Solarwinds Orion plugin

For more information about what this plugin does and the data streams it retrieves, see:

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.

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.

You can also add a data source by clicking Add data source on the Settings > Data Sources page, but pre-built dashboards are not added when using this method.

Before you start

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 and deploying an agent

For an on-prem plugin 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:

Configuring the data source

Display name:
Enter a name for your data source. This helps you to identify this data source in the list of your data sources.
Agent Group:
Select the Agent Group that contains the agent(s) you want to use.
Server URL:
Enter the URL to your Solarwinds environment in the following format:
https://server.domain.name.
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.
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.
Agent Group:
Select the Agent Group that contains the agent(s) you want to use.
Install dashboards:
Select whether you would like to install pre-built dashboards and perspectives with the data source. By default, this is set to on.

Restrict access to this data source:
You can enable this option if you only want certain users or groups to have access to the data source, or the permission to link it to new workspaces. See data source access control for more information.

The term data source here really means data source instance. For example, a user may configure two instances of the AWS data source, one for their development environment and one for production. In that case, each data source instance has its own access control settings.

By default, Restrict access to this data source is set to off. The data source can be viewed, edited and administered by anyone. If you would like to control who has access to this data source, switch Restrict access to this data source to on.

Use the Restrict access to this data source dropdown to control who has access to the workspace:

By default, the user setting the permissions for the data source will be given Full Control and the Everyone group will be given Link to workspace permissions.
Tailor access to the data source, as required, by selecting individual users or user groups from the dropdown and giving them Link to workspace or Full Control permissions.
If the user is not available from the dropdown, you are able to invite them to the data source by typing in their email address and then clicking Add. The new user will then receive an email inviting them to create an account on SquaredUp. Once the account has been created, they will gain access to the organization.
At least one user or group must be given Full Control.
Admin users can edit the configuration, modify the Access Control List (ACL) and delete the data source, regardless of the ACL chosen.

Access level	Permissions
Link to workspace	User can link the data source to any workspace they have at least Editor permissions for. Data from the data source can then be viewed by anyone with any access to the workspace. User can share the data source data with anyone they want. User cannot configure the data source in any way, or delete it.
Full Control	User can change the data source configuration, ACL, and delete the data source.

See Access control for more information.

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

Next steps

Data streams

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 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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