Polling Settings

The Polling Settings view establishes how often statistics are polled, and how long the data is retained in the SolarWinds Platform database.

Changes to database maintenance and retention settings do not take effect until the SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor service is restarted.

Polling Intervals

Configure how frequently the polling engine requests information from devices.

• 

  Configure polling intervals (devices currently monitored and added in the future)

  Use these steps to change polling settings for both currently monitored devices and for devices you will add for monitoring in the future.

  1. Go to Polling Settings and edit the polling intervals.
  2. Decide what to do about custom settings for individual entities you might already have:
     • To keep customized values, make sure the Lock custom values box is selected.
     • To overwrite any customizations you might have for individual entities, clear the Lock Custom Values box.
  3. Click Reapply. This sets the new value for currently monitored devices.
  4. Click Submit. This sets the new value for devices you might add for monitoring in the future.

     When you return to Polling Settings, you will see that the value you changed is saved. The changed setting will be used for both devices monitored at the moment and for all devices that you add for monitoring from now on.

• 

  Change Polling Intervals only for devices you might add in the future

  1. Go to Polling Settings and edit the polling intervals.
  2. Decide what to do about custom settings for individual entities you might already have:
     • To keep customized values, make sure the Lock Custom Settings box is selected.
     • To overwrite any customizations you might have for individual entities, clear the Lock Custom Settings box.
  3. Click Submit. This sets the current value for devices you might add for monitoring in the future.

     When you return to Polling Settings, you will see that the value you changed is saved. The changed setting will be used for all devices that you add for monitoring from now on. This change does not affect devices you are already monitoring at the moment.

• 

  Change polling intervals for already monitored devices

  1. Go to Polling Settings and edit the polling intervals.
  2. Decide what to do about custom settings for individual entities you might already have:
     • To keep customized values, make sure the Lock box is selected.
     • To remove any customizations you might have for individual entities, clear the Lock box.
  3. Click Reapply. This sets the current value for currently monitored devices.
  4. Leave the Polling Settings page without submitting your changes.

     The change is applied on all devices you are currently monitoring in the database. When you return to the Polling Settings page, you don't see any changes. The setting you changed has the original value. Devices that you add for monitoring from now on are not affected by the change, they will use the setting currently specified on the Polling Settings page.

Available options

Setting	Default value	Description
Default Node Poll Interval	120 seconds	The interval for polling the status and response time of monitored devices.
Default Interface Poll Interval	120 seconds	The interval for polling the status of monitored interfaces.
Default Volume Poll Interval	120 seconds	The interval for polling the status of volumes.
Default Rediscovery Interval	30 minutes	The interval for polling the entire network to detect any re-indexed interfaces. Monitored network devices are also checked for IOS upgrades or EnergyWise support. Rediscovery scans your network for changes to your monitored nodes. If you want to discover changes to your environment, schedule a network discovery to occur on a periodic basis and check the scheduled discovery results. The minimum rediscovery interval is five minutes (in earlier versions, the interval was one minute). You cannot submit polling interval settings if the default rediscovery interval is not set to at least five minutes.
Default Asset Inventory Poll Interval	1 day	The interval for checking asset inventory. Relevant for SAM and SCM.
Lock Custom Values	Selected	Select this option to keep any customized status polling interval settings.
Re-Apply Polling Intervals	Button enabled	Click Re-Apply Polling Intervals to apply the settings specified in this section to all objects in the database. Click Submit at the bottom of the page to use the current settings for new objects. If you leave the page without submitting the changes, your settings will be applied to objects in the database, but will not be saved as default. For objects added to the database in the future, the default settings will be used. Not submitting the changes can result in different settings for objects that are already in the database, and different settings for newly added objects.

Polling Statistics Intervals

Configure the intervals on which Orion completes SNMP statistics polls.

Depending on the SolarWinds Platform products and modules you have installed, additional polling settings may be available. See the SolarWinds Platform Administrator Guide for more information about polling settings.

• 

  Configure polling statistics intervals (devices currently monitored and added in the future)

  Use these steps to change polling settings for both currently monitored devices and for devices you will add for monitoring in the future.

