Create Discovery for Agent via API

Hey Thwackers,

I'm looking to do targeted re-discoveries of some of our server nodes automatically via the API which includes both SNMPv2c, and agent nodes. The primary goal is to rediscover and add new volumes, however another goal as well would be to initially add volumes and interfaces once the nodes get created automatically via the API as well (or an agent is registered).

All the documentation is essentially for discovery of SNMP or WMI nodes. Does anyone happen to know how to adjust the XML for the script up on GitHub to accommodate for Agents? In my own digging, I've taken a look at some of the XML from creating a discovery via the web UI and have been attempting to inject it into the CorePluginConfiguration (with little success).

What I found are these settings but I'm not sure where they may go or which ones are required and the appropriate syntax either (or better yet... if this is even technically supported via the API yet)

<AgentsFilterDefinition>filter:/Orion.Nodes</AgentsFilterDefinition>
<AgentsFilterQuery>1=1</AgentsFilterQuery>

https://github.com/solarwinds/OrionSDK/blob/master/Samples/PowerShell/DiscoverSnmpV3Node.ps1

Any and all help and/or suggestions appreciated, thanks!

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tony.johnson

The discovery process is the same for all nodes irrespective of the polling method. The purpose of 'Check existing nodes polled by agent' in the discovery workflow is to keep all or a subset of agents updated. It has been a while since I last looked at this but if I remember the easiest way I have found to check what XML is expected is to 1st create the profile in the UI ad then check out the PluginConfigurations field in the DiscoveryProfiles table directly in the database, This contains the <DiscoveryPluginConfigurationBase> element which should show what you are looking for.

This KB may also help https://support.solarwinds.com/SuccessCenter/s/article/Update-resources-on-an-agent-node-using-SWQL?language=en_US

Here is an example of the XML element for reference





				filter:/Orion.Nodes[IsServer='True']
				Nodes.IsServer = 'True'

					Unknown
					Other
					RAM
					VirtualMemory
					FixedDisk
					RAMDisk
					FlashMemory
					NetworkDisk
					MountPoint



				true
				WMI


						0
						4


						1
						5




						true
						10.199.20.0
						255.255.255.0



				1
				PT10S

sum_giais

Thank you @tony.johnson for the tips! I'll give this a whirl and spend some more time digging into it.

sum_giais

I think I've hit a wall here. I've thrown quite a bit at attempting the XML markup expected and nothing I seem to do will work. Some values I notice don't show up the same once the configuration is invoked from the context created.. For example we set the property <WmiRetriesCount> and <WmiRetryIntervalMiliseconds>, however they get converted to <WmiRetries> and <WmiRetryInterval> when invoking creation of the configuration. Attempting to create the configuration with the latter results in a failure. So while digging into the database is quite useful to help understand some of it -- it doesn't provide much insight in the way of determining the appropriate XML markup and properties to get this going.

I've got a mock script put together (patched together from the various different sources of the API discoveries) and I'm trying to get it to be super simple for now until I get it working.

Unfortunately I cannot make sense of this and there's very little guidance / documentation around it. The script below works just fine and appears to run a discovery against SNMP nodes but so far no dice with getting any agent settings in there.

The values for the agent settings always show up like so still regardless of how I've put it together.

Any help appreciated. Thanks




false

<# finding the default values SQL query:

SELECT dp.Name, dp.IsHidden, dp.IsAutoImport, dp.Status, dp.StatusDescription
, SUBSTRING(dp.PluginConfigurations, CHARINDEX('PreferredPollingMethod', dp.PluginConfigurations) + 23, 4) AS [PreferredPollingMethod]
, SUBSTRING(dp.PluginConfigurations, CHARINDEX('DiscoverAgentNodes', dp.PluginConfigurations) + 19, 5) AS [DiscoverAgentNodes]
, dp.PluginConfigurations
FROM SolarWindsOrion.dbo.DiscoveryProfiles AS dp
WHERE ( dp.Name IS NOT NULL AND dp.Name != '' )
ORDER BY dp.Name DESC

#>

Import-Module -Name SwisPowerShell

$swis = Connect-Swis -Hostname 'hostname' -Username 'username' -Password 'password'

$ip = 'x.x.y.y'
$credentialsId = '0'
$engindId = '0'

