Baselines and baseline calculations in the SolarWinds Platform

With baselines, you can define what is normal for individual monitored objects based on polled data. By default, the baseline calculator uses the last seven days of collected statistic values to determine what is normal for individual monitored objects. The baseline is calculated using mean and standard deviation.

You can use baselines to detect deviations from the average polled values and be alerted on the deviations. Baselines can be displayed on some charts in the SolarWinds Platform Web Console.

What data is subject to statistical baseline calculation?

Nodes	Interfaces	Volumes
CPU Load	Received (Incoming) Errors & Discards	Percent Disk Usage
Percent Memory Used	Transmitted (Outgoing) Errors & Discards
Response Time	Received (Incoming) Percent Utilization
Percent Loss	Transmitted (Outgoing) Percent Utilization

Use mean and standard deviations as thresholds

To get notified when polled values for a node or interface are outside the range specified by mean and standard deviations, set dynamic baseline thresholds.

If you have a contextual understanding of the metric you are monitoring, consider defining the thresholds manually. Baselines are calculated values and do not know what is crucial for your environment.

1. Click Settings > Manage Nodes.
2. Locate and select the node or interface, and click Edit Properties.
3. Scroll down to Alerting Thresholds, select Override Orion General Thresholds, click Use Dynamic Baseline Thresholds.

Before you use calculated deviations as thresholds, click Latest Baseline Details to review the latest baseline statistics.

Mean and standard deviations will now be used as alerting thresholds for the node or interface.

Customize how the baseline is calculated

A baseline is a period when things are operating normally in your environment. Any anomalies that occur during the baseline period will be calculated into the results and skew the recommended values. If you are aware of an anomaly, re-baseline to ensure that the recommended values are accurate.

Consider customizing baselines if significant changes happen that influence what is normal in your environment, such as merging a new company, onboarding a large number of users, or making substantive improvements to the infrastructure.

By default, baseline calculations are based on data collected during seven days. Node baseline calculations are performed daily, and interface baseline calculations are performed weekly on Sunday.

1. Log in to the SolarWinds Platform Web Console using an account with administrative privileges.
2. Click Settings > All Settings in the menu bar.
3. In Thresholds & Polling, click Polling Settings.
4. Scroll down to Database Settings, and adjust the number of days in the Baseline Data Collection Duration field so that the time does not include a known deviation from the normal status.

   The Baseline Data Collection Duration cannot exceed the Detailed Statistics Retention configured in the same section.

5. To change the frequency of calculating interface baselines, choose the Interface Baseline Calculation Frequency.

   You can customize the calculation frequency only for interface baselines. The number of monitored interfaces is usually much larger than the number of nodes. Calculating baselines for nodes usually does not affect performance as much as performing the same calculations for all monitored interfaces.

6. Click Submit.

Your settings will now be used for calculating baselines.

If baselines are not calculated the way you expect them to be, see Troubleshoot baseline thresholds.