Manage polling for application dependencies

SAM uses two types of polling to collect data for the Application Dependencies feature:

• Application Dependency polling: Discovers and monitors connections between applications and application processes, plus connections between applications, application processes, and nodes.

• Connection Quality polling: Collects latency and packet loss for connections between client nodes hosting applications and target.

Options configured on the Application Connection Settings page impact how polling occurs across agent-monitored nodes with connections to applications.

Manage Application Dependency polling

After SAM deploys agents to monitored nodes, Application Dependency polling scans nodes twice in the first ten minutes and then every two hours to:

• Detect connections between applications, application processes, and nodes.

  SAM also detects "from” and "to" nodes that rely on server-initiated communications, known as “passive agents” or “agentless" nodes.

• Identify nodes as either targets or clients.

• Gather IP address and port data.

• Display data in the Application Connections widget on the Node and Application Details views.

Note the following details about Application Dependency polling:

• To change settings, use an SolarWinds Platform account with the Administrator role and required Node Management rights.

• Application Dependency polling occurs every two hours, so short-term connections are less likely to be detected due to the time between polling.

• For Windows Failover Clusters (WFCs), SAM can create application dependencies between connected clients and listening servers on the server side for a cluster Virtual IP (VIP) instead of an active cluster member. See Use the Application Dependencies feature with Windows Failover Clusters.

  Application Dependency polling is restricted to the Main Polling Engine to improve performance. In earlier versions, polling also occurred on Additional Polling Engines (APEs). Now agents and agent plugins send related data from APEs to the Main Polling Engine.
  

Disable the Application Dependencies feature globally

Disabling this feature at the global level does not impact Application Dependency settings configured for individual nodes on the Node Details view.

To disable the Application Dependencies feature:

1. Navigate to the Application Connection Settings page.
2. Toggle the "Clear the Application Dependency Mapping" option.
3. Click Save changes.

SAM stops polling for nodes that are not configured for Application Dependency polling at the node level, as described next. Connection Quality polling, if enabled, also stops.

If Connection Quality polling was originally enabled for a node, SAM removes the agent plugin that delivered the Npcap driver but does not remove the driver. See Disable Connection Quality polling.

Manage Application Dependency polling for a specific node

You can manage Application Dependency polling for specific nodes on the Node Details view. These settings do not change if you disable the Application Dependencies feature at the global level.

To disable Application Dependency polling for a specific node:

1. Navigate to the node in the SolarWinds Platform Web Console.
2. Click Edit Node on the Node Details view.
3. Clear the Application Dependency Polling Enabled check box.

To initiate Application Dependency polling for a single node:

1. Navigate to the Node Details view for the node.
2. Click Poll Now.

To execute Application Dependency polling immediately across poll multiple nodes:

1. Navigate to the Manage Nodes view.
2. Select the nodes.
3. Click More Actions > Poll Now.

Manage Connection Quality polling

In addition to showing how nodes connect to applications and application processes, the Application Connections widget and Connection Details page can display TCP latency and packet loss metrics if Connection Quality polling is enabled.

To gather TCP data, SAM deploys agent plugins to nodes to track communication traveling from clients that host applications and application processes to target nodes detected by Application Dependency polling.

Note the following details about Connection Quality polling:

• The default interval for Connection Quality polling is five minutes.
• Each dependency must involve two separate nodes.
• Connection Quality polling captures TCP communications only. To track non-TCP communications in the SolarWinds Platform, create a Windows Service monitor for the NetTcpPortSharing service.
• SAM uses Nping to generate network packets on nodes and collect data for Connection Quality polling. To support Nping, SAM deploys an Npcap driver. If you disable polling, SAM removes the plugin but not the Npcap driver. If necessary, remove it manually.

See also Application Dependencies requirements in SAM.

Enable Connection Quality polling

1. Navigate to the Application Connection Settings page.
2. Under Connection Quality Settings, toggle the Enable Connection Quality Polling option to On.
3. Click Save changes.

Disable Connection Quality polling

If you disable the Connection Quality Settings option on the Application Connection Settings page, SAM stops gathering latency and packet loss metrics but continues to gather application connection data. The status of connection entities appears as Unknown on the Connection Details page.

1. Navigate to the Application Connection Settings page.
2. Under Connection Quality Settings, toggle the Enable Connection Quality Polling option to Off.
3. Click Save changes.

When you disable polling, SAM removes agent plugins that delivered Npcap drivers but does not remove the actual drivers. If remaining drivers present a security concern for your organization, see Remove an Npcap driver after disabling Connection Quality Polling.