$CorePluginConfigurationContext = ([xml]"




        filter:/Orion.Nodes
        1=1


        FixedDisk



			$ip




			$credentialsId
			1




    true
	1
	1000
    SNMP

").DocumentElement

$CorePluginConfiguration = Invoke-SwisVerb $swis Orion.Discovery CreateCorePluginConfiguration @($CorePluginConfigurationContext)

$InterfacesPluginConfigurationContext = ([xml]"


        Up


        Virtual
        Physical


        Trunk
        Access
        Unknown


        {'Prop': 'Name', 'Op': 'Regex', 'Val': '^Eth.*'}

    false

").DocumentElement

$InterfacesPluginConfiguration = Invoke-SwisVerb $swis Orion.NPM.Interfaces CreateInterfacesPluginConfiguration @($InterfacesPluginConfigurationContext)

$StartDiscoveryContext = ([xml]"

	Script Discovery $([DateTime]::Now)
	$engindId
	3600
	2000
	2000
	1
	1500
	161
	0
	SNMP2c
	false
	false
	true
	false


			$($CorePluginConfiguration.InnerXml)
            $($InterfacesPluginConfiguration.InnerXml)



").DocumentElement

$DiscoveryProfileID = (Invoke-SwisVerb $swis Orion.Discovery StartDiscovery @($StartDiscoveryContext)).InnerText

Write-Host -NoNewline "Discovery profile #$DiscoveryProfileID running..."

# Wait until the discovery completes
do {
    Write-Host -NoNewline "."
    Start-Sleep -Seconds 1
    $Status = Get-SwisData $swis "SELECT Status FROM Orion.DiscoveryProfiles WHERE ProfileID = @profileId" @{profileId = $DiscoveryProfileID}
} while ($Status -eq 1)

$Result = Get-SwisData $swis "SELECT Result, ResultDescription, ErrorMessage, BatchID FROM Orion.DiscoveryLogs WHERE ProfileID = @profileId" @{profileId = $DiscoveryProfileID}

# Print the outcome
switch ($Result.Result) {
    0 {"Unknown"}
    1 {"InProgress"}
    2 {"Finished"}
    3 {"Error"}
    4 {"NotScheduled"}
    5 {"Scheduled"}
    6 {"NotCompleted"}
    7 {"Canceling"}
    8 {"ReadyForImport"}
}
$Result.ResultDescription
$Result.ErrorMessage

if ($Result.Result -eq 2) { # if discovery completed successfully
    # Find out what objects were discovered
    $Discovered = Get-SwisData $swis "SELECT EntityType, DisplayName, NetObjectID FROM Orion.DiscoveryLogItems WHERE BatchID = @batchId" @{batchId = $Result.BatchID}
    "$($Discovered.Count) items imported."
    $Discovered
}

sum_giais

Any possible insight @tdanner? Thanks

sum_giais

So I have not figured out the appropriate XML mark for including agents within the discovery through the API... that said I went a different route and am hitting this straight at the source in SQL. Since the discovery can be created in the Web UI to target and poll agents I thought why not just try copying the exact XML markup from the database in the PluginConfigurations column in the DiscoveryProfiles table... and insert my own discovery profile with that same (slightly edited) XML markup.

Low and behold it works if you edit some key areas. Below is an example script that works to discover 1 SNMP node and 1 Agent node. I'll be building on this to make it better and for our needs but thought it'd be worth providing the concept out there.

<# finding the default values SQL query:

SELECT dp.Name, dp.IsHidden, dp.IsAutoImport, dp.Status, dp.StatusDescription
, SUBSTRING(dp.PluginConfigurations, CHARINDEX('PreferredPollingMethod', dp.PluginConfigurations) + 23, 4) AS [PreferredPollingMethod]
, SUBSTRING(dp.PluginConfigurations, CHARINDEX('DiscoverAgentNodes', dp.PluginConfigurations) + 19, 5) AS [DiscoverAgentNodes]
, dp.PluginConfigurations
FROM SolarWindsOrion.dbo.DiscoveryProfiles AS dp
WHERE ( dp.Name IS NOT NULL AND dp.Name != '' )
ORDER BY dp.Name DESC

