SolarWinds. Server and Application Monitor. Onboarding Guide. Version 6.2

Transcription

1 SolarWinds Server and Application Monitor Onboarding Guide Version 6.2 Last Updated: September 14, 2015

2 Table of Contents Server and Application Monitor onboarding guide 4 How SAM works 4 Getting started 5 Installing Server and Application Monitor 6 Your full license 6 Before you begin 7 The installation process 7 System requirements 7 SolarWinds server requirements 8 SolarWinds server hardware requirements 9 Requirements for the Orion database server (SQL Server) 9 Requirements for virtual machines and servers 10 Planning for the installation 11 Installing prerequisite software 13 Installing SAM 13 Installing a full licensed version 13 Installing an evaluation version 13 Activating your license 14 Configuring the product 15 Database authentication 15 Before you begin 15 Configuring SAM 16 Discovering your network 17 The discovery process 17 Collecting the information you need for discovery 17 SNMP credentials 17 Device credentials 18 Enabling SNMP on monitored devices 18 2

3 Using the Network Sonar Wizard to discover your network 18 Adding devices to SAM 20 Monitoring your IT environment 23 Controlling nodes, applications, and components with Server & Application Monitor 23 Viewing the Node Details page 23 Viewing the Application Details page 24 Viewing the Component Details page 24 Monitoring hardware health to identify issues with system hardware 24 Monitoring Active Directory with a template 25 Before you begin 25 Monitoring an SQL Server with an AppInsight for SQL application 28 Before you begin 29 Triggering an alert when Active Directory goes down 32 Performing root cause analysis with AppStack 36 Identifying the most expensive SQL database queries 39 Next steps in your onboarding journey 42 Summary 42 What's next? 42 3

4 Server and Application Monitor onboarding guide This guide shows you how to quickly install and configure Server and Application Monitor (SAM), to help you get to work solving real problems in your IT environment. How SAM works SolarWinds SAM provides real time feedback on your applications and trending through statistics stored in the Orion database using UDP, TCP, SNMP and WMI calls to your network framework and application servers. Using the SolarWinds common components infrastructure, there are no agents installed on your servers and no remote software to maintain. All calls are made in real time and displayed on a Web Console accessible from any supported browser. The following graphic illustrates SAM operations as a standalone product: 4

5 Getting started By the end of this guide you will have installed SAM, discovered your servers and applications, and will be using standard features to monitor your IT environment. To obtain a copy of SAM, download an evaluation copy from our website or, if you are a customer, download your copy from the SolarWinds Customer Portal. 5

6 Installing Server and Application Monitor Before you begin, identify the installation type. You download an evaluation version from and download a licensed version from the SolarWinds Customer Portal. INSTALLATION NAME DEFINITION / USE This installation is fully functional for 30 days and for evaluation purposes only. No activation key is required. SolarWinds-SAM-<version number>-eval.exe Microsoft SQL Server Express is automatically installed. Use that database to store monitoring data, or configure the server to use another database. Do not use SQL Server Express in a production deployment. Purchase a license and apply the activation key to convert an evaluation version to a full version. SolarWinds-SAM-<version number>-full.exe If you purchased a license, install the Full version. Your full license If you have an evaluation version, skip this section. All installations run as an evaluation until you apply an activation key. If you purchased and installed a licensed copy, use an activation key to activate the software. The license key limits your use based on the number of deployed Component Monitors. A Component Monitor is a measurement of application health and availability that requires monitoring. It can be a process, a service, a performance counter, and so on. Database size increases with the addition of monitored elements. An application typically consumes component monitors. Use the license information below to determine where to install the software in your corporate enterprise. To learn more about how SAM is licensed, click here. LICENSE MONITORING CAPACITY AL150 AL300 AL700 AL1100 ALX 150 Component Monitors 300 Component Monitors 700 Component Monitors 1100 Component Monitors An unlimited number of Component Monitors with standard polling throughput 6

7 Before you begin You should have the following information available before you begin installation and discovering the network: The IP addresses you want the system to scan as it discovers your network. Windows credentials so that the system discovers AppInsight applications. SSH credentials so that Linux nodes can be discovered. The SNMP v1/2/3 community strings of the devices you want to monitor. Know how to log in to each monitored device and set up SNMP polling and verify the password. VMware API credentials. The system requires Read Only permissions. System resources on which you install the server and the database. The installation process The following topics guide you through each step of the installation process. System requirements You will need to identify the servers that will host the software. The system requirements tables below will help you determine which machines to use. When planning your SolarWinds environment: SolarWinds recommends Microsoft Windows Server 2008 or Windows Server 2012 for the server operating system. For evaluation installations you can install the Orion server and the SQL database on the same machine. However, for production installations you must install them on separate machines. The following sections provide specific requirements: SolarWinds server requirements SolarWinds server hardware requirements Requirements for the Orion database server (SQL Server) Requirements for virtual machines and servers SolarWinds does not support installations of multiple SolarWinds SAM servers using the same database or installing SAM on domain controllers. 7

