Documentation forSolarWinds Observability SaaS

Server monitoring

In SolarWinds Observability SaaS, servers are monitored alongside infrastructure entities. You can bring servers monitored with SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted into SolarWinds Observability SaaS as server entities.

SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted servers can be found as server entities in several SolarWinds Observability explorers, but they are also grouped under the host category.

Monitored applications and application components hosted on servers or network devices added via Platform Connect or Network Collector can be found in the Software area under Infrastructure, see Software monitoring.

For information on managing entities (network devices, hosts,...) monitored via a Network Collector in SolarWinds Observability SaaS, see Manage observed network devices in SolarWinds Observability SaaS.

For information on managing entities monitored via a Network Collector on the Network Collector, see Manage observed network devices in the Network Collector.

Add server entities for monitoring

You have the following options to specify the server entities you want to monitor:

  • Network Collector
  • Platform-connected SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted

Supported polling methods

Data for server entities is collected via ICMP or Windows-based polling using WinRM/WMI.

  • By default, WinRM is the preferred polling method, and polling falls back to WMI if a WinRM connection cannot be established. Using WinRM requires additional configuration. See Configure WinRM polling.

  • Both WinRM and WMI support Kerberos authentication for domain environments, with NTLM as a fallback for non-domain environments. WinRM also supports Basic authentication when HTTPS is used to secure credentials. See Configure Kerberos for WMI/WinRM authentication.

  • WinRM with Kerberos authentication supports group managed service accounts (gMSAs). See Configure gMSA accounts for Windows polling.

    gMSA is supported only with WinRM.

Network Collector

The Network Collector is a tool that collects data from your entities and sends it to SolarWinds Observability SaaS.

Before you begin, complete the configuration required for the selected polling method and have the required Windows credentials ready.

  1. In SolarWinds Observability, click the Add Data drop-down arrow and select Infrastructure.

  2. Select whether you want to add one or more entities:

    • Click On-Prem Infrastructure Devices to add a single server entity.

    • Click Scan On-Prem Hosts to add multiple server entities for monitoring.

    • Click VMware resources to add a VMware vCenter or VMware ESXi host to monitor the host and associated VMs and datastores.

    • Click Nutanix resources to add a Prism Element or Prism Central.

  3. Complete the wizard. The steps depend on whether you are adding a single entity or scanning your network to add multiple entities.

    If you are adding a single entity:

    1. Select or deploy a Network Collector.

    2. Define the Hostname or IP address and a display name.

    3. Select the polling method and provide credentials for polling (new or existing WMI/WinRM credentials).

      To use a gMSA account, specify WMI/WinRM as the polling method, specify the credentials, and select Use a group Managed Service Account (gMSA). This requires additional configuration. See Configure gMSA accounts for Windows polling.

    4. Choose the resources to monitor.

      See Add a network device for details.

    If you are adding a VMware vCenter or a VMware ESXi host:

    1. Select or deploy a Network Collector.

    2. Define the Hostname or IP for the entity and provide credentials (new or existing) for polling.

    3. Verify the data in the summary page.

    If you are adding a Nutanix resource:

    1. Select or deploy a Network Collector.

    2. Define the Hostname or IP for the entity and provide credentials (new or existing) for polling .

    3. Verify the data in the summary page.

    To scan your network and discover multiple entities, see Discover network devices in SolarWinds Observability SaaS.

Windows workstation nodes are discovered as Other Devices in SolarWinds Observability SaaS. To see them in Discovered hosts, import the devices as hosts.

Platform-connected SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted

If you have server nodes in SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted that you want to monitor in SolarWinds Observability SaaS, set up Platform Connect to stream data between the two. Platform Connect requires an activated commercial SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted license on your SolarWinds Platform server.

  1. Copy or create an API token (Ingestion type), found in the settings area of SolarWinds Observability SaaS. See API Tokens for details.

  2. In the SolarWinds Platform Web Console settings, open Platform Connect. Follow the on-screen prompts to install and configure the SolarWinds Observability Agent, entering the API token created earlier. See Connect SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted to SolarWinds Observability SaaS with Platform Connect for details.

After the setup is completed, server nodes are available as server entities in SolarWinds Observability SaaS, as are many other SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted nodes.

For more information about server nodes, including how to add or configure them in SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted, see the SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted server documentation.

View server data

Use the Entity Explorer to view a list of your observed servers. Click a server to view detailed information for the server, including SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted status and details. Depending on the data collected by SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted, the server entity's details view can also include process data, storage information, virtualization data, and hardware and software asset inventory information.

Server data is also summarized with other hosts in the Infrastructure area overview. See Host monitoring.

Server metrics are also available in the Metrics Explorer, using the sw.collector prefix.

View a server entity's processes data

Click the Processes tab in the entity details view to see a list of all processes monitored on the server, including process and application names, CPU usage, and memory usage.

View a server's storage information

Click the Storage tab in the entity details view to see the server's storage details, including:

  • Logical volume details including the name, type and file system, serial number, and size.

  • A list of drives with model, serial number, and capacity details.

  • Storage controller details, such as name, model number, serial number, firmware version, and driver version.

View a virtual server's virtualization information

Click the Virtualization tab (visible only for virtual server entities) to see resource utilization and machine details, including CPU and memory utilization and the virtual machine's details, such as the host name and operational state.

View a server's asset information

Click the Asset tab to see a list of the server's hardware and software, including:

  • A system information summary, such as system and host name, IP address, and inventory collection details.

  • Hardware details summarized for the device, including asset type, manufacturer, model, and serial number.

  • Operating system highlights, including operating system type and version, as well as information about the last user to log in to the device.

  • Detailed hardware and firmware information (graphics and audio cards, ports, USB controllers, peripherals, memory, processors, network interfaces, and firmware). Click the Server tab under the Asset tab to view this.

  • An inventory of drivers and installed software. Click the Software Inventory tab under the Asset tab to review it.

  • A summary of operating system update status, including installed updates. Click the Update tab under the Asset tab to review it; this tab also includes settings for checking for updates.

View a server's hardware health information

Click the Sensors tab to see the server's hardware and software sensors monitored by SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted.

Hardware Health details are available only for sensors deployed on specific devices, such as Aruba, Cisco, Dell, F5, HP, Juniper devices, and Arista 7500E chassis. See Monitor hardware health for the SolarWinds Platform for more details.

Hardware health information includes:

  • Sensor details, such as the sensor name, status, and native state.

  • Sensor category, such as power supply, battery, array, or temperature.

  • Sensor value both as a trend chart and the current value.

  • The last poll time stamp.