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SolarWinds Network
Performance Monitor
Version 12.1
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INSTALLATION GUIDE: SOLARWINDS NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITOR
Table of Contents
Installation Overview 5
Stand-alone installation 6
Evaluation installation 7
Terminology 8
NPMlicensing model 10
SolarWinds requirements 14
Software requirements 14
Account privileges 16
Hardware requirements 19
Supported products 25
Port requirements 26
Networking requirements 27
NTA-specific information 30
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NTA-specific information 32
Enable FIPS 50
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INSTALLATION GUIDE: SOLARWINDS NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITOR
Installation Overview
Supported Version: SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) 12.1
SolarWinds NPM is a network monitoring solution that helps you to quickly detect, diagnose, and resolve
network performance problems and outages.
NPMprovides:
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Stand-alone installation
For a stand-alone installation of SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor, install the product on a
dedicated server. This installation assumes you have not installed any other SolarWinds Orion Platform
products on the target server.
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INSTALLATION GUIDE: SOLARWINDS NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITOR
Evaluation installation
SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor supports an evaluation installation with a trial period. This
installation is a full installation of the product with a 30-day license. To continue with a full product
license, contact SolarWinds Sales.
page 7
Terminology
The following terms provide context for the architecture and components of SolarWinds products.
To scale polling and monitoring in larger environments, you can add additional polling engines or
stackable polling engines to an existing Orion Platform products. APEs scale your environment to
monitor hundreds of thousands of elements, and poll across multiple pollers and locations to
improve performance. For details, see the Scalability Engine Guidelines for SolarWinds Orion
Products.
To scale web server access to the Orion Web Console in larger environments, you can add an
additional web server to an existing Orion Platform product. AWS increase the performance and
scalability of users to the Orion Web Console, For details, see the Scalability Engine Guidelines for
SolarWinds Orion Products.
HA protects your Orion environment from server crashes, outages, and database issues. Server pairs
in HA pools provide automatic failover to a backup server for the main Orion server and additional
polling engines. Each server pair can be easily updated with new products and hotfixes using the
Scalability Engine Installer, available through the Orion Web Console.
Orion Platform
The common backend platform used by the Solarwinds Orion suite of products, including NPM, SAM,
NCM, NTA, and more. The platform provides the backbone for navigation, settings, and common
features like alerts and reports. It also provides a consistent look-and-feel across products, giving
you a single pane of glass for your Orion monitoring tools.
A Windows server that runs the Orion Web console and collects data from monitored objects. Also
called the Orion Main Poller.
A Windows SQL server that should be hosted on a dedicated server in a production environment,
separately from the Orion Application Server. It stores Orion configuration data and all collected
performance and syslog data.
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INSTALLATION GUIDE: SOLARWINDS NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITOR
A Polling Engine controls polling job scheduling, data processing, and queries your monitored
devices for performance metrics like CPU, memory, and up/down status. Additional Polling Engines
can be licensed to provide additional scalability and capacity. By default, the Orion Server provides
one Polling Engine (often referred to as the Main Poller).
The web interface you see when you log on to Orion that is used to view, configure, and manage all
of your monitored objects.
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NPMlicensing model
The SolarWinds NPM license is based on a number of items to monitor. Each license tier number provides
the maximum limit of nodes, interfaces, and volumes to manage and monitor.
NPM is licensed according to the largest number of the following types of monitored network elements:
l Nodes: any devices being monitored, such as routers, switches, virtual and physical servers, access
points, and modems.
l Interfaces: any single points of network traffic, such as switch ports, physical interfaces, virtual
interfaces, sub-interfaces, and VLANs.
l Volumes: any logical disks being monitored.
SL100 Up to 100 nodes, 100 interfaces, and 100 volumes (300 elements in total).
SL250 Up to 250 nodes, 250 interfaces, and 250 volumes (750 elements in total).
SL500 Up to 500 nodes, 500 interfaces, and 500 volumes (1500 elements in total).
SL2000 Up to 2000 nodes, 2000 interfaces, and 2000 volumes (6000 elements in total).
SLX Virtually unlimited number of elements. With the default polling interval, one
polling engine can monitor a maximum of 12,000 elements. To monitor over
12,000 elements, use additional polling engines (APEs). Each APE requires a
license.