  1. Go to Polling Settings and edit the polling statistics intervals.
  2. If you want to only change some settings, clear boxes for settings that stay the same.
  3. Ensure that boxes for settings to change are selected.
  4. Click Reapply. This sets the new value for selected settings for currently monitored devices.
  5. Click Submit. This sets the new value for all devices you might add for monitoring in the future.

     When you return to Polling Settings, you will see that the value you changed is saved. The changed setting will be used for both devices monitored at the moment and for all devices that you add for monitoring from now on.

• 

  Change polling statistics intervals only for devices you might add in the future

  1. Go to Polling Settings and edit the polling statistics intervals.
  2. Click Submit. This sets the current value for devices you might add for monitoring in the future.

     When you return to Polling Settings, you will see that the value you changed is saved. The changed setting will be used for all devices that you add for monitoring from now on. This change does not affect devices you are already monitoring at the moment.

• 

  Change polling intervals only for already monitored devices

  1. Go to Polling Settings.
  2. If you want to only change some settings, clear boxes for settings that stay the same.
  3. Ensure that boxes for settings to change are selected.
  4. Edit the polling statistics intervals.
  5. Click Reapply. This sets the current value for currently monitored devices.
  6. Leave the Polling Settings page without submitting your changes.

     The change for the selected settings is applied on all devices you are currently monitoring in the database. When you return to the Polling Settings page, you don't see any changes. The setting you changed has the original value. Devices that you add for monitoring from now on are not affected by the change, they will use the setting currently specified on the Polling Settings page.

Available options

Setting	Default value	Description
Default Node Topology Poll Interval	120 minutes	Configure the interval for polling topology statistics for nodes.
Default Node Statistics Poll Interval	10 minutes	Configure the interval for polling device performance statistics.
Default Interface Statistics Poll Interval	9 minutes	Configure the interval for polling interface performance statistics. Available only if SolarWinds NPM is installed.
Default Volume Statistics Poll Interval	15 minutes	Configure the interval for polling volume performance statistics.
Re-Apply Polling Statistics Intervals	Button enabled	Click Re-Apply Polling Intervals to apply the specified values for selected entities in this section to all objects in the database. See the instructions above. Click Submit at the bottom of the page to use the current settings for new objects. If you leave the page without submitting the changes, your settings will be applied to objects in the database, but will not be saved as default. For objects added to the database in the future, the default settings will be used. Not submitting the changes can result in different settings for objects that are already in the database, and different settings for newly added objects.

Dynamic IP Address and Hostname Resolution

Select the Default IP Address Resolution for dual stack objects on your network:

• IPv4 (default)
• IPv6

To monitor IPv6 devices, enable IPv6 on the SolarWinds Platform server.

Re-Apply Resolution Preference

Click to immediately apply the settings specified in this section on all objects in the database. Make sure you click Submit if you want to use the current settings for new objects.

If you leave the page without submitting the changes, your settings will only be applied on objects in the database, but will not be saved. For objects added to the database in the future, the saved settings will be used. Not submitting the changes might thus result in different settings for objects that are already in the database and different settings for newly added objects.

Database Settings

Configure the time of day when the database maintenance runs, and how long data is retained in the SolarWinds Platform database.

For details about retention settings for monitored cloud accounts, see Edit retention settings for cloud-related statistics.

It can take more than 10 minutes to propagate some changes to SolarWinds Platform database settings.

