Pass the SolarWinds SolarWinds Certified Professional SCP-NPM Questions and answers with CertsForce

 When you configure a report in the SolarWinds Platform Web Console, you can limit access to specific users by assigning a report limitation category to the report and to the user account. A report limitation category is a custom label that defines which reports a user can see. For example, you can create a “finance” category and assign it to the reports and users related to the finance department. Users with the “finance” category can only access the reports with the same category, and not the reports with other categories, such as “marketing” or “IT”. You can also prevent users from accessing any reports by applying the “No Reports” limitation to their account, or allow administrators to see all reports by applying the “No Limitation” category to their account. References: Restrict who can access reports in the SolarWinds Platform, Define what users can access and do in the SolarWinds Platform.

 The Universal Device Poller (UnDP) is a feature that allows users to create custom monitors for almost any statistic provided by SNMP based on its Management Information Base (MIB) and object identifier (OID). However, sometimes the OID that the user wants to monitor may not be available in the MIB tree, either because it is not supported by the device or because the MIB database is outdated. In this case, the user needs to update the MIB database to get the latest MIBs from the SolarWinds website or from the device vendor. This will ensure that the UnDP canfind the OID in the MIB tree and poll it successfully12. References: 1: Update the SolarWinds MIB Database for the SolarWinds Platform3, 2: Monitor custom statistics based on OIDs with Universal Device Pollers in the SolarWinds Platformhttps://documentation.solarwinds.com/en/success_center/orionplatform/content/core-downloading-the-solarwinds-mib-database-sw3581.htm

When a router monitored by NPM reboots, the interface indexes may change, causing the interface statuses to become unknown in NPM. This is because NPM uses the interface indexes to identify and poll the interfaces. To resolve this issue, you need to remove the unknown interfaces from NPM and then run a list of resources on that node to discover the interfaces with the new index IDs. You can then add the interfaces back to NPM and resume monitoring them. References:

Allow Change the Interface Index - Forum - Network Performance Monitor (NPM) - THWACK Products

Edit interface properties in NPM - SolarWinds

SCP Study Aid - SolarWinds (page 6)

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.

 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)

The Export to Excel button is only displayed if the report contains only custom table resources. Other resources cannot be converted to the Excel format.https://documentation.solarwinds.com/en/success_center/orionplatform/content/core-exporting-reports-sw1547.htm#:~:text=the%20Excel%20format.-,Click%20Reports%20%3E%20All%20Reports%20in%20the%20menu%20bar%2C%20and%20click,Click%20either%20Export%20as%20Excel .

NPM can monitor a wide range of network devices and infrastructure, including routers, switches, firewalls, servers, and virtual machines. However, some devices may not support standard protocols such as SNMP or WMI, or may have specific metrics that are not monitored out-of-the box by NPM. In such cases, you can extend NPM’s monitoring to non-standard devices by using object identifiers (OIDs) organized in management information bases (MIBs). OIDs are numeric strings that uniquely identify a variable in a MIB. MIBs are hierarchical databases that define the properties and values of the variables that can be monitored on a device. By importing device-specific MIBs into the SolarWinds MIB Database, and creating custom pollers based on OIDs from the MIBs, you can monitor any metric that is available on the device. You can also display the polled data in the web console using dedicated or existing resources12. References:

Create custom monitors in NPM - SolarWinds

SCP Study Aid - SolarWinds (page 10)

https://documentation.solarwinds.com/en/success_center/orionplatform/content/core-configuring-trap-viewer-filters-and-alerts-sw272.htm https://documentation.solarwinds.com/en/success_center/orionplatform/content/lm/la-orion-log-viewer.htm

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

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