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Orion's Map maker

Is there an admins guide for this? Is there anyway to import more icons?? Is there anyway to make a line between two boxes represent both interfaces??? Right now I have to put two lines for each connection so both interfaces are represented on the map. Thanks

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FormerMember

Map Maker is covered in detail in the Admin Guide:

www.solarwinds.com/.../wwhelp.htm

A line can be associated with only one object.

Miles.cass

Magic Man, I have not found any admin guide for the map maker but I can give you a few ideas that I used to get some custom icons imported.

1. I downloaded some visio stencils for some of our cisco equipment and pasted them into a visio document.

2. I saved the visio drawing for that icon (A Cisco access point for example) and named it Cisco1242AP.jpg

3. I placed this file in the c:\program files\SolarWinds\Maps\NetObjects\Icons\Devices Folder

Now when I go to add a shape to a node it is listed under Network devices, you may need to work on the sizing of the shape but you get the idea.

This is one big area I wish SolarWinds would step up and do some work, we use this feature very heavily and would like to see more time put into this area. I have many feature requests for the map maker program. :-) (Otherwise the software works very well)

Hope This Helps

glenjohnson

We also use the map feature heavily. Most of our customers just want to see a (simple!!) metric of network health. And, likewise, we don't want (to puke) data all over our customers.

We have two ways of dealing with this:

1. Orion: using a top-level system-overview map (which indicates device/topology health); and
2. PHP Network Weathermap (i.e. weathermap.sw.alaska.edu ) to display network use.

We (or at least me, who builds the Orion maps) would like to see:

1. More shape based icons. We've got color blind people working in some of our groups. So-- any map available to these people must be shape-changing. To be clear, I'm not advocating the removal of color. The majority of us like color (e.g. green, orange, red, grey) -- but even for those of us who aren't color-blind -- we've all come to prefer icons that change both shape and color based on element status.

2. Tuned interface. Creating maps, quickly, is nearly impossible. The interface is very mouse-orient (very few, obvious, keyboard shortcuts). Simple enhancement would be to make it possible to persistently use the line-tool (for connecting more than two elements at a time).

3. More (and smarter) primitives. Not everyone imports background images. In our environment, the network diagrams (made with visio) are often too large/unwieldy to use as background images. More nodes/interfaces/etc can be pushed per-pixel using map primitives than by using background images. Regarding smarter: the existing primitives tend to automagically re-adjust themselves based on node-icon positioning. And, even when a text box is transparent, underlying elements still can't be selected. Maybe Visio has made me lazy. :- )

4. Represent application status (and Custom OID variables) as map elements. I'm thinking the same sort of element representation as everything else. However, it might also be cool to (be able to) embed graphs. Such as temperature and humidity information sucked in by Custom OID variables.

5. Cache node lookup (until the refresh button is pressed). The main screen does this, but the object property dialog does not.

6. Flash or SVG based map editor. Our Orion server is located in a data-center. Which is a distance, by any streach, from our desks. Hundreds of miles, in my case. Using a web interface for add/del/change would be awesome! (this applies to other parts of the Orion system as well, not just the map editor; e.g. add/del/change nodes, custom properties, etc).

Network_Guru

You can copy & paste objects from Visio or Powerpoint directly into Mapmaker.
I use the Cisco Powerpoint icons & paste them directly into Mapmaker.

As for the network link line, rather than assigning the line to a node, just leave it unassigned & drag each interface over the line next to it's node.
You will have a small diamond icon representing each interface instead of the line.

You can also customize what is displayed in the mouse-over (pop-up) box on the website.

yes we have these set up

Ckt: ${Circuit_Id}${CR}MAC: ${PhysicalAddress}${CR}IP: ${IPAddress}${CR}Port: ${SwitchPort}${CR}In: ${Inbps}${CR}Out: ${Outbps}${CR}Max In: ${MaxInBpsToday}${CR}Max Out: ${MaxOutBpsToday}

This displays the current link utilization & the max link utilization for the day - Cool!

FormerMember

2. Tuned interface. Creating maps, quickly, is nearly impossible. The interface is very mouse-orient (very few, obvious, keyboard shortcuts). Simple enhancement would be to make it possible to persistently use the line-tool (for connecting more than two elements at a time)

You can do this today. Select the line tool. Go to Edit > Locked. That will leave the line tool set until you unlock it.