Setting	Default value	Description
Archive Time	2:15 am	Configure the time of day when the maintenance of the SolarWinds Platform database runs. See Database maintenance in the SolarWinds Platform.
Index Defragmentation	Selected	Select the box to enable database index defragmentation. Defragmenting the database helps troubleshoot performance issues.
Online Index Defragmentation	Not Selected	Select the box to enable online database index defragmentation.
Timeseries Index Defragmentation	Only on Sunday	Select when you want to run TimeSeries database index defragmentation.
Timeout for Index Defragmentation	3600 seconds	Set a timeout for index defragmentation.
Enable/disable auto reset logging levels to logging defaults	Selected	Select to automatically reset logging levels to defaults during Maintenance.
Auditing Trails Retention	365 days	Specify the number of days until the audit trails statistics are deleted from the database.
Detailed Statistics Retention	7 days	Specify the time period in which all statistics collected in the SolarWinds Platform database are summarized into hourly statistics.
Hourly Statistics Retention	30 days	Specify the time period in which all statistics collected in the SolarWinds Platform database are summarized into daily statistics.
Daily Statistics Retention	365 days	Specify how long daily statistics are kept in the SolarWinds Platform database. After the specified time, the daily statistics are deleted.
Container Detailed Statistics Retention	7 days	Specify when group statistics are summarized into hourly statistics.
Container Hourly Statistics Retention	30 days	Specify when hourly group statistics are summarized into daily statistics.
Container Daily Statistics Retention	365 days	Specify how long group statistics are kept in the SolarWinds Platform database.
Baseline Data Collection Duration	7 days	Specify the number of days that are included into the baseline.
Interface Baseline Calculation Frequency	Only on Sunday	Specify how often the interface baseline calculation runs. This setting is specific for NPM.
Detailed Interface Availability Statistics Retention	7 days	Specify the number of days until the detailed interface availability statistics in the SolarWinds Platform database are summarized into hourly statistics. This setting is specific for NPM.
Hourly Interface Availability Statistics Retention	30 days	Specify the number of days until the hourly interface availability statistics are summarized into daily statistics. This setting is specific for NPM.
Daily Interface Availability Statistics Retention	365 days	Specify the number of days until the daily interface availability statistics are deleted from the database. This setting is specific for NPM.
Delete Stale Interfaces	Not selected	If no new data is polled for an interface for a specified time and the SolarWinds Platform cannot remap the interface, delete the interface and all data connected with it. Stale interfaces are deleted one hour before the scheduled database maintenance.
Stale Interface Retention	7 days	Specify the time interval (in days) after which stale interfaces are deleted from the SolarWinds Platform database
Automatically Remove Unknown Volumes	Not selected	Enable to automatically remove 'unknown' volumes with VolumeIndex equal to zero and with the NextPoll value older than set in Remove Unknown Volumes After. This option is not supported for volumes on Linux Agent devices.
Remove Unknown Volumes After	7 days	Remove volumes which have no statistical data and have been 'unknown' for longer than configured days. This option is not supported for volumes on Linux Agent devices.
Detailed Wireless Statistics Retention	3 days	Specify the number of days until the detailed wireless statistics in the SolarWinds Platform database are summarized into hourly statistics.
Hourly Wireless Statistics Retention	14 days	Specify the number of days until the hourly wireless statistics are summarized into daily statistics.
Daily Wireless Statistics Retention	180 days	Specify the number of days until the daily wireless statistics are deleted from the database.
Detailed UnDP Statistics Retention	3 days	Specify the number of days until the detailed UnDP statistics are summarized into hourly statistics. This setting is specific for NPM.
Hourly UnDP Statistics Retention	14 days	Specify the number of days until the hourly UnDP statistics are summarized into daily statistics. This setting is specific for NPM.
Daily UnDP Statistics Retention	180 days	Specify the number of days until the daily UnDP statistics are deleted from the database. This setting is specific for NPM.
Detailed SD-WAN Statistics Retention	7 days	Specify the number of days until the detailed SD-WAN statistics are summarized into hourly statistics.
Hourly SD-WAN Statistics Retention	30 days	Specify the number of days until the hourly SD-WAN statistics are summarized into daily statistics.
Daily SD-WAN Statistics Retention	365 days	Specify the number of days until the daily SD-WAN statistics are deleted from the database.
Events Retention	30 days	Specify the number of days until the all network events data is deleted from the SolarWinds Platform database.
Alerts History Retention	90 days	Specify the number of days until historical alerts data is deleted from the SolarWinds Platform database.
Max Alert Execution Time	60 seconds	Specify the time period until the alerts are disabled if they are not executed successfully. If the defined alert condition persists, Orion continues trying to execute the alert.
Alert Acknowledge URL Text	Click here to acknowledge this alert	Provide text that is displayed when alerts are available for acknowledgment over the web. When viewing an alert, click the text to acknowledge the alert.
Allow alert actions for unmanaged objects	Not selected	Select this option if you want the SolarWinds Alerting Engine to execute configured alert actions for unmanaged objects. Enabling this option increases the processing load on both the SolarWinds server and the database server.
Discovery Retention	60 days	Specify the number of days until all network discovery profiles are deleted from the SolarWinds Platform database. The retention period begins from the time when the discovery was last run. The system uses the LastRun value in the DiscoveryProfiles table to determine when retention starts.
Downtime History Retention	7 days	Specify the number of days until the downtime history is deleted from the database.
Enable/Disable Interface Data Obsolete after... Polls	Selected	Select the box to display a warning message if interface data is not updated in a number of subsequent polls. Such interfaces are considered to be obsolete. Specific for NPM.
Interface Data Obsolete Poll Count	3	Specify the number of subsequent polls triggering the obsolescence message. For more information, see Why Is Interface Data Obsolete?

