How to know when to add an additional polling engine.?

when you have about three times its current load -- a PE supports about 12K elements and you have about 4500

to add to this; you may need an additional poller beforehand depending on your server and polling specifications.

Check the "Learn More" link next to your polling rates for some more details. (http://knowledgebase.solarwinds.com/kb/questions/3227/Poller+Status+Warning%3A+A+poller+is+either+approaching+or+in+excess+of+its+polling+rate+limit)

Basically, there is an application limit of 12,000 elements. However, that is at optimal conditions. If your server is undersized and/or your polling intervals are decreased from default, your polling rate will increase.

For instance (these numbers are made up and assume standard polling intervals):

• 5,000 elements on a server with 1-Dual Core CPU (2.6GHz) and 4GB RAM = 80% Polling Rate
• 5,000 elements on a server with 2-Quad Core CPU (3.0GHz) and 16GB RAM = 25% Polling Rate

Conversely:

• 5,000 elements on a server with 2-Quad Core CPU (3.0GHz) and 16GB RAM at a standard polling interval (2 min status, 9/10/15 statistics) = 25% Polling Rate
• 5,000 elements on a server with 2-Quad Core CPU (3.0GHz) and 16GB RAM at a reduced polling interval (1 min status, 5/5/5 statistics) = 80% Polling Rate

Of course, this is ignoring the other polling metrics (Routing, UnDP, Hardware Health, etc.) But I don't think I have personally seen any of those be an issue. It's generally your base polling rate that you need to concern yourself with.

-ZackM

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