SolarWinds Observability-Self-Hosted-Fundamentals Dumps

Network Discovery in the SolarWinds Platform is designed to identify as much infrastructure as possible, even if that infrastructure is "locked down." According to theSolarWinds Platform Administrator Guide, the discovery wizard follows a specific hierarchy of identification.

If a device hasSNMPorWMIdisabled (often the case for security-hardened servers, basic switches, or simple IP-enabled appliances), the platform cannot gather deep performance metrics like CPU or memory. However, the device can still be discovered and monitored for "Up/Down" availability using a simple Ping (ICMP). To ensure these devices are added to the database during a scan, the administrator must check the box to "Include devices that only respond to ICMP" during the discovery configuration. If this is not selected, the discovery engine will skip any IP address that does not provide a valid SNMP or WMI credential response, potentially leaving gaps in the network inventory. This is the standard method for monitoring "Ping-only" nodes.

The Custom Property Import tool is designed to help administrators bulk-update metadata for hundreds or thousands of nodes simultaneously. According to theSolarWinds Platform Administrator Guide, maintaining data integrity is a priority during this process.

A critical feature supported during the import is thatincoming values are validated before being written (D). When an administrator uploads a CSV or Excel file containing custom property values, the platform performs a validation check against the defined "Type" of each property in the database. For example, if a custom property InstallDate is defined as a "Date" type, and the import file contains a text string like "Last Tuesday," the validation engine will flag an error and prevent the import from corrupting the database. This validation also checks for character limits and ensures that values for restricted "Drop-down" properties match the predefined allowed list. This safeguard is essential for ensuring that automated alerts and reports, which rely on this metadata, function correctly without being disrupted by malformed data entries.

Layout instability in the SolarWinds Web Console is almost always a result of overlapping permissions on shared views. According to theSolarWinds Platform Administrator Guide, summary views (dashboards) are often shared across entire departments or user groups.

The cause of widgets "moving" unexpectedly is typically thatusers have edit view rights and are editing views used by multiple users (D). In SolarWinds, if a view is assigned to multiple people and those people have the "Edit View" permission, any change made by one user—such as dragging a widget to a different column, adding a new resource, or removing an old one—is a global change to that view's definition in the database.

When User A rearranges the dashboard to suit their screen or preference, User B will see those changes the next time their page refreshes. This creates a "tug-of-war" scenario where different users keep moving widgets back and forth. To prevent this, administrators should follow the principle of least privilege: remove "Edit View" rights from standard users and only allow a small number of designated "View Administrators" to make changes. If individual personalization is required, the administrator should create unique, personal views for each user or group so that their edits do not impact the wider organization.

By default, the "overall status" of a node (Up, Warning, Critical) is calculated based on its availability and the health of its child components, such as CPU and Memory. According to theSolarWinds Platform Node Managementdocumentation, administrators can fine-tune this rollup behavior to prevent non-critical metrics from turning a node "red" on the dashboard.

Edit Node Properties (B): Inside the "Edit Node" page, there is a section for "Thresholds." Here, an administrator can uncheck the box that allows CPU load to contribute to the node's overall status. This is useful for servers that consistently run high CPU but are otherwise healthy.

Node Child Status (D): Within the global SolarWinds settings, administrators can manage "Node Child Status Participation." This centralized menu allows you to define which sub-elements (CPU, Memory, Interfaces, etc.) are allowed to influence the parent node's status.

Muting a node(Option C) only pauses alerts and does not change how status is calculated. TheAll Nodes widget(Option A) is a visualization tool and does not provide the configuration settings to change the underlying status logic.

In the SolarWinds Platform, groups are more than just static lists; they are logical containers that allow for the inheritance and management of settings across multiple entities. According to theSolarWinds Platform Administrator Guide, when configuring a group, you can define specific "Member Settings" that apply to the objects contained within that group.

The two primary settings that can be integrated as member settings within the group configuration arealerts (A)anduser accounts (D).

Alerts: This allows administrators to associate specific alerting logic directly with group membership. For example, you can configure group-specific alert thresholds or suppressions that apply only to the members of that group, ensuring that critical infrastructure groups have more sensitive alerting profiles than development or test groups.