#>

Import-Module -Name SwisPowerShell

$hostname = 'x.x.y.y'
$creds = Get-Credential

$swis = Connect-Swis -Hostname $hostname -credential $creds

$engineId = 'x'

$agentIP = "z.x.c.v"
$serverIP = "z.x.c.b"

$rawXml = @"
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-16"?>SolarWinds.Orion.Core.Models.Discovery.CoreDiscoveryPluginConfiguration,SolarWinds.Orion.Core.Models.V1SolarWinds.VIM.Common.Configuration.VimDiscoveryPluginConfiguration,SolarWinds.VIM.CommonSolarWinds.NCM.Contracts.Discovery.NcmDiscoveryPluginConfiguration,SolarWinds.NCM.ContractsSolarWinds.Interfaces.Common.Models.Discovery.InterfacesDiscoveryPluginConfiguration,SolarWinds.Interfaces.CommonSolarWinds.APM.BlackBox.Sql.Common.Models.Discovery.ApmBlackBoxSqlDiscoveryPluginConfiguration,SolarWinds.APM.BlackBox.Sql.CommonSolarWinds.APM.BlackBox.Exchg.Common.Models.Discovery.ExchangeDiscoveryPluginConfiguration,SolarWinds.APM.BlackBox.Exchg.CommonSolarWinds.APM.BlackBox.Wstm.Common.Models.Discovery.DiscoveryPluginConfiguration,SolarWinds.APM.BlackBox.Wstm.CommonSolarWinds.APM.BlackBox.IIS.Common.Models.Discovery.IISDiscoveryPluginConfiguration,SolarWinds.APM.BlackBox.IIS.CommonSolarWinds.APM.BlackBox.ActiveDirectory.Common.Models.Discovery.ActiveDirectoryDiscoveryPluginConfiguration,SolarWinds.APM.BlackBox.ActiveDirectory.CommonSolarWinds.Orion.SCM.Models.Discovery.ScmDiscoveryPluginConfiguration,SolarWinds.Orion.SCM.Modelsfilter:/Orion.Nodes[IP_Address=''$agentIP'']Nodes.IP_Address = ''$agentIP''UnknownOtherRAMVirtualMemoryFixedDiskRAMDiskFlashMemoryNetworkDiskMountPoint$serverIPtrueSNMP081121PT10SfalseadminUptruefalseAccessTrunkUnknowntruetruefalsetruetrue123456789true


$sqlQuery = @"
UPDATE dp
SET dp.PluginConfigurations = '$rawXml'
SolarWindsOrion.dbo.DiscoveryProfiles AS dp
WHERE dp.ProfileID = $DiscoveryProfileID


$discoveryName = "Scripted Discovery - $([DateTime]::Now)"
$discoveryDescription = "Discovery created via API and direct SQL"

$sqlInsertDiscovery = @"
INSERT INTO SolarWindsOrion.dbo.DiscoveryProfiles
VALUES ('$discoveryName', '$discoveryDescription',0,NULL,$engineId,4,'00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000',0,0,2000,3000,1,1800,1,1,0,0,0,0,60,NULL,NULL,'',0,'$rawXml',1,0,0,161,'<?xml version="1.0"?>  ')


$sqlResult1 = (Invoke-SwisVerb -SwisConnection $swis -EntityName 'Orion.Reporting' -Verb 'ExecuteSQL' -Arguments @($sqlInsertDiscovery)).ChildNodes.DocumentElement.ExecuteSqlResults

$profileIdQuery = @"
SELECT DISTINCT TOP 1 dp.ProfileID 
FROM Orion.DiscoveryProfiles AS dp
WHERE ( dp.Name = '$discoveryName' AND dp.Description = '$discoveryDescription' AND dp.EngineID = $engineId )


$discoveryProfileID = Get-SwisData -SwisConnection $swis -Query $profileIdQuery

$null = Invoke-SwisVerb -SwisConnection $swis -EntityName 'Orion.Discovery' StartDiscoveryProfile @($discoveryProfileID)

Write-Host -NoNewline "Discovery profile #$discoveryProfileID running..."

