SCP-NPM Practice Questions

NPM provides a default report called Top 25 Interfaces by Percent Utilization that shows the

interfaces with the highest average utilization over the selected time period1. This report can be

easily edited to change the number of interfaces displayed, the time period, the sorting order, the

layout, and the filters2. To create a report that shows the top 50 interfaces by percent utilization, you

can simply edit this report and change the Limit option from 25 to 503. This is the most time-efficient

way to create the report, as it does not require creating a new report from scratch, writing a SQL

query, or running the report multiple times for different timeframes. Reference: 1: Network

Performance Monitor Administrator Guide - Top 25 Interfaces by Percent Utilization 2: Network

Performance Monitor Administrator Guide - Edit a report 3: Network Performance Monitor Getting

Started Guide - Customize a report

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. Reference: 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

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. Reference: 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

According to the SolarWinds NPM Administrator Guide, you can use Orion groups to organize your

network objects based on any criteria, such as location, device type, department, etc. You can then

apply account limitations based on Orion groups to restrict user access to only the network objects

that belong to a specific group. For example, you can create two Orion groups, one for Sydney and

one for Perth, and assign the devices in each location to the corresponding group. Then, you can use

the single group Account limitation to limit the users in Sydney to only view the Sydney group, and

the users in Perth to only view the Perth group. Reference: SolarWinds NPM Administrator Guide,

page 163-165; Limit users to specific network areas in the SolarWinds Platform

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 alerts12.

To update the MIB database, follow these steps3:

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. Reference: 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

NPM provides several default reports that can be used as templates for creating custom reports. One

of them is the Top 100 Interfaces by Percent Utilization report, which shows the average and peak

utilization of the most used interfaces in the network. To create a report that shows only the top 50

interfaces, you can copy this report and edit it to change the number of rows displayed. You can also

modify other parameters such as the time period, the grouping, the sorting, and the filtering

criteria. To copy and edit a default report, follow these steps1:

Click Reports > All Reports > Manage Reports.

Find the Top 100 Interfaces by Percent Utilization report and click Duplicate & Edit.

On the Layout Builder panel, click Edit Table.

On the Edit Resource panel, change the Maximum Number of Rows to 50.

Optionally, change other settings such as the Time Period, the Group By, the Sort By, and the Filter

Results.

Click Submit.

Optionally, change the Report Name, the Report Description, and the Report Category.

Click Next and then Save.

You can now run or schedule the report to show the top 50 interfaces by percent

utilization. Reference: 1: Create a custom report for NPM showing availability of devices in the last 30

days

The Discovery Ignore List is a feature that allows you to specify the IP addresses or hostnames of the

devices that you do not want to monitor or discover in the future. You can add devices to the ignore

list manually or automatically during the discovery process. Once a device is added to the ignore list,

it will be skipped by any subsequent discovery. You can also remove devices from the ignore list if

you change your mind and want to monitor them later. Reference: Add devices to the Discovery

Ignore List in NPM, Remove devices from the Discovery Ignore List in NPM, How to View Devices on

Your Windows Network and What to Do If You Can’t See Them

Device Studio Poller is a feature that allows users to create custom pollers for devices or

technologies that are not supported by default in NPM. It can poll multiple OIDs for a given

technology, perform logical operations or transformations on the polled data, and display the polled

values in existing resources. However, it does not collect data from Orion Failover Engine or Hot

Standby Engines, which are features of Orion High Availability that ensure continuous monitoring in

case of primary server failure12. Reference: 1: Create pollers in Device Studio for NPM3, 2: When

Good OIDs Go Bad: Customizing Device Pollers, 3: Manage Pollers (AKA Device Studio) question

https://documentation.solarwinds.com/en/success_center/orionplatform/content/core-monitoringmibs-with-universal-device-pollers-sw548.htm

To show the connection between two devices on an Orion map, you need to meet the following

requirements1:

The devices must be monitored by NPM.

The devices must support topology and be interconnected.

The devices must have the corresponding interfaces monitored and identified as full or half duplex.

The Orion Maps feature must be enabled and configured.

If you do not see the connection between two devices on an Orion map, you should first verify that

you are monitoring Layer 2 and 3 topologies for the devices. You can do this by checking the NPM

Network Topology widget on the device details page. This widget will reflect what connections will

be automatically drawn in Orion Maps2. If the widget does not show the expected connection, you

may need to enable topology polling for the devices or check the SNMP credentials and

configuration3.

If you are monitoring the correct topologies and still do not see the connection, you can build a

custom connection between the devices using the Orion Maps feature. In the Map Editor, you can

add the two devices to the canvas, select them, and click the Connect Objects button. Here you can

specify the interface on either side and choose to add the manual connection to the database2.

Building a new Orion map and adding the related entities instead of the nodes will not resolve the

issue, as the related entities are based on the same topology data as the nodes. Changing the

monitoring method from SNMP to CLI will not resolve the issue, as CLI is not supported for topology

polling3.

Reference: Orion Maps; Orion Map Devices not connect - Forum; Polling methods used by Orion.

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 structure12.

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 values34.

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 . Reference: 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