User Accounts: This refers to the ability to link specific user or group account permissions to the group itself. This is often used in multi-tenant or departmentalized environments where a user account is granted a "Group Limitation." By adding user account settings as a member setting, you can define which users have the rights to view, manage, or edit the specific entities within that group.

While you can nest "groups" (Option B) within each other, they are considered members themselves rather than a "member setting". Similarly, "Intelligent Maps" (Option C) are visualization objects that cancontaingroups, but they are not a configurable setting appliedtothe members of a group within the standard group management wizard.

The SolarWinds Agent is a versatile polling tool, but it must be compatible with the underlying Operating System (OS) to function correctly. According to theSolarWinds Platform Agent requirements, the agent software is designed to run on a wide variety of modern Windows and Linux distributions.

For the Windows ecosystem, the agent supports both server-grade and enterprise-grade workstation operating systems.Windows Server 2022 (D)is fully supported, allowing for deep monitoring of the latest Microsoft server environments, including support for AppInsight applications. Similarly,Windows 11 Enterprise (C)is a supported platform, which is particularly useful for monitoring high-end workstations, jump boxes, or remote endpoints that act as critical nodes in the network.

While SolarWinds does support various Linux distributions (such as RHEL, CentOS, and Ubuntu),Debian 11andFedora(Options A and B) are often not listed as "officially primary supported" in the same tier as the Windows or main enterprise Linux distributions in current HCO documentation. The Windows agent remains the most feature-complete version of the software, supporting a broader range of monitoring types (like Quality of Experience and deep application analysis) compared to its Linux counterparts. Therefore, for an HCO deployment focusing on the latest infrastructure, Windows Server 2022 and Windows 11 are the verified answers.

The modern web-based report builder in SolarWinds is highly integrated with the rest of the platform's visualization tools. According to theSolarWinds Platform Reporting Guide, reports are no longer limited to simple data tables; they can incorporate rich, interactive content already created elsewhere in the console.

Two key configurations available as content areexisting intelligent maps (A)andexisting widgets (D).

Existing Intelligent Maps: This allows an administrator to take a visually mapped dependency or network topology and embed it directly into a scheduled report. This provides a geographical or logical context to the data that static tables cannot provide.

Existing Widgets: Most widgets (resources) found on Summary or Node Details pages—such as "Top 10 Nodes by Response Time" or "Active Alerts"—can be added to a report as a component. This ensures consistency between what users see in real-time on their dashboards and what they receive in their weekly PDF summaries.

While you can embed performance data, the report builder is designed to consume these pre-configured UI elements (Maps and Widgets) to simplify report creation and maintain a unified look and feel across the observability suite.

In the SolarWinds Platform, "Administrator" rights in the Web Console grant extensive control over monitoring configurations, but they are distinct from "System Administrator" or "Security Administrator" roles. According to theSolarWinds Platform User Account Managementguide, a Web Console Administrator can manage nodes, create alerts , build reports , and customize dashboards.

However, for security reasons, the ability to managepasswords—specifically the credentials used for polling (SNMP strings, WMI service accounts, or external integration secrets)—is often restricted. While an admin canassignan existing credential to a node, the ability to add, edit, or view the clear-text/obfuscated passwords within the centralizedCredential Libraryis a separate, higher-level security permission. This prevents a standard Web Administrator from potentially harvesting sensitive service account passwords from the database. This "separation of duties" ensures that while a user can manage the monitoring environment, they cannot necessarily compromise the security of the underlying infrastructure accounts.

Access control for reporting in Hybrid Cloud Observability (HCO) is highly granular, allowing administrators to define exactly what a "standard" (non-admin) user can do within the reporting module. According to theSolarWinds Platform User Account Managementguides, three distinct restrictions can be applied:

Preventing Access to All Reports (A): By setting a "Report Limitation" on the user account to "No Reports," the entire module is effectively hidden from the user.

Preventing Access to Reports by Other Users (B): This is a privacy and security feature. Administrators can configure report permissions so that users can only see the reports they have created or those explicitly shared with them, hiding the potentially sensitive custom reports created by other teams.

Preventing Access to the Report Manager (C): The "Report Manager" is the administrative interface used to create, schedule, and delete reports. By removing the "Manage Reports" permission from a user account, you allow them toviewandrunexisting reports but prevent them from accessing the management tools required to modify them.

