Resources

Hello,

I am a fairly new user to Solarwinds Orion. I'm attempting to do what is probably a very basic thing, but I'm not sure where to do it. I'd like to add a new resource to the available ones, specifically, a SNR Interface Chart. Can someone possibly point me in the right direction.

Thanks,

-Lyle

Find more posts tagged with

Accepted answers

All comments

Isaac

Hello Lyle,

You can create your own resources. The resource files that come with SW out of the box can be found in: drive:\inetpub\SolarWinds\NetPerfMon\Resources

If you look at the sub-directories you will see a list of ASP files. You can use these files as a template to create your own (to a certain extent).

Creating a custom chart for something that does not have a build in chart associated with it (i.e. percentage of devices of type X pie chart) is either not possible or exceedingly difficult. Most of the chart magic is done behind the scenes, not in the actual chart resource files.

Moreover, do you want does SNR stand for signal to noise ratio chart? If so Orion doesn't play that game.

Be fantastic

DonYonce

Lyle,
I assume your are wanting Signal to Noise ratio charts ?
Is this for a Broadband CMTS ?
If this is the case and you have the CATV Broadband extensions to Orion, you can ask it for
a chart named MMAvgSN0-50.

The following example url will display the SNR for a CATV upstream interface.

127.0.0.1/.../CustomChart.asp

Of course, you must have the Broadband extensions installed first.

rharland

I have a question about adding resources.
I've created a custom menubar item that allows members of our team to update current outage information. This is convenient because we change a single item and this change is reflected wherever I put the menubar item. However, what I really want to do is take this menubar item (defined as a 'view') and turn it into a resource, so that it will show up on anyone's page where I place that resource.
Any assistance would be greatly appreciated and please let me know if you need info or have questions.
Thanks,
Russ

Network_Guru

Russ,

Have a look at this thread;

www2.solarwinds.net/.../topic.asp

Can you explain how you are able to update outage/ticket info via the web page?

I think this a huge feature which could be easily implemented into Orion.
Currently my team members must RDP onto the server and add comments for outages via the Custom Property Editor, for them to show up on the webpage for everyone to see (I've added the "comments" field to show up in the node details & to be added to any SMS pageouts for the node).
I'm working on using MS Access to modify the "comments" field directly in the Orion DB, but would prefer to be able to use a web browser for this.

Any help would be appreciated.

-=Cheers=-
NG

Isaac

Hello all,

To Russ:
Are you using some other data store for your outage management tracking? It sounds as if you have a web widget that you have created and you placed the URL in a menu item. If this is the case it would be simple to place this in a custom resource by simply duplicating the web widget in a custom HTML resource added to whatever views you want.

To NG:
If Mr. Russ is doing what you are describing then we should recognize his greatness. However, this should not be that difficult. If you built a form with some ASP code to attach to the Orion database you could simply send the NodeID and a value for whatever other field you wanted to update via a SQL update statement and poof web based updates. If you wanted to improve the performance of such a widget you could write a stored procedure for the Orion database and simply pass the stored procedure an index value and an update value for any custom property.

The problem with either one of these methods is that they would allow somewhat uncontrolled write access back to the Orion database. In addition, the stored procedure route would also require a modification to the actual database structure. My guess is the kids at SW would not be willing to support your install once such a change was made.

NOTE: There are several ASP pages in the default Orion package that update the database. However, each of them that I have looked at seems to have had the ASP code run through a crypto hash so as to protect the intellectual property of the SW development team.

Network_Guru

Hey Isaac, thanks for the ideas.

I know this can be done with ASP code (as some of the admin functions are currently done), but unfortunately I am not a coder by any stretch of the imagination. I also have the same concerns as you mentioned, with permissions associated with writing directly to the DB. With MS Access the permissions can be controlled by username & pwd set with SQL Enterprise Manager.
As you say, this would be a huge feature if the SW developers(if Russ has not already done this) could add this function/feature. As I have said before - one stop shopping is the name of the game! Stats, Alerting, Reporting, Custom Dox, updating trouble tickets & sharing info with my team.

-=Cheers=-
NG

Isaac

Hello all you resource fans,

If I were going to attempt this here is what I would do:

1. Create an .asp file

2. Place this line at the top:

<!--#include Virtual=/NetPerfMon/scripts/Resource.asp -->

3. Place these lines in the body:

Set SQLResource = NetPerfMon.NewSQLResource
SQLResource.SQL="UPDATE Nodes SET " & Request("CustomProperty") & "='" & Request("CustomerPropertyValue") & "' WHERE NodeID=='" & Request("NodeID") & "'"
SQLResource.Execute

If the SW coders allow an UPDATE statement with their SQLResource object then this will work as the processing page to update the table.

4. Create a custom HTML node level resource

5. Create a form that includes the NodeID of the current node. You can get this from the Request("NetObject") variable.

6. Place form fields for the custom property you would like to update and a value to set it to.

7. When you click the UPDATE button on the form it would send the ASP file created in steps 1-3 the form values, thus updating the Nodes table.

Now that I have the logic of my theory worked out I am going to go attempt to put it into practice. If I get it to work I will include the code later this week.

Be fantastic.

Network_Guru

Hey Isaac, did you ever get a chance to try this out or get it working?

I'm trying to create an HTML form to update the Custom Property "Comments" from the web page. Once I get this working, I was going to add 2 more columns to the Events table so that I can add Remedy Ticket numbers & a drop down box for Root Cause.

I'm trying to get a handle on the cause of outages over the past month & this would allow me to create an all in one report. It's a feature that could be easily implemented by the SW gang with a minimal amount of coding & 2 extra fields in the Events table (similar to being able to clear events with the check mark).

-=Cheers=-
NG

Isaac

Hi NG,

I didn't get it functioning. It appears that the SQLResource object does not allow update statements. Of course there is an alternative: my complete lack of creativity and utter incompetence when it comes to SQL.

In any event I am going another route and having our application development interns build me up something groovy to solve this problem. Hopefully they will have it cooked up by the end of the summer (things seem to take a while with the interns).

Be fantastic.

Network_Guru

quote:Originally posted by Isaac

Hopefully they will have it cooked up by the end of the summer (things seem to take a while with the interns).

Be fantastic.

Hi Isaac - I hope you had a good summer - fall is officially here now! <GRIN>

-=Cheers=-
NG

Isaac

Hi NG,

Fall already. Well I guess I had better come up with something.

The interns did get a cobbled together mess working. It was able to update to the database directly, however, it was very slow, very resource intensive, and had several bugs that made it quirky at best.

I am looking into fixing it up a bit but I have 12 new substations to turn up, 3 data center access layer switch upgrades, 1 6500 FW services module test, no less than 10 wireless AP installs, and the QOS and security configuration for 6 generation control and data networks.

So I should have something worked out by next summer.

Be fantastic.

Network_Guru

Thanks for the feedback Isaac.

I know everything has it's priority & stuff like this is "Nice to Have".
I'll carry on working on something in my "spare" time.

I noticed some of the ....edit.asp code uses the field "User" & "Customize".
It would be nice to add a third user property - "update" which allows users assigned this property to update the custom fields in the DB with their web browser.
Just like the Orion webadmin can customize web pages & settings stored in the DB.

Shouldn't be too difficult for the coders at SW to do this?

-=Cheers=-
NG