SCP-NPM Exam Dumps - SolarWinds Certified Professional Questions and Answers

To identify the custom poller within the trigger condition, you need to use the Unique Name of your UnDP. The Unique Name is a user-defined identifier that you assign to your custom poller when you create it using the Universal Device Poller tool. The Unique Name is also used to reference the custom poller in the Orion database and the web console. When you select “I want to alert on: Custom Poller” in the alert configuration, you can choose the specific custom poller by its Unique Name from the list of available pollers. You can also use the Unique Name to filter, group, or sort the custom poller data in reports, charts, or tables. References: Create a custom poller, Create an alert for a custom poller, View custom poller data

The Universal Device Poller (UnDP) is a feature of SolarWinds NPM that allows you to create custom monitors for almost any statistic provided by SNMP based on its Management Information Base (MIB) and object identifier (OID). An OID is a unique identifier for a variable that can be polled or set via SNMP. The UnDP retrieves management data in the OID format from the devices that support SNMP. The other formats (WMI, XML, ANSI 1) are not used by the UnDP. References:

• Monitor custom statistics based on OIDs with Universal Device Pollers
• NPM Universal Device Pollers

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

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 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

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

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 trapsfrom 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. References: 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

Capacity planning is available for the following metrics of monitored nodes, interfaces, and volumes: CPU utilization on nodes, memory usage on nodes, space usage on volumes, receive(in) utilization on interfaces, and transmit (out) utilization on interfaces1. Capacity planning allows you to monitor capacity usage trends on the network and forecast capacity issues based on historical data and customizable thresholds. You can view capacity forecasting graphs and tables on the details views of nodes, interfaces, and volumes, or use the Top XX Capacity Problems widget to see a list of objects whose usage trend is rising2. References: Monitor capacity usage trends on the network and forecast capacity issues in NPM, Forecast capacity for nodes, interfaces, or volumes in NPM

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

 Alert suppression is a feature that allows you to create conditions that prevent an alert from being triggered or sent if certain criteria are met. This can help you avoid receiving multiple or unnecessary alerts from a single event or a complex situation. For example, if you have a router that connects your SolarWinds server to a remote site with critical devices, you may not want to receive alerts about those devices if the router is down, as the problem is not with the devices but with the router. In this case, you can configure alert suppression to suppress the alerts for the devices if the router is down. To do this, you need to select the option “Suppress the alert if all of the following apply” and add the conditions “Node Name is equal to ‘target’” and “Node Status is equal to ‘Down’”. This means that the alert will be suppressed only if both conditions are true, i.e., the router with the name ‘target’ is down. If the router is up or has a different name, the alert will not be suppressed. References: Alert suppression - SolarWinds; Alert Suppression - Forum - Network Performance Monitor (NPM) - THWACK