Task 1 - How do you create an account?

No, we won't spam your inbox or add you to any marketing list.  Having an account simply allows you to contribute and take advantage of all the features on the site.  This should take less than 5 minutes of your time.  To create an account, find the "Register" link on the top right-hand corner of your screen. If you already have a THWACK account, you do not need to create another one.  You will need to be logged in in order to complete the rest of the tasks.

Task 2 - Where can you find content to extend your product's capabilities?

Here on THWACK, you'll find thousands of downloadable templates, reports, scripts and more that allow you to customize and extend our products.  Some content in this area is created by SolarWinds employees and the rest has been created and shared with the community by our members.

For this task, navigate to the Content Exchange.  To get there, you first need to go to the Product Forums button in the top navigation bar (under "Product Forums"), choose the product you're familiar with, and select content that suits your needs.  From there, browse through the documents until you find something that sparks interest.



Next, download the template, report, script, etc. that you've chosen.  You can then plug this item into the product which ultimately extends the functionality that is provided out-of-the-box (plugging the downloaded item into the product is not required to complete this task - however, we do recommend you check it out when time becomes available).

Task 3 - How can you influence the direction of a product?

As mentioned earlier, we greatly value customer input, and will gladly review requests for new features.

Here on THWACK, you can submit an idea or feature request for a future implementation.  Product Managers pay special attention to this concept of "ideation" and, to gauge interest, we allow community members to vote on feature requests.

Let me quickly explain how the process works before I give you the task at hand:

There are 5 stages in which an idea can be slated for.  When a user creates an idea, it is placed into the "Recent" stage.  The Product Manager then reviews the request and will move the idea into 1 of 3 stages - Open for Voting, What We're Working On, or Closed.  If an idea is placed in the "Closed" stage, it means the request is either unfeasible or doesn't fit with the direction of the product.  The last stage is "Implemented" which means the feature has been added to the product.  You can read more here about the recent features that were added to our products because of the crowd-sourcing feature on THWACK.

For this task, navigate to a product feature request forum.  Choose a product you are familiar with from the Product Forums in the top navigation bar, then click on Feature requests.



You'll then be dropped on a page which showcases the "top ideas" for that product (choose "show all" at the bottom of the list to see all ideas).  Find a feature request that would bring value to your environment and vote for it.

Task 4 - Where can you get support while troubleshooting an issue?

The product forums are where you will get most of your support, from either other community members or a SolarWinds employee.  There are developers, product managers, community staff, and others that are here to answer your questions and help resolve issues.



For this task, navigate to a product forum.  There is a shortcut to this area at the top of your screen, look for the tab that reads "Product Forums".  Choose a product you are familiar with the drop-down menu, then click on Content.  There is an exceptional amount of content in most of our forums so please take a minute to click around.



Find a discussion thread that sparks your interest and "like" it.

Task 5 - Where can you find product roadmaps?

In the top navigation, look for "Resources". Within that parent, you'll see the Blogs category. SolarWinds has many blogs, and we'll talk about them more in-depth in Task 6.

Select the "Community Announcements" blog.This post stands as a guide to what the teams are working on for each of our products. Once you've found the guide, bookmark it.



Bookmarking a piece of content will place it in your bookmarks, which can be found by clicking the magnifying glass in the navigation menu, and selecing "Bookmarks".

Task 6 - Where can you read blogs about SolarWinds products and other general IT topics?

We have several blogging areas here on THWACK, but four main blogs.  For this task, let's focus on three specific blogging areas: Product Blog, Monitoring Central, and Geek Speak.

First, navigate to the Product Blog.  You can get there by hovering over "Resources" in the navigation and, under the "Blogs" category, selecting "Product Blog".

You can also reach the product blog for any specific product by going to their product forum and selecting their Product Blog option in their list of buttons.

Some of these blog posts may look familiar because they're streamed into our products. The rumors are true. They come directly from THWACK.  Click on a blog that interests you and take a minute to read.  Make sure you click on the blog subject line for the action to be recorded.

Second, navigate to Geek Speak. To get there, hover over "Resources" in the navigation and, under the "Blogs" category, selecting "Geek Speak". Again, choose a post to read.



  Make sure you click on the blog subject line for the action to be recorded.

Extra - How to track your progress

You want to see which tasks you still need to complete? No problem! Go to your Profile - More - Reputation - Missions, and just look for this particular mission.



Once you click on the wheel in right corner, you'll be able to track your progress, based on the bars displayed in the same order as listed in the onboarding mission. Depending on the completion of a certain task, you'll see either a blue bar (complete) or a white bar (to complete).

That's it!  You've completed your first mission and earned 1,500 points to be used in the THWACK Store! Below are a few other good resources to check out.  If you have any THWACK related questions, feel free to reach out to myself or wabbott  or brett.holzhauer

• Library & Support - Documentation, video tutorials, and other helpful content divided by product.
• Groups - Participate in RC or beta builds and work directly with the PM to help us put out the next release of our products.  Earn points and badges for your profile!
• Announcements - Find community/product announcements.  This blog is the home of the very popular MONTHLY MISSIONS! Earn points and prizes every month. You can participate in monthly missions and other promotional campaigns here.
• What are the points good for?  Credibility, of course, and...
  • THWACK Store
  • THWACK Store Items & FAQ
  • THWACK Point System
  • THWACK Missions

Any assistance would be appreciated!

