For Powershell monitor, where is "Multiple Statistics Data" historical data in SWQL?

Hi All.

Let me chime in on this thread.

My shop makes regular use of script monitors.  We pull string and numeric data back into Solarwinds using the Message: and Statistic:  constructs.  This data gets (got) stored in the Orion.APM.DynamicEvidence table in the StringData field.

We've created consoles for our user community which display the data collected.  Message (string) data retrieved with SWQL queries to APM.DynamicEvidence.

Last week we upgraded Solarwinds from 2022.x to 2023.3 - and our data widgets stopped working for Message data.

My best guess at this point about what happened...

Note this section from the 2023.2 Release Notes:

--------------------------------------------------------------

Improved performance of APM DynamicEvidence

As part of performance improvements, the APM_DynamicEvidence_DetailData table has been removed. The new APM_DynamicEvidence_Current table contains the last value for both numeric and string values including the row and schema id. As a result of this change, scripts referencing the APM_DynamicEvidence_DetailData table will no longer work.

--------------------------------------------------------------

Notice the release notes reference changes to the APM_DynamicEvidence_DetailData table.  However... the APM_DynamicEvidence table also has a line through it in SWQL Studio with a note about table has been depreciated.  I did not find any Message string data in the APM_DynamicEvidence_Current table.

Most likely there was some kind of disconnect in the halls of Solarwinds development where some functionality of the APM_DynamicEvidence table was removed (by mistake?) but not incorporated into other tables.

I have a ticket in with Solarwinds Support to verify the bug, or at least find out where SW now stores Message data from script monitors.  I will update this thread when I hear something.  Cheers.

 robert777  - I'm running 2023.4 (currently in RC) and this is what the API is providing me via SWQL Studio:

Orion.APM.DynamicEvidenceDetailData

Orion.APM.DynamicEvidence

From the casual observer (me), it looks like you should stop using Orion.APM.DynamicEvidenceDetailData and instead be using Orion.APM.DynamicEvidenceCurrent and move from Orion.APM.DynamicEvidence  to Orion.APM.DynamicEvidenceChart.

Note: The above are all from the API (SWQL) and not the database.  You should be using the API as much as possible to insulate you from any underlying database changes.

The support agent now has asked for a complete diagnostic upload.  In my environment we have to 'sanitize' anything sent to a vendor which basically means change all of the host names and IP addresses.

I need to ask around my shop to see if we have a script or something to sanitize log/diagnostic output, or if I need to write something myself.

I'll keep everyone posted as to results. 

Hello Robert!

I hate to ask 'Captain Obvious" questions, but I find if they aren't asked, the answers tend to hide there the longest.

So my question is, are your PowerShell monitors actually returning String\Message values when you test them in the Solarwinds Application Monitor? I only ask because it was mentioned that there doesn't seem to be any StringData populating into your database tables.

We recently had the same issue where updating our Solarwinds platform from 2022.X to 2023.X caused a few monitors to break and we had to craft some new PowerShell scripts that return both a Message and a Statistic value. What we found was that there was two tables where the results were being stored; the Orion.APM.DynamicEvidenceCurrent and Orion.APM.MultipleStatisticData. The Orion.APM.MultipleStatisticData tables stores both values in the same row, however, it does not have a TimeStamp column. The Orion.APM.DynamicEvidenceCurrent does have a TimeStamp column, but it stores the Message and Statistic values on separate rows. One row would have either a NumericData value and 'NULL' for StringData; or it would have a StringData value, and a 'NULL' NumericData value.

I might be wrong, but if I understand the article KMSigma.SWI wrote on decreasing JOINs through Navigation Properties correctly, it would seam that you should be able to use the "MultipleStatisticData" Navigation Property on the "Orion.APM.DynamicEvidenceChart" table to join the TimeStamp value there with the Orion.APM.MultipleStatisticData table's StringData and NumericData values. You would need to know the ComponentID for the set of values that you are trying to join together.

Greetings.

Thanks for your reply.  I appreciate all of the input from the community.

Regarding your question, the issue for which we opened a ticket with solarwinds support involves shell script monitors (bash) on Linux servers, not powershell monitors (note that I have another thread open for a powershell script monitor that relates to powershell versions and certificate chain of trust between management server and monitored endpoint).

Regarding the issue at hand, yes it seems that in 2023.x 'Message' (string) data from script monitors has been moved from APM.DynamicEvidence to APM.DynamicEvidenceCurrent.  Caveat: DynamicEvidenceCurrent only stores the latest data.  If your use case requires historical Message data I'm not sure if that gets stored anywhere.  As of the latest release Statistic (numeric) data still gets stored in DynamicEvidence (current and historical) and also DynamicEvidenceCurrent (latest only).

