Configuring SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor integrations

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To collect CPU, memory, disk, network, server nodes (hosts), metrics, and events from the SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor SQL server database using an SQL query, install the SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor integration.

Gathering data

The SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor integration uses a remote-only sensor that connects to a SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor instance and collects the following information: ...

Host entities and metrics: cpu, memory, disk, network
Server nodes (hosts)
Metrics
Events

Verifying prerequisites

You must have your SolarWinds account username and password to complete the integration.

Installing

Verify the public GA image path of the integration for SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (for example: cp.icr.io/cp/cp4waiops/ibm-mm-cdc-conn:4.3-latest).
Log in as a root user on a Linux® host machine that has network access to SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor. The SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor integration pulls information from SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor by using a remote TCP connection.
To log in before downloading the public image of integration for SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor, run the podman login <cdc-mm ga-image-path> command.
Create a new directory to store the integration-related configuration file and bash script.
```
mkdir -p /root/cdc
cd /root/cdc
```

To define connection information to the Metric Manager API, create a Metric Manager backend configuration file with the name: com.instana.cdc.metricmanager.sender.MetricManagerBackend-1.cfg.

# Metric Manager configuration file
# Metric Manager's URL
host=http://<metricManagerHost>.ibm.com

# Metric Manager's port
port=18080

# Metric Manager's username for REST API
username=system

# Metric Manager's password for REST API 
# password has been mask ****
password=**********

# Metric Manager's tenant id
tenant_id=APM

Create the configuration-.yaml sensor configuration file. Define the SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor endpoint, API key, and the metric entities information as in the following example configuration-solarwindsnpm.yaml file for a SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor sensor.

com.instana.plugin.solarwindsnpm:
  enabled: true
  server: '1.2.3.4'
  username: 'apm'
  password: 'myPassword4apm'
    configuration_from:
      type: vault
      secret_key:
        path: cem/solarwindsnpm
        client_secret: client_secret
  poll_rate: 60
  metrics:
    enabled: true
    poll_rate: 120
    entities:
      cpu_memory_utilization:
        metrics:
        - AvgCPULoad
        - AvgPercentMemoryUsed
        attributes:
        - DNS_HostName
        - HostName
        sqlquery: "SELECT COALESCE(NULLIF(n.SysName,''),NULLIF(n.DNS,''), n.Caption) as HostName, n.DNS AS DNS_HostName, n.NodeID, t.AvgLoad AS AvgCPULoad, CONVERT(DECIMAL(20, 2), t.PercentMemoryUsed) AS AvgPercentMemoryUsed FROM dbo.CPULoad_CS_Detail AS t INNER JOIN dbo.Nodes AS n ON t.NodeID = n.NodeID WHERE (GETUTCDATE() - GETDATE() + CAST(t.Timestamp AS datetime) >= DATEADD(SECOND, -600, GETUTCDATE()))"        
        poll_rate: 600
        resource_id: ${HostName}      

      ResponseTimePacketLoss:
        metrics:
        - AvgResponseTime
        - PercentPacketLoss
        attributes:
        - HostName
        sqlquery: "SELECT COALESCE(NULLIF(n.SysName,''),NULLIF(n.DNS,''), n.Caption) as HostName, AVG(t.AvgResponseTime) as AvgResponseTime,  AVG(t.PercentLoss) AS PercentPacketLoss FROM dbo.ResponseTime_CS_Detail AS t INNER JOIN dbo.Nodes AS n ON t.NodeID = n.NodeID WHERE (GETUTCDATE() - GETDATE() + CAST(t.Timestamp AS datetime) >= DATEADD(SECOND, -300, GETUTCDATE())) GROUP BY COALESCE(NULLIF(n.SysName,''),NULLIF(n.DNS,''), n.Caption)"
        poll_rate: 300
        resource_id: ${HostName}

      DiskIO:
        metrics:
        - AvgDiskReads
        - AvgDiskWrites
        attributes:
        - DNS_HostName
        - HostName
        - DiskName
        sqlquery: "SELECT cast(t.DateTime as datetime) AS TimeStamp, COALESCE(NULLIF(n.SysName,''),NULLIF(n.DNS,''), n.Caption) as HostName, n.DNS AS DNS_HostName, n.NodeID, v.DeviceId AS DiskName, CONVERT(DECIMAL(20, 2), t.AvgDiskReads) AS AvgDiskReads, CONVERT(DECIMAL(20, 2), t.AvgDiskWrites) AS AvgDiskWrites FROM dbo.VolumePerformance AS t INNER JOIN dbo.Nodes AS n ON t.NodeID = n.NodeID INNER JOIN dbo.Volumes AS v ON t.VolumeID = v.VolumeID WHERE (v.VolumeTypeID = 4) AND ( CAST(t.DateTime  AS datetime) >= DATEADD(SECOND, -900, GETUTCDATE()))"
        poll_rate: 900
        resource_id: ${HostName}-${DiskName}

