SAM licensing model

This section describes the two types of licensing available for SAM:

Node-based licensing, and
Component-based licensing.

Additional topics provided here include:

Determine your SAM license type
Manage your SAM license
Add polling engines to scale your environment
How your SAM license relates to other SolarWinds Platform module licenses

To learn more, visit the SolarWinds Success Center to review:

To display licensing details for all deployed SolarWinds Platform products, click Settings > All Settings > License Details.

Node-based licensing in SAM

A node-based SAM license governs how many managed nodes can be monitored within your environment, while allowing for an unlimited number of component monitors per node. This scheme provides an alternative to component-based licensing, which controls how many component monitors can be assigned.

The term "managed node" can be interpreted differently, depending on if you're using other SolarWinds Platform modules with SAM:

In a SAM-only environment, a managed node is any entity from which SAM extracts data directly via supported polling methods (for example, WMI), SolarWinds Platform agents, or API pollers. Nodes monitored by Asset Inventory and/or Hardware Health are also considered managed nodes in a SAM-only environment.
If your environment includes SAM and other SolarWinds Platform modules, the SAM node count has the potential to be additive to other modules that use node licensing, such as SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM). In a multi-module scenario, only nodes being monitored by SAM application monitors or API pollers are classified as managed nodes for SAM. Nodes monitored by Asset Inventory and/or Hardware Health do not impact licensing.

In either case, a managed node can represent a traditional server, VM, hypervisor, or Nutanix cluster, as well as an external node, external API, or service.

A VM being monitored directly counts as a single managed node. However, individual VMs on a hypervisor do not count as multiple managed nodes when performance metrics are gathered from the parent hypervisor. In that case, the parent hypervisor is the managed node.

Available license tiers

Count the number of managed nodes in your environment to determine the most suitable license tier.

SAM license tiers (node-based licensing)	Number of managed nodes
SAM10	10
SAM25	25
SAM50	50
SAM75	75
SAM100	100
SAM200	200
SAM300	300
SAM400	400
SAM500	500
SAM600	600
SAM700	700
SAM800	800
SAM900	900
SAM1000	1000
SAM1250	1250
SAM1500	1500
SAM2000	2000
SAM2500	2500
SAM3000	3000
SAM4000	4000
SAM5000*	5000

*Additional tiers are available. Contact SolarWinds Sales for details.

Component-based licensing in SAM

A component-based SAM license is similar to an NPM license, replacing interfaces for components, based on nodes, volumes, or assigned component monitors — whichever is highest. For example, with an AL150 license, you can monitor 150 nodes, 150 volumes, and 150 component monitors.

Each component monitor consumes one license. A typical application monitor (also called an application) includes 15 — 25 component monitors, while AppInsight applications consume a flat rate of either 30 or 50 licenses each.

In addition to application monitors, SAM features such as API Pollers also consume licenses. For example, the Windows Scheduled Task Monitor consumes 5 licenses for each monitored Windows server. Asset Inventory data collection does not consume SAM licenses.

You can use as many component monitors as needed, as long as the number of assigned component monitors doesn't exceed the license count. If you exceed a license limit, component monitors beyond the limit are not activated and their statuses change to Not Licensed. Either disable assigned component monitors to reduce license consumption, or upgrade your license. This also applies to API Poller metrics.

The following table lists available component-based license levels:

SAM license tiers (component-based licensing)	Number of monitored components
AL150	150
AL300	300
AL700	700
AL1100	1100
AL1500	1500
AL2500	2500
ALX	Unlimited number of items to monitor standard polling throughput.

To check the number of available component monitors, navigate to the SAM License Summary:

Click Settings > All Settings.
Under Product Specific Settings, click SAM Settings.
Click SAM License Summary.

Note the following details about component-based licensing:

To maximize polling capacity, see SAM polling recommendations.
Two Additional Polling Engines can be installed on a single server, and license stacking is supported. See Scalability Engine Guidelines for details.

Verify the number of component monitors consumed per template

As described here, each SAM application monitor template includes one or more component monitors designed to monitor the availability or a statistic of a specific element, such as a server, application, process, service, port, or URL. You can assign templates to nodes to create application monitors (also called "applications") that are specific to each node.

For most application monitors, you can add, disable, or delete component monitors, as necessary. Each active component monitor in an application monitor counts against your license. However, note that AppInsight application behave differently, consuming licenses at a flat rate.

Example: The environment depicted on the Manage Assign Application Monitors page shown here includes:

The AppInsight for IIS template uses a flat rate that consumes 30 licenses per assigned application monitor, even though 152 component monitors actively poll on behalf of each application monitor.
The Server Clock Drift template consumes 2 licenses for 1 assigned application monitor.
The Web Link template only consumes 1 license for 1 assigned application monitor.

If you have an AL150 license and use all component monitors from each template, you consume 33 (30+2+1) component monitor licenses out of the available 150.

To view the number of licensed component monitors consumed per template, navigate to the Manage Application Monitor Templates page.

Click Settings > All Settings > SAM Settings.
Under Product Specific Settings, click SAM Settings
Under Application Monitor Templates, click Manage Templates.
Review the Licensed Components column for each template.

Verify the number of component monitors that are currently active

To determine how many component licenses are currently active, click Settings > All Settings > SAM Settings > Manage Application Monitors to open the Manage Assign Application Monitors page.

You can also create a report about licensed component monitors.

To check the number of component monitors assigned to each polling engine, see:

AppInsight applications consume licenses at flat rates

AppInsight applications consume a fixed number of component monitor licenses; you cannot add component monitors and some key component monitors cannot be disabled. Due to their complexity of AppInsight templates, they collect data in a different way than most applications and cannot be partially unlicensed.