The view importer tool for whole dashboards and views can be accessed from here, ViewImporter.ps1

A single widget/resource importer tool can be accessed here, ResourceImporter.ps1​

You can grab the first example dashboard I shared and import it for your environment here, SolarWinds Admin Dasboard.zip

I consider this to be a major improvement in usability over the earlier version of the concept I had posted before, viewmigrator.txt

I've been using it pretty regularly myself for some time and haven't been having bugs for a while so I feel like its ready to share.  *Thanks to everyone who has been risking their environments by letting me test it on them over the past year

The attached file is actually just a link to the GitHub repo where I keep these kinds of things, so that way we can ensure that you are always using the most current version in case I have to fix issues that may come up in newer releases.

https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Mesverrum/MyPublicWork/master/ViewExporter.ps1

This is the actual text of the current version if you can't get to GitHub for some reason

<#------------- FUNCTIONS -------------#>

Function Set-SwisConnection {

  Param(

  [Parameter(Mandatory=$true, HelpMessage = "What SolarWinds server are you connecting to (Hostname or IP)?" ) ] [string] $solarWindsServer,

  [Parameter(Mandatory=$true, HelpMessage = "Do you want to use the credentials from PowerShell [Trusted], or a new login [Explicit]?" ) ] [ ValidateSet( 'Trusted', 'Explicit' ) ] [ string ] $connectionType,

  [Parameter(HelpMessage = "Which credentials should we use for an explicit logon type" ) ] $creds

  )

  IF ( $connectionType -eq 'Trusted' ) {

  $swis = Connect-Swis -Trusted -Hostname $solarWindsServer

  } ELSEIF(!$creds) {

  $creds = Get-Credential -Message "Please provide a Domain or Local Login for SolarWinds"

  $swis = Connect-Swis -Credential $creds -Hostname $solarWindsServer

  } ELSE {

  $swis = Connect-Swis -Credential $creds -Hostname $solarWindsServer

  }

  RETURN $swis

}

function Export-Resource {

  param(

  [Parameter(Mandatory=$true)] [Validatenotnullorempty()] $swis,

  [Parameter(Mandatory=$true, HelpMessage = "What resourceID are we exporting?" )] [int] $resourceID,

  [Parameter(HelpMessage = "Do we need to save this resource to an XML file?" )] $exportXML,

  [Parameter(HelpMessage = "What path should the XML be saved to?" )] $exportXMLpath

  )

  <#

  Example of a correctly formatted resource definition XML:

  <resource name="Top CPUs by Percent Load" file="/Orion/NetPerfMon/Resources/MultiSourceCharts/MultipleObjectChart.ascx" column="2" position="3" title="Top CPUs by Percent Load" subtitle="">

  <properties>

  <property name="ChartName" value="AvgCPUMultiLoad"/>

  <property name="EntityName" value="Orion.Nodes"/>

  <property name="FilterEntities" value="False"/>

  <property name="ManualSelect" value="False"/>

  <property name="Period" value="Today"/>

  <property name="SampleSize" value="30M"/>

  <property name="ShowSum" value="NoSum"/>

  <property name="AutoHide" value="1"/>

  </properties>

  </resource>

  #>

  $Resource = get-swisdata $swis @"

select distinct ResourceID, ViewColumn, Position, replace(replace(ResourceName,'&','ampersand'),'"','doublequotes') as ResourceName, ResourceFile, replace(replace(ResourceTitle,'&','ampersand'),'"','doublequotes') as ResourceTitle, replace(replace(ResourceSubTitle,'&','ampersand'),'"','doublequotes') as ResourceSubTitle, viewgroup

from orion.Views v

left join orion.Resources r on r.ViewID=v.ViewID

where r.resourceid = '$ResourceID'

"@

  $header = @"

<resource name="$($resource.ResourceName)" file="$($resource.ResourceFile)" column="$($resource.ViewColumn)" position="$($resource.Position)" title="$($resource.ResourceTitle)" subtitle="$($resource.ResourceSubTitle)">

<properties>

"@

  $rquery = @"

select propertyname, replace(replace(propertyvalue,char(10),'linebreak'),char(38),'ampersand') as propertyvalue

FROM resourceproperties rp

where rp.resourceid=$($resource.ResourceID)

"@

  $resourceProperties = Invoke-SwisVerb $swis 'Orion.Reporting' 'ExecuteSQL' @($rquery)

  $xmlRequest = $header

foreach ($p in $resourceproperties.childnodes.documentelement.executesqlresults) {

  $xmlRequest += '<property name = "' + $($p.propertyname) + '" value="' + ([System.Net.WebUtility]::HtmlEncode($p.propertyvalue)) + '" />'

  }

  $xmlRequest += '</properties></resource>'

  if($exportXML) {

  $namecleanup = "$($resource.ResourceTitle)_$($resource.ResourceID)"

  $namecleanup = $namecleanup.Replace("\", " ").Replace("/", " ").replace("<"," ").replace(">"," ").replace(":"," ").replace("|"," ").replace("?", " ").replace("*"," ")

  if(!$exportXMLpath) {

  $exportXMLpath ="$($env:USERPROFILE)\Desktop\$($namecleanup).xml"

  }

  $xmlRequest | Export-Clixml -Path ($exportXMLpath + "$($namecleanup).xml")

  }

  return $xmlRequest

}

<#------------- ACTUAL SCRIPT -------------#>

clear-host

$now = Get-Date -Format "yyyyMMdd_HHmm"

$script = $MyInvocation.MyCommand

$dir = Split-Path $script.path

$Logfile = "$dir\$($script.name)_$now.log"

Start-Transcript -Path $Logfile -Append -IncludeInvocationHeader | Out-Null

while(!$swistest) {

  $hostname = Read-Host -Prompt "what server should we connect to?"

