Hybrid-Cloud-Observability-Network-Monitoring Hybrid Cloud Observability Network Monitoring Exam Question and Answers

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Flow collectors differ from polling engines because they passively receive and process flow records sent by network devices, while polling engines actively poll devices for data (like SNMP). Devices must be explicitly configured to export their NetFlow, sFlow, or J-Flow records to the IP address and port of the flow collector, rather than being queried by the SolarWinds server.

The documentation states:

"To monitor flow data, devices must be configured to send their flow records to the collector. Unlike traditional polling, the collector does not initiate contact; it listens for incoming flow exports from network devices."

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

If the flow source view in SolarWinds NTA shows “never received” and firewall issues are ruled out, it is often because the device (node) is no longer monitored by SolarWinds. If a node is removed or its monitoring is disabled, the collector will not associate incoming flows from that node, resulting in "never received" status.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

A. Communication issue exists in new device: If there is an SNMP or network issue, the poller cannot retrieve data.

D. Object IDs (OIDs) are not supported: The new device may not support the same OIDs as the test device, resulting in no data returned.

SolarWinds documentation notes:

"When extending a poller to other devices, ensure network/SNMP communication is successful and that the target devices support the required OIDs. Differences in support or access may cause data collection to fail on some nodes."

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

The radial gauge display in the SolarWinds web console requires that the polled value from the OID is a numeric type that supports gauge visualizations (for example, a percentage or value with a defined minimum and maximum). If the OID returns data that does not fit these requirements—such as text, status, or a counter with no clear min/max—the gauge option will be grayed out and unavailable for selection. This behavior is explained in the Universal Device Poller documentation, which states that only compatible numeric OID types can be displayed using radial gauge resources.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

To edit trigger conditions for flow alerts in SolarWinds, the SolarWinds Query Language (SWQL) is required. SWQL is a proprietary subset of SQL designed specifically for the SolarWinds Orion Platform. The documentation specifies:

“Editing advanced alert trigger conditions and custom queries for flow-based alerts requires the use of SWQL, not PowerShell, Python, or standard SQL.”

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

If an OID is not present in the SolarWinds MIB database, you can still poll it by manually defining the OID in Device Studio. The platform allows you to input the object identifier and specify SNMP as the method to query the device.

From the documentation:

"If a required OID is missing from the MIB database, use the Device Studio's 'Manually Define Object Identifier' feature to specify the OID and configure SNMP polling for the device."

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

SolarWinds determines node status by polling using ICMP (ping) and SNMP. If ICMP is blocked by a firewall or network device between the polling engine and the monitored node, the node will appear “down” in the web console even though it is actually up. Likewise, if the SNMP credentials configured in SolarWinds are incorrect, the polling engine cannot successfully query the device, leading to a false “down” status.

From the documentation:

“If ICMP packets are blocked or dropped, SolarWinds cannot determine node status, resulting in false down events.”

“Incorrect SNMP community strings or credentials will prevent node polling, and these nodes may appear down in the console.”

Changing the polling interval or node management settings does not directly cause this issue.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

To detect duplex mismatches:

The node must be monitored (i.e., managed in SolarWinds).

The node must be in "up" status, so SNMP data about interface status, speed, and errors can be polled and compared.

Description in MIB (A) is not necessary if the device is already SNMP-capable, and "warning" status (C) is a result, not a requirement.

The “top talkers” feature tracks the highest-bandwidth consumers in your network. Lowering the optimization value means more flows and more detailed data are collected and stored, which can increase the storage requirement on your server.

Exact Extract from Official Guide:

“Decreasing the Top Talkers optimization value results in the storage of more detailed data, which increases the database and storage requirements.”

— (Network Performance Monitor Administrator Guide, “NetFlow and Top Talkers Optimization” section)

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Disabling NetFlow/CBQoS stops flow data collection, resulting in gaps in graphs during the disabled period (A). However, historical data collected prior to disabling is retained in the database (C), so you can still view past flow information.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

The most common cause of mismatch between bandwidth (SNMP) numbers and flow (NetFlow, sFlow, etc.) numbers is that not all network traffic is included in the flow export. SNMP bandwidth counters include all traffic traversing the interface, but NetFlow or other flow records may only represent sampled or filtered subsets, or may miss certain traffic due to export or device configuration limitations. This is a well-documented and expected difference in the SolarWinds platform.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

To effectively diagnose a slow connection using NetPath, the following data points are essential:

Date, time, and duration of the performance issue: Helps correlate the problem with specific events or maintenance windows.

