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

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

 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 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

 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.

 Capacity Forecast Charts in NPM show the usage trends and forecasts for nodes, interfaces, and volumes based on historical data. By default, 7 days of data are required to generate these charts1. You can change this setting globally or individually for each object2. Capacity Forecast Charts are available for the following metrics: CPU utilization, memory usage, space usage, receive utilization, and transmit utilization3. References: 1: Monitor capacity usage trends on the network and forecast capacity issues in NPM - Capacity forecasting is available for nodes, interfaces, and volumes that meet the following requirements 2: Change capacity forecasting settings globally in NPM - Change the number of days of historical data required for capacity forecasting 3: Monitor capacity usage trends on the network and forecast capacity issues in NPM - Capacity forecasting is available for the following metrics of monitored nodes, interfaces, and volumes monitored

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

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

 The best way to monitor an SNMP metric that NPM is not monitoring out-of-the-box is to create a custom poller using the Universal Device Poller (UnDP) tool. A custom poller allows you to monitor specific aspects of your network devices using SNMP, by selecting the OIDs that correspond to the metrics you want to collect. You can then assign the custom poller to the devices you want to monitor, and view the results in the Orion Web Console, as charts, tables, or gauges. You can also use custom pollers to create alerts and reports based on the collected data. References: Monitor custom statistics based on OIDs with Universal Device Pollers in NPM, Create a custom poller, Assign Universal Device Pollers to devices monitored in NPM

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.

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

By default, NPM uses the global critical CPU threshold for node statuses, which is 90%. However, you can override this threshold for individual nodes by editing their properties and specifying a custom value for the critical CPU threshold. This way, you can adjust the threshold according to the specific characteristics and performance of each node. Changing the critical CPU threshold on the node will affect how the node status is calculated and displayed in the web console, as well as how the alerts are triggered based on the CPU utilization. References: Thresholds in the SolarWinds Platform; CPU Critical Threshold - Forum - Network Performance Monitor (NPM) - THWACK

Orion Maps show you how entities are connected based on the data collected by the Orion Platform products. To display the connections between the nodes in Orion Maps, you need to enable Layer 2 and Layer 3 topology polling on those nodes. This will allow the Orion Platform to discover the network topology using protocols such as CDP, LLDP, or ARP. You can enable topology polling on individual nodes or in bulk using the Manage Nodes feature in the web console. You can also customize the topology polling settings and frequency on the Orion Polling Settings page. References: Intelligent Maps for SolarWinds Platform products; Understand connections on Intelligent Maps in the SolarWinds Platform; Network Mapping Tool – Automated Network Mapping | SolarWinds

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 SNMP1. 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 device2. You can also check the device logs and configuration to ensure that SNMP is enabled and properly configured3. 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

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

 The easiest and fastest way to change the polling method for multiple nodes is to use the Manage Nodes feature in the web console. You can select up to 1000 nodes at a time and edit their properties in bulk. You can choose the polling method from the available options, such as ICMP, SNMP, WMI, or Agent, and provide the required credentials or settings. This will apply the changes to all the selected nodes without affecting their existing data oralerts. References: Choose the polling method to use in the SolarWinds Platform; Polling Intervals - Best Practices; SOLARWINDS NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITOR

The SNMP trap service is responsible for receiving, decoding, displaying, and storing the SNMP trap messages in the Log Analyzer database. If the service is not running, you will not see the messages in the Orion Web Console. You can verify the status of the service by using the Orion Service Manager or the Windows Services console. You can also restart the service if needed. The other options are not relevant for troubleshooting the cause of missing SNMP trap messages. References:

• Monitor SNMP traps
• Troubleshoot SNMP traps
• Orion Service Manager

 If you do not want to be notified when an interface is down, you can specify that the interface is unpluggable. The interface status is not reflected in the status of the parent node and in alerts. On the Node Management view, select the interface, and click Edit Properties. Select Display Interface as Unplugged Rather Than Down, and click Submit. The interface status does not influence the status of the parent node1. References:

• Suspend collecting data for interfaces in NPM - SolarWinds (see the Set the interface status as Unpluggable section)

 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.

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

 Map status thresholds determine how the status of a map is calculated based on the status of its child objects. If you set the map status threshold to above 50%, it means that the map will be up if more than half of its child objects are up, regardless of the severity of the down objects. This can cause a situation where half of your objects in a nested map are down, but the top level map is up, because the top level map only considers the status of the nested maps, not the individual objects within them. To avoid this, you can lower the map status threshold to a value that reflects the desired level of availability for your network, or use custom map status thresholds to specify different values for different maps. References: Set map status thresholds in NPM, Create nested maps in NPM, How to map through a deeply nested array of objects?