  $connectionType = Read-Host -Prompt "Should we use the current powershell credentials [Trusted], or specify credentials [Explicit]?"

  $swis = Set-SwisConnection $hostname $connectionType

  $swistest = get-swisdata $swis "SELECT TOP 1 servername FROM Orion.Websites"

}

"Connected to $hostname Successfully using $connectiontype credentials"

$viewid = $null

while ($viewid -eq $null ) {

  $viewidprompt = Read-Host -Prompt "If you know the viewid number you want to export then enter it here, otherwise do you want to export an entire [Viewgroup] or a single [view]?"

  switch -regex ($viewidprompt) {

  "^\d+$" {$viewid = $viewidprompt; break} #viewid number entered

  "^View$" {

  $viewname = Read-Host -Prompt "What is the name of the single view you want to export? (You can use % as wildcards if needed)"

  $viewlookup = get-swisdata $swis @"

SELECT ViewID, ViewTitle, ViewGroupName, ViewGroup, ViewType, ViewGroupPosition, ViewIcon

FROM Orion.Views

where viewtitle like '$viewname'

order by viewgroup, viewgroupposition, viewtitle

"@

  if(!$viewlookup) {

  "No matching view found"; break

  } else {

  $viewlookup | format-table -autosize

  $confirmation = Read-Host -Prompt "If the view you want to export is in the previous list enter that Viewid # now"

  switch -regex ($confirmation) {

  "^\d+$" {$viewid = $confirmation; break}

  default {$viewid = $null; "ViewID # not found, starting again"; break}

  } ; break

  }

  }

  "Viewgroup" {

  $viewgroupname = Read-Host -Prompt "What is the name of the viewgroup you want to export? (You can use % as wildcards if needed)"

  $viewgrouplookup = get-swisdata $swis @"

SELECT ViewGroup, ViewGroupName, ViewID, ViewTitle, ViewType, ViewGroupPosition, ViewIcon

FROM Orion.Views

where ViewGroupName like '$viewgroupname'

order by viewgroup, viewgroupposition

"@

  if(!$viewgrouplookup) {

  "No matching viewgroup found"; break

  } else {

  $viewgrouplookup | format-table -autosize

  $confirmation = Read-Host -Prompt "If the viewgroup you want to export is in the previous list enter that Viewgroup # now"

  switch -regex ($confirmation) {

  "^\d+$" {$viewid = get-swisdata $swis "select ViewID FROM Orion.Views where ViewGroup = '$confirmation'"; break}

  default {$viewid = $null; "Viewgroup # not found, starting again"; break}

  } ; break

  }

  }

  default {$viewid = $null; "Invalid response, please re-enter"; break}

  }

}

#$viewid

foreach($view in $viewid) {

  $viewdata = (Invoke-SwisVerb $swis 'Orion.Reporting' 'ExecuteSQL' @"

select viewgroup, v.viewid, ViewKey, ViewTitle, case when viewgroup is null then 'NoViewGroup'

else isnull(viewgroupname,cast(viewgroup as nvarchar)) end as viewgroupname, ViewType, ViewGroupPosition

, ViewIcon, Columns, Column1Width, Column2Width, Column3Width, Column4Width, Column5Width, Column6Width

, 'N' as System, Customizable, NOCView, NOCViewRotationInterval, vc.condition

From Views v

left join [ViewConditions]vc on vc.viewid=v.viewid

where v.viewid = $view

"@).childnodes.documentelement.executesqlresults | select-object -first 1

  $UserPath = "$($env:USERPROFILE)\Desktop\ViewExports\$($viewdata.ViewGroupName)\$($viewdata.ViewTitle)\"

  " Exporting view $($viewdata.viewtitle) to $UserPath"

  if((test-path $userpath) -eq $false) {$newfolder = md -path $UserPath}

  $viewdata | Export-Clixml ($UserPath + "ViewData.xml")

  #get a list of all resources on the view we want to migrate over

  $resourceids = get-swisdata $swis @"

  select distinct ResourceID, r.ResourceTitle

  from orion.Resources r

  where viewid = $view

"@

  foreach($resourceid in $resourceids) {

  " Exporting Resource $($Resourceid.Resourcetitle)"

  $Resource = Export-Resource $swis $resourceid.resourceid True $UserPath

  }

}

"Finished"

Stop-Transcript

This works:

http://DOMAIN/Orion/Login.aspx?AccountID=USER&Password=PASSWORD

https://DOMAIN/ui/maps/viewer/MAPS-4b07b80c-fcb0-4059-8725-e15b6276e082/

I am trying to find out a short query that can give me the list of devices which are either muted or unmanaged along with the AccountID. I tried below query as per article Report on Muted and Unmanaged Entities.