8 SolarWinds server requirements This table lists software requirements and for your SolarWinds server. SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2, Windows Server 2008 R2 with Internet Information Services (IIS) in 32-bit mode, Windows 2012, Windows 2012 R2, or Windows 2012 Datacenter edition. Operating System IIS must be installed. Production installations of SolarWinds products on Windows XP, Windows Vista, or Windows 7 systems are not supported. For installation on Windows Server 2003, confirm your computer name does not exceed 15 characters. Any characters beyond the fifteenth are trimmed. This can prevent SolarWinds services from identifying your SolarWinds server. Local administrator privileges ensure full functionality of local SolarWinds tools. Accounts limited to the SolarWinds Web Console do not require administrator privileges. Microsoft IIS, version 6.5 and higher. Host names must be composed of alphanumeric characters (A-Z, 0-9), the minus sign (-), and periods (.). Underscore characters (_) are not allowed. For more information, see RFC 952. Warning: The following Windows accounts, as configured by IIS 6.5 on Windows Server 2003 R2 SP2 with their default security settings, are required: Web Server IUSR_<hostname>, as a member of the Guests group ONLY. IWAM_<hostname>, as a member of the IIS_WPG group ONLY. Disabling or changing any default settings of these accounts can generate unexpected results. SolarWinds strongly recommends against altering these accounts or their settings. SolarWinds neither recommends nor supports the installation of any SolarWinds SAM product on the same server or using the same database server as a Research in Motion (RIM) Blackberry server..net Framework SNMP Trap Services Web Console Browser.NET Framework versions 3.5 and 4.0 are required. Windows operating system management and monitoring tools component Microsoft Internet Explorer version 8 or higher with Active scripting Firefox version 35 or higher (Toolset Integration is not supported on Firefox) Google Chrome version 39 or higher 8

9 SolarWinds server hardware requirements The following table lists minimum hardware requirements by the SolarWinds license level. HARDWARE AL150 - AL500 AL700 AL1500 ALX CPU Speed 2.4 GHz Dual Core 3.0 GHz Quad Core 3.0 GHz SolarWinds recommends dual processor or an Intel Dual Core for all license levels. 4 GB 10 GB 25 GB Hard Drive Space SolarWinds recommends a RAID 1 (mirroring) drive configuration for the server operating system, SolarWinds installation, and tempdb files. The SolarWinds installer needs 1 GB on the drive where temporary Windows system or user variables are stored. Memory 4 GB 6 GB 8 GB Application Ports 161/SNMP and 443/SNMP (VMware ESX/ESXi Servers are polled on 443) 17777/TCP open for SolarWinds module traffic 17778/HTTPS open to access the SolarWinds Information Service API Requirements for the Orion database server (SQL Server) The following table lists software and hardware requirements by SolarWinds license level. HARDWARE AL50 - AL500 AL700 - AL1500 ALX SolarWinds supports the following versions of SQL Server: SQL Server 2008 without SP, with SP1, with SP2, with SP3, or with SP4 SQL Server 2008 R2 without SP, with SP1, or with SP2 SQL Server 2012 without SP or with SP1 or SP2 SQL Server 2014 Notes: SQL Server Due to latency, SolarWinds does not recommend installing your SQL Server and your SolarWinds server, or additional polling engine, in different locations across a WAN. Mixed-mode or SQL authentication must be supported. SolarWinds recommends you install the SQL Server Management Studio component. Use this SQL statement to check your SQL Server version, service pack or release level, and edition: select SERVERPROPERTY ('productversion'), SERVERPROPERTY ('productlevel'), SERVERPROPERTY ('edition') CPU Speed 2.4 GHz Dual Core 3.0 GHz Quad Core 3.0 GHz 9