For example, if you have an NPM SL500 (500 nodes and 500 volumes) installed with SAM AL50, you can
monitor a total of 550 nodes (500 NPM nodes + 50 SAM nodes), 550interfaces, 550volumes (matching the
node count), and 50 application monitors.
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INSTALLATION GUIDE: SOLARWINDS NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITOR
To verify the number of consumed and available component monitors in your license, access the NPM
License Summary.
Review the Orion and NPMdetails. You can see the current number of monitored nodes, volumes and
interfaces and the number of the total number of elements allowed by your license.
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SolarWinds NPM installation preflight checklist
Before installing, complete the pre-installation checklist below. This checklist helps you:
l Verify that system requirements are met, all required software is installed, and required roles and
features are enabled.
l Gather the information required to complete the installation.
Review release Review SolarWinds NPM release notes and available documentation in the
notes Success Center.
Review system Make sure your environment has all of the required hardware, software, and
requirements database requirements for your installations.
Prepare product Review your current product licenses and determine if you need to make any
license changes. You can download any updated license keys through the Customer
Portal.
If you need to modify your licenses, contact your SolarWinds account manager
or SolarWinds.
Gather credentials Make sure you have all account credentials, SQL database credentials, your
SolarWinds account, and local admin server credentials.
Schedule the Set up the maintenance window, preferably during off-peak hours. Depending
installation on the number of products, size of databases, and size of environment, you may
need hours to complete your installation.
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INSTALLATION GUIDE: SOLARWINDS NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITOR
Notify your Send a message to your company about the installation schedule and
company maintenance window. If you need additional help with the installation process,
contact and allocate staff to be available.
1. Prepare the l For new server installations, build the servers based on your deployment
environment size and system requirements.
l For installations into an existing Orion Platform, verify that enough drive
space is available for installations. Products may require significant space
for the downloaded installation ZIP file and installation process.
l For an Orion Platform installation or integration, you may need to build
additional polling engines, and an additional web server. For details, see
the SolarWinds Scalability Guidelines.
If adding SolarWinds High Availability (HA) into your environment, review the HA
requirements and VIP address information. Prepare two matching servers for
installation.
2. Run all Before installation, check for and run all Microsoft Windows Updates on all
Windows updates servers. As you install, if a Windows update runs, your system may reboot as
needed by Windows. The installation cannot complete if your system is waiting
to reboot.
3. Backup existing If you are installing with an existing database, back up the database. If you need
database help, check your vendor's site for documentation and instructions.
If you have your database on a VM, create a snapshot or copy of your VM.
4. Open ports For your server ports and firewall, open ports according to the system
according to requirements. Orion uses these ports to send and receive data.
requirements
5. Check for Determine if any antivirus software is installed on the server or servers where
antivirus software you plan to install. To ensure the installation goes smoothly, exclude the
SolarWinds directory. For example, on Windows Server 2012 R2, exclude
C:\ProgramData\SolarWinds\. For a full list of antivirus exclusions, see
Files and directories to exclude from antivirus scanning.
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SolarWinds requirements
l Support for Windows Server 2008 R2 is deprecated as of this release. Future releases will no
longer support installing on Windows Server 2008 R2, though you can continue to monitor
computers running Windows Server 2008 R2.
l Support for SQL 2008 and 2008 R2 is deprecated as of this release. Future releases will no
longer support using SQL 2008 or 2008 R2 as your database server.
l Multiple Orion server installations using the same database are not supported.
Software requirements
l SolarWinds only supports installing the Orion agent on domain controllers.Do not install
any other SolarWinds products on domain controllers.
l SolarWinds does not support the installation of any Orion product on the same server or
using the same database server as a Microsoft SharePoint, Microsoft Exchange, or Research
in Motion (RIM) Blackberry server.
The following table lists software requirements and recommendations for a SolarWinds installation on
both physical and virtual computers.
SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
IP address IPv4
version
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INSTALLATION GUIDE: SOLARWINDS NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITOR
SOFTWARE REQUIREMENTS
IIS is installed by the SolarWinds installer. You can install this software
manually to reduce your installation time or network bandwidth.