IP addresses of the nodes in question: Identifies the exact points in the network path where issues may arise.

Latency and packet loss information: These are core metrics provided by NetPath and are critical for pinpointing where delays and data loss occur.

The SolarWinds documentation states:

"When troubleshooting with NetPath, consider the time frame, the specific nodes (by IP address), and the latency/packet loss details between hops. Alert descriptions are not a primary diagnostic data point in NetPath's workflow."

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

SolarWinds provides a MIB Browser utility that lets you search and verify whether a specific object ID (OID) exists in the SolarWinds MIB database. By entering the OID in the MIB Browser, you can confirm its presence and also test polling against the device.

The documentation states:

"Use the MIB Browser to search for and verify OIDs in the SolarWinds MIB database. The tool also allows you to test poll the device to ensure the OID is being returned."

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Universal Device Pollers (UDPs) must be explicitly assigned to each node for which custom polling is required. Adding a new node does not automatically assign existing UDPs to that node, even if it’s the same device type as others already using the poller. Assigning the existing UDP to the new node will resolve the issue and enable polling of the desired data.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

The Universal Device Poller (UDP) in SolarWinds NPM allows users to monitor any SNMP-exposed value, including interface traffic, UPS battery status, and CPU temperature, provided the device's MIB exposes the relevant OIDs. Users configure the UDP to poll these custom OIDs, making it a flexible option for monitoring a wide range of metrics across diverse devices.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Show best is the status rollup mode designed for groups of redundant or backup devices. It displays the "best" (most available/least severe) status within the group, which is most useful when any one device in the group being up means the group is healthy.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

If devices respond to SNMP queries individually but aren't discovered during network scans, the most likely cause is the discovery timeout value being set too low. This can result in slower devices timing out before responding to discovery requests, even though they are operational and SNMP-enabled.

The documentation explains:

"If devices are not discovered but respond to SNMP queries, increase the discovery timeout and retry. Short timeouts can cause missed responses from devices that take longer to reply during scanning."

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Enabling DNS resolution but not storing hostnames immediately results in:

Reduced database memory/storage used for DNS info, as hostnames aren’t stored with each flow record.

Less database space used for flows, since flow records will reference IPs rather than resolved DNS names.

Reduced SQL server reads/writes since the platform does not immediately resolve and store hostnames with every received flow, decreasing load.

DNS names will still appear in reports where resolved dynamically, so option C is incorrect.

If flows are confirmed as reaching the poller but no data appears in the web console, the most common cause is a missing or incorrect source address field in the flow configuration on the sending device. SolarWinds uses the source address to match incoming flows to the correct device record in its database; if this field is missing or misconfigured, the data will not be processed or displayed.

Exact Extract from Official Guide:

“If the source address field is missing or incorrectly configured in the flow-exporting device, the system cannot associate the flow with a monitored device, and no data will appear in the console.”

— (Network Performance Monitor Administrator Guide, “Troubleshooting NetFlow” section)

The “Device View” feature allows users to view the physical layout of device interfaces on graphical stencils, providing an intuitive graphical representation of port locations and status.

Exact Extract from Official Guide:

“Device View displays the physical layout of device interfaces using graphical stencils for supported devices.”

— (Network Performance Monitor Administrator Guide, “Device View” section)

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Hiding an IP address group in IPAM management means that group will not appear in dashboards, charts, or reports, but the underlying data and group definition remain intact and are not deleted.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

B. NetFlow data is commonly used to diagnose network performance issues, such as identifying sources of congestion or bottlenecks.

C. NetFlow analysis provides visibility into which applications and endpoints are consuming bandwidth and causing congestion.

