Create a custom property in the SolarWinds Platform

Custom properties help you add custom labels to monitored objects, group objects based on the property or alert on objects with a certain value for the property.

Depending on the selected object type, some options are not available.

1. Click Settings > All Settings in the menu bar.
2. In the Node & Group Management grouping, click Manage Custom Properties.
3. Click Add Custom Property.
4. Select the object type for the property, and click Next.

   The available object types depend on the SolarWinds Platform products installed. All installations allow you to create Node and Volume custom properties.

5. Define the custom property, and click Next.

   Frequently used custom properties are available as templates. Select a template, and adjust the settings if necessary. Templates ensure that naming conventions are met when necessary for certain workflows, such as drawing lines signifying a certain value in resources.

1. Edit the Property Name and Description fields.

   Property names are not case-sensitive, and must be unique for each object type. For example, you can have separate Comment properties for Nodes, Volumes, and other object types.

2. Select the Format for the property.

   We recommend that you limit the string length for text properties. The string length can affect SQL performance, especially when custom properties are used in limitations. The shorter the string length, the faster the queries.

   To limit the string length, click Edit, and provide the maximum number of characters.

   

3. Create a drop-down menu with specific values for the property by selecting Restrict values, and adding the values.

   Restricting values helps to maintain the consistency of values for individual custom properties.

4. If you want to limit how the custom property for nodes should be used, clear boxes in the Usage section.

   When you select a Usage option, you cannot clear the option after you submit the custom property. This prevents you for example from disabling a custom property for reports in case it is already used in a report.

   • Alerts: the custom property is offered only in alerts.
   • Filtering: the custom property is offered when adding Filter Properties in AppStack Environment.
   • Grouping: the custom property is offered in Group by drop-down lists.
   • Reports: the custom property is offered when designing the layout for web-based reports.
   • Object Details Views: the custom property appears in the Custom Properties [for Nodes] resource in the SolarWinds Platform Web Console.
   • Asset Inventory: selected only if you have SAM installed on the server. The custom property appears in the Custom Asset Information resource.
6. Select objects for which you want to define the custom property.
   1. Click Select <Objects>, and locate, and select the objects in the Available <Objects> pane.
   2. Click Add, and then click Select <Objects>.
7. Enter or select a default value for the property.

   To add a value for properties with restricted values, select Add New Value from the drop-down menu, and enter the new value. 
   
   

8. To apply the selected property to a different group of objects, click Add More, select the objects, and click Submit.

You have created a custom property and provided its value for the selected objects.

Now, you can specify the property value in the object properties. For example, for node properties, click Settings > Manage Nodes, select the object, and click Edit Properties.

You can now use the custom property for sorting objects of the type in Group By lists.