10 HARDWARE AL50 - AL500 AL700 - AL1500 ALX 4 GB 10 GB 25 GB Hard Drive Space A RAID 1+0 drive configuration is strongly recommended for the SQL Server database and SolarWinds data and log files. RAID 5 is not recommended for the SQL Server hard drive. The SolarWinds installer needs 1 GB on the drive where temporary Windows system or user variables are stored. 4 GB 6 GB 8 GB Memory Memory and Additional Pollers PowerShell Note: SolarWinds recommends additional RAM for SolarWinds SAM installations using more than 1,000 monitors. For optimal performance in larger ALX environments, we recommend 8 GB of RAM or greater. Each additional poller requires 8 GB of additional RAM. SAM's PowerShell Script Monitor works with PowerShell 1.0 and higher for local execution. PowerShell 2.0 or higher is required for remote execution. The Configuration Wizard installs the following required x86 components if they are not found on your Orion database server: Microsoft SQL Server Native Client Microsoft SQL Server Management Objects Requirements for virtual machines and servers SolarWinds installations on VMware Virtual Machines and Microsoft Virtual Servers are fully supported if the following minimum configuration requirements are met for each virtual machine. SolarWinds strongly recommends that you maintain your SQL Server database on a separate physical server. SOLARWINDS REQUIREMENTS BY LICENSE LEVEL HARDWARE AL50 - AL500 AL700 - AL1500 ALX CPU Speed 2.4 GHz Dual Core 3.0 GHz Quad Core 3.0 GHz Allocated Hard Drive Space 4 GB 10 GB 25 GB An SQL Server should be hosted on a separate server configured as RAID 1+0. RAID 5 is not recommended for the SQL Server hard drive. Memory 4 GB 6 GB 8 GB 10

11 SOLARWINDS REQUIREMENTS BY LICENSE LEVEL HARDWARE AL50 - AL500 AL700 - AL1500 ALX Network Interface Each virtual machine on which SolarWinds is installed should have a dedicated network interface card. SolarWinds uses SNMP to monitor your network. If you are unable to dedicate a network interface card to your SolarWinds server, you may experience gaps in monitoring data due to the low priority assigned to SNMP traffic. Planning for the installation This topic contains recommended requirements for sizing a production environment. Server sizing is impacted by the size of the network you want to monitor and the number of SolarWinds products you deploy. Most SolarWinds Orion systems perform well on 3.0 GHz systems with 3 GB of RAM, using default polling engine settings. However, when monitoring larger networks, give additional consideration to the hardware and the system configuration. Variables that affect scalability include: Number of monitored elements: An element is a single, identifiable node, interface, or volume. Polling frequency: SAM regularly polls devices to collect data and determine status. When collecting statistics more frequently than the default nine minutes, your system requirements will increase. Number of simultaneous users: This directly impacts system performance. Use this table to size your SolarWinds environment. SIZE OF DEPLOYMENT PRODUCT APPLICATION SERVER DATABASE SERVER Quad Core Processor 2.5 GHz or better Dual Quad Core Processor 3 GHz or 4-8 GB RAM better 2 x 146 GB 15k Hard 8 GB memory Drives (RAID Mirrored drives for operating system Small SAM AL150 - AL300 1/Mirrored Settings) 1 GBE NIC and 6 disks RAID 1+0 for database data files Windows 2012, or Hardware RAID Controller with a 2008 R2 Server (64- battery backed-up write back cache bit) with IIS Windows 2012 or 2008 R2 Server (64- installed, running in 32-bit mode bit).net 3.5 and

12 SIZE OF DEPLOYMENT PRODUCT APPLICATION SERVER DATABASE SERVER Quad Core Processor 2.5 GHz Medium SAM AL700 AL1100 or better 8-16 GB RAM 2 x 146 GB 15k Hard Drives (RAID 1/Mirrored Settings) 1 GBE NIC Windows 2012, or 2008 R2 Server (64- bit) with IIS installed, running in Dual Quad Core Processor 3 GHz or better 8-15 GB memory Mirrored drives for OS and 6 disks RAID 1+0 for database data files Hardware RAID Controller with a battery backed-up write back cache Windows 2012 or 2008 R2 Server (64- bit) 32-bit mode.net 3.5 and 4.0 Dual Quad Core Processor 3 GHz or better GB RAM (expandable) Hardware RAID Controller with a Large SAM ALX Quad Core Processor 3 GHz or better GB RAM 2 x 146 GB 15k Hard Drives (RAID 1/Mirrored Settings) 1GBE NIC Windows 2012, or 2008 R2 Server (64- bit) with IIS installed, running in 32-bit mode.net 3.5 and 4.0 battery backed-up write back cache Disk Subsystem 1 Array 1: 2 x 146 GB 15K disks RAID 1 (mirroring) operating system Disk Subsystem 2 Array 2: 2 x 146 GB 15K disks RAID 1 (Pagefile + Extra Storage) Disk Subsystem 3 Array 3: with 6x 15K 146 GB or 300 GB Disks configured in a RAID 1+0 arrays to allow for maximum write performance. This is for your SQL MDF And Filegroups Disk Subsystem 4 Array 4: with 4x 15K 146 GB or 300 GB Disks configured in a RAID 1+0 arrays to allow for maximum write performance. This is for your SQL LDF Transaction LOG File 1Gbit LAN port Windows 2008 R2 Server (64-bit) 12