Web console l Microsoft Internet Explorer version11 or later with Active scripting
browser
l Microsoft Edge
l Firefox49.0 or later
l Chrome54.0 or later
Other l RabbitMQ (primary messaging service between the primary and additional
polling engines)
l MSMQ (fall back and legacy messaging)
l The SysObjectID on monitored devices must be also accessible from the
Orion server.
The following services must be running after installation is complete to collect syslog
Services
messages and traps:
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Account privileges
SolarWinds recommends that SolarWinds Orion administrators have local administrator privileges on the
Orion server to ensure full functionality of local SolarWinds tools.
SolarWinds Orion user accounts limited to the Orion Web Console do not require local administrator
privileges.
SERVICE/
PORT PROTOCOL DIRECTION DESCRIPTION ENCRYPTION
PROCESS
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INSTALLATION GUIDE: SOLARWINDS NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITOR
SERVICE/
PORT PROTOCOL DIRECTION DESCRIPTION ENCRYPTION
PROCESS
161 UDP SolarWinds Job Outbound Sending and receiving SNMP v1 and
Engine v2 SNMPinformation. v2 are
unencrypted.
SNMP v3 uses
AES &3DES
encryption.
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SERVICE/
PORT PROTOCOL DIRECTION DESCRIPTION ENCRYPTION
PROCESS
1433 TCP SolarWinds Alerting Outbound The port used for n/a
Service V2 communication
between the
SolarWinds
SolarWinds server and
Administration
the SQL Server. Open
Service
the port from your
SolarWinds Orion Web Console to
Information Service the SQL Server.
SolarWinds
Information Service
V3
SolarWinds Orion
Module Engine
1434 UDP SolarWinds Alerting Outbound The port used for n/a
Service V2 communication with
the SQL Server
SolarWinds
Browser Service to
Administration
determine how to
Service
communicate with
SolarWinds certain non-standard
Information Service SQL Server
installations.
SolarWinds
Information Service
V3
SolarWinds Orion
Module Engine
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INSTALLATION GUIDE: SOLARWINDS NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITOR
SERVICE/
PORT PROTOCOL DIRECTION DESCRIPTION ENCRYPTION
PROCESS
Used for
communication
between the main
server and pool
members.
17778 HTTPS SolarWinds Agent Inbound to the Required for access to SSL
Orion server the SWIS API and
agent communication
Hardware requirements
The following table lists minimum hardware requirements and recommendations for your SolarWinds
server on both physical and virtual computers.
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Use the minimum hardware configuration if you are evaluating the product or do not anticipate heavy
usage.
SolarWinds strongly suggests using the recommended hardware configuration to avoid potential
performance issues caused by a heavy load or custom configurations such as increased data
retentions or more frequent polling intervals.
Installing multiple SolarWinds Orion Platform products on the same computer may change the
requirements.
CPU Quad core processor or Quad core processor or Quad core processor or
better better better
Some common files may need to be installed on the same drive as your server
operating system. You may want to move or expand the Windows temporary
directories.
The Orion server and the SolarWinds Orion database must use separate servers.
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INSTALLATION GUIDE: SOLARWINDS NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITOR
If you install on a virtual machine, you must maintain your SQL Server database on a separate,
physical drive.
SL100, SL250,
REQUIREMENTS SL2000 SLX
SL500
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SL100, SL250,
REQUIREMENTS SL2000 SLX
SL500
l You can set the database recovery model to Full Recovery if your
Orion Database is hosted on a SQLCluster or if you use Always
On Availability. However, you must back up your database
regularly and ensure that volume you store your transaction log
has free space that is at least equal to or greater than the size of
your Orion database. Your transaction logs will continue to grow
indefinitely until a database backup is performed and the
transactions committed to the database. We recommend daily
database backups when you use the Full Recovery model.
l SolarWinds recommends Simple database recovery mode to
ensure best performance.