You can disable some component monitors in AppInsight applications, but that won't reclaim licenses because AppInsight applications typically monitor far more components than cited in their flat rates, as listed here:

AppInsight for Active Directory: 50 component monitors per monitored domain controller
AppInsight for Exchange: 50 component monitors per monitored mailbox role server
AppInsight for IIS: 30 component monitors per monitored IIS server
AppInsight for SQL: 50 component monitors per database instance

If you encounter heavy polling loads and need to determine how many component monitors collect data for individual AppInsight applications, see Review polling engine loads. You can also check the Active Components column on the Manage Assigned Application Monitors page.

Determine your SAM license type

To check which type of license you have:

Click Settings > All Settings > License Details.
Examine the SAM section of the License Details page:
- If data refers to nodes, SAM uses a node-based license.
- If data refers to component monitors, SAM uses a component-based license.

You can also check your license type in the SolarWinds Customer Portal.

Log in to the SolarWinds Customer Portal.
Click Licenses > Manage Licenses.
Scroll down to the Server & Application Monitor row.

If a license starts with SAM (for example, SAM200), SAM uses a node-based license.

If a license starts with AL (AL2500), SAM uses a component-based license.

To switch to node-based licensing, contact SolarWinds Sales. Note that, after updating licensing, it may take one or two polling cycles for polling rate details to refresh in the SolarWinds Platform Web Console.

Manage your SAM license

Like other SolarWinds Platform products, SAM uses the web-based License Manager to license the SolarWinds Platform server, APEs, Additional Web Servers, and High Availability (HA) pools.

To manage SAM and other licenses after you install SAM:

Click Settings > All Settings.
Click License Details in the Details section.
Click License Manager.

You can sort licenses by product name, version, license type, or expiration date. You can also add a license, upgrade a license, and activate licenses on new servers. The License Manager on the SolarWinds Platform server controls all licenses for your SAM environment.

If prompted to activate your SAM license, use your individual Customer ID (also called a "SWID") to log in to the Customer Portal. If you do not know your ID, enter a Support ticket.

Add polling engines to scale your environment

In the SolarWinds Platform, an Additional Polling Engine (APE) is a type of scalability engine that you can add to any SAM environment, regardless of license type, to:

Distribute polling away from the Main Polling Engine,
Boost SolarWinds Platform Web Console performance, and
Help ensure high availability (HA).

To maximize polling capacity, see SAM polling recommendations.

With a node-based SAM license, you can add APEs at no extra cost. Note the following details about "included" APEs:

They collect SAM and basic SolarWinds Platform data only. For example, APEs can return application metrics, plus basic node status and volume metrics, but not NPM interface data.
With a unified SAM license key in SAM 2020.2 and later, polling engine licenses are stacked automatically, with built-in scalability. You can monitor up to 40,000 component monitors per server at standard polling frequencies. If you exceed that limit, polling intervals are automatically extended.
APE port requirements match Main Polling Engine port requirements.

To learn more about APEs, see:

How your SAM license relates to other SolarWinds Platform module licenses

If your SAM environment includes other SolarWinds Platform modules, licenses may interact with your SAM license in different ways, depending on the module.

SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM)

A node-based SAM license governs how many managed nodes can be monitored in your SAM environment, while allowing for an unlimited number of component monitors per node.

A component-based SAM license is similar to an NPM license, replacing interfaces for components. That is, SAM is licensed based on nodes, volumes, or component monitors — whichever is highest. For example, you can monitor 150 nodes, 150 volumes, and 150 component monitors simultaneously with an AL150 license.

If your deployment includes both SAM and NPM, the combined licenses can extend the total number of nodes being monitored. If you have an NPM SL500 (500 nodes and 500 volumes) license and a SAM AL150 component-based license, you can monitor:

650 nodes, including:
- 500 nodes, monitored by NPM, and
- 150 nodes, monitored by SAM.
650 volumes. The number of volumes matches the node count in the license.
500 interfaces monitored with SNMP.
150 component monitors.
An unlimited number of interfaces polled using WMI.

SolarWinds Network Automation Manager (NAM)

NAM is a bundle of the following modules: IP Address Manager (IPAM), Network Configuration Manager (NCM), NPM, NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA), User Device Tracker (UDT), and VoIP and Network Quality Manager (VNQM), plus SolarWinds High Availability (HA). Because NAM includes NPM, the combined NPM and SAM licenses extend the total number of nodes being monitored, as described earlier.

If NAM and SAM are both deployed, you can use NAM APEs and add APEs at no extra cost with a node-based SAM license. However, note that the "included" SAM APEs collect SAM and basic SolarWinds Platform data only. For example, a SAM APE can return application metrics, basic node status, and volume metrics, but not NPM interface data.

SolarWinds Log Analyzer (LA)

If you use LA and SAM, you'll only receive LA-related messages for nodes being monitored by LA. For example, if you have NPM SL100, SAM AL100, and LA100 licenses, you can monitor up to 300 nodes but you'll only receive LA-related messages from the 100 nodes specifically monitored by LA.

To learn how LA interacts with SolarWinds Platform Log Viewer (OLV) and SAM, see this Success Center article.

SolarWinds Server Configuration Monitor (SCM)

SAM and SCM both support the Asset Inventory feature. Although that feature does not consume extra licenses on its own, a node must be monitored if you want to track Asset Inventory, so at least one license is consumed by the node.