I have Applications inside a node that should by default be off, Is there a way to get rid of the error/red square from its parent node? SolarWinds

In a report, you can just key the status off of the node status instead of the calculated status, but I don't think's going to give you exactly what you are looking to accomplish.

Because status roll-ups can be in multiple places, can you share a screenshot so we know exactly what you are asking about?

Sorry for the late reply,  you caught me after my shift and didn't have access to solar winds.

Ill send ,multiple screenshots and hopefully these help.

The first one is just the list of nodes which have the same "problem" of showing the red square symbol.

The next is looking into one of these nodes. You see ssh is off as it should be

So to summarize although the ssh is off in a specific node. since it is normal for that node to be off can the all nodes screen treat ssh being off as normal and thus not send the red square alert to the All nodes overview screen

My first question... why not just unmanage, or un-assign the application 'ssh' if it's down?

Without knowing its purpose I have to ask.  You say 'ssh is off'.... are you using an application assignment as a way to validate a nodes ssh service is not responding as it should? This COULD be easily flipped to another type of component perhaps a powershell where, not connecting returns an UP status. I'll hold further comments on this lol.

Looking at status....

What is your node status calculation set to currently? You can find this setting in Settings -> All Settings -> Polling Settings, then under "Node Status Calculation" (it can be either Classic or Enhanced)

If you're on Classic currently and set it to Enhanced, bare in mind that it certainly comes with some trade-off and could very well trigger alerts if so but there are benefits to having it Enhanced.

With it set to Enhanced, you can go to Settings -> All Settings -> Node Child Status Participation, and select which child entities contribute to the nodes overall status. These however are global settings.

This may be of use to you if you consider adjusting your status calculation - documentation.solarwinds.com/.../core-calculate-node-status.htm

I think the idea here is that it's "supposed" to be off and they need to be alerted when it's ok (because that's bad).  Sort of like a simplified compliance check.  But maybe I'm misunderstanding the request.

So if the service is not set to be started automatically, the rule should be set to only alert for items that are set to autostart.  Thus other states are ignored.

Yeah sounds like it, I'd wrap that into a custom powershell to be honest, the out-of-the-box tcp port test instinctively would report down if cannot connect.

Assuming that what we think is true... there's 2 options

1) Enable enhanced node status calculation and disable the 'Application' from contributing status
2) Flip the functionality and convert the tcp port check to a custom powershell component monitor

Yeah I want it (ssh) to by default be down, but if  it comes up for some reason be notified as that's unexpected and abnormal

Understood - do you have NCM (Network Configuration Manager) - this seems more like a compliance report like KMSigma.SWI noted.

I think technically, this falls into a Server Configuration Monitor (SCM) thing.  But I digress.

Were this me, I'd be doing it with PowerShell, but I do pretty much everything with PowerShell, so that's no great surprise.

Yup silly me didn't event notice the host said esxi! ha.