I currently have several external devices, these nodes are monitored externally by another system which sends traps in to our SolarWinds server. Based on the trap received, the status is of the respective device is set to Up/Down. Within the database, all the nodes have the "CustomStatus" flag set to 1.
Recently I noted when modifying a property of the device (such as name) through the "Edit Properties" page, once submitted it would change the status of the device back to external. I opened a case asking why the status was being updated despite having the "CustomStatus" flag set and was advised this was by design.
While I realize I initially set the device up as external, I updated the "CustomStatus" flag to prevent it from being modified by the system. Per a previous case I had opened, the explanation I got relating to the "CustomStatus" field was:
..."Orion will never change the status of the variable as there is a check on that column before we do so. If its 1 we don't touch it."...
This does not appear to be the case when it is an external device. To prove this you can set up 2 devices (one external and one internal - ICMP... you'll need an active device for this). Once both are set up within SolarWinds, update your database as follows:
update nodesdata set customstatus=1 where nodeid=Internal_NodeID
update nodesdata set customstatus=1, groupstatus='Up.gif', status=1, statusled='Up.gif', statusdescription='Node status is Up.' where nodeid=External_NodeID
Once the database has been updated, verify both of the devices are showing as up. Now unplug the internal device and wait a couple of minutes. Using the web interface, modify the name of the internal device and submit, you'll note the status does not change and it should still be showing as up. Using the web interface, modify the name of the external device and submit, at this point you'll note the status of your external device will revert back to the defaults it had when initially entered.
I would like to request a feature where external devices are handled the same as all other devices when using the "Edit Properties" page and the CustomStatus flag is set to true.
