API poller requirements

Before creating your first API poller, review the following requirements:

• Use an SolarWinds Platform account with Administrator privileges.

• Make sure SAM licenses are available — each monitored metric consumes a license.

• Identify an existing managed SAM node (Windows, Linux, or AIX) to host the connection to the remote API.

  Alternatively, create an external node to serve as an application endpoint for a service such as Azure. External nodes have fewer requirements; for example, no credentials are required at the node level.
  

  This feature does not currently support SolarWinds Platform agent polling or SolarWinds Platform Remote Collectors.

  In a 30-day trial of SAM, you can use the node included in the evaluation version for an API poller. However, note that API pollers are child contributors to enhanced node status calculations, so missing metrics may impact the status of the single node if it hosts both the SolarWinds Platform server and the Main Polling Engine.

• If your organization hosts applications that you want to access via API, configure applications to allow access to data. For example, to collect metrics with a Microsoft Azure Active Directory API poller, you'll need to work with an Azure Administrator to obtain credentials with:

  • The proper scope, https://graph.microsoft.com/.default, and
  • Directory.Read.All, Group.Read.All, and SecurityEvents.Read.All permissions.

Open the following ports on the Main Polling Engine and any Additional Polling Engines (APEs).

• 38010: The SolarWinds Platform API Poller Service utilizes this default port, as referenced in the following files:

  • $(Orion.InstallDirectory)\SolarWinds.Orion.ApiPoller\SolarWinds.Orion.ApiPoller.Service\appsettings.json, where Orion.WebDirectory is usually C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Orion.
  • $(Orion.InstallDirectory)\SolarWinds.Orion.ApiPoller\SolarWinds.Orion.ApiPoller.BusinessLayer.dll.config
  • $(Orion.WebDirectory)\SolarWinds\api2\bin\SolarWinds.Orion.ApiPoller.WebApi.dll.config,
    where Orion.WebDirectory is usually C:\Inetpub\SolarWinds.

• 38008: If API pollers use credentials created on the Manage Credentials page, open this port.

Review third-party API documentation

Review API provider documentation to learn about types of data provided, where data is stored, and what you need to include in API requests, such as:

• Authentication and authorization requirements, including credentials and tokens,
• The URL of the API,
• Defined endpoints where API data is available, and
• Supported request URL formats.

Here are some examples of API requirements:

• Each request sent to the SolarWinds Pingdom API requires an API token for HTTP Bearer Authentication.
• Responses must be in valid JSON format.
• API pollers based on the Microsoft 365 Mobile Device Management template must include the following scope: https://manage.office.com/.default.

See Useful APIs for SAM for documentation links from SolarWinds and other API providers.