Concur that in DynamicEvidence and DynamicEvidenceCurrent, string and numeric data are stored on different lines.  So, to get string data we use (pseudocode, not strict SQL/SWQL)...

SELECT d.StringData

note: in the example 'c' is aliased to APM.Component 

To return numeric data something a little different:

SELECT d.NumericData

Note that DynamicEvidenceCurrent stores only the latest data.  I'm not sure what the long-term plan is for storing historical data from script monitors.

Any community member feel free to question, comment or correct as needed.  Cheers.

I am seeing the same behavior, only the current (last) poll for Message information is available now in a different table. We were using the SAM Log Parser extensively and then running reports for the historical information, which is no longer available. 

Hi all,

Everyones comments seem to line up with what I've seen. I started using Solarwinds with 2023.X so never seen working history data here...

Here is a working query I use (sorry for the formatting I don't see how to format code in this forum wish they used markdown). Note the join of Orion.APM.DynamicEvidenceCurrent to itself to combine NumericData and StringData. This is only for current data. 

SELECT
dec1.ComponentID,
dec1.server,
n.NodeName as client,
c.Application.Name as app,
si.ShortDescription as node_status,
c.Application.StatusDescription as app_status,
c.StatusDescription as cmpnt_status,
c.Application.CurrentStatus.LastSuccessfulPoll as LSP,
secondDiff(c.Application.CurrentStatus.LastSuccessfulPoll, GETUTCDATE()) as LSP_s,
secondDiff(c.Application.LastModified, GETUTCDATE()) as LM_s,
alert.LastTimeUp as LastTimeUp,
alert.IsActiveAlert,
dec1.Label,
dec1.NumericData,
dec2.StringData
FROM (
select
dec.OrionSite.Host as server,
decs.Label,
dec.ComponentID,
dec.ColumnSchemaID,
dec.TimeStamp,
dec.NumericData
from Orion.APM.DynamicEvidenceCurrent dec
join orion.apm.DynamicEvidenceColumnSchema decs on dec.ColumnSchemaID = decs.ColumnSchemaID
where dec.NumericData is not null
order by columnschemaid
) dec1
join (
select
dec.OrionSite.Host as server,
decs.Label,
dec.ComponentID,
dec.ColumnSchemaID,
dec.TimeStamp,
dec.StringData
from Orion.APM.DynamicEvidenceCurrent dec
join orion.apm.DynamicEvidenceColumnSchema decs on dec.ColumnSchemaID = decs.ColumnSchemaID
where dec.stringdata is not null
order by columnschemaid
) dec2
on dec1.ComponentID = dec2.ComponentID and dec1.ColumnSchemaID = dec2.ColumnSchemaID+1
JOIN orion.apm.Component c on c.ComponentID = dec1.ComponentID
JOIN Orion.Nodes n on n.NodeID = c.Application.NodeID
JOIN Orion.StatusInfo si on n.Status = si.StatusId
left join (
SELECT
a.Node.DNS,
ca.ApplicationID,
a.Name as AppName,
ca.Componentid as Componentid,
ca.ComponentName as CompName,
ca.StatusOrErrorDescription,
ca.Component.Status as status,
case when ca.Component.Status = 1 then false else true end as IsActiveAlert,
ca.LastTimeUp
FROM Orion.APM.ComponentAlert ca
join orion.apm.Application a on a.ApplicationID = ca.ApplicationID
where ca.componentname like 'msi_%'
) alert
on alert.Componentid = dec1.ComponentID
where 1=1

EDIT: thanks to KMSigma.SWI for the code formatting...not sure that option was available when I originally submitted this as I looked for it...for those looking for it check out the insert menu. Also, I removed the last line of my query (the where part) as that was specific to my situation.

We are currently on solarwinds version 4.2. Even though the statistical data of the Powershell component gives a successful output, it shows N/A and does not return the data. The Orion.APM.DynamicEvidenceCurrent table is empty. What can I do? Can anyone help?

Good day nilayvekediler.

The community may be able to offer some assistance.  However, a couple of things.

1. Recommend that you submit your question in a separate thread.  The thread above has pretty much closed.
2. Can you clarify your Solarwinds version?  Solarwinds version 2023.4.2 recently hit the streets, so that version is very new.  Solarwinds APM 4.2 is over 10 years old, so that's way out of date.  Probably limited help available for a version that old.

Cheers.

For code formatting, use "Insert > Code" and paste in the code.  I corrected it for you, bucweat .

Anyone who's on this thread, take a look at Adventures in PIVOTing - how to do a poor man's pivot in SWQL , where I work with a similar case to extract this kind of data.

Anyone who's on this thread, take a look at Adventures in PIVOTing - how to do a poor man's pivot in SWQL , where I work with a similar case to extract this kind of data.