i want to add a group of nodes but those nodes are not up they are all down, and i want to add them so that when i raise them up the monithoring starts
Not possible via the GUI, it checks to make sure the settings you have provided are working, and for a down node they wont be. Just going to have to ask the team who will be turning them on to notify you when the nodes are up to be added.
You could also work around it by getting into the DB/API and making direct edits there. Something like as adding an existing device and then updating the Captions and IP to the one you expect them to use.
Schedule a discovery session, with the IPs (or IP range) and suitable credentials, that scans every few hours?
The only way that i can think of is to manually add them one by one on SolarWinds GUI. You cant run a discovery but you can still add it manually through Add Node (managed nodes). It doesnt really matter if the node is up or down, but then this is a manual task and if we are talking about more number of nodes then it isn't a feasible approach.
__PRESENT
Add em as external, then switch
This was going to be my suggestion, also. When added as an external node, you can still attach other monitoring to the external node, such as SAM application monitoring templates etc.
You could add them via a script and have the script unmanage them until a future time/date then do as @yaquaholic suggested and run a discovery right after the remanage occurs.
