The Day of Instant Evaluations has Arrived!

Don't you wish there was an easy button for everything? Well, I might not have a fix for everything, but I have some good news regarding the new SolarWinds^® Platform installer (formerly known as the Orion^® Platform).

Starting with version 2022.3 and newer, we've made some major efficiencies with how the SolarWinds Platform is installed. You might have noticed this if you've attempted to evaluate a new product and downloaded the latest installer, only to be prompted with 'SolarWinds Platform is up to date.'

Well, how am I supposed to install an evaluation if the installer tells me I'm already up to date? The answer is simple: the new installer installs everything under the hood, regardless of what products you own. The platform then unlocks the functionality based on your applied license keys.

This is a big deal since running an evaluation in the past meant having downtime to install the new module. Now, navigate to the License Manager page on your SolarWinds deployment.

You'll see a new section on the right with several modules, each with a 'Try for free' option.

Click 'Try for free' and enter some registration information.

The functionality of that module is now available to use instantly. Just refresh the page and hover over 'My Dashboards' to see it. That's pretty easy right?!?! We think so.

How we changed everything would warrant another blog post entirely, but the gist of it is an optimization of our code base. If you've ever looked on your main SolarWinds server and gone to add/remove programs, the SolarWinds list was a mile long. There would be an entry for each module plus a handful of auxiliary SolarWinds programs. Now, there is a single entry for all the modules, simply called 'SolarWinds Platform.' Some of the auxiliary programs are still there, but you no longer have to schedule a maintenance window to add a new module.

So, in the future, if you find yourself running an installer and see 'SolarWinds Platform is up to date,' then remember the easy button and head over to the License Manager for some instant evaluations!