Documentation forSolarWinds Observability SaaS

Entities in SolarWinds Observability SaaS

An entity is an item you can monitor with SolarWinds Observability SaaS, such as a website, database, host, cloud platform service or resource, Kubernetes cluster or node, service, or network device. Entities are added to SolarWinds Observability SaaS through the Add Data dialog and provide valuable telemetry that gives you insight into the health and performance of your environment.

Monitored aspects of a single entity, such as a website or trace, are automatically linked whenever possible.

Available entities

The following entity types can be monitored in SolarWinds Observability SaaS.

Databases

Monitoring area: Database Monitoring

Entity type(s): Database instance

Databases supported: MongoDB, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server

Websites and URIs

Monitoring area: Digital Experience Monitoring (DEM)

Entity type(s): Website, URI

Protocols supported: HTTP, HTTPS, TCP/IP, and ICMP (ping)

Applications and services

Monitoring area: Application Performance Monitoring (APM)

Entity type(s):

  • Service

Service languages supported: .NET, Java, Node.js, PHP, Python, and Ruby

Service monitored elements: Transactions

AWS cloud platforms

Monitoring area: Infrastructure Monitoring

Entity type(s):

AWS entities can be found based on their service name in several SolarWinds Observability explorers, but some are also grouped under the host category.

AWS service availability: The cloud platform entities available depend on the services enabled in SolarWinds Observability SaaS when integrating your AWS account, as well as the services enabled in the AWS Console. Entities are not created for all AWS services, but data may still be collected if the service is enabled in the AWS Console.

Azure cloud platforms

Monitoring area: Infrastructure Monitoring

Entity type(s):

Azure entities can be found based on their resource name in several SolarWinds Observability explorers, but some are also grouped under the host category.

Azure resource availability: The cloud platform entities available depend on the resources enabled in SolarWinds Observability SaaS when integrating your Azure account, as well as the resources enabled in the Azure Resource Manager. Entities are not created for all Azure resources, but data may still be collected if the resource is enabled in the Azure Resource Manager.

Hosts and servers

Monitoring area: Infrastructure Monitoring

Entity type(s):

  • Self-managed host
  • Servers (monitored with SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted)

The term host is also used as an entity category that includes self-managed hosts, servers monitored with SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted, and cloud services/resources that provide hosting capabilities. In several SolarWinds Observability explorers and dashboards, AWS and Azure entities are grouped alongside self-managed hosts under the Hosts category.

OpenTelemetry integrations (OTel)

Monitoring area: OTel

Entity type(s):

  • NGINX
  • Apache Web Server

Kubernetes (K8s)

Monitoring area: Infrastructure Monitoring

Entity type(s):

  • Kubernetes cluster
  • Kubernetes node

Entity relationship: When a K8s cluster is monitored, the nodes within the cluster are automatically monitored as individual child entities.

Monitored elements: Namespaces, pods, deployments, stateful sets, daemonsets

Network devices

Monitoring area: Network Monitoring

Entity type(s): Network device

Monitored elements: Interfaces, sensors, volumes, and (if configured) flows

SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted entities

Monitoring area(s): Network and Infrastructure Monitoring

Entity type(s): 

  • Server
  • Network device
  • Virtual cluster
  • Virtual host
  • Virtual machine
  • Virtual datastore

Add entities for monitoring

Define entities you want to observe.

  1. In SolarWinds Observability SaaS, click Add Data at the top.

  2. In the Add Data dialog, click the entity type, platform, or integration you want to monitor.

  3. Follow the instructions in the Add Data dialog to create your entity.

  4. To view data collected for the newly configured entity in the Entity Explorer, click the name of the entity type in the confirmation dialog in the lower-left corner. It may take a few seconds for data to appear for the newly created entity. See Entity Explorer for details.

Monitor groups of entities

An entity group allows you to monitor a collection of entities simultaneously. For example, you can create an entity group to group all websites by customer or to group all services in a single environment.

Click Groups from the side navigation menu to see a list of your observed entity groups. Click an entity group to open the Overview for that Group. The Overview displays a list of entities within the group, and common widgets that display the overall health of the group and active alerts for group members. Click a member of the group to view additional details for the entity.

You can create an entity group using the Create Group button on the Groups area overview, or by selecting entities within the Entity Explorer. See Monitor groups of entities.

View entity data

To explore your high-level and detailed information about any or all of your observed entities, see the Entity Explorer or your area overview. When you select an entity in the Entity Explorer, widgets in the entity details view show the entity's health score, health history, and other key metric data. See Troubleshooting SolarWinds Observability SaaS if you do not see your entity's data.

To view descriptions of the key metrics for each entity in SolarWinds Observability SaaS, see Metrics for SolarWinds Observability SaaS entities.

Dashboards may be automatically created (depending on the entities monitored) or can be manually created and customized by members of your organization. New widgets can be created based on any monitored metric and added to a custom dashboard.

You can analyze your entity's telemetry data with the following:

  • Logs Explorer — for logs and log events that have been sent to SolarWinds Observability SaaS.
  • Metrics Explorer — for detailed metrics.
  • Traces Explorer — for a high-level overview of your traces, as well as detailed metrics for each service's trace.
  • Queries Explorer — for observed queries and their related metrics, raw query samples, and full query details.
  • Profiler — for useful information about your monitored databases, including the most time-consuming and frequently executed queries in your database.