ERROR: Cannot download Running config : Connection Refused by A.B.C.B

It's saying the remote box is refusing the connection for whatever reason.   Check the credentials you gave Solarwinds, make sure they're ok.   Install a client (SSH/Telnet?) on your poller and try logging in from there.

Maybe enable authentication logging on the remote device and see what its seeing/saying?   Check any ACL's that might be preventing the connection?

Can you SSH from the Orion server to the device in question, with the same credentials?

It is probably either being blocked by network security or your credentials are wrong.

If you can SSH from Orion, with the same credentials and login then you've proved that bit works.

If you can log in, also check that the enable and <enable password> also work.

Check for funny characters in the passwords, any meta characters can be awkward and either need to be 'quoted' or escaped (escape character is usually a /).

If that all works, then it will probably be the device template at fault.

If you have it set Device Template to 'Auto-Determine', try selecting one of the many pre-packed options, that best suits your device.

Failing that, time to have a crack at building your own template - http://<Orion server>/Orion/NCM/Admin/DeviceTemplate/DeviceTemplatesManagement.aspx and use the Add New --> Using Interactive Wizard tool, as this allows you to test each stage until you get it right.

Good luck

If you have a firewall between the poller and the network you are monitoring make sure it is allowing SSH, SNMP and ICMP.

Did you manage to resolve this?  We have the same issue in our environment, several errors everyday which state the following;

'ERROR: Cannot download Running config : Connection Refused'

When testing the SSH connectivity the system states 'Test Failed. Timeout'.

Any help would be much appreciated in how to resolve this.  We have no firewall between NCM and the switches where the failures are occurring.

Thanks

The simplest way to test this is to RDP to your Orion server and try to putty to the box in question, making sure you are using the same connection type (SSH/Telnet) and the same credentials. If everything works then it could be an issue with the device template, if it doesn't work then I would suggest you check the credentials first, and if not that check the box to make sure there are no security restrictions such as ACL's

Thank you for your response David. A putty SSH connection works fine from the Orion server when logging onto the switch. I also went to 'Edit Properties' in NCM on the switch and clicked on test under the Connection Profile, this worked too. What can I check with the device template please? When the nightly backups run, they appear to fail to pull of startup/running configs on 25% of switches in the estate.

The following msgs are listed in the report;

ERROR: Cannot download Startup config : Connection Refused.

ERROR: Cannot download Running config : Connection Refused.

ERROR: Cannot download Running config : Unable to Log into Router : Timeout

Many thanks

Hi netw0rks can I ask if you have an additional pollers or just one? If you have more than one polling engine, are these Nodes located on a different Node?

You mentioned originally that the SSH Connection from Node Details didn't work and showed a Timeout, is that still the case? It does sound more like something on the device end rather than the SolarWinds. However, it would be worth checking to ensure the Node is set to use SSH (And not TELNET as default) and then double check what Device Template it is using (If it's Auto you can find out from using the "TEST" button and then expanding the "Show credential login details". It's odd that the test passes but nothing else.

Hi David, the device template is, 'Device Template: Cisco IOS-1.3.6.1.4.1.9.1.2066'.  The SSH connection is successful at present, however when attempting a download of the running or startup config in Config Management, this fails with 'Connection Refused'. When checking the logs on the switch the following shows NCM is logging in and out multiple times, as if a timer is expiring.  It appears to login for 40s approx;

Dec 12 02:21:42.310 UTC: %SEC_LOGIN-5-LOGIN_SUCCESS: Login Success [user: NCM] [Source: <ip addresss>] [localport: 22] at 02:21:42 UTC Wed Dec 12 2018

Dec 12 02:22:32.040 UTC: %SYS-6-LOGOUT: User NCM has exited tty session 2(<ip addresss>)

Dec 12 02:30:19.570 UTC: %SEC_LOGIN-5-LOGIN_SUCCESS: Login Success [user: NCM] [Source: <ip addresss>] [localport: 22] at 02:30:19 UTC Wed Dec 12 2018

Dec 12 02:31:26.306 UTC: %SYS-6-LOGOUT: User NCM has exited tty session 2(<ip addresss>)

Dec 12 02:37:41.951 UTC: %SEC_LOGIN-5-LOGIN_SUCCESS: Login Success [user: NCM] [Source: <ip addresss>] [localport: 22] at 02:37:41 UTC Wed Dec 12 2018

Dec 12 02:38:37.922 UTC: %SYS-6-LOGOUT: User NCM has exited tty session 2(<ip addresss>)

Dec 12 02:45:03.289 UTC: %SEC_LOGIN-5-LOGIN_SUCCESS: Login Success [user: NCM] [Source: <ip addresss>] [localport: 22] at 02:45:03 UTC Wed Dec 12 2018

Dec 12 02:45:43.130 UTC: %SYS-6-LOGOUT: User NCM has exited tty session 2(<ip addresss>)

Dec 12 02:45:55.838 UTC: %SEC_LOGIN-5-LOGIN_SUCCESS: Login Success [user: NCM] [Source: <ip addresss>] [localport: 22] at 02:45:55 UTC Wed Dec 12 2018

Dec 12 02:46:34.748 UTC: %SYS-6-LOGOUT: User NCM has exited tty session 2(<ip addresss>)

Dec 12 02:46:49.262 UTC: %SEC_LOGIN-5-LOGIN_SUCCESS: Login Success [user: NCM] [Source: <ip addresss>] [localport: 22] at 02:46:49 UTC Wed Dec 12 2018

Dec 12 02:47:27.668 UTC: %SYS-6-LOGOUT: User NCM has exited tty session 2(<ip addresss>)

Dec 12 04:02:51.281 UTC: %SEC_LOGIN-5-LOGIN_SUCCESS: Login Success [user: NCM] [Source: <ip addresss>] [localport: 22] at 04:02:51 UTC Wed Dec 12 2018

Dec 12 04:03:18.660 UTC: %SYS-6-LOGOUT: User NCM has exited tty session 2(<ip addresss>)

The switches are configured to use SSH not telnet.

Thanks

Also, our Solarwinds server was reloaded approximately 1 month ago, during the week following the reload there were no config backup issues.  After one week we began to see failures again, therefore this could be a resource issue?

Thanks,

The switch device log proves that NCM can successfully authenticate onto the device, but is getting timed out. Check your NCM Settings:

Settings > All Settings > NCM Settings > Configs - Check the Config Transfer section for simultaneous downloads and config transfer timeout.