13 Installing prerequisite software SolarWinds recommends you install.net 3.5 and.net 4.0 before installing SAM. SolarWinds SAM relies on the following software: Microsoft.NET 3.5 and Microsoft.NET 4.0 Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) The system will determine if the prerequisite software is installed. If not, the system installs the software. Microsoft.NET 3.5 and.net 4.0 add considerable time to the installation and may require you to restart the installation. Installing SAM Now you're ready to install SAM! Before you begin: Do not install SAM on domain controllers. If you are using Internet Explorer, SolarWinds recommends you add the URL of your Orion website ( the URL of SolarWinds support ( and about:blank to the list of trusted sites. For evaluation purposes, SAM can be installed on Windows 7. Installing a full licensed version 1. Log in to the server as an administrator. 2. Extract the contents of the installation.zip file you downloaded. 3. Run the SolarWinds-SAM-<version>-Full executable file. 4. Click Next on the Welcome window. 5. If prompted, install Internet Information Services (IIS). 6. Accept the terms of the license agreement. 7. Accept the default directory, or click Browse and select a directory. 8. Enable quality of experience traffic monitoring. 9. Click Next to begin copying the files. Downloading and installing Microsoft.NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and Microsoft.NET Framework 4.0 can take more than 20 minutes. If your system reboots, run the installation again. 10. When installation is complete, click Finish. The system prompts you to activate the product. Installing an evaluation version 1. Log in to the server as an administrator. 2. Run the SolarWinds-SAM-<version>-Eval executable file. 3. Register your address. 13

14 4. Click Next on the Welcome window. 5. Click Express Install to use the Microsoft SQL Server Express database that installs with the product, or click Advanced Install to use your own Microsoft SQL Server database. Do not use Microsoft SQL Server Express in production environments. 6. Select your preferred settings. 7. Accept the terms of the license agreement. 8. Enable quality of experience traffic monitoring. 9. Review the software the system installs. Downloading and installing Microsoft.NET Framework 3.5 SP1 and Microsoft.NET Framework 4.0 can take more than 20 minutes. If your system reboots, run the installation again. 10. When installation is complete, the system configures the product. Click Finish to open the Orion Web Console. If the login page does not open automatically, click Orion Web Console in your SolarWinds Orion program folder. 11. Log in with username admin and leave the password field blank. The Orion Web Console opens. Activating your license After you have installed your Orion product, the system prompts you to enter an activation key. Check out this video on how to activate your license. 1. If you are evaluating SAM, click Continue Evaluation. After you purchase SAM, use the License Manager to activate your license. 2. If you have a full license, click Enter Licensing Information. 3. Obtain a copy of your activation key: a. Log in to the SolarWinds Customer Portal. b. Click License Management > License Management. c. Locate your activation key. 4. On the activation dialog box, select an internet option and enter the activation key. 14

15 5. Enter your information. 6. After the system activates your license, click Finish. The system launches the Configuration Wizard. Configuring the product If you are installing a licensed version or have installed an evaluation copy in Advanced mode, then you need to configure the product. When you configure the product, select the database instance the system uses to store monitoring data and specify the IP address, port, and location for the Orion website. Database authentication When you configure the SolarWinds Orion database, select the authentication method used by the SolarWinds Orion user to access the SolarWinds Orion database. SolarWinds recommends using SQL Server Authentication to ensure the SolarWinds Orion server can always access the SolarWinds Orion database, even when hosted remotely on a separate server. Important: The selected SQL Server instance must support mixed-mode or SQL authentication with strong passwords. A strong password must meet at least three of the following four criteria: contains at least one uppercase letter contains at least one lowercase letter contains at least one number contains at least one non-alphanumeric character, for example, #, %, or ^ If you are using SQL Express, specify your instance as (local). Do not use Microsoft SQL Server Express in a production environment. When creating a new database, the user account must be a member of the dbcreator server role. The sysadmin role and the SA user account are always members of dbcreator. For an existing database, the user account needs only to be in the db_owner database role for the existing database. When creating a new SQL account, the user account must be a member of the securityadmin server role. The sysadmin role and the security administrator user account are always members of securityadmin. If you are using an existing SQL account, the user account should only be in the db_owner database role for the SolarWinds Orion database. Before you begin Confirm that you have designated an SQL Server database instance for SAM. Confirm that the IIS Manager is not open while the Configuration Wizard is running. Close all web browsers. 15

