Documentation forNetwork Configuration Manager
Managing network configurations is a key capability of SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted (formerly Hybrid Cloud Observability) and is available in the Advanced edition. Network Configuration Manager (NCM) is also available in a standalone module.

Types of NCM alert actions

When you create a SolarWinds Platform alert, you can choose Execute an NCM Action as a trigger action. With this option, you can specify three types of NCM actions:

In executing one of its alert-related actions, NCM requires a role with sufficient permissions and cannot use device access credentials to authorize its action.

As a security enhancement related to executing NCM actions, NCM account passwords are not stored in the database. As part of configuring NCM, the installation software removes passwords from the database as part of the Configuration Wizard session.

Sequence the actions with an awareness that some NCM actions require others to complete first. For example, NCM cannot execute a notification email action before it downloads the config from an NCM-managed device.

Backup Running Config

NCM downloads the latest configuration from the context node. It is the same as running Node Details > Configs > Download Config. Unlike a normal execution of this action, however, the results of this download are written to an alerts table in the SolarWinds Platform database and this data is used when an alert is processed.

When you select this action, specify the following options in the Configure Action dialog:

  1. In the Username box, enter the ID of a SolarWinds Platform account with the NCM role of Uploader or higher.

  2. To specify which node's running config is backed up, select Enter the IP address. Then specify the IP address.

    If you do not enter an IP address, the config backup is performed on the node that triggers the alert.

Execute Config Script

NCM executes the command(s) that you entered in the Command Script to Execute field. For example, if you enter show version, and include it as a Trigger Action on an alert, NCM runs the show command as part of alert processing and includes the results with the alert notification.

When you select this action, specify the following options in the Configure Action dialog:

  1. In the Username box, enter the ID of a SolarWinds Platform account with the NCM role of Uploader or higher.
  2. In the Command Script to Execute box, enter one or more commands to execute when the alert action is taken.

  3. To specify which node the command runs on, select Enter the IP address. Then specify the IP address.

    If you do not enter an IP address, the command runs on the node that triggers the alert.

Show Last Config Changes

NCM performs a query to find the most recent changes and compares those changes either to the baseline config or the next-to-last downloaded config, depending on how you set up your alert action.

When the alert is triggered, the results of the NCM action are stored in the SolarWinds Platform database and used as part of runtime processing of an alert. You can also view this information as part of the Alert Details on any relevant alert reported through the SolarWinds Platform Web Console at Alerts & Activity > Alerts.

If an alert is triggered for a node without relevant config history, NCM cannot contribute any data and the SolarWinds Platform alert is processed without it. So selecting this action only makes sense if you already have a history of device configurations.

When you select this action, specify the following options in the Configure Action dialog:

  1. In the Username box, enter the account ID of an SolarWinds Platform account with the NCM role of Uploader or higher.
  2. Specify whether to compare the latest changes to the baseline config or to the next-to-last downloaded config.

  3. To specify the node whose configs are compared, select Enter the IP address. Then specify the IP address.

    If you do not enter an IP address, the comparison is performed on the node that triggers the alert.