User authorization and link status events are not functions of NetFlow; those are handled by other monitoring tools or features.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Custom pollers are typically created when you need to monitor metrics or OIDs that are not supported by default in SolarWinds:

Monitor specific metric that is not out-of-the-box: If a device exposes a metric not natively monitored by SolarWinds, you must create a custom poller for that metric.

Monitor unsupported object ID: For any OID that is not included in default templates, a custom poller is necessary.

Monitoring special equipment or devices without WMI might also need custom pollers, but the requirement specifically applies when you need to access non-standard metrics or OIDs.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

List Resources: When you add or manage a node, the List Resources page allows you to enable or verify hardware health monitoring options.

Manage Sensors: This section allows you to directly manage the hardware sensors (such as fans, power supplies, and temperature sensors) that report health status.

Device view and node properties are not the primary locations for enabling or managing hardware health sensors.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

A. When you probe less frequently, updates are slower but generally more accurate since there's less overhead and less chance of missing network changes due to polling overlaps.

C. Probing more frequently results in faster updates but may slightly decrease accuracy due to increased network noise and overlapping probes.

The documentation states:

"A higher probing frequency provides faster updates in NetPath views but can reduce accuracy due to more frequent sampling. Lower frequency means slower updates but typically results in higher accuracy and less system load."

The official SolarWinds documentation specifies that the minimum RAM requirement for setting up log collection (Log Analyzer/LA) in Hybrid Cloud Observability is 16 GB. This ensures optimal performance and stability for log collection, processing, and storage within the SolarWinds environment.

Exact Extract from Official Guide:

“Minimum hardware requirements for Log Analyzer and log collection: 16 GB RAM, quad-core CPU, and sufficient storage depending on log volume.”

— (Log Analyzer Administrator Guide, “System Requirements” section)

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Resolving and storing hostnames at the time a flow record is received means the platform does not need to resolve the hostname each time a report or widget is loaded, which:

Decreases database query times: Hostnames are already resolved, making queries for reports and dashboards much faster.

Flow views and widgets load faster: With DNS already resolved, the interface does not have to perform on-demand DNS lookups, reducing latency in the web console.

The SolarWinds documentation states:

"Immediate DNS resolution upon flow record ingestion reduces lookup delays during analysis and widget loading, resulting in improved performance and reduced query times."

Domain widgets and reports run with DNS names, but the core advantage is performance rather than widget availability.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

SolarWinds Log Analyzer and Hybrid Cloud Observability support log collection from current, supported Windows operating systems, such as Windows 10 (workstation) and Windows Server 2019. Older or unsupported versions like Windows Vista or Server 2012 may not be supported.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

In SolarWinds Log Analyzer and other log-based alerting systems, "flood protection" is a key feature to prevent alert storms when numerous events trigger a rule in a very short period. From the SolarWinds documentation:

"Flood protection ensures that if an excessive number of log entries match a rule in a short period, only a manageable number of actions are triggered, and the remainder are suppressed or summarized. This prevents overwhelming the system and users with repeated alerts."

This is best practice for maintaining alert quality and system performance.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

The Universal Device Poller (UnDP) in SolarWinds allows you to create custom SNMP pollers. Results from UnDPs can be displayed as charts, gauges, or tables on SolarWinds web console views. The administrator guide states:

“Universal Device Pollers (UnDPs) allow you to collect SNMP data not provided natively by SolarWinds. The collected results can be displayed as charts, gauges, or tables, making it easier to visualize the custom metrics.”

Device Studio pollers are templates used to define UnDPs, but it is the UnDP that presents data visually. Hardware health and Network Insight are not custom pollers.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Device Studio is specifically designed to build custom pollers for missing or vendor-specific metrics that are not natively included in node details. It is best used to enrich the node details with custom OID-based metrics from devices.

From the documentation:

“Use Device Studio to build pollers for new metrics not present in the default node details, particularly for custom or third-party equipment.”

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

When collecting Windows event logs without installing an agent, SolarWinds recommends converting those events to SNMP traps or syslog messages using the SolarWinds Event Log Forwarder for Windows. This allows the platform to ingest and recognize Windows events through standard logging protocols.

"The SolarWinds Event Log Forwarder for Windows enables you to forward Windows event logs as SNMP traps or syslog messages, allowing agentless collection and integration into your SolarWinds platform."