Option D is logically incorrect because if a user has access to reports at all, they must be able to see the ones they are authorized for; "preventing access to their own reports" while allowing others would not be a standard security use case.

The SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability (HCO) Platform is designed for maximum deployment flexibility to accommodate diverse enterprise security and infrastructure requirements. According to theSolarWinds Platform Installation and Upgrade Guide, the platform's architecture is fundamentally self-contained.

Operation without an internet connection (A): This is a critical requirement for many government, military, and high-security financial environments. The platform is capable of "air-gapped" operation, where all polling, data processing, and visualization occur within a private network. While features like "Platform Connect" (for cloud-based AI) may require a connection, the core monitoring, alerting, and reporting functions remain fully operational without any external internet access.

Deployment on-premises or in the cloud (B): HCO is truly hybrid. It can be installed on physical hardware or virtual machines within a local data center, or it can be deployed within a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) on platforms like AWS or Azure. This allows organizations to maintain their monitoring infrastructure alongside their managed assets, regardless of where those assets reside.

While HCOprovidesAIOps and machine learning (Option C), this is a feature of specific licensing tiers and configuration states rather than a fundamental "platform" characteristic that defines its deployment capability in the same way its offline and hybrid nature does.

The SolarWinds Agent provides a robust alternative to agentless polling (SNMP/WMI), particularly in restricted environments. According to theSolarWinds Platform Agent requirements and port information, the primary architectural benefit is its communication security and firewall-friendly nature.

When using an agent, communication is consolidated. Instead of requiring a wide range of dynamic ports for RPC (as with WMI) or multiple ports for various SNMP checks, the agentcommunicates through a single fixed port(typically TCP 17778 for agent-initiated or 17790 for server-initiated communication). Furthermore, all traffic between the agent and the polling engine isencryptedusing 256-bit AES encryption. This makes agents the ideal choice for monitoring:

DMZ Servers: Where opening numerous ports back to the management network is a security violation.

Cloud Instances (AWS/Azure): Where data must travel over public or semi-public links and requires encryption in transit.

Remote Sites: Where NAT or strict firewall rules make traditional SNMP/WMI polling impossible.

Option B is incorrect because agents still report back to the Polling Engine (Orion Information Service), which then handles the database writes. Option C is incorrect as the agent actually increases the granularity of data collection, which may slightly increase database volume rather than reduce load.

The reporting engine in the SolarWinds Platform is designed to provide historical documentation and summary data for management and technical analysis. According to theSolarWinds Platform Reporting Guide, reports are distinct from alerts; while alerts focus on real-time "critical incidents needing immediate attention" (Option B), reports focus on aggregated data over time.

Specifically, the two primary purposes shown in the options are:

Availability and Response Time Reports (A): These provide a summary of how infrastructure has performed over a specific period (daily, weekly, monthly). This is used for Service Level Agreement (SLA) reporting to show that devices at a particular location maintained required uptime and performance metrics.

Status Summaries (D): Reports can be generated to show the current or historical distribution of node health. A report on the "number of nodes in warning or critical states" provides an executive-level view of environmental stability, identifying which areas of the network are experiencing the most frequent issues.

Option C is incorrect as database dependencies are typically visualized live inAppStackorIntelligent Mapsrather than in a static report. Option B describes the function of theAlerting Engine, which is intended for immediate operational response rather than the post-hoc analysis provided by reports.

Anomaly-Based Alertingin HCO is currently focused on high-cardinality performance metrics that exhibit clear cyclical patterns (daily or weekly cycles). According to theSolarWinds Platform Alerting Guide, the machine learning engine is optimized for metrics where "normal" behavior varies significantly based on time of day.

The two primary supported metrics for this feature are:

Average CPU Load (A): CPU utilization is highly variable; a server might be idle at night but busy during business hours. Anomaly detection learns these patterns to prevent false positives during scheduled peak times.

Percent Packet Loss (D): Network stability is a critical indicator of environmental health. By establishing a baseline for packet loss, the system can distinguish between a minor, expected "blip" in a high-traffic environment and a true anomaly that indicates a failing circuit or network congestion.

While metrics like "Disk Space Usage" (Option B) are critical, they are generally "linear" or "incremental" rather than cyclical; a disk filling up is a trend that is usually better handled by standard predictive or static threshold alerts. Similarly, while interface utilization is important, the initial release of anomaly-based features prioritizedNode-levelperformance metrics like CPU and Packet Loss to provide the most immediate value for identifying server and core network health deviations.