16 Configuring SAM 1. If the Configuration Wizard does not load automatically, click Start > All Programs > SolarWinds Orion > Configuration and Auto-Discovery > Configuration Wizard. 2. On the Welcome dialog box, click Next. 3. If prompted to stop services, click Yes. 4. On the Database Settings dialog box, select an SQL Server and an authentication method and click Next. Use SQL Server Authentication to ensure the SolarWinds Orion server can always access SQL Server, even when hosted remotely on a separate server. 5. On the Database Settings dialog box, click Create a new database, or select an existing database and click Next. Only use alphanumeric characters in database names. 6. On the Database Account dialog box, create a new account, or use an existing account the polling engine and web console use to access the database and click Next. 7. On the Website Settings dialog box: a. Select All Unassigned, unless your environment requires a specific IP address for the Orion Web Console. b. Specify the Port and the Website Root Directory where the system installs the web console files. If you specify any port other than 80, include that port in the URL used to access the web console. c. Click Yes Enable automatic login using Windows Authentication for that function. 8. If prompted to create a new directory or website, click Yes. 9. Review the list of services to install and click Next. 10. Click Yes if prompted to disable the SNMP Trap Service and enable the SolarWinds Trap Service. 11. On the Completing the Orion Configuration Wizard dialog box, click Next. 12. When completed, click Finish to launch the Orion Web Console. 13. Log in with user name admin and leave the password field blank. The Orion Web Console opens. 16

17 Discovering your network Network Sonar Wizard helps you discover servers that need to be monitored. After discovery, the system populates your dashboard with data. Data are not displayed until the discovery process is completed. Once server have been discovered, you can monitor a custom collection of monitored components and create templates to combine process monitors, port availability, and performance counters. These templates allow you to assess the status of every aspect of your application, and the health of the application as a whole. CPU and Memory Utilization charts are automatically enabled for your Microsoft Windows, VMware, and Unix/Linux servers. The discovery process The following topics guide you in each step of the discovery process. Collecting the information you need for discovery Before you begin, ensure you know the Window Management Instrumentation (WMI) credentials so that SAM can monitor Windows devices. If you are monitoring using SNMP, ensure you know the SNMP credentials. SNMP credentials If you are adding an SNMPv1 or SNMPv2c credential, you must know the SNMP Community String. If you are adding an SNMPv3 credential, you must know the: User name Context Authentication Method and Password/Key Privacy/Encryption Method and Password/Key The community strings you provide in the Network Sonar Wizard are only used for SNMP GET requests, so read-only strings are sufficient. 17

18 Device credentials TO DISCOVER... VMware vcenter or ESX servers WMI or RPC-enabled Windows devices Devices located within a range of IP addresses YOU NEED TO KNOW... the user name and password. the user name and password. the start and end address of the IP range. Enabling SNMP on monitored devices If your environment contains Windows-based servers, use WMI to poll those devices. You do not need to enable SNMP on Windows nodes when monitoring with WMI. If you are polling devices with SNMP, then you must enable SNMP on those devices. To enable SNMP, consult the device vendor documentation. When configuring your SNMP-enabled network devices for monitoring, consider the following: For correct device identification, monitored devices must allow access to the SysObjectID. Unix-based devices should use the version of Net-SNMP (5.5 or higher) that is specific to the Unixbased operating system in use. SolarWinds SAM can monitor VMware ESX and ESXi Servers versions 4.0 and higher with VMware Tools installed. If SNMPv2c is enabled on a device you want to monitor, by default, SAM attempts to use SNMPv2c to poll the device for performance information. To poll using only SNMPv1, you must disable SNMPv2c on the polled device. SAM also supports the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) protocol. Using the Network Sonar Wizard to discover your network Before you start, ensure you know: SNMPv1 or SNMPv2c community strings SNMPv3 user names, passwords, authentication methods, and privacy or encryption methods VMware credentials for monitoring VMware vcenter and ESX servers WMI or RPC-enabled Windows devices, user names, and passwords The range of IP addresses you want the system to scan Check out this video on how to discover your network. The video in this topic applies to SAM even though it uses the Network Performance Monitor product as an example. 1. Log in to SAM and click Settings > Network Sonar Discovery. 2. Click Add New Discovery. 18

