Overall, I'm not happy with 8.5.1. In fact, I'm rather furious with the continued inflexibility of actually customizing the front-end. I regret upgrading from 8.1. I'm considering restoring from backup and going back to that version. I've seen nothing compelling me to remain at 8.5.1.
First of all, my 8.5.1 upgrade would not proceed normally because it kept telling me I was out of space on my C: drive. The only catch...I wasn't telling it to installing on my C: drive, I was installing on my E: drive. It acknowledged I had wanted it to replace/upgrade my Orion on E:, but it still throws considerable data onto my OS partition. My C: drives are OS only and aren't backed up at the same interval as my E: (application) drives. This creates challenges for me. My installing kept aborting until I deleted some data off C:. I was quite alarmed with the number of files and executables and DLLs that are thrown onto C:\Program Files\SolarWinds directory. Why these aren't placed onto my application partition, where I instructed the InstallWizard to place the application, is beyond me. Outside the application not keeping itself on the E: drive and the problems with that, it installed well enough. However, this is where my problems really begin. I have so far noticed the following issues:
1. Approximately 55 nodes were set as UNMANAGED for no known reason. Solarwinds support had not seen this before.
2. Clicking "MANAGE" does nothing. A Node remains unmanaged. If you UNMANAGE a node and attempt to MANAGE it again using the buttons, you're in for a surprise. It doesn't work. The only way to (re)manage the node that I have found is to List resources, click (ok). This sometimes needs to be done multiple times before it works. Solarwinds support was able to duplicate this and opened up a bug case. My question is...which developer Q/A'd the changes to the Manage/Unmanaged function so that it doesn't actually ping Unmanaged nodes? Did they bother to see if the feature even executes it's core function afterwards?
3. The Custom View IDs have changed in the database, leaving for dozens and dozens of broken URLs in my implementation. My "WAN Utilization" view is no longer ID 92, it's ID 261, etc., so my URLs in menu bars, resources, all over the place need to be edited. I'll be hard pressed to find them all. Some are coded in custom properties. I have to edit all sorts of content to fix this.
4. My ActiveDirectory enabled logins no longer have full administrative rights. I can do some things like add a new account, but not edit resources, not click on several left-menu links in the Admin area, such as "Database Details", "NPM Settings", etc. I don't even SEE an "edit" on resources when I log in with a pass through account. I have to log in as a local admin account in order to actually make the configuration changes I need. I haven't opened a support ticket on this yet. There is clearly an issue with integrated logins. Locals are the only ones that work without issue. Was this Q/A'd?
5. There are lots of problems in the Admin front-end. For one, the "Customize Menu Bars" link opens a duplicate of the website within the website, everything from top frame, left frame, and main content. You have a duplicate admin menu, content, etc. I also see lots of paths changed, not not all of them, but we'll get to that gripe in a minute.
6. If you view the "/Orion/Admin/ColorScheme.aspx", your selected color radio button doesn't remain selected. A minor issue, but not one that has existed in prior versions. If you view the "/NetPerfMon/Admin/ColorScheme.aspx", it is. In fact, ALL the "/NetPerfMon/Admin..." admin menu links work perfectly. Very few of the "/Orion/Admin..." ones do with my DOMAIN/USER pass through logins.
7. The order of some of my resources in some of my custom views are not in the order they were prior. Easy to fix, but I have to edit many resources and change how information is displayed. If I had a custom view with 4 resources (in order 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.) - they are not in some other order (3, 1, 4, 2), etc. It's cosmetic, but requires a lot of editing of custom views to restore.
The most significant operational impact I have noted is that it now takes my browser 25-30 seconds now to load my Summary page. Solarwinds support noticed this through a GoToMyPC sharing session and also thought it to be incredibly long. No advice on how to resolve. No thoughts on why it wasn't an issue with 8.1 but now is with 8.5.1. Reports and Custom Views load as quickly as before, but there is considerable delay in loading the summary.
The fact Solarwinds changed the path to many web items from /NetPerfMon to /Orion really confuses things. My "Admin" link on my menu bar references /NetPerfMon, which is now wrong. My "Status" URL links to "/NetPerfMon/Default.asp", which is also now wrong. All of my menu bar items where I link to reports, custom views, etc., all reference incorrect URLs now. And, Solarwinds didn't make this shift consistently within the application. Some of the left-menu items in the Admin are reference /Orion. Some still reference /NetPerfMon. For example, there is no:
/Orion/Admin/SelectMenuBar.asp
There is only
/NetPerfMon/Admin/SelectMenuBar.asp - and it doesn't display correctly. (issue 5)
I make considerable customizations to the HTML, CSS, all cosmetic in that I don't like being pigeon holed in how Solarwinds wants me to display information, structure my menu bars, etc. I continue to pull my hair out with each and every upgrade I have ever applied to Orion. Certain items are 'encoded' into the application and cannot be changed, such as the "View: " text on the menu bar. I don't want that there. I can't edit it out. I can replace it with a 1x1 pixel image, but I can't shrink the 1 inch-or-so space it leaves. When is Solarwinds going to actually deploy a true W3C XHTML, W3C CSS compliant GUI where content and formatting are actually separate? One feature benefit always advertised is the flexible customization options of the product, able to be tailored to each customer's whim.
Hogwash, I say. Hogwash. Solarwinds also needs to stop changing their minds on where their keep your CSS files. They string them out across multiple files, multiple directories, making customer customization nearly impossible. It's gotten worse in recent revisions. I just renewed my SL2000 license and I'm at the point where I don't think I will renew it any longer, if the product works I'll just keep running whatever version I was last able to obtain, if it means I never have to spend another (2) 8 hour days trying to (RE)customize a web portal after another Orion upgrade again, and again, and again.
Even Solarwinds' built in "Admin" menu bar item points to /NetPerfMon, versus /Orion - which is probably what has spurred a lot of my front-end admin issues. The front-end admin interface is completely useless to me. My pass through authenticated accounts can't even access it properly, links are poorly references and spread across multiple /admin directories, features and functions don't display correctly - and it's...well, crap.
My overall opinion of 8.5.1 is it's a piece of poor Q/A testing. Clearly, things were not test drove prior to being released to beta. For those that beta tested (I didn't), a defined testing criteria must not have been followed and meaningful feedback must have been absent. I've no idea how the manage/unmanage broken feature could be missed if a systematic and thorough testing cycle had been conducted. Internal Solarwinds Q/A needs to either beef up their resources, or start doing a better job with the resources they have.
I'm a very disatisfied Solarwinds customer at the moment. I always am when an upgrade rolls around because of the sluggish, 90s-style HTML/CSS coding that is still in place. I'd suggest Solarwinds developers take a hard look at Joomla code for some pointers on how to make a front-end that is truly flexible to customization. "Skinning" in Orion is such a black art that no one actually does it. Has anyone ever wondered why there aren't a variety of community-driven sites where skins, themes, whatever you want to call them are created for Orion? ...it's because it's a near impossible task, that is a continually moving ball that changes from version to version.
Until Solarwinds develops a front-end that can be customized, beyond letting a customer add "resources" to some summary, display page (not what I call, 'customization'), and gets their act together regarding poorly organized HTML/CSS, I don't think I'll be renewing my maintenance. As I've sat through this post recanting all the issues I've noted in the 2 hours I have had this version, not knowing how many more I'll find in the next 24 hours, I think I've landed on the decision that my 8.1 worked fine and I'll be downgrading back to that.
