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The dumbest thing I have ever seen in SolarWinds

OK so I was having all kinds of issues with my main box, primarily it was out of RAM. To install more mem and have it be recognized I had to wipe the box and install Server 2003 x64. Easy enough, SolarWinds is easy to rebuild.

Or so I thought.

BE WARNED.

IF YOU REBUILD YOUR BOX (due to password encrytion) YOU LOSE ALL YOUR APM CREDENTIALS AND YOUR VM CREDENTIALS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YOU HAVE TO RE-ENTER THEM ALL

I have 50+ accounts, most of which I had other people enter. This has TOTALLY destroyed my APM install, God knows how long before I figure out whats working and what's not.

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byrona

I am curious, aren't those passwords stored in the database and therefore should remain untouched?

FWIW: I had a pretty awful experience with an uninstall/reinstall process that completely destroyed my views. After working with SolarWinds for about a day we finally had to restore to a backup of the database.

Donald_Francis

You are correct they are in the DB. They are encryted with a key that is apprently specific per server. So change servers or reinstall windows and you're hosed.

Capt._Obvious

Actually all you have to do is export and reimport your certificates and this won't happen.

Start>Run>MMC

File>add/remove snap-in

Add

Certificates

computer account>next

Local Computer>Finish

Branch out certificates, branch out personal click on certificates

export them all

then reimport them on the new machine/install

RogerWong

Yes, but I think Donald's point is that you have to know you have to export the encryption key from the original Orion APM server, and I think that's a valid criticism.

The KB article addressing this is here: http://support.solarwinds.com/kbase/ProblemDetail.cfm?ID=1118

Donald, I will make sure this is properly addressed in the Orion APM admin guide and not just in the Knowledgebase.

Possible workaround: Do you happen to have a hard drive image or a back up of the previous Windows operating system you had on the server? If you do, you can restore that image and export the certificate for later reuse.

Donald_Francis

I think it needs to be in more places than the Admin Guide. All the places you guys warn about backing up Maps and Reports I think that shoulds be there along side it.

Karlo.Zatylny

I will have the Orion documentation team take a look as well.