19 3. If all devices on your network require only the default SNMPv1 and SNMPv2 public and private community strings, click Next and go to Step If any device on your network uses a community string other than public or private, or if you want to use an SNMPv3 credential: a. Click Add New Credential. b. To add an SNMPv1 or SNMPv2c credential, type the SNMP Community String and click Add. c. To add an SNMPv3 credential, provide the required information and click Add. d. Repeat for each community string you want to add. 5. Select the Check all existing nodes checkbox if you want updates and click Next. 6. To discover VMware vcenter or ESX servers on your network: a. Check Poll for VMware, and then click Add vcenter or ESX Credential. b. Select <New credential> and provide the required information. 19

20 7. To discover WMI or RPC-enabled Windows devices: a. Click Add New Credential. b. Select <New credential>, and provide required information. c. Confirm the Password, click Add, and then click Next. 8. Enter a range of IP addresses to scan and click Next. Scheduled discovery profiles should not use IP address ranges that include nodes using DHCP. 9. Complete the Discovery Settings panel and click Next. 10. If you are evaluating the product, use the default frequency and execute the discovery immediately. In a production environment, schedule discovery weekly to identify new nodes that may have been added. To schedule a weekly discovery, select Advanced in the Frequency field, and then click Add Frequency. Results of scheduled discoveries are maintained on the Scheduled Discovery Results tab of Network Discovery. Adding devices to SAM You are almost done! After the Network Sonar Wizard discovers your servers, the Network Sonar Results Wizard opens, allowing you to import network elements into SAM. Check out this video on adding devices. 20

21 The video in this topic applies to SAM even though it uses the Network Performance Monitor product as an example. 1. Select the device types for SAM to monitor and click Next. If a device appears as unknown vendor, SAM could not validate the credentials. SAM can only detect if the device is up or down, and cannot collect any other data. To resolve this issue, verify the SNMP configuration on the device. If the credentials still cannot be validated, and you have an active SolarWinds contract, contact technical support. 2. Select the interfaces to monitor and click Next. SAM only discovers interfaces on WMI nodes. 3. Select the volume types to monitor and click Next. 21

22 4. Select the applications to enable and click Next. This list contains AppInsight applications and other applications, such as Asset Inventory and Windows Scheduled Tasks. 5. Review the nodes the system will add and click Import. 6. When the import is completed, click Finish. 7. Click the Home tab. 22

23 Monitoring your IT environment Congratulations! Now that SAM is installed and your network is discovered, you can use SAM for: Controlling nodes, applications, and components with the Orion Portal Monitoring hardware health to identify issues with system hardware Monitoring Active Directory with a template Monitoring SQL Server with an AppInsight for SQL application Triggering an alert when Active Directory goes down Performing root cause analysis with AppStack Identifying the most expensive SQL database queries Controlling nodes, applications, and components with Server & Application Monitor The Orion Portal provides three options for controlling nodes, applications, and components, similar to the way Windows Task Manager works. USE THE... Real-time Process Explorer Service Control Manager Real-time Event Log Viewer TO... stop, start, and select the processes to monitor. stop, start, and restart services. view a list of system events and start monitoring events. These controls are available on the detail page of the node, application, or component. Viewing the Node Details page 1. Click Home. 2. On the All Nodes resource, locate and click a node. Controls do not appear on the Node Details page when Top 10 lists are hidden, or when an assigned application template does not contain an SNMP Process Monitor or a WMI/Windows Service Monitor. 23

24 Viewing the Application Details page 1. Click Home. 2. On the All Applications resource, locate and click an application. Viewing the Component Details page 1. Click Home. 2. On the All Applications resource, maximize the application. 3. Click the component you want to manage. 4. Locate the Component Details resource. Monitoring hardware health to identify issues with system hardware The Hardware Health Overview resource provides insight into hardware issues on your network. If you are monitoring selected Cisco, Dell, and Hewlett Packard devices, the Hardware Health Overview tells you which devices are Up, Warning, Critical, or Unknown. Check out this video on monitoring hardware health. 24

25 1. Click Home and locate the Hardware Health resource. 2. To view a status, click its label. For example, click Critical. 3. Click the node you want to review. 4. Review the Current Hardware Health resource. Monitoring Active Directory with a template The Network Sonar Discovery Wizard discovers only some applications on each node. For example, Active Directory is not discovered. You can add it with a template available with SAM. This template assesses the health of Active Directory or Active Directory 2008 R services and counters on a domain controller. Before you begin Ensure the Network Sonar Discovery Wizard has discovered the node on which Active Directory is installed. Ensure the version of Active Directory is or 2008 R Ensure that RCP and WMI can access the domain controller. 25