But this works only on v2023.1. When I tried the same query on v2020.2.6 on custom query widget, it says query is not valid.

Can anyone please help here?

SELECT

'Unmanaged' as [Status]

,n.Caption AS [Node]

,tostring(tolocal(n.UnManageFrom)) AS [From]

,case when n.UnManageUntil is null or n.UnManageUntil = '9999-01-01 00:00:00' then 'Not set'

else tostring(tolocal(n.UnManageUntil)) end AS [Until]

,case when n.UnManageUntil is null or n.UnManageUntil = '9999-01-01 00:00:00' then '-'

else tostring(daydiff(getutcdate(), n.unmanageuntil)) end as [Days Left]

,n.DetailsURL AS [_LinkFor_Node]

,'/Orion/images/StatusIcons/Small-' + n.StatusLED AS [_IconFor_Node]

,CASE

WHEN ae.accountID IS NULL THEN 'Audit Log Not Found'

ELSE ae.AccountID

END AS [Account]

FROM

Orion.Nodes n

JOIN (

    SELECT rec.NetObjectID, max(rec.timeloggedutc) as recent

    FROM Orion.AuditingEvents rec

    WHERE rec.auditingactiontype.actiontype = 'Orion.NodeUnmanaged'

    group BY rec.NetObjectID) mostrecent ON mostrecent.NetObjectID = n.NodeID

JOIN (

    SELECT ae.NetObjectID, ae.AccountID, ae.timeloggedutc

    FROM Orion.AuditingEvents ae

    WHERE ae.auditingactiontype.actiontype = 'Orion.NodeUnmanaged') ae ON ae.NetObjectID = n.NodeID and ae.timeloggedutc=mostrecent.recent

WHERE n.Status = 9

and (n.caption like '%${SEARCH_STRING}%' or ae.accountid like '%${SEARCH_STRING}%')

union all

(SELECT

'Muted' as [Status]

,n.caption

,tostring(tolocal(SuppressFrom)) as [From]

,case when SuppressUntil is null or SuppressUntil = '9999-01-01 00:00:00' then 'Not set'

else tostring(tolocal(SuppressUntil )) end AS [Until]

,case when SuppressUntil is null or SuppressUntil = '9999-01-01 00:00:00' then '-'

else tostring(daydiff(getutcdate(), asup.SuppressUntil)) end as [Days Left]

,n.DetailsURL AS [_LinkFor_Node]

,'/Orion/images/StatusIcons/Small-' + n.StatusLED AS [_IconFor_Node]

, ae.AccountID AS [Account]

FROM Orion.AlertSuppression asup

join orion.nodes n on asup.entityuri=n.uri

join (

    SELECT ae.NetObjectID, max(ae.timeloggedutc) as recent

    FROM Orion.AuditingEvents ae

    WHERE ae.auditingactiontype.actiontype in ('Orion.AlertSuppressionChanged','Orion.AlertSuppressionAdded')

    group BY ae.netobjectid) mostrecent ON mostrecent.NetObjectID = n.NodeID

join (

    SELECT ae.NetObjectID, ae.AccountID, ae.timeloggedutc

    FROM Orion.AuditingEvents ae

    WHERE ae.auditingactiontype.actiontype in ('Orion.AlertSuppressionChanged','Orion.AlertSuppressionAdded')

    Order BY ae.TimeLoggedUtc desc) ae ON ae.NetObjectID = n.NodeID and ae.timeloggedutc=mostrecent.recent

where (n.caption like '%${SEARCH_STRING}%' or ae.accountid like '%${SEARCH_STRING}%')

)

ORDER BY [node] asc, [status] desc

Please could someone help me in creating a (SQL, SWQL, Custom, OOB...) Report containing All Enabled Alerts along with Node/object Name associated to that alert. In simple words there is OOB report showing "All alerts this objects can trigger" but this can give a report on a Specific object, whilst I need something similar for all nodes/objects...

Thanks!!!

I am trying to build one modern dahsboard KPI dashboard which helps me to get number of down devices region wise. We are using "Region" as custom property to update the device region details.

The requirement is that we want to see number of down devices in recent times not all the down devices (Devices went down in past 5 mins only) . The entire agenda is that we have alerts and incidents in place to trigger for any alert after 5 mins, so we want to capture device down details before we get alert & incident to act proactively and reduce our incident count.

I am able to get one query but when i click on it, it is not redirecting me to the list of down devices and i am getting only the down number from the entire region.   And i couldn't build the query related to timeline as recent down (in 5 mins). Any help on this would be very helpful.

Below is the query that i tried:

SELECT COUNT(1) as TheCount, '/apps/platform/dashboard/26' as Link
FROM Orion.Nodes n
INNER JOIN Orion.NodesCustomProperties cp ON cp.NodeID = n.NodeID
WHERE n.Status = 2 and cp.region = 'emea'

In the above query, Link is not working as i couldnt build it properly to show the EMEA down devices :-( and time period details to be updated in query.

Please help.

Thank you.

Is anyone else tried importing modern dashboards via Orion SDK or have any reference demo video for the same?

