Request for explanation on "Orion Default" Hardware sensor logic

Hi Team,

Good Evening!

I have noticed a hardware health issue on a few nodes. Please refer to the screenshot for one of the nodes. Could you please advise me on how to verify the set threshold value for this sensor?

This means I want to know how it works and what parameters it checks before giving any status, like Critical or OK. How & from where I can get the value for the set threshold?

When I clicked on the manage Sensors and searched for a given power supply name "DOM TX Bias Sensor for Ethernet5" I did not find the Orion default threshold value for this.

When I selected the specific sensor as highlighted above screenshot & clicked on the edit threshold and found the below screenshot. But still, I did not find the default value for the Orien Hardware sensor.

Could someone please provide guidance on the working principles and other parameters for this sensor?
Is it possible to edit and set custom values for the device sensor?
What would happen if I changed the sensor from using the SolarWinds platform default to forcing it to "UP"?
How does the sensor calculate hardware health and report issues to the SolarWinds console?

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mesverrum

This is a super common old problem. Solarwinds just asks the devices over SNMP what the status of the sensor is. All the logic for why it is Critical lives in the head of a software dev that worked at the hardware vendor many years ago and nobody has ever fixed it.

If you run show environment commands on the device the CLI usually says everything is fine, but if you query them on SNMP it says they are critically broken.

The whole reason that part if the GUI was created was actually to let users over ride the the busted logic that the hardware vendor left in their SNMP because so many people complained about it for so long. In ye olden days SW would just throw their hands up and say "we just display what the hardware tells us" and so those bias current sensors would just be critical all the time.

mesverrum

If you are curious you can query the device on OID 1.3.6.1.2.1.99.1.1.1.5 with an snmp walk. The enumeration codes are

ok: 1
unavailable: 2
nonoperational: 3

adam.beedell

In addition to @mesverrum 's answer, which is great

1) I expect the issue there is that 0 amps = incomplete circuit, probably unplugged. But yeah up to the devs for that bit of kit
2) Yes, use that "set custom thresholds" radio button in the screenshot
3) Forcing it to Up without other thresholds isnt worth doing, may as well turn off the sensor at that point rather than give a potentially false positive
4) See mesverrum's post

FormerMember

Check the checkbox next to the sensor and Edit Thresholds. You can then manually set each threshold.