Book Image

SolarWinds Orion Network Performance Monitor

By : Joseph J Dissmeyer, Joseph Dissmeyer
Book Image

SolarWinds Orion Network Performance Monitor

By: Joseph J Dissmeyer, Joseph Dissmeyer

Overview of this book

Orion Network Performance Monitor is a scalable, easy-to-use, cost-effective network monitoring system that provides a complete overview of network environments by monitoring performance and availability. Orion NPM enables you to be proactive in detecting, diagnosing, and resolving network issues and outages and has the benefit of supporting hundreds of types of server, OS, and network vendors including Cisco, HP, Microsoft, Linux, Motorola, Brocade, Foundry, and more.Orion NPM is a well-known product and is used by thousands of public and private companies, educational institutions, and government entities for network monitoring. In "SolarWinds Orion Network Performance Monitor" you will learn how to install, implement, and manage Orion NPM to ensure you maintain an efficient, healthy, and performant network.In this book you will start with an overview of the constituent features of Orion NPM. Leading you through installation and configuration this book will help you set up a flexible and dynamic monitoring solution.With Orion NPM in place the book will then take you on a journey through essential Orion NPM and network monitoring concepts and practices. You will cover device management, learning how to use the Network Sonar Wizard, as well as adding devices manually.Turning from novice to pro, you will then be introduced to the core of network monitoring with Orion NPM. You will learn about monitoring Windows and Linux solutions as well as Virtual Servers. You will then master wireless networks and virtual networks. You will then learn how to set up and edit alerts to make network monitoring more efficient and less time-consuming. You will also learn how to develop reports and network maps as well as essential administrative techniques.
Table of Contents (19 chapters)
SolarWinds Orion Network Performance Monitor
Credits
About the Author
Acknowledgement
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

System requirements


SolarWinds Orion NPM is a Windows-only product and it requires two things; a computer running a compatible Windows Server OS and a Windows computer running Microsoft SQL Server 2008 or newer. In order to plan out how or where you are going to install Orion NPM, you need to know Orion NPM's hardware, operating system, software, and SQL Server requirements. Depending on the Windows Server hardware requirements, you can mix and match most modern Windows Server operating systems and SQL Server editions.

Note

The latest SolarWinds Orion NPM system requirements information can be found in the Orion NPM Quick Start Guide at http://www.solarwinds.com/documentation/orion/orionDoc.aspx.

Minimum Windows Server hardware requirements:

  • 2.0 GHz Intel or AMD Dual Core Processor

  • 3 GB of memory

  • 2.5 GB of free hard disk space

Recommended Windows Server hardware:

  • 3.0 GHz Intel or AMD Quad Core Processor

  • 8 GB of memory

  • 20 GB of free hard disk space

Minimum Windows Server OS requirements:

  • Windows Server 2008 with SP2 (x86 or x64)

Recommended Windows Server OS:

  • Windows Server 2008 R2 with SP1 (x64)

  • Windows Server 2012 (x64)

Additional software requirements:

  • .NET Framework 3.5

  • .NET Framework 4.0

  • .NET Framework 4.5

  • Internet Information Services 6.0 or higher (32-bit mode only)

Supported SQL Server editions:

  • Microsoft SQL Server 2008 with SP2 Express, Standard, or Enterprise

  • Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 with SP1 Express, Standard, or Enterprise

  • Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Express, Standard, or Enterprise

Support for Windows Server 2012 was added in the 10.4.0 release of Orion NPM and SQL Server 2012 support was added in the 10.3.1 release. Keep in mind that Microsoft Will drop support for Windows Server 2003 in 2014 with SQL Server 2005 support being dropped soon afterwards. This is why I am not including them in the preceding list even though they are on the official list of supported software. Both I and SolarWinds highly recommend using Windows Server 2008 R2 and SQL Server 2008 R2 at a minimum.

SolarWinds supports Orion NPM installations on virtual machines. However, the following rules apply:

  • Microsoft SQL Server must be installed on its own dedicated physical server. Orion databases that reside in a SQL Server instance running inside a virtual machine is not supported.

  • Orion NPM installations on domain controllers are not supported.

  • Orion NPM virtual machines are only supported in VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V environments. Other virtual hosts (such as Citrix XenServer or KVM) are not supported.

  • The virtual machine where Orion NPM is installed must have its own dedicated physical network interface card on the virtual host.