Thanks in advance.

I have an IPAM Comments Field that I want to update based on certain IP Address settings. This script allows me to set the name of any IP Address Property and then set a Comments value for all of the IP Addresses that match it.

You'll want to update the first few lines in the script for your Orion deployment. Everything in red below will need to be updated to what you want to change.

*NOTE: Whichever account that you use for the script needs to be an IPAM Administrator.

As an example, i set the Alias property to 'hello world' via the Web Console. Once executing the script it updated the comments field to 'it worked!'

Here is a quick list using the SDK/SWQL Studio of IP Address Properties that can used.

You can download the script here

v v v v v

I am looking for two separate queries which gives me an output of Top 25 Audit events & Top 25 Event Messages of Last 7 days/ 14 days / 30 days respectively.

Can anyone please help?

SWQL is more preferable else, SQL is also fine.

I am finding something which gives me an option to exclude the time duration for pulling availability report of node.

Example: I want an availability report on node (last 30 days) but having an option which excludes maintenance window (1 AM to 3 AM) for all 30 days.

Because current availability report shows inaccurate data even if the alerts were kept on mute during maintenance, it will show down for that specific time frame.

Can anyone help here please?

Thanks. 

It is no doubt that there are a lot of numbers involved when looking at an alert. On the front there are numbers like: Count of nodes associated with an alert, metric values set to particular thresholds, delays in how long a threshold has to be surpassed before an alert triggers, just to name the easy ones. On the back there are other important numbers to consider like: How many times has this alert triggered, how many times has a particular node triggered this alert, what is the polling interval for each of the metrics in question, and so on.

It can be an overwhelming task to find the right settings for all of these. This report gets your foot in the door to know how things are configured. The report shows you what alerts have triggered the most and what nodes are affecting that count the most.

Another important note is I've included both the frequency the alert checks (Alert Evaluation) and if there is a delay on when the alert is triggered, called 'Condition must exist for'. I've walked into other deployments of SolarWinds where the 'Condition must exist for' setting was set to 5 minutes. However, the alert was for interface utilization and the default interface polling interval was set to 9 minutes. So the 5m delay did not account for 2x polling cycles. It merely delayed the alert for 5 minutes. Getting these delays inline with your polling intervals is crucial to effective alerts. Finding this number had always been a manual task of editing every single alert and looking, which, basically means no one ever did it. This report will show what that setting is for easy reference. The format of the setting is not an interval but a string, but its format is easily readable. e.g. 10M = 10 Minutes, 1H20M = 1 Hour 20 Minutes.

Hope the report is helpful and happy monitoring!

This report can be downloaded here:

Understanding which alerts and nodes are the noisiest and general alert config best practice - Reports - The Orion Platform - THWACK (solarwinds.com)

We have an architecture where the Solarwinds Main polling engine is in a secured network and some users only need Read only from less secured Corp network.

Is it possible to put an additional web console outside a secured environment, and then lock it down to be a READ ONLY environment for displaying the status of nodes.  (up/down/unmanaged).  How have others addressed this need?

Regards

Anand

     *Also, I have corrected/updated SWQL queries for the pie charts, which should now properly group results. (previously pie charts would have multiple results with same value(s))*

Please see this post for an example and/or further details:  https://thwack.solarwinds.com/docs/DOC-202667/upload?draftID=351232#comment-325250

**2018.07.13 | Updated Attachment to include a version WITH and WITHOUT the node custom properties for Area & Department, as those CPs were causing some confusion for some users**

     *Also, I have corrected/updated SWQL queries for the pie charts, which should now properly group results. (previously pie charts would have multiple results with same value(s))*

     *Copy/Use lines 1-199 to show only 2 graphs (MachineType & Vendor)*

     *Copy/Use lines 200+ to show all 4 graphs (NodeCustomProperties.Area & Department, as well as MachineType & Vendor)*

Please see this post (below) for further details: https://thwack.solarwinds.com/docs/DOC-202667#comment-304566

Trying something different on this post, so let's make everything easy, and just jump right into it.

If you want to display data like this:

Then keep reading...

Over the past many years, I have wanted to be able to view my data in a few ways, specific to how my brain malfunctions. I have searched long and hard, thinking I would never make it to the promised land. A few days ago, conguir​ mentioned something in regards to having to use HTML/REST API queries to achieve a display they need. (Re: Simple NetPath Summary Widget​​ )

Now, I'm always looking for different ways to pull the soul out of my SolarWinds data, and show it on my screen. My coworker, mblackburn​​, has helped me with various iterations of displaying data in such ways. We have gone from having a separate server running code, pulling it into Orion via iframe, to building out multiple combinations of .net pages using variations of highchart files/versions, dumping data here and there, as well as a few other inefficient methods. Each time we revisit this project, we seem to somehow trim the fat, and figure out a better (for us) way to accomplish the task. This latest revision, the one you are reading about now, is our closet attempt yet. While we still have some things to improve, we are finally able to view our data in such a way, customized to us, being able to easily view the events occurring within our Orion environment.

The best part about this is there is nothing to install, restart, break, bend, boil... Just a simple copy and paste into a default resource, functioning exactly as it was meant to function.

