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Is it still possible to use the Windows based Custom Property Editor?

Is there any way that it is possible to use the pre-10.4 Windows based Custom Property Editor?

If not, does anyone have any suggestions on getting that kind of functionality?

I have tried for about a week not to work with the new web based Custom Property Editor and simply it is difficult to work with and does not give me the kinds of results that I want.

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bleearg13

I agree. I cannot update to the latest NPM because of the loss of the Win32 application. The web GUI is *not* a good replacement for the Win32 application.

zzz

http://thwack.solarwinds.com/ideas/1485

One of the main reasons we have not updated to 10.4 yet.

mharvey

Within 10.4, the only option outside of using the web-based option and it's ability to export and import would be using direct SQL queries to make your changes. There aren't a lot of folks comfortable with doing this, but it can make things just as simple. You can use update statements such as:

Update nodes

Set PropertyValue = 'A'

Where Vendor = 'Cisco'

replacing PropertyValue with the name of your custom property and A with the value you want to add. This is just an example, and if you are comfortable enough with querying the database through the Orion Database Manager or SQL Management Studio, it gives you another option to allow you to do bulk changes of custom property values.

However, doing some testing I found that if you have a pre 10.4 install, that you can copy the CustomPopertyEditor.exe and CustomPropertyEditor.exe.config into a 10.4 server and it works. It will open and it will allow you to see and manage the custom properties for the installation. This is not something that would be supported, and more than likely any repair, or upgrade made to the system afterwards may remove these files, but it will work.

Regards,

Matthew Harvey

Loop1 systems

http://www.loop1systems.com

mdriskell

Thanks for the tip I'm upgrading tomorrow. So is importing no longer an option then in 10.4 without this workaround? Bulk editing in SQL is ok if you are doing as you suggested "Where Vendor ='Cisco' " but what if I want to add in a contract number and end date for two hundred nodes as these are all unique edits. I'm asking this particular use case because I'll be doing this next week.

mharvey

Importing is still an option, it's just done through Manage Custom Properties on the website after you choose the property you want to export.

mdriskell

Good to know..thx

zzz

If you are comfortable editing the database with SQL, have access to make/import tables to your SQL server, AND know your SQL, you can make much more complicated SQL statements to do mass updates: UPDATE nodetable SET nodetable.contact = a.contact FROM (SW's nodetable and a- your table of new contacts paired with their nodeid) WHERE nodetable.nodeid = a.nodeid. So you don't have to go into each and every node details page and change stuff individually there. (Actually, can report writer do this? I know it can create and drop temp tables at least.)

This is though, as mentioned before, not something all SW admins are familiar with, willing, or have permissions to do.

I'd definately just copy over the old Custom Property Editor and just use that for now unless you know you are going to be doing a lot of these changes down the road.

bleearg13

So I updated to 10.4 and now I really wish I hadn't.

Updating custom properties directly to SQL is not an answer, in my opinion. Trying to modify multiple devices now takes minutes instead of seconds. Previously, I was able to simply paste a value into several hundred rows - which was so easy. Now, I have to export, wait for my browser to download the file and scan the stupid thing, open it up in Excel, find and replace the value I wanted to change (if it's a date, what's the proper format?), then import it back into the Web UI after wasting another 30 seconds browsing through my computer to find the file.

I'd like an SW employee to please elaborate on why this is so much easier than having the very simple Win32 app. Please tell me how to continue modifying custom properties in seconds as opposed to minutes through a simple, but incredibly time consuming process. I am not a programmer, nor am I database admin, so telling me to use direct SQL calls or craft a perl script is not a solution to a problem created by SW.

Marlbs

Anyone have an answer to this?

mharvey

Marlbs,

In one of my replies to you I posted this:

So yes, it is possible if you have the two files listed above from an older install.

Regards,

Matthew Harvey

Loop1 Systems

Marlbs

Sorry... I miss that... as you pointed out... I am also missing the files which does not help either.

Thanks!

mharvey

If you still have the install files for the previous version, you could install them on another system and get those files.

mdriskell

You can always download a previous version from the customer portal...do the install and grab the files.

sachsj

I think adding it to the web is fine as long as I could match based on Custom Properties that I have added like I used to. Right now we can only match based on what NPM has discovered. That would be the only change for me. Until then, I cannot effectively use the import function. I am having to do a vlookup in Excel to arrange the data first then import. It takes more time than it used to.

sdaniels

I am also not happy about this one which is how I found this thread.

if I had known prior to upgrading I would have a) held off, b) made sure I grabbed the old files to use after.

It's good that the developers add more functionality to the web GUI but I don't understand removing the older tool if is has more features.

I Would make extensive use if the query builder to find the nodes/interfaces I want to apply custom properties to, I could then apply en mass in seconds.

i Just can't do this with the web tool so I am stuck

I think ink solarwinds should respond to this thread and explain the reasons for this.

bleearg13

I must say, sdaniels, that the 10.4.1 update helps resolve some of my issues, as I posted a couple of days ago. The "table view" is back, along with rudimentary copy-and-paste. It's still a bit clunky to use, but it seems to be coming along. I still miss the Win32 app, but the 10.4.1 update is definitely a step in the right direction. I hope more changes come with 10.4.2 and later.