Orion NPM Mass Node Management

Last year it was mentioned that in the next release of Orion NPM a feature would exist to add nodes via SQL. We have a large network with thousands of nodes maintained in an inventory database. We would like to reach the point where we can automatically added nodes to the solarwinds monitoring system and then based on the data in the inventory database automatically monitor the correct interfaces, volumes, custom pollers, and application performance monitors. Is there any support for this in solarwinds NPM 9.0 SP2 yet?

Along the same lines, are there supported methods to delete large numbers of nodes, interfaces, or volumes in the solarwinds database. Say I do a network discovery, import the nodes and interfaces, but now I want to rename groups of nodes, delete extra interfaces, etc. Clicking through the interface one by one is time consuming. With a little background information, some stored procedures, or an API a lot of time and effort could be saved.

Any pointers, or additional resources would be greatly appreciated.

Currently running Orion NPM 9.0 SP2 and APM 2.0 SP1.

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FormerMember

Well, I'm not sure I promised that exactly, but it's sort of true in v9. Unlike previous versions, Orion now treats the database as authoratative, so if you add a node via a sql script, Orion will pick it up. The reason I say sort of is that adding a node via SQL is not simple. There are a lot of elements to a node. Orion takes care of that when you add it through the web console. To use SQL directly, you'd have to get them all correct, and we don't officially support that method. So you can do it, but we're limited in how much we can help.

You can now delete large numbers of nodes and interfaces via the web console. In v9.1, we make that even easier, but it's still done via the web-based UI.

dmadsen

That's good news. In the past I woud have to shutdown the NPM services - run sql scripts to change add, delete, or modify data. Then start the NPM services. The current NMP 9.0 SP2

Is there a stored proc, web service call, or any clues you can provide on how to facilitate any of the following requests? Even a non-supported internal doc or code snippet.

Add Nodes
Add/Delete Interfaces on Nodes
Add/Delete Volumes to Nodes
Add/Delete Custom Pollers to Nodes
Add/Delete Application Performance Monitors to Nodes

Additional Questions -
If a node is deleted manually from the database are the associated interfaces, volumes, pollers, and APM monitors and all the associated telemetry data deleted via automatic solarwinds DB maintenance jobs? What are the deleted nodes and deleted interfaces tables for - do I need to move nodes to that table instead of outright deleting the node from the database.

FormerMember

After talking with engineering, there's no reliable way to add nodes via SQL. There are too many gotchas.

Interfaces are more straightforward. Here is a snippet of SQL from dev on how to do that.

You will have to provide the Orion NodeID, the interface index, and the ifDescr (1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.2) value. Then run this SQL (the whole thing as one batch so SCOPE_IDENTITY() works correctly) in SQL Management Studio or some similar tool:

INSERT Interfaces (NodeID, InterfaceIndex, InterfaceName)
VALUES (55, 3, 'Nortel Ethernet Routing Switch 5520-48T-PWR Module - Port 3')

DECLARE @InterfaceID int
SET @InterfaceID = SCOPE_IDENTITY()

INSERT Pollers (PollerType, NetObject)
VALUES ('Poller_IT', 'I:' + CAST(@InterfaceID AS varchar(48)))

INSERT Pollers (PollerType, NetObject)
VALUES ('Poller_IE', 'I:' + CAST(@InterfaceID AS varchar(48)))

This creates the interface and the interface traffic (“IT”) and interface error (“IE”) pollers. Leave the standard poller running while you do this. Within a few seconds (up to 30), NetPerfMonService will notice the new database rows and will attempt to discover the interface. That should automatically fill in values like the interface caption, type, speed, etc. It takes two polling cycles before the traffic and error stats will be populated.

If you try to load the website’s interface details page between when you insert the skeletal data and when the standard poller fills in the details, you might get a website error – it isn’t designed to deal with all those NULLs in the Interfaces table. Don’t worry about it. After interface rediscovery catches up, the website should go back to normal.

For assigning universal device pollers, you might try:

DECLARE @pollerid uniqueidentifier

SET @pollerid = (SELECT CustomPollerID FROM CustomPollers WHERE UniqueName='upsAdvBatteryCapacity')

INSERT CustomPollerAssignment (AssignmentName, CustomPollerID, NodeID)
VALUES
(
    'a string you make up',
    @pollerid,
    42
)

The custom poller assignment won’t take effect for a few minutes until you restart the Orion Module Engine service. Deleting custom poller assignments might also require a module engine restart – I’m not sure.

Deleting en masse is also straightforward: Just delete the relevant row from Nodes, Interfaces, or Volumes and let database maintenance clean up anything left behind.

pserwe

Right, so those are fairly simple, easily understandable. Back to nodes though.

Obviously there are SQL statements to add a node, I'm assuming it's somehow more

than what can be encapsulated in a single set of SQL statements.

I am certainly (and obviously) not the only customer that needs/wants to flow through this

functionality from a provisioning system. How about calling the functionality through the

web UI with some sort of automation? That's very lame, but not untrampled territory.

What's the roadmap for getting some sort of official API support or some sort of way

to make the web UI into an API? Rather than doing direct SQL manipulation, we

just want to call your functions and provide it the proper data in the proper formats.

Obviously we can look at the Nodes table. What we can't tell easily is everything else

that gets modified as well.