Platform Connectis a foundational technology in Hybrid Cloud Observability (HCO) that bridges the gap between the on-premises (self-hosted) installation and SolarWinds' cloud-based AIOps and machine learning services. According to theSolarWinds HCO Administrator Guide, the primary function enabled by this connection isanomaly-based alerting.

Anomaly detection requires significant computational resources to process months of historical performance data and build sophisticated behavioral baselines for thousands of metrics. To prevent this heavy processing from impacting the performance of the local monitoring server, SolarWinds offloads the analysis to a cloud-based machine learning engine.Platform Connectprovides the secure, encrypted tunnel required to transmit relevant performance metadata to the cloud for analysis and receive dynamic threshold updates in return.

Without Platform Connect, the local instance is restricted to traditional static thresholds (e.g., "Alert if CPU > 90%"). With it, the system can identify "unusual" behavior (e.g., "Alert if CPU is 70% at 2:00 AM on a Tuesday, when it is normally 10%"). While HCO handles infrastructure monitoring and mapping locally, the specific "intelligence" layer that drives anomaly detection is the standout benefit provided by the Platform Connect architecture.

The alerting engine in the SolarWinds Platform uses a "Scope" and "Condition" logic to determine when an action should fire. According to theSolarWinds Platform Alerting Guide, the "Scope" defineswhichobjects the alert engine should evaluate, while the "Condition" defineswhatperformance metric triggers the alert.

To limit an alert to a specific set of router interfaces, the administrator mustmodify the scope on the trigger conditions. In the Alert Wizard, under the "Trigger Condition" tab, there is a section titled "I want to alert on..." (Interface) and a secondary section for "The scope of the alert". By adding specific rules to this scope—such as Node Name is Router-A or Interface Alias contains WAN—the alert engine will ignore the thousands of other interfaces in the database and only monitor the 75% utilization threshold on those specific targets. Using account limitations (Option D) is incorrect for this purpose, as account limitations affect what ausersees in the console, not how the backendalerting engineprocesses data.

In the SolarWinds Platform, the "Node" acts as the primary parent object for all other monitored elements related to that IP address or hostname. According to theSolarWinds Platform Node Managementguide, the deletion process follows a strict parent-child relationship hierarchy.

When an administrator selects a node and chooses to delete it, thenode and all its associated objects are immediately removed (B)from the active monitoring database. Associated objects include interfaces, volumes, hardware health sensors, and application monitors (such as those assigned via SAM). This is an irreversible action. Unlike "Unmanaging" or "Muting," which keep the node record intact, "Delete" purges the entity and its historical data pointers from the current view.

It is important to understand that while the records are removed from the web console immediately, the actual data rows in the SQL database may be marked for deletion and cleared during the next scheduled "Database Maintenance" (Option C). However, from the perspective of the user and the monitoring engine, theresultis immediate: the node stops being polled, its alerts are cancelled, and it no longer appears in any dashboards or reports. The platform does not allow "orphaned" objects; you cannot have a monitored interface in the database if its parent node has been deleted (Option D).

The alerting engine in SolarWinds is specifically designed to transform raw monitoring data into actionable intelligence. According to theSolarWinds Platform Alerting Guide, while the system collects thousands of data points every minute, the purpose of an alert is to filter that noise andnotify of critical events (C)that require human attention.

A "critical event" is defined as any state change that violates a predefined performance threshold or availability requirement—such as a server going down, a disk reaching 95% capacity, or a critical application service stopping. By configuring alerts, IT teams can move away from "dashboard watching" and instead rely on the system to push notifications via email, SMS, or ticketing systems only when an issue occurs.

Tracking normal operations (Option D) is the role ofReportingandDashboards, which provide long-term visibility into healthy trends. Automating scheduled tasks (Option A) is typically handled by theJob Engineor external scripts. While alertscanbe configured for minor device changes (Option B), theirprimaryand most vital function in an observability platform is to ensure that the staff is immediately aware of failures or performance degradations that could impact business operations.

SolarWinds agents support two communication modes: "Server-Initiated" (Passive) and "Agent-Initiated" (Active). According to theSolarWinds Platform Agent requirements and port information, the direction of communication determines which firewall ports must be open.