Option C, converting events to traps, is the correct method supported for agentless environments.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

The Flow Navigator in SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA) is a powerful custom filter and analysis tool. It enables users to apply multiple filters to NetFlow data, allowing the visualization of specific statistics about the entire network or selected subsets, such as all traffic from a certain IP range or application. This approach eliminates the need to manually click through device-by-device views, instead providing comprehensive traffic analysis across the whole monitored environment through a single, customizable interface.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Flow sampling reduces resource usage by analyzing a subset of traffic. The following protocols support sampling:

Cisco NetFlow (except v1): Most NetFlow versions support sampling.

IPFIX: Supports flow sampling as part of its standard.

NetFlow Lite: Designed to provide sampled flow data.

NetFlow V1 does not support flow sampling.

Exact Extract from Official Guide:

"NetFlow (except v1), IPFIX, and NetFlow Lite support flow sampling, enabling high-performance monitoring of large traffic volumes."

— (Network Performance Monitor Administrator Guide, “Flow Protocols and Sampling” section)

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

You can check the status of the flow collector service from the NetFlow collector services section and from NetFlow settings in the SolarWinds web console. These locations provide service health, up/down status, and logs. "Flow and CBQoS sources" and "Top XX receivers" do not display service health.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

When the SNMP community string is changed on a device, SolarWinds recommends:

Edit the node properties and save the changes.

Update the community string in node properties to match the new value on the device.

"To restore polling, edit the node in SolarWinds, update the SNMP community string in the properties, and save the changes. This ensures that SolarWinds can authenticate and resume polling. Deleting and re-adding the node is not necessary, nor is restarting the SNMP service on the device in most cases."

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Device Studio pollers are used to build custom pollers for advanced device-specific metrics and widgets. The technologies explicitly supported for Device Studio pollers include:

Machine type for node details widget: Device Studio can create custom pollers to display specific node details, such as machine type, chassis ID, or serial number, within a node details widget.

Power supply status for vital statistics view: Device Studio also allows polling and visualizing metrics such as power supply status, fan status, and other vital statistics that are not natively included in basic SNMP polling.

While Device Studio can poll for advanced or composite data such as VLAN, VRF, and device health, certain interface statistics or single CPU/memory metrics are typically managed by standard SNMP pollers or Universal Device Pollers rather than Device Studio.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

The SolarWinds platform uses the concept of "dependencies" to handle parent-child relationships. When you configure dependencies (via Manage Dependencies), child objects such as interfaces will show as "unreachable" if the parent node is "down" or unresponsive, rather than "down" or "unknown".

"The Manage Dependencies feature allows administrators to specify parent-child relationships. If a parent device is down, all child objects will be marked as 'unreachable', preventing unnecessary alerts and false positives."

This is a best practice to avoid alert storms and to properly reflect network hierarchy.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

SolarWinds provides the flow alert wizard as the tool to configure and manage flow alerts. This wizard guides administrators through selecting the relevant flow metrics and alert thresholds.

The documentation states:

"Use the Flow Alert Wizard to define and manage alerts on flow-based data, allowing for rapid detection and notification of anomalous network activity."

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

To add additional NetFlow collector ports, you must stop the NetFlow service and then specify multiple ports separated by commas in the NetFlow collector services widget.

From the documentation:

"To configure multiple collector ports, stop the NetFlow service, edit the collector ports in the widget by separating them with commas, and then restart the service."

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

If only response time and packet loss are visible, the node is currently being polled via ICMP (ping), which does not provide detailed statistics like CPU, memory, or interface data. Switching the polling method to SNMP enables SolarWinds to gather detailed device metrics and statistics, as SNMP supports comprehensive monitoring.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Device Studio pollers offer more advanced capabilities than traditional Universal Device Pollers (UDPs). While both can poll SNMP-enabled devices, Device Studio pollers can gather additional node details (such as chassis information and advanced device metrics) that UDPs are not able to access. UDPs are limited to polling OIDs and displaying simple numeric or textual values. The official documentation states that Device Studio expands the range of supported technologies and provides access to more detailed device information compared to UDPs.