Solarwinds Orion plugin

Visit our website to see the data that you can access if you use this plugin to add the data source to SquaredUp:

SolarWinds

Monitor key metrics and states from your SolarWinds environment.

Note: This data source is an on-premises data source.

Prerequisites

  • 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.

How to add a Solarwinds data source

Configure and deploy an agent

If you have already created an agent in SquaredUp that you can use for this data source, you can skip this step and choose the agent group you want to use while adding the data source.

Add a Solarwinds data source in SquaredUp

  1. 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.

  2. Display Name:

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

  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. Agent Group:

    Select the Agent Group that contains the agent(s) you want to use.

  7. Install Sample Dashboards:

    Select whether you would like to install sample dashboards with the data source. By default, this is set to on.

  8. Optionally, select whether you would like to restrict access to this data source instance. By default, restricted access is set to off.

  9. Click Test and add to validate the data source configuration.

    You can also add a data source from Settings > Data Sources > Add data source, but sample dashboards are not added when using this method.

Using the Solarwinds data streams

Data streams are installed with this data source.

Metric

This data stream calls the /SolarWinds/InformationService/v3/Json/Query endpoint with a pre-set query, and allows you to enter a custom node type and metric.

  1. Scope to a SolarWinds item that supports metrics

  2. Select + Metric from the data stream list

  3. Enter a Display Name for the new data stream

  4. Enter a Node Type, for example: Nodes

  5. Enter a Metric, for example: CPULoad

Health State

This data stream calls the /SolarWinds/InformationService/v3/Json/Query endpoint with a pre-set query, and allows you to enter a custom node type.

  1. Scope to a SolarWinds item that supports health states

  2. Select + Health State from the data stream list

  3. Enter a Display Name for the new data stream

  4. Enter a Node Type, for example: Nodes

Node Properties

This data stream calls the /SolarWinds/InformationService/v3/Json/Query endpoint with a with a dynamic query, and allows you to select the properties that you want returned for each node. This data stream returns a node property, such as a name or the last known value.

  1. Scope to a SolarWinds data source.

  2. Select + Node Properties from the data stream list

  3. Enter a Display Name for the new data stream

  4. Select a Category, for example: Server

  5. Select a Vendor, for example: Windows

  6. Select a Machine Type, for example: Windows 2019 Server

  7. Optionally, select any Additional Properties to return, for example: Contact

  8. Set a Name Filter. % means match anything, for example:

    • %Server% – will match anything with a name that has Server in it.

    • %Server – will match anything with a name that ends with Server.

    • Server% – will match anything with a name that starts with Server.

  9. Click Save.

This data stream is customizable and can be edited to suit your needs from Settings > Advanced > Data Streams. For example, if you want to return memory in bytes, change the shape of the value to bytes.

Node Metrics

This data stream calls the /SolarWinds/InformationService/v3/Json/Query endpoint with a with a dynamic query, and allows you to select the metrics that you want to be returned.

  1. Scope to a SolarWinds data source.

  2. Select + Node Metrics from the data stream list

  3. Enter a Display Name for the new data stream

  4. Select a Category, for example: Server

  5. Select a Vendor, for example: Windows

  6. Select a Machine Type, for example: Windows 2019 Server

  7. Set a Name Filter. % means match anything, for example:

    • %Server% – will match anything with a name that has Server in it.

    • %Server – will match anything with a name that ends with Server.

    • Server% – will match anything with a name that starts with Server.

  8. Select a Metric Table from the dropdown, for example: CPU/Memory History

  9. Select a Timestamp Property from the dropdown, for example: Date Time

  10. Select a Value Property from the dropdown, for example: Average Memory Used

  11. Click Save.

This data stream is customizable and can be edited to suit your needs from Settings > Advanced > Data Streams.

Host/Interface/Volume Metrics

These data streams call the /SolarWinds/InformationService/v3/Json/Query endpoint with a with a dynamic query, and allow you to select the metrics that you want to be returned.

  1. Scope to a SolarWinds data source.

  2. Select + Host Metrics, + Interface Metrics or + Volume Metrics from the data stream list

  3. Enter a Display Name for the new data stream

  4. Select a Metric Table from the dropdown, for example: CPU/Memory History

  5. Select a Timestamp Property from the dropdown, for example: Date Time

  6. Select a Value Property from the dropdown, for example: Minimum CPU Load

  7. Click Save

This data stream is customizable and can be edited to suit your needs from Settings > Advanced > Data Streams.

Writing a custom data stream (advanced users)

Custom SWQL

This entry point calls the /SolarWinds/InformationService/v3/Json/Query endpoint, and allows you to enter a custom SWQL query. See SolarWinds: Use SolarWinds Query Language (SWQL) in the Orion Platform

A good starter JSON for this data stream is as follows:

{
    "name": "customSwql",
    "dataSourceConfig": {},
    "rowPath": ["results"],
    "matches": {
        "sourceType": { "type": "equals", "value": "SolarWinds Host" }
    },
    "metadata": []
}

SWQL

This is the SWQL query that is performed on the scoped item. It can be added to the dataSourceConfig like so:

"dataSourceConfig": {
    "swql": "SELECT something FROM somewhere WHERE something like something"
}