THWACK Monthly Mission - January 2020

[yumdarling]

You ever heard the saying “the future is now?” If you haven’t before, let me be the first to introduce you to it. We’re the front line of preparing you for the future. We’re the little guys in the machine, providing visibility into the cracks and crevices of your IT environment of which you aren’t even aware. We’re the Orion® Platform.

Our mission is simple. Create a responsive, intuitive environment to let you—the expert—get a better view under the hood of your own machines.

Join us in our quest to secure the future. Start your mission.

JANUARY MISSION

Use the mission’s resources to complete the tasks and answer the questions for a chance to win!

Correctly answer each question during the week and you'll be entered for a chance to win the weekly prize.

Correctly answer all 20 questions over the course of the month and you'll be entered for a chance to win the grand prize.

150 points are being awarded for each correctly answered question. There are 20 questions, which means you can earn a maximum of 3,000 points for this mission.

Want to join the mission, but not a member? Sign up FREE now!

PRIZES

Weekly Prizes & Drawing Dates:
January 13, 2020:  Divoom Tivoo Smart Portable LED Speaker

January 20, 2020:  Specdrums Musical Rings w/ Play Pad

January 27, 2020:  Vinyl Record Player

February 3, 2020:  Apple Airpods

Grand Prize:
February 3, 2020:  Sony Soundbar

MISSION RULES

A new question will open every day (Monday - Friday) starting on January 6, 2020. Once a question has opened, it will remain open until February 2, 2020 at 11:59 p.m. CT. Check the schedule below for exact open/close times.

MISSION SHORTCUT

Complete the mission shortcut between January 6, 2020 and February 2, 2020 to be entered to win a Bose Noise-Cancelling Headphones w/Alexa Voice Control!

Shortcut Steps:

    1. Go to the SolarWinds Product Upgrade Advisor.

          a. Note: If you're a SolarWinds customer, logging in to the Customer Portal may give you a slightly different experience.

    2. Enter information about your current environment by answering questions 1-4.

          a. If you are not a current SolarWinds customer

                    i. For question #2, select No

                  ii. For question #3, select Network Performance Monitor as the product, and 12.3 for the version

                  iii. For question #4, select Network Performance Monitor as the product, and 2019.4 for the version

          b. If you are a current SolarWinds customer

                    i. For question #4, choose the same product you selected in question #3 and select 2019.4 for the version

    3. Check compatibility.

    4. Submit a screenshot of the results.

CHECK COMPATIBILITY  SUBMIT SCREENSHOT

WEEKLY PRIZES	MON	TUE	WED	THU	FRI	WINNERS
Week 1: Complete questions 1-5 by January 12, 2020 to be entered to win: Divoom Tivoo Smart Portable LED Speaker
Week 2: Complete questions 6-10 by January 19, 2020 to be entered to win: Specdrums Musical Rings w/ Play Pad
Week 3: Complete questions 11-15 by January 26, 2020 to be entered to win: Vinyl Record Player
Week 4: Complete questions 16-20 by February 2, 2020 to be entered to win: Apple Airpods
Correctly answer all 20 questions by February 2, 2020 and get entered to win the Grand Prize! Sony Soundbar

January Mission Terms & Conditions: US, UK, and Canada | Germany | Australia

January Mission Shortcut Terms & Conditions: US, UK, and Canada | Germany | Australia

[dsimpkins]

New year, New Mission

[raymondo]

The link to product upgrade advisor is as follows:

https://customerportal.solarwinds.com/support/product-upgrade-advisor

(The link in the mission shortcut goes to the Web Help Desk page)

[dsimpkins]

Also the upload screenshot in the survey only allows one file, once you upload one the browse button disappears.

Ended up printing the page to pdf and uploading that.

[Jfrazier]

Cool deal, been waiting for the new mission to kick off!!

Good luck everyone!

[sweeneyj]

Is anyone else having a hard time logging into the DPA demo site? Am I supposed to just know the password?

[ferrashoo]

Woohoo, love the missions!

Thanks yumdarling...

[merissal]

I got in right away, the username and password was pre-filled out.

[neoceasar]

Release notes are also a useful reference for new features.

DPA 2019.4 Release Notes

[melonizame]

WOOT New year new mission kewl prizes goodness all around

[knucklebusted]

I, literally, did not understand the question and the correct answer did not appear to be one of the ones listed on the last tab as indicated. Instead, it was something else without giving it away.

My job this year is to drag the curve down, apparently.

[jasonstak2079]

Woohoo.. I managed not to overthink it and got it correct.

BTW, gotta like the Daft punk theme for this mission.

[allnyabi78]

I could not access the demo site to research the answer to #1

[aronringel]

Same issue, I cant login to the demo site

[asheppard970]

I was going for more the "Six Million Dollar Man" theme...

