I am interested in leveraging SWQL and SDK but my knowledge is lacking in these two areas. Any advise about training resources for theses both would be greatly appreciated.
You want to self teach?
Do you know SQL, how to write select statements? in which case SWQL is basically similar to that although there are less wildcards in SWQL, % (all) and _ (single character) are the only two I know of
Follow the guides found, install the SDK, make a local account in your SolarWinds to allow the SDK account to log in to the db with the access it needs. the SW rights of the account will matter as it can prevent certain tables being seen if not high enough. Do not be paranoid, installing the SDK is straight forward and will not break your system.
A lot of swql benefits come from having an idea browsing the db and finding the data you desire, then extracting that in a query..
Look in to custom query widget, presenting results in there, i found that I like doing those quicker to than swql reports and then having to do all that column stuff, but that step in the reports is beneficial allowing some grouping i can not manage in a query alone
If you want to automate, perhaps consider a second SW account for use with the SDK, to allow level of access required, but also to clearly see in the audit logs actions made by hand, someone testing, and automated tasks. Again do not be paranoid, I heard the fear that automation will cause excessive load. it won't generally, but you should ensure your queries respond in a reasonable time and understand that the actions take time too
Look in this forum for examples users/SW staff have posted. swql allows various actions, using verbs, and like SQL you can join tables, but with SWQL it already has certain joins done behind the scenes, little chain icons you'll see in the tables in the SDK once you're in.
For using the SWQL to do actions, generally think what you are trying to achieve. I use powershell, learnt a bit of that. Want a script, want it to log the actions/time taken, have it connect to the db, then various functions within each it runs a query, then does actions with the results. Using examples found of how other's have done this allowed me to understand the process.
You prefer to be trained? Lots of resellers provide courses covering the basics, giving examples if you so wish. Some of them also provide literature/guides/walkthroughs with example scripts for free
At present there is no formal approach from SolarWinds to delivering training for SWQL. Technically the SDK is not a SolarWInds "product" and they don't directly support it, even though IMO they ought to.Companies like Loop1 and Prosperon do public training that can cover some of the bases. See Orion 301 Training provided by Loop1 for example.That said ... if you know SQL then you have a huge head start. If you further know a programming language such as Powershell or Python then you can form a SWQL query, and then wrap it in the programming code to automate.In practical terms, the best approach is probably to learn SQL if you don't know it already - as there is already plenty of training around for SQL, then learn the bits that don't work in SWQL. For example, You can't do SELECT * in SWQL. Secondly there is a book that @KMSigma.SWI is working on and appears to be progressing well but I have no timescale on that.Next, is the approach I'd been hoping to get going but I'm stuck at the how to manage it stage. That approach is to form a self-learning group - see here: https://thwack.solarwinds.com/product-forums/the-orion-platform/f/orion-sdk/91251/swql-study-group-for-the-complete-novice---thoughts if you have time but basically we need some manner to "host" the conversations. I'm out of touch with social platforms and what can do what but a few years ago I would have suggested Google+ as a solution.Lastly is to just dive in, ask questions, search out replies, look at code supplied by others and try to work your way through it. You could even enable Hubble on your own lab (preferably don't do it on a live environment) and interrogate the queries that way to see how SolarWInds themselves do it. By doing just that, I now have a reasonable basic grasp now, but don't have any in-depth SQL/SWQL knowledge