      DiskUsedPct:
        metrics:
        - PercentDiskUsed
        attributes:
        - DNS_HostName
        - HostName
        - DiskName
        sqlquery: "SELECT GETUTCDATE() - GETDATE() + CAST(t.Timestamp AS datetime) AS TimeStamp, COALESCE(NULLIF(n.SysName,''),NULLIF(n.DNS,''), n.Caption) as HostName, n.DNS AS DNS_HostName, n.NodeID, v.DeviceId AS DiskName, CONVERT(DECIMAL(20, 2), t.PercentDiskUsed) AS PercentDiskUsed FROM dbo.VolumeUsage_CS_Detail AS t INNER JOIN dbo.Nodes AS n ON t.NodeID = n.NodeID INNER JOIN dbo.Volumes AS v ON t.VolumeID = v.VolumeID WHERE (v.VolumeTypeID = 4) AND (GETUTCDATE() - GETDATE() + CAST(t.Timestamp AS datetime) >= DATEADD(SECOND, -900, GETUTCDATE()))"
        poll_rate: 900
        resource_id: ${HostName}-${DiskName}

      Network_Interface_Traffic:
        metrics:
        - In_TotalBytes
        - Out_TotalBytes
        attributes:
        - HostName
        - DNS_HostName
        - InterfaceName
        sqlquery: "SELECT CAST(t.Timestamp AS datetime) AS TimeStamp, COALESCE(NULLIF(n.SysName,''),NULLIF(n.DNS,''), n.Caption) as HostName, n.DNS AS DNS_HostName, n.NodeID, i.InterfaceID,  i.InterfaceName, t.In_TotalBytes, t.Out_TotalBytes FROM dbo.InterfaceTraffic_CS_Detail AS t INNER JOIN dbo.Nodes AS n ON t.NodeID = n.NodeID INNER JOIN dbo.Interfaces AS i ON t.NodeID = i.NodeID AND t.InterfaceID = i.InterfaceID WHERE (CAST(t.Timestamp AS datetime) >= DATEADD(SECOND, -540, GETUTCDATE()))"
        poll_rate: 540
        resource_id: ${HostName}-${InterfaceName}

      Network_Interface_Errors:
        metrics:
        - In_Discards
        - Out_Discards
        - Out_Errors
        attributes:
        - HostName
        - DNS_HostName
        - InterfaceName
        sqlquery: "SELECT CAST(t.Timestamp AS datetime) AS TimeStamp, COALESCE(NULLIF(n.SysName,''),NULLIF(n.DNS,''), n.Caption) as HostName, n.DNS AS DNS_HostName, n.NodeID, i.InterfaceID, i.InterfaceName, t.In_Discards, t.In_Errors, t.Out_Discards, t.Out_Errors FROM dbo.InterfaceErrors_CS_Detail AS t INNER JOIN dbo.Nodes AS n ON t.NodeID = n.NodeID INNER JOIN dbo.Interfaces AS i ON t.NodeID = i.NodeID AND t.InterfaceID = i.InterfaceID WHERE  (CAST(t.Timestamp AS datetime) >= DATEADD(SECOND, -540, GETUTCDATE())) "
        poll_rate: 540
        resource_id: ${HostName}-${InterfaceName}

Create a bash script with execution permission, as in the following example bash script for a SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor sensor.

podman run \
  -itd \
  --name instana-agent-metric-manager-ga \
  --volume /var/run:/var/run \
  --volume /run:/run \
  --volume /dev:/dev:ro \
  --volume /sys:/sys:ro \
  --volume /var/log:/var/log \
  --volume <cdc-root-path>/configuration-solarwindsnpm.yaml:/opt/instana/agent/etc/instana/configuration-solarwindsnpm.yaml \
  --mount type=bind,source=<cdc-root-path>/com.instana.cdc.metricmanager.sender.MetricManagerBackend-1.cfg,target=/opt/instana/agent/etc/instana/com.instana.cdc.metricmanager.sender.MetricManagerBackend-1.cfg \
  --privileged \
  --net=host \
  --pid=host \
  --env INSTANA_PRODUCT_NAME="metric-manager" \
  --env AGENT_MAX_MEM=6G \
  --env INSTANA_AGENT_MODE="APM" <IBM-CDC-Public-GA-Image-Path>/ibm-mm-cdc-conn:4.6-latest

