Hi, I would like to know which should be the best practice to auomate the assignements of templates to new nodes added to Orion. I can do an example, suppose you've added some windows servers with DHCP server role enabled: * should I have to create a NEW component that monitor the DHCP server service ? * I've the built-in template "Windows DHCP Server" with 22 components (I've disabled 18 of them as I don't care of them), how can I set up to automatically assign this template to the NEW node (it's a DHCP server!) I add into Orion ? Basically I'd like to know how to setup the environemnt to dinamically do things for me. I've SAM 6.4, NPM 12,1, Orion Platform 2017.1 Thank you very much.

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Best practice to autoassign templates to new nodes

Hi, I would like to know which should be the best practice to auomate the assignements of templates to new nodes added to Orion.

I can do an example, suppose you've added some windows servers with DHCP server role enabled:

should I have to create a NEW component that monitor the DHCP server service ?
I've the built-in template "Windows DHCP Server" with 22 components (I've disabled 18 of them as I don't care of them), how can I set up to automatically assign this template to the NEW node (it's a DHCP server!) I add into Orion ?

Basically I'd like to know how to setup the environemnt to dinamically do things for me.

I've SAM 6.4, NPM 12,1, Orion Platform 2017.1

Thank you very much.

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mprobus

In general, you would need to do the following.

- Build a dynamic group to key on your DHCP servers.

- Assign the group to the template

By doing this, everytime you add in a new node, it will automatically be assigned to the group, therefore automatically applying the template.

I am unaware of how to key on just the fact that it is a DHCP server for the dynamic group. You can however, if your naming convention allows, key on part of the name. For example, if your server name has DHCP in the name, then you can build a group to look for the string. I'm sure there are other ways to come up with the same solution, but that is the easiest off the top of my head.

dalrmi

Hi mprobus, thank you for your reply, I try to start from the beginning...

Do I have to create a component monitor for Windows DHCP Server service to begin working in Orion on templates, dynamic query, ecc. ?

I already have all the windows DHCP servers as nodes in Orion DB.

Could you tell me how to start with this stuff ?

mprobus

You can use the already existing DHCP template unless you want to build your own from scratch. I usually prefer to use what is already there.

To build the group

- Settings - All Settings

- Manage Groups

- Add New Group

- Name Whatever

- Add Dynamic Query

If you go with the naming convention method

- Change the drop down to Node

- Add Condition -> Caption Contains XXX

You can verify it pulls in everything by clicking Preview

- Save -> Create Group

Go to your template

- Checkbox -> Assign to Group and follow prompts

Within a few minutes, the template will assign to all servers in the group. And in the future, as you add in new servers that meet the criteria, the template will automatically apply.

dalrmi

Thank you, I managed this way: I used the template "Windows DHCP Server" and applied it to (in my case) 15 nodes (I used a discovery process for windows server related to this template).

I also applied this template to my new group that is based on a dynamic query as follows:

Dynamic query: Orion Object is Application

Application Template is Windows DHCP Server

All it's working well but my doubt is: when I'll add a new node that is also a DHCP Server it will be added automatically to the template "Windows DHCP Server" ?

mprobus

With this setup, you are in a Catch22. You have to appy the template for it to be in the dynamic group but it won't appy the template until it's already in the group.

You'll have to come up with another criteria to key on for your DHCP servers.

dalrmi

Uh! What is the "Catch22" ?

Should be possible to create a group based on a dynamic query that retrieves the windows server with DHCP Server service installed ?

This way I could pair this group with the template following this article: SAM 6.2.4 feature: Auto-assign application templates based on group membership - SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC. Help and Sup…

mprobus

Sorry, Catch22 is an old school term basically meaning you are stuck because because both sides have to wait on the other to be completed.

As far as I know of, there is no way to key on the service being installed without doing an inventory of all services on all machines. I'll let others weigh in and see if they have suggestions on how to build the dynamic query.

dalrmi

maybe...the following Dynamic query returns me my 15 windows server that has DHCP server role running (so basically it has the Windows DHCP Server service):

Dynamic query: Orion Object is Component

Component Type is Windows Service Monitor

Application is Windows DHCP Server

so, can I assign this group to the Template "Windows DHCP Server" ?

And in the future when I add a new node it will be discovered automatically at the next refresh of the group's membership ?

mprobus

This is only showing you the current 15 servers because you already applied the template. Anything with Component or Application comes from a SAM template. So, a newly added server wouldn't have this information.

dalrmi

Uh, , so I ended up with my ideas, then the only way is to assign statically the nodes to the template ?

What do you think about the article ? Should be the solution ?

dalrmi

My aim is to setup various templates with the components needed and automate the process to assign them to the nodes (already existing BUT also the NEW added nodes), I'm struggling searching for this...

Then we use Network Atlas with a map with various objects associated to the groups in Orion on which are based our templates

dalrmi

In example suppose to have the following templates:

windows DHCP server
windows File Resource Manager
windows base services
ecc.

When I add a NEW node in Orion I'd like to have those templates associated correctly based on what services that new node is running

mprobus

Groups aside, your only option that I know of is to do Application Scans as you add in the nodes. You can have it scan each node to see if the specific template is applicable.

dalrmi

Thank you very much, I'll open a support case for this, I'm curious to know the solarwinds reply about this.

mesverrum

I've built schemes to automatically sort and assign templates before, there are many ways to approach it.

For one, you just have a custom property that you set to tell Solarwinds manually that "this server has dhcp"

I call mine "Applications"

Then create a group with a dynamic query that just checks for nodes where "applications" contains dhcp

Assign the dhcp template to the DHCP group. Done, all you have to do is remember to label the DHCP servers, this is relatively easy to manage for small to mid sized organizations.

If you want to get really fancy in a bigger organization you might want to automate a method of figuring out if the server has dhcp or not. I would most likely do this with a custom powershell script based monitor.

I would create a group with a dynamic query to pull in all my windows servers where the Application property is blank (i assume that all windows servers should eventually be tagged with SOME application) and I can call this "Unidentified Servers"

That group could have a template applied to it that uses powershell or maybe a service monitor to check if the windows dhcp feature is enabled/running, call the template DHCP Test

Then I'd set up an alert for an application that has a trigger like node vendor = windows, node custom property applications is blank, and DHCP test application is up

For the action I used the Set custom property for the node and set Application to DHCP

Now the server will get removed from the Unidentified servers group and added to the DHCP group and the SAM templates will also sort themselves out.

Obviously if you have multiple application templates you want to apply to servers, like checking for DNS and DHCP and whatever else, assuming that DNS and DHCP don't always run on the same servers then this whole process gets a lot more complex so this model works best if things are relatively simple in your environment. Once we get that far out I would probably just skip the GUI completely and end up doing all of this with the SDK and scheduled powershell scripts where I could build out as many logical tests as I needed and have it concat the different results to the Applications custom property as a list. Could even skip the whole groups thing and just have the script directly assigning appropriate templates as it runs through the tests.

-Marc Netterfield

Loop1 Systems: SolarWinds Training and Professional Services

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orioncrack

You just summarized the source of 99% of my posts about SolarWinds' lack of automation.

This is why SOCM is so much easier to manage.

If someone adds 100 SQL servers, 200 IIS servers, and 501 Exchange Servers I don't have to lift a finger and I have totally automated monitoring and ongoing automated discovery of Disks, IIS sites, Databases, certificates.

SAM is light-years from having this kind of automation, and its biggest drawback. The fact that it doesn't know about new disks in an automated way is a great example of my trauma supporting it.

But most IT people have zero idea of the concept you are asking for. Hence, why I get so much hate mail for voicing the truth.