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.

ODBC User Experience Monitor

This SAM component monitor uses synthetic transactions to test the abilities of an Open Database Connection (ODBC)-accessible database such as MySQL. The component monitor connects to the database, performs a query, and retrieves the data. ODBC drivers for your database type must be installed on the SolarWinds Platform server.

The SQL statement you use for this query must return a numerical value, not a varchar.

This monitor can capture message text in the first row of the second column of SQL query results. This string value is shown in the Messages field of the component monitor.

To configure ODBC when polling with SolarWinds Platform Agent for Linux, see Configure Linux/Unix systems for monitoring by the SolarWinds Platform agent in SAM.

Statistic

The statistic for this component monitor is the first row and column of the data retrieved by the query. It must be a numerical value.

Message (optional)

Value of the second column first cell of the query result. This is not required.

Install ODBC Drivers on the SolarWinds Platform server.

Install ODBC drivers for your database on the SolarWinds Platform server. To learn about acquiring or installing the ODBC drivers, consult your database documentation.

In some situations, monitors derived from this ODBC component can fail because the bit mode setting (x32/x64) is set incorrectly. This can happen to database servers that only install x64 drivers on a x64, making this monitor inaccessible in x32 mode.

TCP Ports

This component monitor uses port TCP/1630, by default. The Oracle Connection Manager provides the listening port for Oracle client connections to Oracle Connection Manager. You can configure Oracle Connection Manager either through a custom installation, or configure it after installation using Net Configuration Assistant.

Field descriptions

Description

A default description of the monitor. To override the default description, add to or replace existing text. Changes are automatically saved. The variable to access this field is ${UserDescription}.

Customize descriptions to specify what will be monitored so related alerts and notifications are more meaningful later.

Enable Component

Determines whether the component is enabled. Disabling the component leaves it in the application in a deactivated state not influencing either SolarWinds SAM application availability or status.

Credential for Monitoring

Select a database credential that can access the database. Click a credential in the list, or use the <Inherit credential from node> option. If the credential you need is not in the credentials list, add it in the Credentials Library. See Understand the Credentials Library for details.

Connection String

Specify the ODBC connection string for the database. If you do not know the connection string to your ODBC-accessible database, you can look it up on http://www.connectionstrings.com. The connection string may include the variables ${IP}, ${USER}, and ${PASSWORD}, which are replaced respectively by the IP address of the database server, the credential user name, and the credential password.

If using the ODBC User Experience Monitor instead of the SQL Server User Experience monitor for a SQL Server database that is not using the default port 1433, create a connection string.

To create the SQL Server connection string:

  1. In a text editor, create an empty .udl file.
  2. Double-click the .udl file to open the Data Link Properties dialog. Click Next to navigate from tab to tab and configure and test your ODBC connection.

    Remember to select the desired database provider on the Provider tab (in this case the provider for SQL Server).

  3. If the option is present for the provider, check the “allow saving password” option, as this will ensure that the connection string contains the password when you next retrieve it.
  4. When you are finished, and have tested that the connection works, click OK.
  5. Open the .udl file again, and retrieve the connection string.

Sql Query

Specify the SQL query used to test the database. The retrieved data is then used as the component monitor statistic. You may enter up to 4,000 characters.

Query Timeout

The amount of time, in seconds, until the SQL query will timeout.

Count Statistic as Difference

Changes the statistic to be the difference in query values between polling cycles.

Convert Value

Select the "Yes, convert returned value" option to display fields where you can select a common function or enter a custom formula. The Custom Conversion option provides basic arithmetic operators (+, -, *, /), plus built-in mathematical functions for more advanced conversions. See Convert values in data transformations for SAM component monitors.

Response Time Threshold

Set the warning or critical threshold conditions based on the response time. The response time is the time in milliseconds it takes SAM to determine that a component is not Down and to retrieve any statistical data. See Application Monitor Thresholds.

Statistic Threshold

Specify when a threshold that indicates a warning or critical level has been breached. Logical operators are in the drop-down followed by a blank field for you to enter the value of this threshold. For example: Less than 15 for warning, Less than 5 for critical.

User Notes

Add notes for easy reference. You can access this field by using the variable, ${UserNotes}.