SAM 6.9 Release Notes
Released June 6, 2019
Updated October 10, 2019
These release notes describe the new features, improvements, and fixed issues in SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) 6.9, a product that consumes Orion Platform 2019.2. These notes also provide information about installation, upgrades and known issues.
See also SAM 6.9 System Requirements.
New features and improvements
Read this section for descriptions of new features and improvements offered in this release. For previous release information, see Previous Versions. You can also compare this release with previous releases of SAM.
New SAM templates
The following application monitoring templates were added to SAM:
- Citrix PVS Accelerator for XenServer
- Citrix XenServer
- Microsoft Azure App Service
- Microsoft Azure Batch Account
- Microsoft Azure Blob Storage Account
- Microsoft Azure Event Hub Namespace
- Microsoft Azure IOT Hub
- Microsoft Azure SQL Data Warehouse
- Microsoft Azure SQL Server Database
- Microsoft Azure SQL Server Database Elastic Pool
- Microsoft Azure Virtual Machine Scale Set
- Microsoft Office 365 OneDrive
- Microsoft Office 365 SharePoint Online
- Microsoft Office 365 Skype
- Microsoft Office 365 Skype for Business
- Microsoft Office 365 Teams
- MySQL 8.0 Metrics for Linux/Unix
- MySQL 8.0 Metrics for Windows
- MySQL 8.0 Service Availability on Linux/Unix
- MySQL 8.0 Service Availability on Windows
- Oracle Real Application Cluster (RAC)
- Windows Server 2019 Services and Counters
For an overview about configuring Azure for the new SAM Microsoft Azure templates, watch SolarWinds Lab #82 (Part 2).
Support for Microsoft Graph
You can configure the following new templates to work with Microsoft® Graph, a product that offers a single REST API endpoint, accessible via HTTP request that provides access to Office 365 services such as OneDrive, SharePoint, Skype, Outlook, and Teams:
- Microsoft Office 365 OneDrive
- Microsoft Office 365 SharePoint Online
- Microsoft Office 365 Skype
- Microsoft Office 365 Skype for Business
- Microsoft Office 365 Teams
To learn more, see Integrate Office 365 templates with Microsoft Graph.
Configure certificate handling
By default, SAM ignores certificate errors during polling. In SAM 6.9, you can adjust some settings so users are prompted to verify untrusted connections.
To learn more, see:
- Configure how certificate errors are handled during UCS device monitoring
- Configure how SAM handles certificate errors during Asset Inventory polling
- Configure how SAM handles certificate errors during Hardware Health polling
- Configure AppInsight for Active Directory on nodes
You can also configure the updated Tomcat Server template to ignore certificate errors.
Container service monitoring for Azure Kubernetes
Container service monitoring was introduced in SAM 6.7 and VMAN 8.3 for Docker, Docker Swarm, Kubernetes, and Apache Mesos container deployments. Starting with SAM 6.9 and VMAN 8.4, you can also monitor Microsoft Azure Kubernetes services. To learn more, see Monitor container services in the Orion Platform.
Orion Platform 2019.2: New features and improvements
SAM 6.9 consumes Orion Platform 2019.2, which includes the following features and improvements:
- Node status improvements
- Orion Maps enhancements
- Support for Microsoft® Azure® database
- Orion agent rediscovery
- Linux agent metrics
- PerfStack links added to widgets
- Automatic removal of unknown volumes
- Secure Syslog alerts
- HSRP addresses
- Fortigate CPU and Memory
- Dynamic external nodes
- New SysObjectIDs
- Per-node diagnostics
- Expanded device support
To learn more, see the Orion Platform 2019.2 Release Notes and the Orion Platform Administrator Guide.
New customer installation
Use the Orion Installer, available in the Customer Portal, to install SAM. See the Orion Platform Products Installation and Upgrade Guide for details. After installation, see the SAM Getting Started Guide to learn about configuring and customizing SAM.
Before you upgrade
To prepare for the upgrade:
- Read these Release Notes.
- Make sure all servers comply with the SAM 6.9 system requirements.
- (Optional) Backup any custom code, such as changed SolarWinds .css files or added .js files. Click here for tips.
Note the following details about upgrading SAM:
- Starting in SAM 6.6.1, the Application Dependencies feature is disabled when upgrading SAM to prevent performance issues during upgrades for environments with large quantities of nodes. To restart polling after an upgrade, enable the Application Dependencies feature.
- If you exceed recommended cloud monitoring limits and monitor over 2000 Microsoft Azure VMs, you may receive a 503 Service Unavailable error when adding an Azure account. See this article for a workaround.
- To monitor Exchange Server 2016 and later, install PowerShell 2.0 or later and provide local Administrator rights. See Using PowerShell in SAM.