$statusQuery = "SELECT dp.Status FROM Orion.DiscoveryProfiles AS dp WHERE dp.ProfileID = $discoveryProfileID"

do {

    Write-Host -NoNewline "."
    Start-Sleep -Seconds 1
    $Status = Get-SwisData -SwisConnection $swis -Query $statusQuery

} while ($Status -eq 1)

$resultQuery = "SELECT dl.Result, dl.ResultDescription, dl.ErrorMessage, dl.BatchID FROM Orion.DiscoveryLogs AS dl WHERE dl.ProfileID = $discoveryProfileID"

$Result = Get-SwisData -SwisConnection $swis -Query $resultQuery

switch ($Result.Result) {
    0 {"Unknown"}
    1 {"InProgress"}
    2 {"Finished"}
    3 {"Error"}
    4 {"NotScheduled"}
    5 {"Scheduled"}
    6 {"NotCompleted"}
    7 {"Canceling"}
    8 {"ReadyForImport"}
}
$Result.ResultDescription
$Result.ErrorMessage

$batchQuery = "SELECT dli.EntityType, dli.DisplayName, dli.NetObjectID FROM Orion.DiscoveryLogItems AS dli WHERE dli.BatchID = '" + $Result.BatchID + "'"

$sqlDiscoveryCleanupQuery = @"
    -- I don't want discovery automatically adding appinsight templates
    DELETE FROM [SolarWindsOrion].[dbo].[APM_DiscoveredExchangeServers]
    DELETE FROM [SolarWindsOrion].[dbo].[APM_DiscoveredBlackBoxWstmInstances]
    DELETE FROM [SolarWindsOrion].[dbo].[APM_DiscoveredBlackBoxIISInstances]
    DELETE FROM [SolarWindsOrion].[dbo].[APM_DiscoveredBlackBoxSqlInstances]

    DELETE dv --cleaning up volumes
    --select *
    FROM solarwindsorion.dbo.DiscoveredVolumes AS dv
    INNER JOIN SolarWindsOrion.dbo.discoveredNodes AS dn ON ( dn.nodeid = dv.DiscoveredNodeID AND dn.ProfileID = dv.ProfileID )
    WHERE dv.VolumeType NOT IN ( 4 ) --only want fixed disks
    OR dn.Vendor NOT IN ( 'Windows', 'Linux', 'net-snmp' ) --keep drives for servers, remove them for anything else

    DELETE di1
    FROM SolarWindsOrion.dbo.DiscoveredInterfaces AS di1 --all interfaces rule
    WHERE InterfaceTypeDescription in ('Loopback','VMware Virtual Network Interface','Proprietary Multiplexor') --we currently never monitor these types of interfaces and can delete them wherever they show up
    OR OperStatus != 1 --we don't want to add new interfaces in any status beside up
    OR InterfaceName LIKE '%miniport%' -- these are useless sub interfaces that show up on windows snmp nodes
    OR InterfaceName LIKE '%-0000' -- these are useless sub interfaces that show up on windows snmp nodes


    $sqlResult2 = (Invoke-SwisVerb -SwisConnection $swis -EntityName 'Orion.Reporting' -Verb 'ExecuteSQL' -Arguments @($sqlDiscoveryCleanupQuery)).ChildNodes.DocumentElement.ExecuteSqlResults

$discoveredNodeQuery = @"
    SELECT dn.NodeID FROM Orion.DiscoveredNodes AS dn WHERE dn.ProfileID = $discoveryProfileID


$discoveredNodes = Get-SwisData -SwisConnection $swis -Query $discoveredNodeQuery

$nodesToImportXml = ""
$dnCount = 0
$dnTotal = $discoveredNodes.Count

ForEach($dn in $discoveredNodes) {

    [string]$NodeID = $dn

    $nodesToImportXml += "`t`t$NodeID"

If ($dnCount -lt $dnTotal-1) {

    $nodesToImportXml += "`n"

}

$dnCount ++

}

$importXml = @"

        false
        `n

$importXml += $nodesToImportXml
$importXml += @"
`n        
        $discoveryProfileID



    $importConfiguration = ([xml]$importXml).DocumentElement

    $importResult = Invoke-SwisVerb -SwisConnection $swis -EntityName 'Orion.Discovery' -Verb 'ImportDiscoveryResults' -Arguments @($importConfiguration)

if ($Result.Result -eq 2) {

    $Discovered = Get-SwisData -SwisConnection $swis -Query $batchQuery 
    "$($Discovered.Count) items imported."
    $Discovered

}