CPU Quad core processor or Dual quad core Dual quad core
better processor or better processor or better
SolarWinds
recommends the
following configuration:
l A hardware RAID
Controller with a
battery backed-up
write back cache
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INSTALLATION GUIDE: SOLARWINDS NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITOR
SL100, SL250,
REQUIREMENTS SL2000 SLX
SL500
l Disk Subsystem 1
Array 1: 2x 146 GB
15K disks RAID 1
(mirroring) for the
OS
l Disc Subsystem 2
Array 2: 2x 146 GB
15K disks RAID 1
(Pagefile + Extra
Storage)
l Disk Subsystem 3
Array 3: with 6x
15k 146 GB or 300
GB disks
configured in a
RAID 1+0 array for
your SQL MDF
and FILEGROUPS.
l Disk Subsystem 4
Array 4: with 4x
15k 146 GB or 300
GB disks
configured in a
RAID 1+0 array for
your SQL LDF
Transaction LOG
file
l Disk Subsystem 5
Array 5: with 4x
15k 146 GB or 300
GB disks
configured in a
RAID 1+0 array for
your tempdb data
file
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SL100, SL250,
REQUIREMENTS SL2000 SLX
SL500
l Disk Subsystem 6
Array 6: with 4x
15k 146 GB or 300
GB disks
configured in a
RAID 0 array for
your tempdblog
file
Some common files may need to be installed on the same drive as your server
operating system. You may want to move or expand the Windows or SQL
temporary directories.
8GB recommended
SL250 &SL500
8 GB minimum
16 GB recommended
Other software If you are managing your SolarWinds Orion database, SolarWinds
recommends you install the SQL Server Management Studio component.
The Installation Wizard installs the following required x86 components if they
are not found on your Orion database server:
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INSTALLATION GUIDE: SOLARWINDS NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITOR
SL100, SL250,
REQUIREMENTS SL2000 SLX
SL500
SUPPORTED PRODUCTS
l Network Performance Monitor 12.0.1 and later
l Server &Application Monitor 6.3 and later
l NetFlow Traffic Analyzer 4.2.1 and later
l Network Configuration Manager 7.5.1 and later
l IPAddress Manager 4.3.2 and later
l User DeviceTracker 3.2.4 and later
l VoIP&Network Quality Manager 4.2.4 and later
l Storage Resource Monitor 6.3 and later
l Web Performance Monitor 2.2.1 and later
The following products can be integrated with your Orion Platform-based product. The integration module
between products is supported under SolarWinds High Availability, but the stand-alone product is not
supported.
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SOFTWARE AND HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS
SolarWinds strongly recommends that the hardware and software of the standby server matches
the primary server. Using matching system specifications and installed software ensures the same
performance in the event of a failover.
PORT REQUIREMENTS
P SERVICE/
PORT DIRECTION DESCRIPTION
ROTOCOL PROCESS
4369 TCP RabbitMQ bidirectional TCP ports 4369 and 25672 must be open between the
main and secondary servers to allow RabbitMQ
clustering between the two servers. These ports
exchange EPMD and Erlang distribution protocol
messages for RabbbitMQ. They do not need to be open
in additional polling engine pools.
5671 TCP SolarWinds bidirectional Port 5671 must be open into the HA pool with the main
High Orion server from all Orion servers.
Availability
25672 TCP RabbitMQ bidirectional TCP ports 4369 and 25672 must be open between the
main and secondary servers to allow RabbitMQ
clustering between the two servers. These ports
exchange EPMD and Erlang distribution protocol
messages for RabbbitMQ. They do not need to be open
in additional polling engine pools.
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INSTALLATION GUIDE: SOLARWINDS NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITOR
NETWORKING REQUIREMENTS
SolarWinds High Availability does not support IPv6 addresses.
l Both your primary and secondary servers must be on the same subnet.
l Both pool members must have static IPv4 addresses set on the network adapter. You do not need
dedicated NICs.
l All pool members must be able to resolve the host names of all additional pollers, additional
websites, and the main Orion server. Pool members must also be able to resolve the host names of
members in the same pool.
l A virtual IP address must be available on the same subnet as the primary and secondary servers.
l Devices must be able to accept inbound connections from the source IP and VIP addresses.
l Devices sending syslogs, SNMPtraps, and NetFlow information to your Orion server must be
configured to send the information to the VIP address and receive requests from the pool.
You may need to modify firewall rules to allow traffic from pool members and to the VIP address. For
example, you may need to modify the NetFlow firewall rules to allow incoming TCP traffic on port
2055 to go to the VIP address.