ESTIMATED TIME TO INSTALL/PERFORM MODIFICATION: <5 Minutes

DIFFICULTY LEVEL: 1-Youngling

1. Youngling(Easiest/Most Basic; no coding experience required, no config wizard required, no system restart required, no system downtime.)
2. Padawan (Easy/Basic; no coding experience required, possible config wizard required, possible system/services restart required, limited/no downtime.)
3. Jedi Knight (Moderately Difficult/Advanced; some coding experience required/recommended, config wizard required, possible system/services restart required, limited/short duration downtime.)
4. Jedi Master (Most Difficult/Advanced; advanced coding experience required, config wizard required, system/services restarts required, 30+ minutes downtime/maintenance window recommended, and other things that I do not even know I would need to know, required...)

This mod was performed on the following SolarWinds environment/versions: (It may, or may not work on other versions)

Orion Platform 2017.3.5 SP5, NCM 7.7, DPAIM 11.1.0, NPM 12.2, VMAN 8.2.0, NetPath 1.1.2, QoE 2.4, CloudMonitoring 2.0.0, SAM 6.6.0 1999-2018 SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. All Rights Reserved.

WHAT DO YOU NEED?

1. Access to manage views in your Orion environment
2. The "Custom HTML" resource added to a view
3. A working method to copy text from the attached file
4. A working method to paste text, copied in #3 above, into a custom HTML resource, from #2 above.

Before we begin, (while the following is certainly a good practice, it actually doesn't apply to this customization, for once.)

PLEASE don't edit the system files/database without backing them up first.

If you see a friend or co-worker making changes without backing up first, please alert the authorities.

Friends don't let friends mod without backups.

"If it's not broke, then fix it until it is."

     -The smartest person ever

STEPS:

     -Download/Open the attached file.

     -Login to you Orion environment.

          -Navigate to the "Custom HTML" resource you want to display the calendar.

               -Click edit.

     -Copy the contents of the attached file.

     -Paste the contents of the attached file into the "Custom HTML" resource you have opened to edit.

     -Click to save the resource edit.

     -Enjoy you new calendar view.

**The various SWQL queries, within the attached file, mostly reference default table/column names. There are, however, references to NODE Custom Properties "Area" & "Department". You can either go into the file and change the column, or create the columns in your environment. (you don't have to use them, but they will need to exist)**

The queries, as they are in the attached text, simply pull ALL alerts for the current year. I know the SWQL is not as efficient as it could/should be, however, we built it this way to work for us in a manner that would be flexible enough for us while we tested. Feel free to adjust/correct to your liking.

When the page loads, it starts with only the calendar displayed. (This calendar displays the days vertically, instead of the traditional horizontal layout) The calendar is showing ALL alerts triggered (up, down, left, right, node, meow, int, vader, etc.), broken down and grouped by day. The more total alerts per day, the closer (darker?) the color changes to red.

Once you click on a day, the data will be rolled down into pie charts, grouping each by a different metric. (Area, Department, MachineType, Vendor) This allows us to easily view the global trouble maker(s), showing us who/what did the most damage that day.

Clicking on different days will automatically refresh the pie charts to reflect the data from whichever day you select. (I still need to correct/adjust the grouping part of the SWQL queries for the pie charts, as they should not show multiple entries for the same results. ie. vendor should only show 1 of each vendor, but it currently shows some vendors multiple times.)

Anyway, that is just about it. Copy, paste, adjust the SWQL to meet your needs, and enjoy. There is really nothing else to it.

The following people have helped build this, knowingly or otherwise. mblackburn​, conguir​, mesverrum​, zackm​, nickzourdos​, CourtesyIT​, antonis.athanasiou​, tdanner​, mrxinu​, KMSigma​, jnathlich12​, equalswql​, monovex​, Yossarian​ (Yikes, I'm probably leaving some folks out here... Sorry.)

Here are a few links to some Thwack posts I have read over the years, each filling in another piece of the puzzle for me.

Generating Graphs Dynamically

Custom SQL Dynamic Graphing Resource

How to create a simple custom view of multiple interfaces' bandwidth utilization

Custom Graphing: Fun With Highcharts

Re: Multi-column Custom HTML Page

Orion SDK - Is there a way to generate a interface graph as a JPG/PNG/GIF via the SDK?

Custom Sparkline Charts

Re: How to modify size of interface utilization charts?

Re: 1 Page - All interface Graphs Wanted ... Help me kill MRTG

Re: HTML/Javacript

Re: Javascript in a Custom HTML Resource and the API

Interface aggregate chart (swql)

Using SWis query to get interface utilization

Moving Content from View to View

Creating views using OrionSDK REST API's

Re: Showing Graph from different nodes

Possible to embed SWQL inside of custom HTML

Well, here you go, meech​ aLTeReGo​ cobrien​ serena​

For more ways to customize your SolarWinds environment, make sure to check out this link, by CourtesyIT

How to do various customizations with your Solarwinds

Thank you,

-Will

Meaning instead of seeing each VM individually that shows their CPU and Memory info he just wants to see ALL the CPU count for Datacenter A, B, C and ALL CPU combined for Datacenter A, B, C.

I hope I explained this well, I probably didn't so if anyone has questions please let me know.

Counts display for Each Alert Triggered as well as a second column that display the entities and the # of alerts each entity has triggered.

