Documentation forSolarWinds Platform Self-Hosted

Add a background to Network Atlas maps for the SolarWinds Platform

This topic applies only to the following products:

SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted

DPAIM — EOC — NAM — NCM — NPM — NTA — SAM — SRM — UDT — VMAN — VNQM

You can select colors, textures, and locally-hosted or Internet-hosted images to serve as your map backgrounds.

To clear the current map background, click Home, and click Background > Clear Background ().

Select a background color

Network Atlas supports 24-bit color backgrounds.

  1. In Network Atlas, click Home > Background > Background Color ().
  2. Select a color from the palette, or click More Colors to select a custom color.

The color is used as the background.

Select a background texture

  1. In Network Atlas, click Home > Background > Background Texture ().
  2. Enter the Width and Height of your map in the Map Size in Pixels area.

    The default values are the smallest area bounding the existing map objects and labels.

  3. Select a texture, and click OK.

The texture is used as the background.

Select a background image

Add images accessible on the hard drive or on the Internet as the background for your maps.

Requirements and recommendations

  • Files used for linked backgrounds must be continuously accessible by URL reference.
  • Files used for static backgrounds must be available within the local file system.
  • To ensure optimal quality of images, plan graphics to display at full size in the SolarWinds Platform Web Console.
  • When determining map size and resolution, consider web page layouts and display screen resolutions.

    Example backgrounds are in the NetworkAtlas Backgrounds folder located in your default shared documents folder.

Supported formats

  • Graphics Interchange Format (.gif, non-animated)
  • Tagged Image File Format (.tiff)
  • Joint Photographic Experts Group (.jpg)
  • Microsoft Windows Bitmap (.bmp)
  • Portable Network Graphics (.png)

Linked backgrounds are updated when you access the map, or refresh the browser page.

Add an image as the background

  1. Open the map in the Network Atlas, and click Home.
  2. To use a background image the disk, click Background > Background Image, and navigate to the image.
  3. To use a background image from the Internet:
    1. Click Background > Linked Background.
    2. Type the URL of the image.
    3. Click Validate.
    4. Click OK.

The image displays as the map background.

  • In the web console, map background images linked from the Internet are refreshed with the SolarWinds Platform Web Console refresh.
  • If the SolarWinds Platform server is behind a web proxy which requires authentication, you cannot link directly to the background image.
    A workaround is to write a script that periodically downloads the image and saves it to a folder on the web server. You can specify the saved image as the linked background image.

Add a dynamic background for a map

Weather conditions can affect availability of a certain location. You can add weather maps displaying the current weather as a background for maps.

  1. Navigate to the page which you want to link as the background, and copy the static link.
  2. Open the map in the Network Atlas.
  3. Click Linked Background, and paste the URL.
  4. Validate the URL, and click OK.

    5. The dynamic map will now display as the map background.

When you add the map to the SolarWinds Platform Web Console, the map will refresh every time the SolarWinds Platform Web Console refreshes.