SCP-NPM SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) Exam Questions and Answers

When you create or edit an alert, you can test the trigger and reset actions by clicking Simulate next to the action you want to test. This will execute the action regardless of the trigger condition. You can also select an object to resolve any variables you have used in your action. For example, if your action is to send an email with the node name and status, you can select a node to see how the email will look like. This way, you can ensure the trigger actions you set on an alert will work as expected.  References :  Test alert triggers and actions in the SolarWinds Platform ,  How to Create Intelligent Alerts with NPM ,  How alerts work .

Orion agents are software components that you can install on nodes to collect and send data to the Orion server. Orion agents do not require a separate license, as they are included in the license of the Orion Platform product that you are using, such as NPM. You can install and use as many agents as you need, as long as you do not exceed the number of licensed nodes, interfaces, or volumes for your product. Orion agents can use either agent-initiated or server-initiated communication, depending on your network configuration and security requirements.  References :  NPM Administrator Guide , page 67;  SCP Study Aid - NPM , page 15.

 SolarWinds NPM can monitor various metrics on an Ethernet switch, including configuration changes, duplex mismatches, and CPU utilization.  Configuration changes are tracked by the Network Configuration Manager (NCM) integration, which allows you to view, compare, and restore configuration files, as well as receive alerts on configuration changes 1 .  Duplex mismatches are detected by the topology polling feature, which collects and displays the duplex mode of the connected devices and interfaces, and alerts you when there is a mismatch 2 .  CPU utilization is monitored by the SNMP polling feature, which collects and displays the CPU load of the switch, as well as other performance metrics such as memory utilization, interface statistics, and more 3 . Buffer misses are not monitored by NPM, as they are not part of the standard SNMP MIBs that NPM supports.  References :  Monitor configuration changes on network devices with NPM ;  Detect and predict duplex mismatches in NPM ;  Monitor CPU load, memory utilization, and buffer usage on switches and routers ; [Buffer Misses - Forum].

SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) is a comprehensive monitoring solution designed to provide a wide range of metrics for network devices.  For an Ethernet switch, NPM can monitor configuration changes, buffer misses, duplex mismatches, and CPU utilization 1

https://support.solarwinds.com/SuccessCenter/s/article/VMAN-and-IVIM-feature-comparison?language=en_US

High Traffic Utilization alerts are triggered when the interface’s received or transmitted percent utilization exceeds a specified threshold. However, this may not reflect the actual network congestion, as traffic spikes can occur momentarily and then subside. To avoid false alerts, you can configure the alert to trigger only when the traffic utilization remains high for a sustained period, such as 5 minutes or more. This way, you can filter out the transient traffic peaks and focus on the persistent issues that affect the network performance.  References :

How do I create a high transmit percent utilization alert to monitor interface bandwidth

Trouble with High receive percent utilization alert

How alerts work

SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) is a protocol that allows network managers to monitor and control network devices using a set of standardized messages and data structures. SNMP uses a client-server model, where the network manager (client) sends requests to the network device (server) and receives responses. The network device has an SNMP agent that collects and reports the data using a MIB (Management Information Base), which is a hierarchical database of variables that describe the device’s status and configuration.  Each variable in the MIB has a unique identifier called an OID (Object Identifier), which is a dot-separated sequence of numbers that follows a tree structure 1 2 .

To retrieve a single value in SNMP, you can use two types of requests: GET and GET NEXT. A GET request asks for the value of a specific OID, and the SNMP agent responds with the value if it exists, or an error if it does not. A GET NEXT request asks for the value of the next OID in the MIB tree, and the SNMP agent responds with the value and the OID of the next variable, or an error if there is no next variable.  A GET NEXT request can be useful for discovering the OIDs and values of a device, or for iterating over a table of values 3 4 .

A GET VALUE request is not a valid SNMP request, and a GET TABLE request is not a single request, but a series of GET NEXT requests that retrieve all the values in a table .  References :  1 : SNMP Basics,  2 : SNMP Tutorial Part 1 – Understanding MIBs and OIDs,  3 : SNMP Tutorial Part 2 – SNMP Get, GetNext, GetBulk,  4 : SNMP Commands, : SNMP Table Operations, : SNMP Table Retrieval

The Action Manager is a feature of the Orion Platform that allows you to create, edit, and delete actions for scheduled reports 1 .  Actions are the tasks that are performed when a report is generated, such as sending an email, saving a file, or printing a report 2 .  You can use the Action Manager to edit the email address for each action on each report schedule, without affecting the report content or schedule 3 .  References :  1 : Network Performance Monitor Administrator Guide - Use the Action Manager  2 : Network Performance Monitor Administrator Guide - Schedule a report  3 : SolarWinds Certified Professional Program - Reporting Exam Study Guide - Use the Action Manager

