SWQL Study Group for the complete novice - thoughts?

Hey Stuard.

I have done some work and with SWIS/SWQL/Solarwinds API.  Some of the basic queries are pretty easy.  I really struggled  when I got to more advanced queries with joins and finding the right tables to query data.  The SWIS syntax is of course similar to SQL but it's a bit tricky IMO.  We have a pretty big Solarwinds environment so our sales manager at the time connected me up with a guy named Tim who works in some product development group with Solarwinds.  I am pretty sure he still works there and has amazing knowledge of SWiS.   Every use case I or one of my customers came up with he helped me build the queries.  I have a few queries like querying WPM status, poller status, and maintenance status that I use as key point indicators.  I am using a scheduled workflow now and sending the results in as metrics to Wavefront.  One of my counterparts in the NOC got Tim to help him build some metric queries for Cisco ASA.  If you want to shoot me an email in Thwack as a reminder, I wouldn't mind setting up some type of technical blog that documents some of the knowledge Tim gave me.  I need to remove any references we may have to internal server names, etc.  Personally we don't use the SWQL tool very much but mostly use Powershell ISE.  We are getting ready to help one of our data lake customers setup SWQL queries using the Python SWIS module.

routermonkey now that sounds like a better plan than mine. Any suggestions as to what we could use?

p.s. apologies for slow response, but THWACK decided not to notify me of the replies

wlouisharris2000 - firstly, apologies for a slow response. As with routermonkey, THWACK decided to have an off-day on its notifications.

Anyway, consider this a notification that I will drop you an eMail in a moment :)

The real basic stuff I am OK with now, but as you say, it is when management turn up and ask for X&Y and knowing how to do 'involved/complaicted' JOINS, or advanced filtering or even where to start looking for the data in the DB. I would also take any info on your usage of Powershell or Python with SolarWinds, as those, AIUI, are the two big scripting tools used to automate 'stuff'.

BTW - I can't send you an email/message as either THWACK isn't allowing it or your settings have it restricted.

To send Direct/Private Messages via THWACK, you need to be friends first.

Thanks Kevin - I have requested a friendship as well but in case he doesn't see it (setting disabled or something) also opted to reply here :)

Sounds interesting. I do most everything in swql (reports and alerts) now, but nothing complex like some of the reports i see here. API programming with powershell and python - total noob. Trying to crack those nuts and look at them as modularized scripts. API auth, then Call #1 etc. The idea is reusable bits that those of us with limited skills can rinse/repeat. So count me in as interested.

Thank you marcrobinson - I like the reply from routermonkey and hoping he or someone else can suggest a means to tale that up.

A forum or similar, where we could create a private channel/room - Teams maybe, but I don't know how that would work across company boundaries, etc...  

Maybe we do something here on THWACK?  A group where you join up, but it has a moderator or two to keep the conversation moving.  The more I think on this, the more I like it, but I'd need help in deciding what goes in said theoretical space.

What say you all?  If there was a group in THWACK where people could come together, what would it need?

(This is not a commitment to build this thing, but gathering requirements is important to build something people find useful)

KMSigma.SWI said:

what would it need?

Now there's a question I don't know how best to answer, but here's my starters for 10.

I guess it needs several sections/areas from

• where to start, so an FAQ or groups of FAQs and pointers to current/live/accurate posts.
• I don't understand this concept. (e.g. my struggle to understand CASE)
• can I, or how can I do X.
• A code repository maybe of some sort might also be useful - or maybe just another sub section of "this works for me" and/or here's how I did it posts.

I liked routermonkey suggestion as it implied a 'live capability' to try code on the fly as folks in different time zones popped in and added their 2p worth. Think of it akin to comments on a blog post that happen on the fly, with folks reacting as necessary. Not a criticism here, but the THWACK shell seems too static for that sort of thing? But what do I know?

Do you envisage the mods to be folks already well versed in SWQL / Powershell / Python or just anyone willing to keep it alive? And how easy would it be for a mod to be replaced /added to down the line?