API poller licensing

Each monitored metric returned by the API Poller feature counts against your SAM license. The way licenses are consumed depends on your SAM license model, as described here.

If you have a node-based SAM license:

• Each node with at least one API-monitored metric counts as a managed SAM node.
• Each SAM node can host multiple API pollers that monitor at least one metric.
• The number of allowed monitored metrics matches the number of managed nodes allowed by the license. For example, with a SAM100 license, you can monitor up to 100 API metrics.
  

  You can monitor an unlimited number of component monitors with node-based SAM licensing, regardless of what is being monitored with an API poller.

For example, with a node-based SAM10 license, you can either:

• Monitor 10 values with 1 API poller on 1 node, or
• Monitor 5 values with 2 API pollers on 1 node, or
• Diversify license consumption, as follows:
  • Monitor 1 value with 1 API poller on 3 nodes,
  • Monitor 2 values with 1 API poller on 1 node, and
  • Monitor 1 value with 5 API pollers on 1 node.

  In this example, 3 + 2 +5 = 10 consumed SAM licenses.

If you have a component-based SAM license:

• The number of monitored metrics does not impact the available number of application monitors and component monitors.
• The number of allowed monitored metrics depends on how your component-based license maps to an equivalent node-based license, as detailed next. For example, you can monitor up to 50 API metrics with an AL700 license.
  
  

  Component-based license tier	Node-based license tier equivalent	Maximum number of monitored metrics
  AL150	SAM10	10
  AL300	SAM25	25
  AL700	SAM50	50
  AL1100	SAM75	75
  AL1500	SAM100	100
  AL2500	SAM200	200
  ALX	SAM300	300
  	SAM400...*	400

* Additional node-based SAM license tiers are available, up to SAM5000 and beyond.

For both license types:

• The initial request to contact an API (often referred to as an "API call") is sent from the web, not a polling engine. Until you select at least one metric to monitor, no license is consumed.
• API pollers stop updating metrics in the Orion Web Console if your SAM license expires. The status of monitored metrics, as displayed in the API Poller widget, changes to Unknown.

What happens if you exceed license limits

If you exceed the license limit when adding monitored metrics to a new or existing API poller, a message similar to the following appears. Any metrics above the limit are not monitored and the status appears for metrics appears as Unknown in related widgets.

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Review the API licensing details in this topic and adjust monitored metrics, as necessary.

You can also use SolarWinds AppOptics to collect metrics via REST API calls. >> Learn more