Network

Configure the way SolarWinds Platform products poll your network.

Setting	Default value	Description
ICMP Timeout	2500 ms	Specify the time in ms after which all ICMP (ping) requests made by the Orion poller time out if a response is not received.
ICMP Data	SolarWinds Status Query	Provide a string to be included within all ICMP packets sent by the product.
SNMP Timeout	2500 ms	Specify the time after which all SNMP requests made by the Orion poller time out if a response is not received.
SNMP Retries	2	Specify the number of retries the polling engine will conduct if a response to an SNMP poll request by the Orion polling engine is not received within the configured SNMP Timeout.
SNMP Encoding	Auto	Select how SNMP hex-encoded strings are encoded, for example ASCII or UTF-8. To apply the setting, restart the Collector, Job Engine, and Cortex services on each polling engine.
UCS API Timeout	240 s	Specify the time period after which all API requests made for data from Cisco UCS Manager servers time out if a response is not received.
Perform reverse DNS lookup	Selected	Select this option if you want your product to complete reverse DNS lookups for monitored DHCP nodes.
Enable Downtime Monitoring	Selected	Clear the box to disable interface downtime monitoring, thus improving SolarWinds NPM performance.

Calculations & Thresholds

Configure the way Orion computes selected performance metrics.

Setting	Default value	Description
Availability Calculation (advanced)	Node Status	Specify the type of calculation for determining device availability. See Calculate node availability in the SolarWinds Platform.
Baseline Calculation (advanced)	Selected	Select this option to throttle traffic to routers for initial baseline calculation. See Baselines and baseline calculations in the SolarWinds Platform.
Enable Auto Dependencies	Selected	Select this option to enable periodical auto dependency calculation.
Enable Agent IP Address Deduplication	Not selected	Select to enable SolarWinds Platform Agent node deduplication based on IP address.
Allow Secure Data On Web (advanced)	Not selected	Select this option to see SNMP community strings in the SolarWinds Platform Web Console. For increased security, confirm that this setting is cleared. This setting does not affect the display of custom reports that you export to the web.
Node Warning Level	120 seconds	Specify the time period after which devices that do not respond to polling display in the SolarWinds Platform Web Console as Down.
Counter Rollover	Method 2	Configure how counter rollovers will be handled. See Handle counter rollovers in the SolarWinds Platform. If you use 32-bit counters, select Method 1. This method detects a rollover, and calculates based on it. First, the method checks whether the device rebooted and reset its counters to 0. In this case, the last value is 0. When it is a real rollover, we take the maximum value of the 32 or 64 bit number, take the difference between the maximum and the last polled value, and add it to the current polled value: (MaxValue - LastPolledValue) + CurrentPolledValue If you use 64-bit counters, select Method 2. When a rollover is detected, Orion drops the poll and takes a new sample within 20 seconds. The new data point is stored, throwing the first data point away. In memory, we have the value from the previous poll (A) and the LastPolledValue (B). Because B < A, we detect counter rollover. Orion drops the last poll and does a fast poll within 20 seconds. The value stored in the database is calculated as C-B. Orion fully supports the use of 64-bit counters, but these counters can exhibit erratic behavior in some implementations. If you notice peculiar results, disable the use of 64-bit counters for the problem device, and contact the device manufacturer.
Default Assigned IP Address	Empty	Specify a default IP address assigned to monitored nodes if DNS resolution fails.
Disable HTML Encoding for Polled Data	Not selected	Select the option if you want polled data not to be encoded. Enabling this option is less secure.

