How to: Backup your Custom Properties

Have you ever deleted a set of nodes then found out later you need to re-add them? Re-adding them was a big chore because you had to manually fill in all of your custom properties again?

Ever had to rebuild your system for some unforeseen reason? Or you just need a list of all the nodes you are monitoring?

Ever want to export all of your custom properties with a single click and not have to mess around choosing all of them in the GUI?

It is a good practice to back up your node inventory and custom properties in case you run into any of the above.

Use the SWQL query below along with the link below. Replace Custompropertyname1 , 2, 3, etc with your custom property names making sure there is no comma after the last one

Select IP_Address, Caption, Custompropertyname1, Custompropertyname2, Custompropertyname3, Custompropertyname4, Custompropertyname5
FROM Orion.NodesCustomProperties cp
INNER JOIN Orion.nodes nd on cp.NodeID = nd.NodeID
Order BY Caption

(+) How to Create a report from a SWQL Query - Forum - Network Performance Monitor (NPM) - THWACK (solarwinds.com)

When you are done creating your report select an action to save the report to a file and schedule that report to run at least daily. I save mine off to a network drive so the data is not kept on the Orion server but that is up to your own preference. You can also have the report emailed to you daily as an .CSV attachment.

Should you ever need to restore your custom properties you can re-add the nodes then do an import from the .csv file. This also comes in handy when you want to bulk edit your custom properties. Simply run the report, export it to Excel make your changes and then import them back in.

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

bobmarley

For those that would prefer to do this with powershell here is the code. Read the remarks and fill in the info where stated.

cd c:\powershellscripts #Adjust the path C:\PowershellScripts\ExportCustomProperties\ to fit where you run your scripts from
Write-host "Loading Solarwinds SWIS Plugin for Powershell"
Import-Module -Name SwisPowerShell
Add-PSSnapin SwisSnapin 

$swis = Connect-Swis -host YOURORIONSERVERNAMEHERE -Trusted # Put the proper Orion servername in this line

#Adjust the path C:\PowershellScripts\ExportCustomProperties\ to fit where you run your scripts from

#removes old files - if you get an error when you run this it is because you still have the spreadsheet open. Close it and run it again

$filename = "C:\PowershellScripts\ExportCustomProperties\CustomProperties.csv" #Adjust the path C:\PowershellScripts\ExportCustomProperties\ to fit where you run your scripts from
if (test-path $filename) {
Remove-Item $filename
write-host "file $filename removed"
}
else{
write-host "file $filename does not exist"
}



$query = "

    Select IP_address, Caption, NodeID, CustomProp1, CustomProp2, CustomProp3, CustomProp4 #Rename these to match your custom properties. You can keep adding more, don't forget the last one doesn't have a comma
    FROM Orion.NodesCustomProperties cp
    INNER JOIN Orion.nodes nd on cp.NodeID = nd.NodeID
    Order BY Caption
"

$rows = Get-SwisData -SwisConnection $swis -Query $query

$rows | Export-CSV -Path "C:\PowershellScripts\ExportCustomProperties\CustomProperties.csv" -NoTypeInformation #Adjust the path C:\PowershellScripts\ExportCustomProperties\ to fit where you run your scripts from

stuartd

Thanks for the PowerShell as this is not something I can't do ... I'm hoping that's a "not do yet" kind of thing but trying to find time to even get the basics is not happening right now.

A part of my role is AIS (acceptance into service) and I have a report that does something very similar but it narrows it down to the client being AIS'd. It's a fab visual tool to be able to see at a glance what hasn't been filled in yet and of course, as you say, can also be used to import newly added data.