When an agent is configured forAgent-Initiated communication(where the agent on the managed node reaches out to the SolarWinds server), it usesTCP port 17778. This port must be open for inbound traffic on the SolarWinds Main Polling Engine or Additional Polling Engine. This mode is highly beneficial for monitoring servers in DMZs or remote sites where the SolarWinds server cannot initiate a connection through the firewall, but the remote node is allowed to communicate back to the primary management network. Port 17777 (Option B) is used for the legacy Orion Information Service, and 17790 (Option D) is used for specific client-to-server messaging in different contexts, but 17778 is the dedicated, encrypted port for agent-initiated data transmission.

SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability provides robust reporting capabilities designed for both technical analysis and executive presentation. TheSolarWinds Platform Reporting Guidespecifies that reports generated through the Web Console can be delivered or manually exported in several standardized formats.

Excel (.xls/.xlsx): This format is primarily used for data-heavy reports where administrators need to perform further calculations, sorting, or external data manipulation. It allows the raw table data from the report to be easily ingested into other business intelligence tools.

PDF: This is the standard format for automated delivery and "executive-ready" documentation. It preserves the visual layout, including charts, logos, and specific formatting defined in the report builder.

While the platform usesJSON(Option B) for internal API communications and some dashboard configurations, andtxt(Option D) might be used for certain log exports, they are not standard selectable "export formats" within the primary Web-Based Report builder for end-user consumption. The primary focus of the reporting engine is providing human-readable (PDF) and spreadsheet-compatible (Excel) outputs.

When creating a web-based report in the SolarWinds Platform, the first step is defining the "Selection Method" for the entities you want to include. According to theSolarWinds Platform Reporting Guide, the platform offers two primary user-friendly ways to define the scope of a report:

Static Selection: This method allows the administrator to manually pick specific nodes, interfaces, or applications from a list. This is best suited for reports targeting a fixed set of infrastructure, such as "Core Data Center Switches".

Dynamic Query Builder: This is the most powerful method for automated reporting. It allows you to define a set of rules—such as "Vendor is Cisco" and "Department is Finance"—that automatically update the report's content as new devices are added to monitoring that match those criteria.

While advanced users can useSWQL(SolarWinds Query Language) orSQLto define a custom selection,PostgreSQL(Option B) is not used as the backend database for the SolarWinds Platform. Furthermore, whilePowerShell(Option C) can be used toextractdata via the SolarWinds Information Service (SWIS) API, it is not a selection method used within the native Web-Based Report builder interface.

In Hybrid Cloud Observability (HCO), specifically within theAlertStackfeature, related alerts are grouped into clusters to reduce "alert fatigue" and provide a unified view of an incident. According to theSolarWinds HCO Alerting Guide, an alert cluster transitions through several states based on the status of the underlying trigger conditions.

When the primary issues that triggered the alerts within the cluster are addressed and the "Reset Conditions" for those alerts are satisfied, the cluster is automatically managed by the system. The term used to define a cluster that has met its end conditions isauto-closed. Unlike manual "acknowledgment" or "resolution," which are user-driven actions, "auto-closed" signifies that the platform's monitoring engine has verified the environment has returned to a healthy state and the cluster no longer requires active monitoring or intervention. This automated lifecycle management is central to the AIOps and machine-learning capabilities of the platform, ensuring that the dashboard only reflects currently active, actionable incidents rather than historical events that have already been naturally corrected.

SolarWinds distinguishes between "viewing" reports and "managing" them through account permissions. According to theSolarWinds Platform User Account Managementguides, standard users can typically view, run, and export reports that they have access to.

However, administrative actions that affect the system's resource usage or global configurations require theManage Reportspermission:

Modify report schedule (C): Only users with management rights can create, edit, or delete the schedules that automatically email reports to recipients. This is a security measure to prevent unauthorized users from flooding mail servers or accessing sensitive data via automated delivery.

Change report timing (A): This refers to editing the "Time Period" or "Schedule" settings within a report's core definition. Altering these parameters changes the report for all users, so it is restricted to those with "Manage" rights.

Exporting a report(Option B) andrunning an existing report(Option D) are fundamental "read-only" actions available to any user who has been granted report viewing rights.