Auto Dependency Question

The easiest way to accomplish this would be to create groups.  Put your switches that sit behind your parent switch in a group, then create a new dependency using the main switch as a parent and the group as its dependent.

1) Settings

2) Manage Dependencies

3) Create Dependency

4) Choose Main switch as the "Parent"

5) Select Dependent Group

6) Profit

The question posed is a bit confusing though.  A Parent Switch isn't going to "Find" other switches that sit behind it.  That's what the "Network Discovery" does.  The dependency option just suppresses "Node Down" alerts when a parent switch goes down because it's implied that if the parent drops off, the dependents will too.  You'll still need to run a Network Discovery scan, but when the dependent switches are found, you can add them into your "Dependent Group" for ease in management.

Let me know if you need any clarification - or if I'm completely wrong and just haven't seen/used that feature.

-Brandon

No that was what I have been doing but, I read about "Auto Dependencies" through the pdf for it. I guess I'll just continue to plug away. But thank you for letting me know that there is no other way.

http://www.solarwinds.com/documentation/orion/docs/groupsanddependencies.pdf

Wilson99,

There is an auto-dependencies feature, you enable it from the web console under Settings > Polling Settings > Enable Auto Dependencies.

In order for the auto dependencies to work Solarwinds has to be able to read the topology tables from whatever switches/routers etc you have which can be hit or miss depending on the hardware.  Generally speaking it works pretty reliably with common Cisco gear but you will definitely want to take a look at your dependencies after it runs to make sure it didn't get any of the relationships backwards or miss anything. 

A Thwack user alexslv has a method that I have used in the past that is more complicated to set up, and requires you to have a pretty good grasp of the SQL side of things, but gives you a lot of control in terms of making sure the dependencies are correct and once you have it in place creating new dependencies is very easy.

Automatic Dependencies Based On Custom Properties (Node Location)

  -Marc Netterfield

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So SolarWinds needs to be monitoring the layer 2/3 tables on the routers?

The one problem I may have with this is I have many remote sites connecting back via layer 3 routing protocols, not physical links, usually through ISP connections.  I am not sure how to do set this up in this case.  We use a lot of Cisco EIGRP and BGP in our LAN and WAN network respectively.  I do need to figure something out as we are getting far too many alerts say when a remote site has a power outage.  Then we get the node down alert and alerts for all the layer 3 links that are down.

@neomatrix1217

The doc at referenced link says "This PDF is no longer being maintained."