26 Check out this video on assigning application templates. 1. Click Home. 2. In the All Applications resource, click Manage Applications. 3. Click Application Monitor Templates. 4. To filter the list of templates, click Active Directory. 5. Select the Active Directory template to assign to the node. 6. Click Assign to Node. 7. Select the node you want to assign the template to. Use the Group by drop-down list to help locate a node. 26

27 8. Click the green arrow to move the node to the Selected Nodes list. 9. Select the node and click Next. 10. Perform one of the following: To use WMI credentials you entered during discovery, click Inherit Credentials from Node. To use the template credentials, click Inherit Credentials from Template. To create a new credential, click Assign Custom Credential. 27

28 11. Click Test. The system tests each application service to determine its status. 12. At the bottom of the Select Credentials and Test panel, click Assign Application Monitors. 13. Click Done. 14. To begin monitoring Active Directory, click Applications > Active Directory. Monitoring an SQL Server with an AppInsight for SQL application The AppInsight for SQL application allows you to monitor virtually every aspect of your SQL instances and database. For example, you can monitor the most expensive SQL queries, database disk I/O metrics, top 10 tables by size, and many other metrics. 28

29 AppInsight for SQL supports the following versions of Microsoft SQL Server: MICROSOFT SQL SERVER VERSION VERSIONS SUPPORTED Without SP Microsoft SQL Server 2008 SP1 SP2 SP3 Without SP Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 SP1 SP2 Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Microsoft SQL Server 2014 Without SP SP1 Without SP SP1 AppInsight for SQL supports the SNMP and WMI protocols and uses SQL to gather information about the application. Agents do not work with AppInsight for SQL Server when the SQL Server is in a cluster. SQL Server clusters cannot be polled with domain credentials by the Orion Agent because Agents do not work with AppInsight for SQL when the monitored SQL Server system is in a cluster. AppInsight for SQL requires TCP, but does not require named-pipes. For example, SAM uses TCP detection during discovery. You may receive an error message pertaining to "named-pipes." This is the result of the last client protocol that tried to connect to the SQL Server system. Before you begin Ensure the Network Sonar Discovery Wizard discovered the node hosting SQL Server and you know the IP address of that server. Also, know the SQL Server instance name. You must have the following minimum SQL permissions: Be a member of the db_datareader role on the msdb system database VIEW SERVER STATE permissions View any definition Connect permission to Master database Execute permission on the Xp_readerrorlog stored procedure Connect permission to the Msdb database Member of db_datareader role in the MSDB database Connect permission to all databases 29

30 If you do not have the correct permissions for an SQL account, execute the following script against the database. Important: The following scripts make changes directly to the database. SolarWinds recommends creating a database backup before running either script. Enter your own values where appropriate. USE master GRANT VIEW SERVER STATE TO AppInsightUser GRANT VIEW ANY DEFINITION TO AppInsightUser GRANT VIEW ANY DATABASE TO AppInsightUser EXEC = 'AppInsightUser',@name_in_db = 'AppInsightUser' GRANT EXECUTE ON xp_readerrorlog TO AppInsightUser USE msdb EXEC = 'AppInsightUser',@name_in_db = 'AppInsightUser' EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_datareader', N'AppInsightUser' If you do not have the correct permissions for an SQL account with Windows Authentication, execute the following script against the database. Enter your own values where appropriate. USE master GRANT VIEW SERVER STATE TO "Domain\AppInsightUser" GRANT VIEW ANY DEFINITION TO "Domain\AppInsightUser" EXEC = 'Domain\AppInsightUser',@name_in_db = 'Domain\AppInsightUser' GRANT EXECUTE ON xp_readerrorlog TO "Domain\AppInsightUser" USE msdb EXEC = 'Domain\AppInsightUser',@name_in_db = 'Domain\AppInsightUser' EXEC sp_addrolemember N'db_datareader', N'Domain\AppInsightUser' EXECUTE sp_msforeachdb 'USE [?]; EXEC = = ''Domain\AppInsightUser''' After you have determined you have the correct permissions or have run the scripts, you can assign an AppInsight for SQL to a node. 30

31 1. Click Home. 2. In the All Applications resource, click Manage Applications. 3. Click Application Monitor Templates. 4. To filter the templates, click AppInsight Application. 5. Select AppInsight for SQL and click Assign to Node. 6. Enter the Server IP Address and instance name and select a port type. 7. Enter the SQL Server credentials. 31