How to upgrade
If you are upgrading from SAM 6.5 or later:
-
Use the SolarWinds Orion Installer to simultaneously upgrade one or more Orion Platform products on your main Orion server.
-
Starting with SAM 6.8, if you have scalability engines such as Additional Polling Engines, you can use the Centralized Upgrade feature to upgrade the rest of your Orion deployment in parallel. For details, see Install or upgrade Orion Platform products.
With SAM 6.9 and later, you can upgrade your entire Orion deployment, including the main server and all Orion Platform products, from the My Orion Deployment page. Downloading the Orion Installer for future upgrades is no longer necessary.
If upgrading from SAM 6.3 or 6.4, click here to learn about planning and implementing an upgrade to the current version of SAM.
Fixed issues
Case Number | Description |
---|---|
00219059 |
Improved queries reduce load times for Component Average Statistic Data charts on Application Details views. |
00149541 |
A RefreshComponentThresholdCache procedure used to delete application monitors was optimized to improve SQL performance. |
00289866 |
Instead of messages about server communication issues when hovering over an application icon in the AppStack widget, code was updated so data appears, as expected. |
00241911 |
Core.Businesslayer.log exceptions no longer block the discovery of nodes that already host Orion agents. |
00262789, 00197546 |
Application monitor updates are saved even if a value for a required custom property is not provided, without causing the browser to hang with memory errors. |
00227075 |
View limitations are respected for the Database Details view in the AppInsight for SQL application. |
00225775 |
The MongoDB (Linux) template was updated so database server versions are retrieved for output line 3. |
00228526 |
The AIX template returns Top 10 active process results with proper statuses. |
00040650, 1190826, 1359421 |
Credentials with SSH private keys for certificates can be added to the Credentials library without causing SolarWinds.APM.Common.MessageUtilities Businesslayer exceptions. |
00287645 |
Component monitors related to events were updated in AppInsight for Active Directory |
00311907 |
Some WebApi controllers used for UCS monitoring were renamed to prevent application issues. For example, chassis icons were displayed for the Main Polling Engine in the AppStack widget that were not related to the Main Polling Engine. |
For fixed issues in the Orion Platform, see the Orion Platform 2019.2 release notes.
Known issues
Total counters for AppInsight for Active Directory do not respond to Enable Total Counters setting in Internet Explorer 11
Issue: When using the Edit Application function to set the Enable Total Counters option for AppInsight for Active Directory, only the following elements are impacted by the changed setting, if using Internet Explorer 11:
- User Accounts
- Computer Accounts
- Inactive Users
Workaround: Switch to another supported browser, as listed in SAM System Requirements.
AppInsight for Active Directory applications appear Down after disabling the Total Counters feature
Issue: Replication polling requires a DNS or SysName value to compute replication for a destination domain controller FQDN name, but nodes configured for ICMP polling do not provide this data. As a result, AppInsight for Active Directory widgets may not reflect the actual status of ICMP nodes. Another impact is that replication widgets display IP addresses for ICMP nodes instead of assigned node names.
Workaround: Configure AppInsight for Active Directory nodes as Windows Servers that support both WMI and ICMP polling so that AppInsight for Active Directory widgets can display node status and names properly via WMI. Alternatively, edit the name of an ICMP node on the Node Details > Edit Properties page.
Application pools and websites on nodes monitored by AppInsight for IIS show Unknown status instead of Down status after being unmanaged
Issue: After assigning AppInsight for IIS to a node, the application pools and websites exhibiting problem behavior could not be unmanaged in SAM. The status changed to Unknown but should appear as Down.
Workaround: Update the record in the Orion database. See Cannot unmanage application pools and websites on nodes with AppInsight for IIS in SAM in the SolarWinds Success Center for details.
End of life
See the End of Life Policy for details about life cycles for SolarWinds products.
EoL Annoucements | EoE Effective Dates | EoL Effective Dates |
---|---|---|
March 12, 2019 End-of-Life (EoL) announcement – Customers on SAM 6.4 should begin transitioning to the latest version of SAM. |
June 12, 2019 End-of-Engineering (EoE) – Service releases, bug fixes, workarounds, and service packs for SAM 6.4 will no longer be actively supported by SolarWinds. |
June 12, 2020 End-of-Life (EoL) – SolarWinds will no longer provide technical support for SAM 6.4. |
April 6, 2018 End-of-Life (EoL) announcement – Customers on SAM 6.3 should begin transitioning to the latest version of SAM. |
June 6, 2018 End-of-Engineering (EoE) – Service releases, bug fixes, workarounds, and service packs for SAM 6.3 will no longer be actively supported by SolarWinds. |
June 6, 2019 End-of-Life (EoL) – SolarWinds will no longer provide technical support for SAM 6.3. |
See Currently supported software versions for more information.
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