SolarWinds API eBook Proposed Chapters

Greetings everyone.

I just wanted to share what we've noodled on for a potential chapter list for the SolarWinds Platform API eBook. These are currently in a very rough order but can be updated as the content evolves.

Fear Not the Code: How/Why to Use This eBook
Modern Problems Require Modern PowerShell for the Modern SolarWinds Platform API: Setting Up Your Computer
SWQL Basics: The SolarWinds Query Language
Customizations in the SolarWinds Platform: Custom Queries, Dashboards, Reports, and Alerts
Removing and Updating: Making Changes
Action Words: Leveraging API Verbs
Resolutions: Leveraging the flexibility of the Alerting Engine
Recipes and Shortcuts
You're My Only Hope: Getting Help from the API
Git-ing Started: The Basics of Code Versioning
Errata (as needed)

Like all good (e)Books, it'll also have a dedication section and an about the authors section.

Currently chapter 2 (as listed above) is public as a preview chapter and the concentration is on the SWQL Basics (chapter 3).

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Comments

bobmarley

This is looking great!

sum_giais

Very nice.

I'm not sure where it fits in, but something I think that may help (either in the ebook or on Github) would be to expand on the SWQL functions documentation from Github...

As an example, more advanced functions simply aren't documented (thinking sub queries, aliasing, between, embedded case, with nolock, querystats, joins, plenty more)

Having those functions documented along with a real example for each in a sample query would be tremendous...

https://github.com/solarwinds/OrionSDK/wiki/SWQL-Functions

My 2 cents anyway!

keoki

So is powershell a central part of this book? We do 110% of our scripting in Linux... Obviously we develop in a local IDE, but the production deployment target will always be a linux server. We run SolarWinds, so obviously the server team does provide windows servers, but that is not what we use for our production automation, and in general only 3 or 4 people can even log into the solarwinds servers.

It is really difficult to get value learning swql if what we are really doing is learning powershell with a little swql sprinkled on.

Perhaps psudocode could be used as a replacement, but the first chapter on swql being a powershell primer is off-putting. Hard to get past the first sentence. So what I feel is this will require me to become proficient in power shell so that I can use the rest of the book. I realize that is an emotional statement, but it reflects some frustration. I must teach SWQL to a bunch of python coders, so I would essentially have to re-write the book to use it.

So I'm not asking for anything here, I don't expect to change anything, just providing some very knee-jerk feedback. If this is the only documentation we can expect to get, that's fine... But this is why this is the first company I have worked for that bought SolarWinds... My previous employers would evaluate SolarWinds then go with something linux based. And after all these years getting close to but never quite using SolarWinds over the windows issue, only to see all of the SolarWinds staff having macs... Oh the irony.

marcrobinson

I like it. As @keoki noted - python is a big thing in the non-windows (and windows) world - and VS Code supports python too. Since the other topics could stay the same, just an addendum at the end of the book?

sum_giais

Addding here as others have noted... while I primarily use powershell other sysadmins etc. I work with leverage other scripting technologies, python, bash w/curl (using the REST/JSON api).

micheal100

Hey folks,

hands up, @KMSigma.SWI and I are PowerShell nerds, so we default to that. Also, both Orion/HCO & SWQL studio are Windows-based, so it's an easy one for us to start with.

But we really don't want this to be a "which tool is better" thing, our goal really is just to help consolidate down the amount of places people need to go to figure out how to automate.

TL;DR we've definitely discussed the need to make it more language-agnostic and platform-agnostic as well. So one approach we considered is to actually just split out the content, so perhaps some agnostic chapters on SWQL/architecture, etc, and then have language-specific chapters for PowerShell/Python/Rest etc, basically massive chapters, but going through the specifics in one go.

However, (and we're obviously open to feedback on this), it would seem to make more sense as we work through examples to show that same use case in PowerShell/Python/Rest, which would probably be enough to extrapolate out for those working in other languages.

So, would the same use case in different languages suit? And which languages would you like to see? I like @keoki's pseudo code approach to first map out the flows, then maybe Rest/PowerShell/Python. Are there any other languages that we need to consider, that might cover more than 10% of users, or would those be sufficient?

KMSigma.SWI

I like this, but I don't think we want to enumerate all of them. Might be worthwhile to just give a selection from each type and then reference that Wiki Page.

Which ones would you prioritize?

KMSigma.SWI

PowerShell is where I'm coming from because it's what I know. That said, I'm also learning python, so there will potentially be more chapters about that. The "way" that you interface is the same - SWQL + Updates + Deletes + Verbs. That said, it would be beneficial to have a "cookbook" at the end with different languages - similar to the way that Microsoft does most of its documentation these days.

keoki

Yeah, I mostly use bash and curl as well, I only mentioned python because my team has a push to get everyone working in python.

What I mostly use SWQL for is pumping solarwinds data into our enterprise application. Most of my team working in python are writing an application that sits in the cloud and provides access to the various databases of a major retailer. For simple data pumps, there is a cron job running a curl command to do the query, and the only complicated part is the SWQL.

From there I massage the data and another curl command posts it to my applications data pipeline.

Where I'm having to use python is to de-stack some of the json structures so my data can fit into the flat format the pipeline is compatible with. That was a big problem, and forced me to learn more python...

midniteskys

Maybe have a recommended reads or resources as a last chapter?

KMSigma.SWI

I think the recommendations would stem from the language you'd prefer. I'm happy to pull together several of my favorite PowerShell books to add, but I've learned Python and Perl via Google. I haven't even tried to learn "Go" because... who has the time?

marcrobinson

Hey @KMSigma.SWI - Any though about a short note on Postman in Chapter 11? Even for those of us with limited, painful, awful scripting skills (mainly ME!), Postman has been a holy grail to test and "get things right" even before putting them into the API poller, or a SAM POwershell Script. The postman website, along with google searching, do a pretty good job of explaining how to use Postman. So I don't think that a long discussion of it would be required - more of a recommendation. The free plan for Postman is sufficient for most of us - so the price is right, and you can use the web client or the installed version. People/Companies also post API collections in it- its a great place to check when someone asks - HEY can you monitor this? If I can come up with something, I will reach out to you.