Data collection channels for host monitoring
In SolarWinds Observability SaaS, the host acts as the core infrastructure element on which you can monitor various metrics for applications, databases, and hosts.
SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted users who use the Platform Connect feature, SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted servers, AWS and Azure virtual machines, and self-managed hosts can be found as server, AWS EC2 and Azure VMs, and host entities, respectively, in several SolarWinds Observability SaaS explorers. All of these entities are also grouped under the host category.
See Remove host monitoring from an Agent if you want to remove host monitoring.
You can use one or more of the following methods to collect data from hosts.
Get data from a server or integration using an OTel-based agent
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Self-managed host entities are devices with a supported operating system. To monitor the host, install the SolarWinds Observability Agent with host monitoring enabled.
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The SolarWinds Observability Agent is based on the OpenTelemetry (OTel) standard, giving you the flexibility to extend observability with logs and infrastructure application integrations.
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The SolarWinds Observability Agent is used to collect deep observability data.
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Installation on the host machine is light-weight, minimizing resource consumption.
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Observed data reaches SolarWinds Observability SaaS fast, ensuring timely insights.
See Add a self-managed host and Configure native OTel integrations.
Get basic data from cloud platforms
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Cloud hosts are created when integrating your AWS or Azure cloud account with SolarWinds Observability SaaS.
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Cloud accounts are integrated using the providers' API to perform shallow monitoring, providing native data on EC2 and Azure VM hosts.
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The data gathered by SolarWinds Observability SaaS depends on the data available in the cloud account.
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Integrating with cloud accounts is used to get a basic overview from a wide range of hosts.
Get host data from SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted using Platform Connect
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Servers monitored with SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted can easily be monitored alongside other infrastructure entities in SolarWinds Observability SaaS. Server nodes can be brought into SolarWinds Observability as server entities using Platform Connect.
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Virtual devices monitored with SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted can also be monitored with SolarWinds Observability SaaS. Virtual clusters, virtual datastores, virtual hosts, or virtual machines can be brought into SolarWinds Observability as server entities using Platform Connect.
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The SolarWinds Observability Agent is installed during the configuration of Platform Connect with network monitoring enabled.
See Network monitoring, Server monitoring, Virtual device monitoring, and Manage Network Collector and Platform Connect integrations.
Get host data for your network device using a Network Collector
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When the Network Collector is installed on a server to monitor network devices, host data is sent to SolarWinds Observability SaaS alongside the network device information.
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The SolarWinds Observability Agent is included as part of the Network Collector installation. It is installed with network monitoring enabled.
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Used for collecting data on network devices and servers, can be extended to include application Databases Overview.
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Suitable for comprehensive monitoring of on-prem or cloud-based environments.
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Facilitates displaying network relationships on maps.
See Network monitoring and Manage Network Collector and Platform Connect integrations.
Host monitoring options
| Using the Agent | Integrating with cloud accounts | Using Platform Connect | Using the Network Collector | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Entity type | Self-managed host (Host in the Entity Explorer) |
Entity name matches the cloud platform service name. Cloud platform hosts can be found in several SolarWinds Observability SaaS explorers based on their cloud platform service name, but they are also grouped under the host category in the Entity Explorer. |
Network devices Network interfaces Servers Virtual devices, such as virtual Clusters, virtual datastores, virtual hosts, or virtual machines. Server and Virtual device hosts can be found in several SolarWinds Observability SaaS explorers as servers or the virtual devices, but they are also grouped under the host category in the Entity Explorer. |
Network devices Network interfaces |
| Installation |
Lightweight installation of the SolarWinds Observability Agent with many installation options, such as installer, Ansible, Chef, or Docker. See Add a self-managed host. |
Software installation is not required. | Installed when enabling the Platform Connect feature. | Network Collector installation. |
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Agent plugin Plugins are pieces of software included in Agents. Plugins have different roles that define their function. |
uams-otel-collector-plugin (hostmetrics-monitoring) uams-otel-collector-plugin (<OTel-integration-name>) |
No agent installed. |
network-collector (CloudConnected) |
network-collector (SiteCollector) See Add a network device. |
| Agent Management | Directly in SolarWinds Observability SaaS:
See Agents. |
Limited centralized management and monitoring of multiple cloud hosts from a single location:
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Start, stop, or restart plugins in Agents. See Agents. |
Start, stop, or restart plugins in Agents. See Agents. |
| Monitoring capabilities |
Monitors metrics, volumes, processes, installed software, events, and attributes, such as host uptime, kernel architecture, kernel version, platform, platform family, platform version, and more. Host monitoring is required for Database monitoring See Host monitoring. |
Native data monitored on EC2 and Azure VM hosts. Optional real-time monitoring with API streaming to quickly detect and address issues as soon as they occur. See AWS cloud platform monitoring and Azure cloud platform monitoring. |
Monitors network metrics, server processes, storage information and assets, as well as virtual device data. |
Monitors metric, volume, port, and sensor data, flows, wireless data, VLANs, routing, load balancer data, SD-WAN data, or SD-WAN tunnel performance. See Monitored elements and data relevant for network devices. |
| Licensing |
Each monitored host would be counted as one host (part of the Network and Infrastructure subscription). If the same host is monitored via the API, the data will be consolidated into a single entity. |
Each monitored host would be counted as one host (part of the Network and Infrastructure subscription). If the same host is monitored via the OTel Agent, the data will be consolidated into a single entity. |
A commercial or temporary (provided by SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted license activated on a SolarWinds Platform server. | If the same host is monitored via the API or Host Agent, the system would create an additional entity. See Entity duplication. |
| Extensibility |
Additional monitoring can be enabled easily to add custom data (Logs, NGINX, Apache, ZooKeeper, Elasticsearch, Memcached, Redis,...) See Monitor with OTel. |
Easily scalable to monitor large numbers of cloud hosts but only native data. | Software Templates | |
| Diagnostics |
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Depends on what the cloud platform supports. |
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| Security | Secure data ingestion channel | Secure data by design | Secure data by design | Secure data by design |
| Data collection frequency | Every 30 seconds | Every 5 minutes (polling). For streaming, the data is sent on the go. |
Depends on polling settings in SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted Push 5-6 minutes delay Streaming |
Depends on polling settings Push 5-6 minutes delay Streaming |
| Standardization | Based on OpenTelemetry (OTel), consistent data, can be easily analyzed and compared | Depends on the API supported by the host | ||
| Interoperability | Easy integration with other tools, such as tracing and logging systems | Depends on the API supported by the host |