Hardware Health Polling

Setting	Default value	Description
Default Statistics Poll Interval	10 minutes	Specify the frequency for polling hardware health statistics in minutes.
Detailed Statistics Retention	7 minutes	Specify the number of days after which detailed hardware health statistics in the SolarWinds Platform database will be summarized into hourly statistics.
Hourly Statistics Retention	30 days	Specify the number of days after which hourly hardware health statistics will be summarized into daily statistics.
Daily Statistics Retention	365 days	Specify the number of days after which daily hardware health statistics will be deleted from the database.
Preferred Cisco MIB	CISCO-ENITITY-SENSOR-MIB	Select the default MIB for hardware health polling. For more information, see Monitor hardware health.
Store Hardware Health Sensors with All Sensor Statuses	Not Selected	Select to store hardware health sensors with all entity sensor statuses, such as unavailable or non-operational. By default, only sensors with OK status are stored.
Enable ArubaWired Poller	Selected	Select to enable the Aruba Wired HWH Poller (ARUBAWIRED-POWERSUPPLY-MIB, ARUBAWIRED-TEMPSENSOR-MIB, ARUBAWIRED-FAN-MIB). Use 'List Resources' or 'Network Discovery' to assign this poller to new devices.

Routing Polling

Setting	Default value	Description
Default Neighbor Poll Interval	5 minutes	Specify the frequency for polling Routing Neighbor data.
Default Routing Table Poll Interval	180 minutes	Specify the frequency for polling Routing Table data.
Default VRF Update Poll Interval	180 minutes	Specify the frequency for polling VRF data.

VeloCloud

These settings are relevant for SolarWinds NPM. See Monitor SD-Wan for VeloCloud orchestrators.

Setting	Default value	Description
Poll VPN Tunnels	Not selected	Enables polling of VPN tunnels on VeloCloud devices. Enabling this setting significantly increases the number of queries sent to VeloCloud devices. When polling is disabled, already polled data will persist.
Tunnel Statistics Poll Interval	10 minutes	Set the frequency for collecting tunnel statistics from VeloCloud nodes.
CPU/memory and interface statistics API poll interval	20 minutes	Set the frequency for collecting CPU/memory and interface statistics from VeloCloud nodes via API.

Wireless

These settings are relevant for SolarWinds NPM.

Setting	Default value	Description
The reverse DNS Timeout	0	Specify the reverse DNS timeout, in seconds.
Rogue AP Polling	Selected	Select this option if you want to poll rogue access points.

Wireless Heatmap

See Create wireless heat maps for NPM or Create wireless heat maps with Intelligent Maps.

Setting	Default value	Description
Map Generation Start Time	12:45 am	Specify the time of day when wireless heat maps will be generated.
Default Client Signal Strength Poll Interval	5 minutes	Specify the time interval for refreshing the location of clients connected to wireless access points in wireless heat maps within the SolarWinds Platform Web Console (in minutes). For more information, see Display wireless heat maps for NPM in the SolarWinds Platform Web Console.

F5

See Network Insight for F5 BIG-IP load balancers.

Setting	Default value	Description
iControl Authentication Method	Token-based	Specify the iControl authentication method. Token-based authentication method has performance benefits.

Windows Connection

Setting	Default value	Description
Connection Mode	WinRMPreferred	WinRmPreferred - the default option. First, polling is attempted via WinRM. If WinRM connection cannot be established, polling falls back to WMI over DCOM. WinOnly - connect only via WMI over DCOM. WinRmOnly - connect only via WinRM. See Windows connection modes for details.