A Huge Shout out to dhanson​ for the precursor to this report! This is adjusted to work in current 12.X

   - cahunt

	Loop1 Systems: SolarWinds Training and Professional Services LinkedIN: Loop1 Systems Facebook: Loop1 Systems Twitter: @Loop1Systems

Based on Current Muted Alerts (v5) [SAM & NPM] but limited for environments without Server & Application Monitor.

And don't be fooled by a trailing AND that may be present in the trigger details. It seems to be how the scope is Looped In for some alerts.

I am curious as well how well this helps each of my fellow Thwacksters, let me know if you have a minute.

-CharlesH

Loop1 Systems: SolarWinds Training and Professional Services

• LinkedIN: Loop1 Systems
• Facebook: Loop1 Systems
• Twitter: @Loop1Systems

This spreadsheet can be used to create the SQL update queries to bulk update node names in the SolarWinds database.

Note: This query will only work on the newer Orion database structure (NPM 11.5+, SAM 6.2+, NCM 7.4+) as it references the 'NodesData' table. For older versions, change the table to 'Nodes'.

1. Get a list of the node captions and IP addresses that you need to update as two columns. There are a few ways to do this but try one of the below:

- Generate a report in the report writer - select the caption/nodename and IP address fields.

- Run a SQL query on the database (Using either SQL Management Studio or Database Manager on the SolarWinds server).

SELECT Caption, IP_Address FROM [dbo].[Nodes]

- Once you have your list, update the list with your new captions as well as any new IP addresses.

2. If you need to import these nodes into SolarWinds, run a discovery and import all of the nodes using the IP address list (manually add the nodes that don't respond as the discovery will only find your up nodes).

3. Use the attached spreadsheet to generate the SQL queries that you can use to update the database with the desired names (matching on IP address). Paste the captions and IP addresses into columns A and B. Column D contains the SQL queries.

4. Backup your SolarWinds database.

5. Paste the queries back into SQL Management Studio or Database Manager and execute to update the node names. E.g.

UPDATE NodesData SET Caption = 'Fred' WHERE IP_Address = '1.2.3.4' 
UPDATE NodesData SET Caption = 'Testname' WHERE IP_Address = '1.1.1.1'

Hope this helps!

Steve

colour coded html templates for Advanced Alert Manager,

Green for good

yellow for warning

red for bad

The attached Powershell script will unmanage/remanage/suppress/resume alerts for either a single node or for all members of a Solarwinds group, regardless of the kind of objects the group contains (Nodes, Applications, Transaction, etc.). If the group includes sub-groups, the script will recursively handle them. Credentials can be provided on the command line or in a credentials file created with Export-Clixml. The credentials file is useful if you plan to use this script with the Windows Task Scheduler and you don't want to include a username and password on the command line.

Changes

This script has been substantially revised from its previous version. Changes include:

• Script supports suppress/reset (aka mute/unmute) of alerts in addition to unmanage/remanage.
• Script can be run against a single node or against a group

Run from Windows Task Scheduler

To run this script from the Windows task scheduler without including the username and password on the command line follow the steps below:

1. Log in to the Task Scheduler server as the user under whose name the task will run.
2. Start the Powershell IDE and execute the command below to create the encrypted credentials file:
   Get-Credential | Export-Clixml -Path [full path to file]
3. Start the Task Scheduler and create a task to run the script. Open the properties.
4. In the "Actions" tab, make sure that the script is configured to use the -credstore argument with the full path to the credentials file from step 2.
5. In the "General" tab, configure the task to run as the user you logged in as in step 1.
6. Save the task.

Syntax

set_solarwinds_unmanged.ps1 -server servername [(-group groupname) | (-hostname nodename)] [(-username username -password password])|(-credstore credential_store)] [-unmanage | -suppress] [-minutes minutes]

Command line parameters

-server (Required): The name or IP address of the Solarwinds server.

-username (Optional): The name of a Solarwinds user that can unmanage and remanage

     objects. If -username is specified, -password must also be specified. If -username

     and -password are omitted, -credstore MUST be used.

-password (Optional): The password of a Solarwinds user that can unmanage and remanage

     objects. If -password is specified, -username must also be specified. If -username

     and -password are omitted, -credstore MUST be used.

-credstore (Optional): The path to a file containing the encrypted credentials of a

     Solarwinds user that can unmanage and remanage objects. The encrypted file must be

     created by the user on the server that will run the script, using the Powershell

     command:

          Get-Credential | Export-Clixml -Path [full path to file]

     If -username is specified, -password must also be specified. If -credstore

     is omitted, -username and -password MUST be used.

-group (Optional): The name of the Solarwinds group whose members are to be unmanaged,

     remanaged, suppressed or resumed.

-hostname (Optional): The name of the Solarwinds node to be unmanaged,

     remanaged, suppressed or resumed.

-unmanage (Optional): If the -unmanage flag is present, the script will attempt to

     unmanage the node or all group members. If the -minutes flag is present, the script will

     unmanage the group/node for the specified number of minutes. Included for backward compatibility.

-remanage (Optional): If the -remanage flag is present, the script will attempt to

     remanage the node or all group members. Included for backward compatibility.

