Documentation forNetwork Performance Monitor
Monitoring network performance is a key capability of Hybrid Cloud Observability and is also available in a standalone module, Network Performance Monitor (NPM). Hybrid Cloud Observability and NPM are built on the self-hosted SolarWinds Platform.

Monitor Aruba Central wireless infrastructure

Add Aruba Central orchestrator nodes for monitoring, monitor performance metrics, access points, and SSIDs for the wireless controller.

What does NPM monitor for Aruba Central infrastructure?

Monitored entity Metrics
Wireless Controller
  • Controller name
  • IP address
  • Utilization of each interface (interface state, name, and availability)
Access Point
  • Access point name
  • IP address
  • Clients
  • SSID
  • Channels (interface property)
  • MAC (interface property)
  • Radio type (interface property)
Client
  • Client name
  • SSID
  • IP Address
  • MAC
  • Signal Strength
  • Connected

These metrics are polled via a batch request. Polling additional metrics would require additional requests and might result in exceeding the API requests limit. See details on Aruba Central Polling request.

Requirements

Limitations

  • Performance metrics, such as response time or availability are polled via REST API authorization requests. As a result, the response times are longer than for other nodes, and thus using default thresholds might result in marking the node status as critical. To address this, customize the Response Time thresholds when adding the nodes.
  • Utilization metrics are not collected - Utilization requests are too expensive request wise and could easily drain the daily limit of 5000 requests, and thus are not collected.
  • When the daily limit of requests is reached, non-status polling stops. You can see an event and an error in the Aruba Central log.

Request frequency and limits

Requests Value Notes
Aruba Central daily requests 5,000 requests per day Reset at midnight GMT
Status Poll request quota free (0 requests used)

Authentication call is used.

You can keep the default 120 seconds interval.
Statistics collection requests 4 requests per poll

Provided that no pagination occurs. If you have pagination set up, each page counts as a request.

For example, if there are 150 rogue APs in total, with the requests configured to hold a maximum of 100 items, polling rogue APs would count as 2 requests.
Recommended statistics collection interval 10 minutes by default

Requests * polls per hour * hours per day = number of requests per day

4*6*24=576 requests per day (provided that no pagination occurs).

API calls used for polling wireless access points

API request Purpose
/oauth2/authorize/central/api/login Login and status poller
/oauth2/authorize/central/api Obtaining an authorization code
/oauth2/token Acquiring or refreshing the access token
/monitoring/v2/aps Statistics collection poller - gets information on APs and wireless interfaces.
/monitoring/v1/clients/wireless Statistics collection poller - gets information on clients.
/rapids/v1/rogue_aps Statistics collection poller - gets information on AP rogues
/monitoring/v2/bssids Statistics collection poller - gets information on SSIDs
/configuration/v2/groups Adding or editing node's “Get Groups”

Before you begin

Prepare your Aruba Central customer and client details. You will need this information when adding your Aruba Central infrastructure for monitoring.

Log in to the Aruba Central management console and gather the following details:

  • Customer ID
  • Username and password
  • Client ID
  • Client Secret
  • Base URL

See Aruba Central API for details about where to find the details.

Add Aruba Central wireless infrastructure to NPM

  1. Log in to the SolarWinds Platform Web Console as an administrator.

  2. Click Settings > Manage Nodes, and click Add a Node.

  3. In Polling Method, select Orchestrators: API.

    The Polling Hostname or IP Address is disabled and arubanetworks.com is used as the default host name.

  4. Select Aruba Central Devices and provide the required information. Log in to the Aruba Management Console to find out the following details:

    • Customer ID
    • Username
    • Password
    • Client ID
    • Client Secret
    • Base URL

    These details are necessary to load groups.

  5. If you have multiple groups in Aruba Central, click Get Groups, and select a group. If you have only one group, it is selected by default.

    Polling Aruba Central uses the global HTTP proxy settings. To change the defaults, click the Configure your HTTP proxy link.

  6. Review and adjust the device properties.

    1. Review your Aruba Central user and client details, as well as proxy settings.

    2. To edit how often the node status, or monitored statistics are updated, change the values in the Polling area.

      Aruba Central supports 5000 requests a day. This limit is relevant for the value in Collect Statistics Every field. A single poll might require up to 4 requests, be aware that if you poll statistics more frequently than the default settings or if NPM is not the only piece of software using the requests, you might get gaps in data when the daily limit is exceeded. See Aruba Central API Gateway for details about the Aruba API calls per day limit.

    3. Enter values for custom properties for the node.

      The Custom Properties area is empty if you have not defined any custom properties for the monitored nodes. See "Add custom properties to nodes" in the SolarWinds Platform Administrator Guide.

    4. To adjust when the status of the node changes to Warning or Critical, edit alerting thresholds for the metric. Select the Override box and set thresholds for the node.

      Response times for Aruba Central nodes might be 1-2 seconds. Consider adjusting the thresholds accordingly.

  7. Click OK, Add Node.

The Aruba Central is now added as a node. After the first poll, you can see the data from the device in the SolarWinds Platform Web Console.

On the Manage Nodes view, click the added node to see the node details in the Wireless Controller view, or drill down into thin access points listed on the view. Check Node Details to verify that the Machine Type of the new device is ArubaCentral Cloud Orchestrator.