SCP-NPM Exam Dumps - SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) Exam

Sometimes, the Orion Platform may not be able to automatically map the connection between your cloud server and on premise router, even if layer 2 and layer 3 topologies are being polled on the devices. This may happen if the devices are separated by a firewall, a VPN, or a NAT device that prevents the Orion Platform from discovering the link information. In such cases, you can manually create a custom connection between the cloud node and the on premise node on the Orion Map. You can also edit the properties of the custom connection, such as the name, the status, the bandwidth, and the utilization. By creating a custom connection, you can visualize and monitor the connection between your cloud server and on premise router on the Orion Map12. References:

• Create custom connections on Orion Maps - SolarWinds
• SCP Study Aid - SolarWinds (page 10)

NPM can monitor the virtualization host hardware health, VM sprawl, and virtualization host and VM performance metrics using the Virtualization Manager Integration feature1. However,NPM cannot display the virtualization environment tree, which shows the hierarchical relationship between the virtualization hosts, clusters, datastores, and VMs. This feature is only available in Virtualization Manager2, a separate product that can be integrated with NPM. References: 1: Network Performance Monitor Administrator Guide - Monitor virtual infrastructure 2: Virtualization Manager Getting Started Guide - View the virtualization environment tree

 To assign users access to select reports, you can use custom properties and account limitations to restrict the scope of data that users can view and report on. Custom properties are user-defined fields that you can assign to monitored objects, such as nodes, interfaces, or applications. Account limitations are rules that you can apply to user accounts to filter the network data that users can access and view. By using custom properties and account limitations together, you can create granular and flexible report access for different users or groups. For example, you can create a custom property called Department and assign it to nodes thatbelong to different departments in your organization. Then, you can create an account limitation based on the Department custom property and assign it to users who only need to see and report on the nodes in their own department. References: How to create different Orion Support Users and assign them different properties in NPM, Define what users can access and do in the SolarWinds Platform

The Orion platform supports agent-based monitoring for Windows, Linux/Unix, and AIX systems. An Orion agent is software that provides a communication channel between the Orion server and the target system, as an alternative to WMI or SNMP. Agent-based monitoring can offer better performance, security, and reliability than agentless monitoring, especially for remote or cloud-based systems. The Orion platform does not support agent-based monitoring for Sun Solaris or IBM systems, as they are not compatible with the agent software. References: Monitor with SolarWinds Platform agents in SAM, SolarWinds Platform Agent requirements, Orion Platform | SolarWinds

 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.

 According to the SolarWinds NPM Administrator Guide, you can edit the node properties of any device and change the polling method to suit your needs. The polling method determines what data is collected and displayed for the node. The “Most Devices: SNMP and ICMP” polling method collects and displays the most comprehensive data, including CPU load, memory utilization, interface statistics, and more. The “Status Only: ICMP” polling method only collects and displays the node status, average response time, and packet loss. If you want to monitor the other statistics on switch A, you should change the polling method to “Most Devices: SNMP and ICMP”. This will not affect the historical data that has already been collected for switch A, as it will be stored in the database. However, deleting switch A and adding it again, or adding switch A again without deleting it first, will result in losing the historical data or creating duplicate nodes. References: SolarWinds NPM Administrator Guide, page 78-79; Polling methods used by Orion

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

For any node you monitor, you cannot use Network Discovery to automatically add child volumes or interfaces for monitoring. Network Discovery is a tool that helps you identify and add new devices to your network, but it does not automatically monitor all the components of the discovered devices. You need to manually select the volumes or interfaces you want to monitor from the list of resources on each node. You can also use the Network Sonar Results Wizard to filter and add the resources you want to monitor after running a discovery job. References:

• Discover your network with NPM - SolarWinds (see the Monitoring Settings panel section)
• Network Discovery Tool - Automated Discovery Software | SolarWinds (see the Monitor Devices section)

An alert limitation is a filter that restricts the scope of an alert to a specific set of objects, such as nodes, interfaces, applications, or groups. You can use an alert limitation to create an alert that only applies to a select set of nodes in your network, and exclude the rest. To set an alert limitation for the nodes to be included in the alert, follow these steps1:

• Click Alerts & Activity > Alerts > Manage Alerts.
• Find the alert that you want to edit or create a new alert.
• On the Trigger Condition tab, define the condition that triggers the alert, such as Percent Loss is greater than or equal to 50.
• On the Scope of Alert tab, select Limit the scope of this alert to a specific subset of objects.
• Choose the method to define the subset of objects, such as Select objects manually, Use a custom SWQL query, or Use a custom SQL query.
• Select or enter the criteria to filter the objects, such as the node name, IP address, group, custom property, or any other attribute.
• Click Add Selected Objects to add the objects to the alert limitation.
• Click Next and complete the rest of the alert configuration.

You can now save and enable the alert, and it will only notify you when packet loss meets or exceeds 50% for the nodes that you have selected in the alert limitation. References: 1: Limit the objects an alert applies to

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 limit a user to only monitor Windows servers and not be able to view other devices that NPM monitors. For example, you can create a custom limitation based on the node property Operating System, and select only Windows as the value. Then, you can apply this limitation to the user account or user group that you want to restrict. The other options are not effective ways of limiting user access to specific devices, as they either affect the visibility of the entire view (view permissions), the layout of the view (account views), or the scope of the alerts (alert limitations). References:

• Limit user access to network areas with account limitations
• Create custom account limitations

 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]

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. References: 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

Capacity usage trends are calculated based on historical data. By default, the longest time period taken into account for calculating the capacity forecast is 180 days. The more historical data up to 180 days are available, the more precise is the calculated forecast. Forecast calculation methods include peak calculation and average calculation, which can be set globally or customized for individual objects. Capacity forecasting is available for nodes, interfaces, and volumes that meet certain requirements, such as being managed in NPM and having enough historical data in the database. References: Monitor capacity usage trends on the network and forecast capacity issues in NPM, Forecast capacity for nodes, interfaces, or volumes in NPM, Real-Time Network Monitoring Tool

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

According to the SolarWinds NPM Administrator Guide, custom charts are created using the Orion Web Console and are not compatible with Excel file formats. Therefore, the only option to export a report with custom charts is to use a PDF format. Other report formats, such as HTML, CSV, or TXT, are supported for reports without custom charts. References: SolarWinds NPM Administrator Guide, page 171; Export reports to Excel - Forum, reply by ElisabethZakes; How to Export NPM Report Writer Data to Excel (xls or csv)??? - Forum, reply by borgan.

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.

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

NPM requires only one agent for Quality of Experience, NetPath, and system monitoring on the same Windows server. The agent is a software component that collects data from the server and sends it to the Orion server1. The agent can perform multiple tasks, such as packet analysis, network path analysis, and system health monitoring, depending on the configuration and the license2. You can install the agent on the server either manually or remotely from the Orion Web Console3. References: 1: Network Performance Monitor Administrator Guide - Agents 2: Network Performance Monitor Getting Started Guide - Monitor with agents 3: Network Performance Monitor Installation Guide - Install agents

 Device Studio is a feature in the SolarWinds Platform Web Console that allows you to create custom pollers for devices or technologies that are not supported by default in NPM. You can use Device Studio to create pollers for CPU and memory, as well as other metrics, by defining the object identifiers (OIDs) and formulas that you want to poll. Device Studio currently supports SNMP and WMI polling technologies, and you can test, assign, and edit your custom pollers from the Manage Pollers page. References: Create pollers in Device Studio for NPM, Device Studio, Device Studio Poller.