-suppress (Optional): If the -suppress flag is present, the script will attempt to

     suppress alerts for the node or for all group members.

     If the -minutes flag is present, the script will suppress alerts

     for the specified number of minutes. Included for backward compatibility.

-resume (Optional): If the -resume flag is present, the script will attempt to

     resume alerts for the node or all group members. Included for backward compatibility.

-minutes (Optional, default=60): An integer representing the number of minutes that the group should

     be unmanaged. The unmanged period starts when the script runs. -minutes is ignored if -resume or

     -remanage is specified.

-action (Optional): Replaces -unmanage, -remanage, -suppress, -resume. Must be one of the following:

     unmanage, remanage, suppress, resume. The named -action replaces the flag of the same name.

Examples

Example 1

Supply username and password on the command line, unmanage the group "Prd_Servers" for 1/2 hour

         set_solarwinds_unmanaged.ps1 -server solarwinds.domain.com -group Prd_Servers -action unmanage -minutes 30 -username Me -password S3cr3t

Example 2

Supply username and password in a credential file, unmanage the group "Prd_Servers" for 1 hour (the default)

         set_solarwinds_unmanaged.ps1 -server solarwinds.domain.com -group Prd_Servers -action unmanage -credstore C:\Users\Me\credstore.xml

Example 3

Remanage the group "Prd_Servers"

         set_solarwinds_unmanaged.ps1 -server solarwinds.domain.com -group Prd_Servers -username Me -password S3cr3t -action unmanage

Example 4

Remanage the group "Prd_Servers"

         set_solarwinds_unmanaged.ps1 -server solarwinds.domain.com -group Prd_Servers -username Me -password S3cr3t -action remanage

This script is specifically designed for node based alerts.

In the Trigger Actions I added 'Execute an External Program' action.

This is the full text in the 'Network path to external program' field.

• C:\windows\system32\windowspowershell\v1.0\powershell.exe -ExecutionPolicy unrestricted -command "<C:\path\to\script>\Slack_Alert_Trigger_Action_Node.ps1 '${N=SwisEntity;M=DisplayName}' '${N=SwisEntity;M=Status;F=Status}' '${N=Alerting;M=AlertDetailsUrl}' '${N=SwisEntity;M=DetailsUrl}' '${N=Alerting;M=AcknowledgeUrl}' '${N=Generic;M=DateTime;F=OriginalValue}'"

**You will need to update the <C:\path\to\script> in the above line to the location that you have the script saved.**

I'm passing in the following Orion variables:

• Node Name: ${N=SwisEntity;M=Node.DisplayName}
• Node Status: ${N=SwisEntity;M=Status;F=Status}
• Alert Details Page: ${N=Alerting;M=AlertDetailsUrl}
• Node Details Page:${N=SwisEntity;M=DetailsUrl}
• Auto Acknowledge URL: ${N=Alerting;M=AcknowledgeUrl}
• Orion Date/Time: ${N=Generic;M=DateTime;F=OriginalValue}

Once that alert action is completed then copy it to Reset Actions.

Finish editing the alert and you should be done.

**Change Log**

• 2016-03-02 : Initial Release
• 2016-03-18 : Added Alert Name variable into action. Updated and cleaned up script.
• 2016-03-22 : Removed Alert Name variable from alert action.
• 2016-05-06 : Major overhaul. revamped message to Slack attachments for better formatting. Please also update your 'Network path to external program' in the alert action as some variables have been changed/added.

If you find this useful feel free to rate this article.

Report that shows the Current Muted Alerts and the current audit logs (showing who did the muting).

v1 - original build

v2 - added user who did the muting and Tooltip support

v3 - added local Orion server time in addition to UTC time

v4 - Fixed a 'possible' syntax error with a Join to the Audit Table

v5 - Fixed an issue with duplications occurring when a device is flipped from Muted to Unmuted and back

Tested against Core 2017.1 with NPM 12.1 and SAM 6.4

Created "filtered" reports for Current Muted Alerts for Network Devices (v5) [NPM Only] and Current Muted Alerts for Servers (v5) [SAM Only]

I can only test on a very small segment of my environment, and would appreciate any feedback.

Summary: This will allow you to add live weather to the worldwide map based on the OpenWeatherMap project (free).

Limitations: The map must be on a page where your can insert HTML/JavaScript. This will probably break during future releases.

Notes: If you want to change the height of your map you must do it within the HTML resource.

Preview:

Step 1: Get the id of your map element, to do this go to a page where you've inserted the map (don't go to the map page itself). Once there view the source of the page (Ctrl + U in most browsers) and search for the map element (Ctrl + F), search for 'id="worldmap' (without the single quotes but with the double quote). Make note of your map ID, in this case 753.

Step 2: Add a HTML resource to the page with the map on it that you would like to modify. To do this go to "Customize Page" >>> "Add Resource To Column X" >>> "Custom HTML".

Step 3: Paste the contents of the attached file into the Custom HTML resource you just added to the page. Make sure you update the file with your map ID you found in step 1 and change others settings you would like to.

NCM can access the device, with no enable credentials required.

However, FTD echos the commands, inserting character 7 into the string which causes the download to fail (and also to hang).

This script works around that issue and downloads the two configurations.

It has been successfully tested in a working environment.