32 8. Click Test. 9. On the Finish panel, click Done. 10. Click Home to review the All Applications resource. It may take a few minutes to populate the All Applications resource. Triggering an alert when Active Directory goes down An alert is an automated notification that a network event has occurred, such as a server becoming unresponsive. The network event that triggers an alert is determined by conditions defined when you configure the alert. You can create alerts on application components and on applications. Alerting on an application notifies you when any component monitor goes down. Complete the following steps to configure an alert to trigger when the Active Directory application you are monitoring goes down. In this example, you will configure the alert to send you an and text notification. 32

33 Check out this video on triggering alerts. The video in this topic applies to SAM even though it uses the Network Performance Monitor product as an example. 1. Click Home > Alerts. 2. Click Manage Alerts. 3. Locate the Application goes down alert. 4. Select the application is down check box and click Duplicate & Edit. You cannot edit an alert that ships with the product. 5. Type a name and in the Enabled (On/Off) section turn the alert on. 6. Click Next. 7. Click Only following set of objects. 33

34 8. Click the Select fields drop-down and select Browse all Fields. 9. Click Application Alerting Properties. 10. Click Application Name and click Select. 11. In the scope of alert section select is equal to and then the name of the application and click Next. 12. On the Reset Condition panel, select Reset this alert, and click Next. 13. On the Time of Day panel, click Next. 34

35 14. Click Edit next to Send an /Page. 15. Enter the address and the mobile number of the recipient. 16. In the Sender details section, enter the required information. 17. Click SMTP Server and enter the host name or IP address of the server. 35

36 18. Click Send Test . In Settings you can configure the default action that will apply to all alerts you define. 19. Click Save Changes. 20. On the Trigger Actions panel, click Next. 21. On the Reset Actions panel, click Next. 22. On the Summary panel, click Submit. Performing root cause analysis with AppStack The Application Stack, or AppStack, describes the layers that comprise a complex application delivery infrastructure. The AppStack Environment is an interactive visual mapping that provides an in-depth view of the environment to identify the root cause of performance and availability issues. Use AppStack to assess the overall health of your environment and to troubleshoot specific and related problems. Check out this video on using AppStack. 36

37 1. To access AppStack, click Home > Environment. The AppStack Environment categorizes and shows the status of objects in the IT environment. Objects on the left are highest priority. 2. When you click an object, the system highlights related objects and grays out unrelated objects. 37

38 3. Click Spotlight to remove unrelated objects. 4. To investigate further, click the selected object. 38

39 The selected object opens to the Details page. Identifying the most expensive SQL database queries The Most Expensive Queries report lists the queries that take the longest for the CPU to process. These queries are good candidates for optimization. In the following steps you will make a copy of the Most Expensive Queries report and filter it to include the SQL Server instance you are monitoring. Check out this video on reporting. The video in this topic applies to SAM even though it uses the Network Performance Monitor product as an example. 1. Click Home > Reports. 2. Click Manage Reports. 3. In the Group by field, select Report Category. 4. Click APM: SQL Reports and select Most Expensive Queries. 39

40 5. Click Duplicate & Edit. 6. Type a report name and click Edit. 7. On the Add Content dialog box, click the green plus (+) sign and select Add Simple Condition. 8. Click Select field. 40

41 9. On the Add column dialog box, select Instance Name and click Add Column. 10. On the Add Content dialog box, select an SQL application in the last field Click Add to Layout. 12. On the Layout Builder panel, click Next. 13. Preview the report and click Next. 14. On the Properties panel, click Next. 15. On the Schedule Report panel, click Next. 16. On the Summary panel, click Submit. 17. To run the report, on the Manage Reports panel, click the report. 41

42 Next steps in your onboarding journey Congratulations! You have installed, discovered, and monitored applications using SAM. SolarWinds encourages you to continue exploring by taking advantage of these resources to continue your learning. Summary This guide has taught you how to: install and configure SAM discover your network and the servers that host your applications apply an Active Directory and AppInsight for SQL template use Real-time Process Explorer, Service Control Manager, and Real-time Event Log Viewer investigate the health of your hardware configure an alert to notify you when an application goes down use AppStack to identify the root causes of application performance issues identify the most expensive database queries What's next? Access the following resources to continue learning. RESOURCE Change the default SAM password Set permissions Product training Join thwack now! SAM Administration Guide Application Discovery DESCRIPTION Update your SAM password. Learn how to create and set permissions for additional administrators and users of SAM. Click Applications (SAM) to access training videos and documentation to help you upgrade, use, and maintain SAM. Join thwack, the SolarWinds community of 125,000+ IT pros. This guide only focused on a narrow set of features to get you going, but you can reference the SAM guide for advanced topics. Use the Application Discovery Wizard to automatically locate and apply templates to applications in your environment. 42