"We can make him better than he was before.  Better.  Stronger.  Faster."

But Daft Punk certainly fits as well.

Thanks, yumdarling​, for great mission to kick off the new year!

[martian_monster]

Looks like it is time to update DPA.  I can't believe I did not see the new version lol

[justin.siemens]

When I click the link to upload the screenshot, it tells me I've already completed the survey!? Please help.

[yumdarling]

Hey Justin!

Can you shoot me the screenshot? I'll enter your name on the drawing manually.

Yum.darling@solarwinds.com

Have a great rest of your day!

[smttysmth02gt]

Today's hint should link to the release notes I think, not the demo site. 

[scott.driver]

Today's question will trip up lots of people. While technically correct, it's a bit misleading.

[amehlman]

I am unable to upload my screenshot for the shortcut. I'm getting the message "You have already completed this survey." But I didn't upload a screenshot, when I clicked the button my webpage seemed to freeze. Is there a way around this?

[melonizame]

OK today's Question #2 is very miss leading.  The answer it told me was correct I did not see any mention of physical CPU in the information tab.  However I did see that information in the selection that I chose.  If I just miss read that's fine but am I the only one?

Thanks,

Melon

[klevans8907]

I found the correct answer to today's question here. I can't log into the demo site, it says the pre-filled username and password are incorrect. Same happened yesterday.

[jeremymayfield]

You are not the only one.   I am having a hard time with this today, can not find the right location to look.   Nothing has a matching answer I can see.

[jeremymayfield]

You are correct, thank you.

[jeremymayfield]

Did everyone get points assigned?    I answered it correctly but i do not believe i was awarded points.   Can anyone verify?    yumdarling​?

[antonis.athanasiou]

I've just submitted today's and yesterday's answers and got points for both of them..!

[klevans8907]

You're welcome

[yumdarling]

Hi everyone!!

If you're having trouble with the demo credentials, please use:

username: guest

password: orion

Let me know if you run into any issues!

Yum

[yumdarling]

I see 150 points for today and for yesterday for you, jeremymayfield​

[melonizame]

With that link I was able to find the correct answer however it was to late for me.

[govitallen]

Today's question says

Look for your hint in the last paragraph under the CPU graph

but the graph for the answer it says is correct does not have CPU in the title.  Very misleading.

[marcrobinson]

Click on the information links in the demo, they explain the graphs and look very very similar to the question.

[superfly]

I wouldn't say misleading, rather making it more interesting to answer the question.

In contrast, today's question was super easy.

[chaddb]

I'm not able to login to the demo. It fills in the username/password but clicking login does nothing.

[schneiderstev]

so just plan guessing, the OrionDemo and other Demo's style websites are completely blocked at my work.  So can't even try and look at the hint.  bummer.  1 of 3 in guessing so far this week.

[ashley.heilbronn]

not sure if question 4 has the correct answer listed to select from. I went to the whats new in DPA link which goes here Success Center  and scrolled down to 2019.4 for DPA and selected what I believe is the right answer and it was wrong...

[hroesch01]

You can find the added support under DPA 2019.4 Release Notes but read carefully!

[dsimpkins]

i went took a guess and went here Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Versions to find it's release date

[rob.collins]

Thanks, I thought about taking a vague punt on an answer - but thought I'd check the comments in case there was something I was missing (aside from my morning caffeine intake).

Indeed there was, this pointed me towards a more specific and appropriate answer!

[ezequiel.benoni]

Thanks hroesch01 got the answer much easier than the provided TIP link inside the question.

[smttysmth02gt]

It seems like today's question "could" have 2 correct answers.

[melonizame]

Are we supposed to get points for uploading a screen shot?

[raymondo]

It doesn't look like it, just entered into a draw for some very nice headphones (that I would very much like to win )

[Jfrazier]

Hmm, the FAQ on the specified hint page specifically lists a database by full name that matches one of the choices in the question but it is apparently not quite right.

[hbaxley2911]

Same thing happened to me.  😕

[Jfrazier]

Life goes on.  If that is the worst thing that happens today, it is still not a bad day.

[hbaxley2911]

Reminds me of a Dilbert cartoon I had hung in my office when I was in a different cubical.  It's a picture of Wally drinking coffee saying, "I broke four things and fixed three.  It's been a productive day." 

[ecklerwr1]

I think for today's you should just go by the main page linked to...  I've been so busy lately I can hardly spend too much time here on thwack but it's good see friends like Jfrazier​!  Also it's a database that went GA in 2019 so that's a BIG hint.

[Jfrazier]

Sounds like a reasonable statement.

Might need to change it a bit to allow for variability in the day.

I broke x things today and fixed (x-1).

[Jfrazier]

Then I got the context messed up as I had the impression of DPA (or a version thereof) going GA in 2019.

The info I got was from the main page linked.