Documentation forSolarWinds Platform Self-Hosted

Evaluate SolarWinds Platform products

This topic applies to all SolarWinds Platform products.

When you install a SolarWinds Platform product, you can try a fully functional product for the trial period. The evaluation period for most SolarWinds Platform products is 30 days. It begins when you install the product and do not have a commercial license activated. You can verify the amount of time remaining for the evaluation in the License Manager.

When you activate a commercial license for most products, the evaluation license expires, and you lose any remaining evaluation days.

The SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted Enterprise Evaluation License covers an unlimited number of Additional polling engines (APE) and Additional web servers (AWS) until the end of the evaluation period even if you activate a commercial license.

What happens after an evaluation license expires?

  • Additional web servers stop working.
  • Polling engines stop polling.
  • High Availability pools are disabled.
  • SolarWinds Platform Web Console keeps working but displays only historical data.
  • The Evaluation license in the License Manager is marked as expired until it is replaced by a commercial license.

Instant Evaluation: start evaluation in SolarWinds Platform Web Console

You can evaluate SolarWinds Platform products using a few clicks.

Evaluate SolarWinds Platform products

The trial period is 30 days for each SolarWinds Platform product.

  1. In the SolarWinds Platform Web Console, click Settings > All Settings, and click License Manager in the Details section.

  2. In the right-hand column, find Try other products, and click See all available products to get a list of options.

    You can also click Try for free for individual products to immediately start the evaluation.

  3. In Available products, select one or more products and click Try for free at the top of the list.

  4. Provide your personal details (email, phone number, name, company, and country) and click Try for free.

Evaluation starts immediately. The number of products available for evaluation changes, and appropriate licenses are added to My Products in the License Manager.

Evaluate SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted

Evaluate SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted to unlock advanced observability features:

  • Monitor cloud and on-prem infrastructure and applications

  • Diagnose issues with flow data and configuration tracking

  • Scale with additional polling engines, web servers, and high availability

  • Includes Enterprise Console

For more details on evaluating SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted in an offline environment and activating the license, see Evaluate Observability.

Before you begin

  • Evaluating SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted won't affect your current licenses. The original licenses are saved in the background, and you can easily switch back to them.

  • Activating and using more features may increase the system requirements for your SolarWinds Platform installation.

  • The trial period is 30 days.

Start evaluating SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted Advanced

  1. In the SolarWinds Platform Web Console, click Settings > All Settings, and click License Manager in the Details section.

  2. Click Start your free trial.

  3. Click Next to confirm the Advanced option.

    See SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted licensing model for details.

  4. Enter the required information (email, phone number, name, company, and country) to activate your 30-day trial.

  5. Click Try for Free.

Evaluation starts immediately. The module licenses are replaced with a SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted Advanced Evaluation license.

When the evaluation period is over, your deployment reverts to your previous commercial licenses for SolarWinds Platform products, if applicable.

Revert back to module licensing

You can switch back to your original module licenses at any time.

  1. In the License Manager, click Back to module licensing.

The deployment will immediately be reverted back to your licensed SolarWinds Platform products.

Reverting back to module licensing does not pause the evaluation period. The evaluation period ends 30 days after you started the free trial for the first time.

Evaluate another SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted plan

When evaluating SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted, you can try all available plans.

  1. In the License Manager, start evaluating a plan.

  2. To change the plan, find the SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted tile, and click Try other plan.

  3. In the Switch to Observability licensing window, another available plan is selected. Click Next and then click Try for free.

Both the product and license immediately switch to the plan you've selected.

You don’t have to activate evaluation licenses. If you decide to activate a license, ensure that you deactivate originally valid licenses first. See Deactivate licenses offline or online.

Remove a product from evaluation candidates

If you've finished evaluating a product, or if your evaluation license expired, you can remove the license from the License Manager.

Removing an evaluation license removes it both from the My Products list and from the list of products available for evaluation. The license is permanently removed, and you cannot restore it.

  1. In the License Manager, select the license to be removed and click Remove.

  2. Click Remove on the confirmation message.

The license is removed both from My Products and from products suggested for evaluation.

Evaluate performance improvements achieved with Additional Polling Engines and Additional Web Servers

When you install an Additional Polling Engine or Additional Web Server, the Orion Scalability Engine Evaluation license is added to your licenses in the License Manager on the main polling engine. With this license, each polling engine can poll an unlimited number of elements for 30 days.

If you purchase and activate an APE or AWS license during the evaluation period, you can still install and use further APEs or AWS's with the Orion Scalability Engine Evaluation license until the end of the evaluation period.

When the Orion Scalability Engine Evaluation expires, the license is marked as expired in the License Manager. Purchase and activate the appropriate number of APE or AWS licenses.

Can I still evaluate an APE or AWS if I have a commercial license for only one of them?

Yes. If you purchased a license for one type of scalability engine, and want to keep the option to evaluate the other in the future, activate the license before you install the scalability engine to prevent the evaluation license from activating.

You can also request a temporary key from your sales representative.

  1. In the SolarWinds Platform Web Console, click Settings > All Settings > License Manager.
  2. Click Activate, provide your activation key, and complete the activation. The license will remain unassigned.
  3. Install the scalability engine. During the installation, the activated license will be used, and the evaluation period will not start.

When you install the other scalability engine, the evaluation license will still be available.

Evaluate SolarWinds Platform High Availability

High Availability (HA) is licensed per pool. To use the HA feature, you need to license HA pools.

With the High Availability Evaluation license, you can create an unlimited number of HA pools and use HA for 30 days. High Availability Evaluation licenses start the 30-day countdown when you add the first HA pool.

What happens when a High Availability evaluation license expires?

High Availability evaluation licenses expire after the 30-day evaluation period or when you add a commercial license key. When the evaluation license expires, all pools without a valid license are disabled.

To enable a pool when the evaluation expires, activate a full license and assign it to the pool.