:
    • %Server%: Match anything with a name that contains Server.
    • %Server: Match anything with a name that ends with Server.
    • Server%: Match anything with a name that starts with Server.
  • Metric Table:
    Select a metric table from the dropdown. For example, CPU/Memory History.
  • Timestamp Property:
    Select a timestamp property from the dropdown. For example, Date Time.
  • Value Property:
    Select a value property from the dropdown. For example, Average Memory Used.
Node Properties
Get a list of Nodes filtered by Machine Type/Model
  • Category:
    Select a category to filter by, for example: Server.
  • Vendor:
    Select a vendor to filter by, for example: Windows.
  • Machine Type:
    Select a machine type to filter by, for example: Windows 2019 Server.
  • Additional Properties:
    Optionally select additional properties to include on your table. You may need to shape this data in the data stream manually.
  • Name Filter. %
    Select a name to filter by. Using a % will match anything, for example:
    • %Server%: Match anything with a name that contains Server.
    • %Server: Match anything with a name that ends with Server.
    • Server%: Match anything with a name that starts with Server.
SWQL Query
Returns the results for a provided SWQL query
  • SWQL query:
    Enter a SWQL query.
  • Replace:
    Specify key - value pairs in JSON to replace text in the query from data in the scope.
Volume Metrics
Get configurable metrics for volumes
  • Metric Table:
    Select a Metric Table from the dropdown. For example, CPU/Memory History.
  • Timestamp Property:
    Select a Timestamp Property from the dropdown. For example, Date Time.
  • Value Property:
    Select a Value Property from the dropdown. For example, Average Memory Used.

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