Create a custom property in the SolarWinds Platform

Custom properties help you add custom labels to monitored objects, group objects based on the property or alert on objects with a certain value for the property.

Custom property management updates

Orion Platform 2020.2.6 introduces a modern UI for managing custom properties. You can switch to the legacy view.

In the modern Manage custom properties view, you can go directly to the Manage account limitations view to create account limitations based on custom properties.

1. Click Settings > All Settings in the menu bar.

2. In the Node & Group Management grouping, click Manage Custom Properties.

3. On Manage custom properties, click ... in the right-hand part of the button bar, and select Manage account limitations.

   

Create custom properties in the modern Manage custom properties view

Depending on the selected object/entity type, some options are not available.

1. Click Settings > All Settings in the menu bar.

2. In the Node & Group Management grouping, click Manage Custom Properties.

3. Click Add.

4. In the Templates section on the left, select an Entity Type. The default selection is Nodes.

   

5. Configure the custom property details:

   Custom property names should not contain restricted characters or reserved words. See List of reserved words in custom properties for details.

   • Frequently used custom properties are available as templates. Select a template in the Templates list, and adjust the settings, if necessary.

     Templates ensure that naming conventions are met when necessary for certain workflows, such as drawing lines signifying a certain value in resources.

   • If there is not a suitable template, keep the default Custom setting, and provide the custom property details.

     • Type the Property name (required) and description.

     • Select the property format (text, date, integer, floating point number, or yes-no).

       The default string length is limited to 400 characters. To change the limit, click Edit, and provide the maximum number of characters.

       

     • Select Value must be specified to make the custom property obligatory.

     • To provide a drop-down list with values, select the Create a drop-down box, and add values.

       

     • Select how the property will be used.

6. Save the custom property.

   1. Click Save to only save the property definition. The property will not be used for any entities.

   2. Click Save and assign values to go to the Assign values pages and to select nodes to add this property to and to assign values for the nodes.

Assign custom property values to entities

On Assign values, define custom property values for individual entities.

If you have just created a custom property and have clicked Save and assign values, the Assign values page opens automatically. It includes a table with entities and the new custom property is displayed in the <new property name> column, next to entities in the table. You can type values for nodes directly, or select multiple nodes and click Edit value(s).

Use filters to show relevant entities

You can use filters in the left part of the view to only display entities you need to define the custom property for.

1. To add/remove filters, click the three dots in Filters, select Add filter and select properties to filter by. The properties selected for filtering are also added to the table as columns.

2. Expand filters and select property values to filter the entities by.

   The table will only show entities that correspond with the selected filters.

Specify values for the selected entities and new custom properties

Now that you have entities in the table and properties you want to define as columns, you can define values.

• To enter the custom property value for an entity, click into the <new property name> column, into the row for the entity, and specify the value.

  

• To enter property values for multiple entities, select the entities and click Edit value(s).

  In the popup, select the custom property, specify value to be added to the selected entities, and click Save Changes.

  

The custom property value will be defined for the selected entities.

Specify values for the selected entities and existing custom properties

1. Click Settings > All Settings in the menu bar.

2. In the Node & Group Management grouping, click Manage Custom Properties.

3. On Manage custom properties, select one or more properties to assign values to and click Assign values.

   

   The Assign value page opens where you select entities and define the values for entities.

Create custom properties in the legacy Manage Custom Properties view

1. Click Settings > All Settings in the menu bar.

2. In the Node & Group Management grouping, click Manage Custom Properties.

3. Click Add Custom Property.

4. Select the object type for the property, and click Next.

   The available object types depend on the SolarWinds Platform products installed. All installations allow you to create Node and Volume custom properties. With VMAN, NPM, and SAM, you can also create custom properties using object types such as virtual machines, virtual hosts, and virtual datastores.

5. Define the custom property, and click Next.

   Frequently used custom properties are available as templates. Select a template, and adjust the settings if necessary. Templates ensure that naming conventions are met when necessary for certain workflows, such as drawing lines signifying a certain value in resources.

1. Edit the Property Name and Description fields.

   Property names are not case-sensitive, and must be unique for each object type. For example, you can have separate Comment properties for Nodes, Volumes, and other object types.

   Custom property names do not support words reserved for the use by the system, you can find these in the List of reserved words in Custom Property names article.

2. Select the Format for the property.

   We recommend that you limit the string length for text properties. The string length can affect SQL performance, especially when custom properties are used in limitations. The shorter the string length, the faster the queries.

   To limit the string length, click Edit, and provide the maximum number of characters.

   

3. Create a drop-down menu with specific values for the property by selecting Restrict values, and adding the values.

   Restricting values helps to maintain the consistency of values for individual custom properties.

4. If you want to limit how the custom property for nodes should be used, clear boxes in the Usage section.

   When you select a Usage option, you cannot clear the option after you submit the custom property. This prevents you for example from disabling a custom property for reports in case it is already used in a report.

   • Alerts: the custom property is offered only in alerts.
   • Filtering: the custom property is offered when adding Filter Properties in AppStack Environment.
   • Grouping: the custom property is offered in Group by drop-down lists.
   • Reports: the custom property is offered when designing the layout for web-based reports.
   • Object Details Views: the custom property appears in the Custom Properties [for Nodes] resource in the SolarWinds Platform Web Console.
   • Asset Inventory: selected only if you have SAM installed on the server. The custom property appears in the Custom Asset Information resource.

6. Select objects for which you want to define the custom property.

   1. Click Select <Objects>, and locate, and select the objects in the Available <Objects> pane.

   2. Click Add, and then click Select <Objects>.

7. Enter or select a default value for the property.

   Custom property names should not contain restricted characters or reserved words. See List of reserved words in custom properties for details.

   To add a value for properties with restricted values, select Add New Value from the drop-down menu, and enter the new value. 
   
   

8. To apply the selected property to a different group of objects, click Add More, select the objects, and click Submit.

You have created a custom property and provided its value for the selected objects.

Now, you can specify the property value in the object properties. For example, for node properties, click Settings > Manage Nodes, select the object, and click Edit Properties.

You can now use the custom property for sorting objects of the type in Group By lists.