Hybrid Cloud Observability - Common Questions and Answers!

Hey all!

I’m happy to announce that we just finished delivering the first 2 Hybrid Cloud Observability instructor-led classes last week. Look for those classes and more to be delivered live next quarter and for all the Hybrid Cloud Observability classes to be added to our On Demand video library on the customer portal as we develop and release them.  

Some common questions seem to come up regarding Hybrid Cloud Observability, the SolarWinds Self-Hosted Platform, and Orion Modules, and I've heard them asked in class. I thought I’d share a couple of common questions and answers with you here. Please reply and ask if you still have questions or want some clarification. I’d be happy to talk further and help clarify any of these points.

Just a reminder: if you are not familiar with the SolarWinds Academy, what we teach, how we teach, and the value of our classes, check out this Newsroom post I made a few months back for more information.

Question #1: I have an Orion module-based install right now. Do I have to migrate to Hybrid Cloud Observability to upgrade and take advantage of the newer platform and new features?  (Module-based install = NPM, SAM, NTA, or any combination of the Orion module products)

No, you do not.

You can upgrade to the newest version of the Self-Hosted Platform without moving to Hybrid Cloud Observability. We’ve made features such as extended Meraki and VeloCloud SDWAN support and Alert Stack available to Hybrid Cloud Observability AND Module-based customers. You can also take advantage of the newer, optimized platform that gives you many improvements “under the hood” while staying with your modules. If you are running Orion Platform version 2020.2.6 or older, which is the last “Orion” platform, we urge you to upgrade to the newer SolarWinds Platform to, at the very least, take advantage of the newer and optimized Platform architecture.

That said, since Hybrid Cloud Observability is a product, we have and will continue to release features for it that are not available to module-based installs, such as Anomaly-Based Alerting, which utilizes a powerful AIOPs and machine-learning tool for alert optimization.

Of course, we recommend looking at Hybrid Cloud Observability if you have not yet done so. The shift in perspective with Hybrid Cloud Observability which considers the entity first instead of a product, makes monitoring and troubleshooting across your IT infrastructure much easier. If you’re not sure what I mean by that, Hybrid Cloud Observability is node-based licensing for all the features included in the product. This means the features you need to monitor that node and all its entities aren’t linked to buying and installing a particular product.

Hybrid Cloud Observability can easily be evaluated instantly from within the web console if you are running the current version of the SolarWinds Self-Hosted Platform. Check out this video and this blog post for more information about this feature.

Ok, kind of a long-winded answer, but hopefully provides some clarification for you!

Question #2: I’ve seen a lot of information about SolarWinds Observability. Are you moving all of your customers to the Cloud?

No, we are not.

SolarWinds Observability is a new SaaS-based product designed to support our cloud-native customers. SolarWinds has a broad base of customers that cross on-prem, hybrid, and cloud-native environments. Hybrid Cloud Observability, and the Orion modules running on the Self-Hosted Platform, do a great job supporting on-prem and hybrid environments. SolarWinds Observability, running on a SaaS Platform, provides features, monitoring, and management for cloud-native environments.

At the same time, for customers that are on-prem or hybrid and are increasing their cloud presence, the use of the Platform Connect feature to connect the Self-Hosted Platform to SolarWinds Observability and the SaaS Platform provides them with the flexibility to monitor on-prem entities in SolarWinds Observability, and to also take advantage of the AIOPs and machine-learning engine on the SaaS Platform, to greatly increase the intelligence of their alerts running on Hybrid Cloud Observability.

This may seem a bit confusing, and I understand that. Lots of changes in a pretty short time, and it’s a lot to wrap your head around. Please feel free to ask questions. I’ll provide as much clarification as possible.

Also, be on the lookout in the near future for a short video to go live on the customer portal that walks through this new SolarWinds Platform and takes a technical look at all the parts and how they work together. Hopefully, that will help alleviate the confusion!

Did you have one of these questions? I hope this post helped answer them.

Do you have another question? Feel free to ask! We’re here to help you the best we can.

Happy learning!

Parents Reply Children
  • Apologies for my tardy reply! Happy to help. 

    First, make sure you're at least on Platform version 2023.1, as that is the version where Alert Stack was released. 

    Alert Stack must be enabled in Settings after your upgrade. There are potential performance considerations using this feature, so we do not turn it on by default. You MAY need to increase CPU and memory resources if you turn the feature on and experience performance issues with your server. 

    When you go to Settings - All Settings - Product Specific Settings - Alert Stack Settings, you'll see a default warning message stating the same thing. To proceed using AlertStack, switch the dropdown to Enabled and click Save. There may be a bit of a delay until you see alert stack data, but it will start to work automatically from this point. 

    On the Customer Portal, you will find an 11-minute quick-byte video on using the Alert Stack feature. You have to log on with your customer credentials to view it. The video is called:"Using the Alert Stack Feature in Hybrid Cloud Observability and SolarWinds Module Installations" It's a mouthful for a name but reinforces that you can use this feature in BOTH Hybrid Cloud Observability AND Module-based installs once you upgrade. 

    I hope that helps! 

  • Apologies for my tardy reply! Happy to help. 

    First, make sure you're at least on Platform version 2023.1, as that is the version where Alert Stack was released. 

    Alert Stack must be enabled in Settings after your upgrade. There are potential performance considerations using this feature, so we do not turn it on by default. You MAY need to increase CPU and memory resources if you turn the feature on and experience performance issues with your server. 

    When you go to Settings - All Settings - Product Specific Settings - Alert Stack Settings, you'll see a default warning message stating the same thing. To proceed using AlertStack, switch the dropdown to Enabled and click Save. There may be a bit of a delay until you see alert stack data, but it will start to work automatically from this point. 

    On the Customer Portal, you will find an 11-minute quick-byte video on using the Alert Stack feature. You have to log on with your customer credentials to view it. The video is called:"Using the Alert Stack Feature in Hybrid Cloud Observability and SolarWinds Module Installations" It's a mouthful for a name but reinforces that you can use this feature in BOTH Hybrid Cloud Observability AND Module-based installs once you upgrade. 

    I hope that helps! 

  • That did help, and enabled now thank you!