Documentation forServer & Application Monitor
Monitoring your applications and environment is a key capability of SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted (formerly Hybrid Cloud Observability) and is available in the Essentials edition. Server & Application Monitor (SAM) is also available in a standalone module.

Troubleshoot agent-related issues for application dependencies in SAM

If you suspect agent issues are interfering with Application Dependencies or Connection Quality polling, here are some items to check:

High CPU usage during polling

An SolarWinds Platform agent hosted on a minimally provisioned server can consume CPU usage. Try reducing the quantity of monitored elements or increasing server resources.

Connection Quality polling fails for Windows Server 2012 nodes

If polling fails for Windows Server 2012 nodes, restart the nodes and wait for Connection Quality polling to occur. If the issue continues, visit the SolarWinds Success Center and see Connection Quality polling fails on Windows Server 2012 nodes.

Polling fails without errors

If application dependency data does not display as expected for a node:

  1. Check if SAM deployed agent plugins to SolarWinds Platform agents on the node. Click Settings > Manage Agents > Select agent > More Actions > View installed agent plugins.
  2. Navigate to the Node Details view to ensure that Application Dependency polling was not disabled for the node.

Polling can also fail if:

  • A related component was removed or disabled.
  • Agent plugins are currently being deployed, especially if the Application Dependencies feature or Connection Quality polling was disabled and then enabled again. Wait 10 minutes and try again.

“Plug-in update required” notice

By default, the Allow Automatic Agent Updates option is enabled on the Settings > All Settings > Product Specific Settings > Agent Settings page. SAM deploys agent plugins to agent-monitored nodes when Application Dependency polling detects interaction between an application and/or application process and a node. Although most SolarWinds Platform agents are deployed in advance, application dependency agent plugins are deployed immediately if an application-to-node connection is found.

If the Allow Automatic Agent Updates option is disabled on the Agent Settings page in the SolarWinds Platform Web Console, SAM cannot deploy agent plugins to server nodes and the status of the agent appears as "Plug-in update required" on the Manage Agents page.

If expected application dependencies do not appear after polling, navigate to the Manage Agents page. If a "Plug-in update required" notice appears for a node, you can either:

  • Enable the Allow Automatic Agent Updates option on the Agent Settings page so SAM can deploy plugins automatically to all agent-managed nodes.
  • Update agents individually on the Manage Agents page.

Application Dependency agent plugin installation fails on Linux systems

Application Dependency agent plugin deployment fails on 64-bit Linux systems and the following message appears on the Installed Agent Plug-in page: "Installation of 'Application Dependency Mapping - Linux x64' failed. Invalid argument Code [0x16]." This occurs because the owner of the plugin file prevents the removal of the old version due to permission issues. Click here for workarounds.

Uninstall Npcap drivers after disabling Connection Quality polling

When Connection Quality polling is enabled on the Application Dependency Settings page, SAM deploys ADMConnectionQuality plugins with Npcap drivers to Windows nodes to collect latency and packet loss metrics.

If you disable Connection Quality polling, you can remove Npcap drivers, if necessary. See Remove Npcap driver after disabling Connection Quality Polling for ADM.

Nping returns “Unable to start either npcap or npf service” message

This message appears for nodes running Windows 2008 or if driver installation protection is enabled for Windows 2008 R2 or later. It is related to the Npcap driver deployed via an agent plugin that supports the Nping tool used to gather connection statistics from nodes.

SolarWinds recommends upgrading nodes to Windows 2008 R2 or later. Otherwise, you will be prompted to install Npcap each time polling occurs.

Security warnings for the SolarWinds Platform server

If Connection Quality polling is enabled, the SolarWinds Platformdeploys agents and agent-plugins to nodes connected to clients that host applications and application processes that may trigger warnings in third-party security software. Downloaded items include:

  • An SolarWinds Platform agent.
  • An agent plugin that includes an Npcap driver to support Nping.
  • A Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable package.