You asked for feature requests. Well I would like to see Observability provided with a new object category called "PingNode".
PingNode would be a Ping(icmp) only node. It would provide up/down status information only. PingNode would not have SNMP or WMI capability. On Orion Maps it would show it's up/down status and PingNode status should be capable of triggering alerts.
Currently ICMP only nodes are categorised as "Nodes" and consume a valuable "Node" license. My request is that "PingNodes" be excluded from the "Node" license count.
The reason for my request is that outsourceing relationships and new cloud technology mean that we have several (In my case 19) CPEs (Customer Premises Equipment). CPEs are owned and installed by the service/network provider and act as site Internet, WAN or Service Gateway.
Also we have encoders and Since CPEs are owned by another organisation we cannot manage them in any way, but we do need to be sure of their UP/DOWN status.
Creation of this new category would allow SolarWinds clients to allocate valuable license consuming "Nodes" to devices that can best utilize the full capability that Orion "Nodes" are able to deploy.
PS: I have come up with a "work-around". But I think my request for "PingNode" is still valid.... My workaround is to create the object as a NetPath Probe. The NetPath Probe object can be inserted onto an Orion MAP and displays status correctly. It can be used to trigger alerts. It also does not increament the licensed "Nodes" count. So this satisfies my needs but it is using more NPM resources than neccessary.
Warren Meech
Radio New Zealand