If you want to use vault, complete the following steps:
1. Add the app secret information to the vault server.
2. Mount the vault PEM file in the image.
3. Run the bootstrap script to start up the docker image.
4. Run the docker ps command to check the container id and access to the container by the docker exec -ti <container_id> bash command.
5. In the container, add the vault IP address into the /etc/hosts file.
```
9.x.x.159 Vault
```
6. Check the connection to the vault server.
```
ping vault
```
  Note: If ping isn't available, run the dnf install iputils -y command.
7. Go to the path where the SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor configuration YAML file is located.
8. Edit the configuration.yaml to add the vault configuration.
```
com.instana.configuration.integration.vault:
  connection_url: 'https://Vault:8200' # Mapping through hosts file since PEM ca cert does not contain hostname
  token: '<vault_token>'
  path_to_pem_file: '/root/agentdev/agent-installer/instana-agent/etc/instana/vault-ca.pem'
  secret_refresh_rate: 24
  kv_version: 2
```
9. Modify the sensor configuration to use the vault type in the configuration-solarwindsnpm.yaml file. ...
```
com.instana.plugin.solarwindsnpm:
```
10. Restart the integration and check whether the SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor sensor can connect and receive metrics.
Run the bash script to set up and configure the instance for the integration.

Note: If you don't want to monitor everything in your SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor integration, or if you have a large number of management zones, you might want to specify the zones that you do want to monitor in your configuration file. If you have a large number of zones, you may encounter an Out of Memory error when the integration reports on every one of your SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor zones. You can set the zones when you configure your integration by adding values to the zone field of your configuration. For more information about zones, or if you want to make other changes to the default configuration, see the Configuring ... section. For example, if you monitor approximately 200 hosts, you might not need to specify zones in your configuration. Conversely, if you monitor 5000 hosts that are grouped into hundreds of management zones, it's likely worthwhile to narrow them down.

The SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor integration is installed and set up on the Linux host.

Verifying the installation

Verify whether the integration instance is up and running.

$ podman ps
CONTAINER ID   IMAGE                                                                                                                                 COMMAND                  CREATED        STATUS        PORTS     NAMES
3c75a6d23ca8   cp.icr.io/cp/cp4waiops/ibm-mm-cdc-conn:4.3-latest   "/usr/local/bin/tini…"   2 weeks ago  Up 2 weeks ago             instana-agent-metric-manager-ga

Check the logs to confirm that SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor metrics are forwarded to Metric Manager.

$ podman logs -f <container_id>

Example logs, which show that the metrics are forwarded:

2023-10-05T12:12:09.543+00:00 | INFO  | tana-agent-scheduler-thread-13-2 | icManagerBackend | cdc-metricmanager-sender - 1.0.0 | MetricManager : MetricManagerConfig{Host=http://test.ibm.com, Port=18080, Username=system 
2023-10-05T12:12:09.544+00:00 | INFO  | tana-agent-scheduler-thread-13-2 | icManagerBackend | cdc-metricmanager-sender - 1.0.0 | MetricManager : metricManagerURL : http://test.ibm.com:18080/metrics/api/1.0/metrics
2023-10-05T12:12:10.026+00:00 | INFO  | tana-agent-scheduler-thread-13-2 | icManagerBackend | cdc-metricmanager-sender - 1.0.0 | Successfully sent payload to Metric Manager
2023-10-05T12:12:10.026+00:00 | WARN  | tana-agent-scheduler-thread-13-2 | SensorTicker     | com.instana.agent - 1.1.697 | Sending metrics with 1260411 chars took 255815 ms

Configuring

You can edit the configuration-.yaml file to further configure your SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor integration.

Navigate to your configuration-.yaml file on the Linux host machine where you installed your SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor integration.

Open the file with your preferred text editor and find the SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor section. By default, it should look like the following example, except optional fields are empty. ...

# SolarWinds NPM sensor
com.instana.plugin.solarwindsnpm:
  enabled: true           # Required
  server: 'myhostserver'  # Required
  username: 'myusername'  # Required
  password: 'mypwd'       # Required
  poll_rate: 60           # Optional
  metrics:                # Required
    enabled: true         # Required
    poll_rate: 60         # Optional
    entities:             # Required
    ...

Edit the values that you want to change, and save the file. The following table lists the options that can be configured for SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor.

Variable	Description	Type	Default value	Required or optional
`enabled`	Set to `true` or `false` depending on whether you want to enable the sensor.	Boolean	true	Required
`server`	The server name or IP address of the SolarWinds NPM SQL server database host.	String	N/A	Required
`username`	SolarWinds NPM database sqlserver login username created for the sensor account.	String	N/A	Required
`password`	SolarWinds NPM DB sqlserver login password for the username created for the sensor account.	String	N/A	Required
`poll_rate`	The frequency (in seconds) between queries. This value can be overridden by the child `poll_rate`value.	Integer	N/A	Optional
`metrics`	Metrics configuration for the sensor.	Node	N/A	Required
`metrics: enabled`	Set to `true` or `false` to enable or disable the metrics integration. If `metrics.enabled` is set to `false`, metrics collection will be disabled even if the `enabled` value for the sensor is `true`.	Boolean	true	Required
`metrics: poll_rate`	The frequency (in seconds) between queries. If missing, the integration uses the parent `poll_rate`value	Integer	N/A	Optional
`metrics: entities`	A list of entities for metric integration.	String	N/A	Required