NPM uses SNMP to collect utilization statistics from network devices, such as routers, switches, firewalls, etc.  If NPM only shows Availability and Response Time statuses for a device, it means that SNMP is not configured correctly on that device or NPM cannot access the device via SNMP 1 . Some possible reasons for this are:

The device does not support SNMP or SNMP is disabled on the device

The device has a different SNMP version or community string than NPM

The device has a firewall or access control list that blocks SNMP traffic from NPM

The device has a misconfigured SNMP agent or MIB To troubleshoot this issue, you can use the SNMP Test Tool in NPM to verify the SNMP settings and connectivity of the device 2 .  You can also check the device logs and configuration to ensure that SNMP is enabled and properly configured 3 .  References :  1 : Network Performance Monitor Administrator Guide - Troubleshoot SNMP issues  2 : Network Performance Monitor Administrator Guide - Test SNMP access  3 : Network Performance Monitor Getting Started Guide - Troubleshoot SNMP issues

According to the SolarWinds Platform Agent requirements, the average resource consumption of an agent is less than 1% CPU, max 1 MB of memory, and 1 MB storage on the target computer. The agent software is designed to be lightweight and efficient, and does not impact the performance of the monitored devices. The other options are incorrect, as they either overestimate or underestimate the resource consumption of the agent, or imply that the agent does not use any local resources at all.  References :  SolarWinds Platform Agent requirements , section “SolarWinds Platform Agent resource consumption”.

 Account limitations are a way of restricting the access of Orion user accounts to specific network objects, such as nodes, interfaces, groups, maps, or alerts. You can use account limitations to prevent a user from seeing or working with select monitored entities through the SolarWinds server. For example, you can limit a user to see only the nodes in a certain group, or only the maps that they have created. You can apply account limitations to individual users or user groups, and you can choose from predefined limitations or create custom limitations based on custom properties. The other options are not effective ways of limiting user access to monitored entities, as they either affect the monitoring status of the entities (unmanage), the permissions of the entities themselves (configure permissions), or the alerting scope of the entities (configure alert limitations).  References :

Limit user access to network areas with account limitations

Predefined Orion Platform account limitations

Create custom account limitations

Orion Maps can automatically display the connections between the devices that are monitored by NPM, based on topology data, manual dependencies, or application dependency mapping. However, if some of the devices are not monitored by NPM, or the connections are not detected by any of these methods, you can manually configure the connections between them in Orion Maps. To do this, you need to drag and drop the desired devices from the Entity Library to the map canvas, and then use the Connect tool to draw lines between them. You can also edit the connection properties, such as name, type, and status, to customize the appearance and behavior of the connections.  References :  Create and edit Intelligent Maps ,  Connect objects on maps manually ,  Intelligent Maps for SolarWinds Platform products

Universal Device Pollers (UnDPs) are custom pollers that allow you to monitor specific aspects of your network devices using SNMP. You can apply UnDPs to any object type that supports SNMP polling, such as interfaces, nodes, and volumes. You cannot apply UnDPs to applications, because they are not SNMP-based objects. Applications are monitored using Application Performance Monitor (APM), which uses different methods, such as WMI, scripts, or agents, to collect data.  References :  Monitor custom statistics based on OIDs with Universal Device Pollers in NPM ,  Assign Universal Device Pollers to devices monitored in NPM ,  Add and assign Universal Device Pollers

The Export to Excel button is only displayed if the report contains only custom table resources. Other resources cannot be converted to the Excel format. https://documentation.solarwinds.com/en/success_center/orionplatform/content/core-exporting-reports-sw1547.htm#:~:text=the%20Excel%20format.-,Click%20Reports%20%3E%20All%20Reports%20in%20the%20menu%20bar%2C%20and%20click,Click%20either%20Export%20as%20Excel .

 Bandwidth usage is the amount of data transferred over a network connection in a given time period. It is an indicator of how much traffic is flowing through a network device or link. Peak network traffic is the highest level of bandwidth usage that occurs during a specific time interval, such as an hour, a day, or a week. Monitoring peak network traffic can help you identify potential bottlenecks, plan for capacity, and optimize network performance. NPM can monitor bandwidth usage on nodes and interfaces using SNMP, WMI, or NetFlow protocols. You can view bandwidth usage charts and reports in the web console, as well as set alerts and thresholds for bandwidth utilization.  References :  Monitor bandwidth usage in NPM ;  SCP Study Aid - NPM , page 11.

