Documentation forLog Analyzer
Analyzing logs is a key capability of Hybrid Cloud Observability and is also available in a standalone module, Log Analyzer (LA). Hybrid Cloud Observability and LA are built on the self-hosted SolarWinds Platform.

Prepare for installations and upgrades

You cannot upgrade LA 2019.4 and earlier to LA 2022.3. You must be on LA 2020.2 or later to upgrade to LA 2022.3. If you are on LA 2019.4 or earlier, first upgrade to 2020.2.6 and then upgrade to 2022.3.

If you are upgrading from LA 2022.2, remove the following file from all agents (both local and remote) after upgrading and restart the SolarWinds Agent services:

C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Agent\Plugins\LA_WindowsEvents.Agent.plugin

Failure to remove this file after upgrading from LA 2022.2 may result in future licensing conflicts.

Task Description
Review release notes Review product release notes and available documentation in our Customer Success Center.
Review system requirements Make sure your environment has all the required hardware and software needs for your installations. You can verify the requirements for your installation in the System requirements section.
Review licenses and gather keys, and review the maintenance status of your products Review your product licenses and maintenance status and determine if you need to make any changes. You can download license keys for your new SolarWinds Platform products through SolarWinds Customer Portal. Verify any license upgrades and needs with your SolarWinds account manager or contact SolarWinds.
Gather credentials Make sure you have all account credentials, SQL database credentials, your SolarWinds account, and local admin server credentials.
Schedule the installation

Set up the maintenance window, preferably during off-peak hours. Depending on the number of products, size of database(s), and size of environment, you may need several hours to complete your installation.

If you upgrade or install new SolarWinds Platform products into an existing SolarWinds Platform, all SolarWinds services and polling engines are required to be offline for a length of time, causing you to lose a portion of polling data.
Notify your company Send a message to your company regarding the upgrade schedule and maintenance window.
Do you need to migrate?

You may need to migrate products and databases to new dedicated servers. Check if you need to migrate by reviewing new product requirements, performance, and company needs.

Migrating adds time to your upgrade, but you have the best opportunity to update to new servers during an upgrade.
Use the Upgrade Path in the SolarWinds Platform Installer

The SolarWinds SolarWinds Platform Installer builds the upgrade path for you, directing the entire upgrade process. When you run the installer, it detects your installed SolarWinds Platform products and versions, verifies the latest available product versions available per your maintenance agreement, and builds the upgrade path for you. This occurs prior to the upgrade, so you can run the installer to see your path before launching the upgrade.

While you can still use the Upgrade Product Advisor to see what your upgrade path might look like, we recommended always using the SolarWinds Platform Installer upgrade path.

Support Note: After every product installation, for Legacy and new products, we recommend always running the SolarWinds Platform Installer. It will verify and update the upgrade path every time. It also runs preflight checks for all products detected with available preflight checks (powered via Active Diagnostics).
Gotchas Gotchas for the SolarWinds Platform Installer & products. Before you install your products, you may want to check out the gotchas. For a full list, see the SolarWinds Platform install and upgrade gotchas (includes links to product specific gotchas).

As part of your pre-flight, prepare the SolarWinds Platform environment:

Prepare the environment
  • For new server installations, build the servers based on your deployment size and system requirements.
  • For installations into an existing SolarWinds Platform, verify that enough drive space is available for installations. Products may require significant space for the downloaded installation ZIP file and installation process.
  • For an SolarWinds Platform installation or integration, you may need to build an additional web server. For details, see the SolarWinds Scalability Guidelines.

If adding SolarWinds High Availability (HA) into your environment, review the HA requirements and VIP address information. Prepare two matching servers for installation.
Run all Windows updates To avoid unnecessary reboots during installation, run all Microsoft Updates on all servers before beginning the installation. The installation cannot complete if your system is waiting to reboot.
Backup existing database

If you are installing with an existing database, back up the database. If you need help, check your vendor's site for documentation and instructions. If you have your database on a VM, create a snapshot or copy of your VM.

As of LA 2020.6, Microsoft Access Database Engine is no longer required to run LA.
Open ports according to requirements For your server ports and firewall, open ports according to the system requirements. SolarWinds Platform uses these ports to send and receive data.
Check for antivirus software Determine if any antivirus software is installed on the server or servers where you plan to install. To ensure the installation goes smoothly, exclude the SolarWinds directory. For example, on Windows Server 2012 R2, exclude C:\ProgramData\SolarWinds\. For a full list of antivirus exclusions, see Files and directories to exclude from antivirus scanning. Do not exclude executable files. SolarWinds assumes that C:\ is the default volume.