 To monitor tenants in your SDN environment with NPM Cisco ACI monitoring, you need to add an APIC node to NPM and enable API polling on the APIC node.  The APIC node is the controller of the ACI system that provides a full view of the SDN environment, including tenants, application profiles, endpoint groups, spine and leaf switches, and their health scores 1 .  By enabling API polling on the APIC node, NPM can collect health and performance data for the ACI entities and display them on the Orion Web Console 2 .  You do not need to enable API polling on all ACI devices, as one APIC node can provide the information for the entire ACI system 3 .  You also do not need to view your SDN environment in Orion Maps, as this is an optional feature that allows you to visualize the relationships and dependencies among the ACI entities 4 .  References :  1 : Monitor Cisco ACI devices in NPM - SolarWinds 1   2 : Monitor Cisco ACI devices in NPM - Add ACI devices and enable ACI polling 1   3 : Monitor Cisco ACI devices in NPM - Requirements 1   4 : Monitor Cisco ACI devices in NPM - View ACI environment on SolarWinds Platform Maps 1

SNMP traps are unsolicited messages sent by SNMP-enabled devices to notify the NPM server of important events or problems, such as device failures, configuration changes, or performance issues. SNMP traps contain information about the device and the event, such as the device name, IP address, timestamp, and OID (Object Identifier). An OID is a unique identifier for a specific variable in a MIB (Management Information Base), which is a hierarchical database of device information that can be accessed by SNMP. However, not all OIDs are recognized by NPM by default, as different devices may use different or custom MIBs and OIDs. Therefore, to ensure NPM correctly interprets SNMP traps from a new router on your network, you need to update the MIB database with the latest MIBs from the router vendor or from the SolarWinds website.  This will allow NPM to translate the OIDs in the SNMP traps into meaningful names and values, and display them in the Trap Viewer or use them in alerts 1 2 .

To update the MIB database, follow these steps 3 :

Download the MIB files from the router vendor’s website or from the SolarWinds MIB Database.

Copy the MIB files to the  \SolarWinds\Orion\Mibs  folder on the NPM server.

Click  Settings > All Settings > Manage MIBs .

Click  Add New MIB  and browse to the MIB file that you want to add.

Click  Submit .

Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each MIB file that you want to add.

Click  Compile  to compile the MIBs and update the MIB database.

You can now view the SNMP traps from the new router in the Trap Viewer or use them in alerts.  References :  1 : SNMP Traps Explained: How to View SNMP Traps,  2 : SNMP Traps in NPM,  3 : Update the SolarWinds MIB Database for the SolarWinds Platform, : SolarWinds MIB Database, :  2 , :  1 , : 3, : 4

 SNMP traps are unsolicited messages sent by network devices to report events or issues. If NPM receives too many traps from devices that are not managed by NPM, or traps that are not relevant for monitoring, the performance of the Orion Web Console can be affected. To resolve this issue, you can point the devices to a trap manager, such as  Kiwi Syslog Server , and configure it to filter out unwanted traps before forwarding the remaining ones to the Orion Platform. This way, NPM will only process the traps that are important for monitoring and alerting, and reduce the load on the database and web server.  References :  Configure SNMP traps in NPM ,  Filter traps in Kiwi Syslog Server , [Forward traps to another host in Kiwi Syslog Server]

To detect duplex mismatches, you need to meet the following requirements 1 :

The nodes must be monitored by NPM.

The nodes must be in the up state during the discovery.

The nodes must support topology and be interconnected.

Duplex of both devices must be identified as full or half.

The Possible Duplex Mismatches widget must be enabled on the node details view.

You do not need to ensure corresponding values for each interface are different, as this is the result of a duplex mismatch, not a requirement for detection.  In fact, you should unify the duplex mode configuration on neighboring interfaces to avoid mismatches 1 .

Network Discovery is a feature of SolarWinds NPM that allows you to automatically discover and add network devices to the Orion Platform for monitoring. You can use Network Discovery to query Domain Controllers in your company domain and then select the Organizational Units (OUs) with the registered devices you want to scan. This way, you can add entities from NPM to monitor for all registered devices in your company domain in a single discovery. The other options are not as efficient or accurate as Network Discovery, as they either require manual addition of each device, or rely on the Domain Controllers to provide the list of registered devices, which may not be up-to-date or complete.  References :

Discover your network devices and add them to the Orion Platform

Discover devices on your network using Active Directory

Orion Maps 2.0 supports displaying Palo Alto firewalls as network devices, along with their interfaces, zones, policies, and traffic data. You can also view the firewall status, alerts, and events on the map. To add a Palo Alto firewall to an Orion Map, you need to have Network Insight for Palo Alto enabled in NPM, and discover the firewall using SNMP and API polling.  References :  Orion Maps 2.0, New Alerting, and Palo Alto Networks Monitoring - SolarWinds Lab Episode #77 ,  SolarWinds Lab Episode 77: Orion Maps 2.0, New Alerting, and Palo Alto Networks Monitoring - Orange Matter , Network Insight for Palo Alto Networks in NPM