Depending on your network, you may have additional requirements. Up to three IPaddresses per pool may
be in use among the VIP, primary, and secondary servers because of how Windows calculates the source IP
address from the HA pool. You can modify your devices to receive requests from all IP addresses or
determine whichIPaddress is used as the source IP address.
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Multi-module system guidelines
If you have more than one Orion Platform product, use these recommended guidelines for hardware and
software deployment. The information here should be considered guidelines only. You can choose to use
more or less hardware but your performance may vary depending on your deployment scenario.
If you have only one Orion module, see the system requirements listed in the administrator guide for that
module.
Choose up to 3 modules:
The Orion installer installs IIS(32-bit mode) and .NET4.5 if they are not already on your
server.
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INSTALLATION GUIDE: SOLARWINDS NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITOR
1More or less space may be needed depending on your data retention policies, number of elements
2 - 4 additional modules:
The Orion installer installs IIS(32-bit mode) and .NET 4.5 if they are not already
on your server.
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l 100 GB - 1 TB 4 of storage capacity on local NTFS disk
l 1 x 1 Gb dedicated NIC
l Windows Server 2012 R2, 2012, or 2008R2 SP1
NTA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION
l NTA4.0 - If the server is running a 32-bit operating system, NTA4.0 stores flow data in the
SQLDatabase (NTAFlow Storage Database is not installed).For more information, see NTA4.0
Installation:Frequently Asked Questions.
l NTA 4.1 - NTA4.1 only works with a 64-bit operating system. SolarWinds recommends aseparate
NTAFlow Storage Database.
2More or less space may be needed depending on your data retention policies, number of elements
4More or less space may be needed depending on your data retention policies and the number of flows
stored. You need approximately 8 GB of additional storage for every 1000 flows that are retained for 30
days. For example, if you want 50,000 flows stored for 30 days, you need a base of 100 GBplus an
additional 400 GB of storage.
l SAM ALX
l 1 APE for every 10,000 component monitors
l Maximum of 50,000 component monitors per primary Orion SAMserver + 4
APEs
l VNQM IPX
l ~5,000 IPSLA operations per polling engine
l NCM DLX
l 1 APE for every 10,000 devices, for NCM 7.1 and later
l Maximum of 30,000 devices per NCMinstance (that is, NCM server + 2 NCM
APEs)
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INSTALLATION GUIDE: SOLARWINDS NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITOR
l IPAM IPX
l 750,000 IP
l UDT UTX
l 150,000 ports per polling engine
The Orion installer installs IIS(32-bit mode) and .NET4.5 if they are not already on your
server.
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NTA Flow Physical server or virtual machine
Storage
Database l Quad core processor or better
Server l 16 GB 3 RAM
Specifications l 100 GB - 1 TB 4 of storage capacity on local NTFS disk
l 1 x 1 Gb dedicated NIC
l Windows Server 2012 R2, 2012, or 2008R2
The Orion installer installs IIS(32-bit mode) and .NET4.5 if they are not already on your
server.
NTA-SPECIFIC INFORMATION
l NTA4.0 - If the server is running a 32-bit operating system, NTA4.0 stores flow data in the
SQLDatabase (NTAFlow Storage Database is not installed).For more information, see NTA4.0
Installation:Frequently Asked Questions.
l NTA 4.1 - 5TH4.1 only works with a 64-bit operating system. SolarWinds recommends aseparate
NTAFlow Storage Database.
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INSTALLATION GUIDE: SOLARWINDS NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITOR
For Orion Platform products, use a new or existing SQL database. Prepare your database using the
following guidelines.
Make sure the database and database server meet the system requirements.
Ensure that you install the Orion database and the Orion Server on the same domain.
The selected SQL Server instance must support mixed-mode or SQL authentication with strong
passwords. A strong password must meet at least three of the following four criteria:
For a new database, the user account must be a member of the dbcreator server role. The
sysadmin role and the security administrator (SA) user account are always members of dbcreator.
For a new SQL account, the user account must be a member of the securityadmin server role. The
sysadmin role and the security administrator user account are always members of securityadmin.
Set the recovery model of the database to Simple. SolarWinds does not support other methods.
Select SQL Server Authentication. SolarWinds Orion users use this method to access the SolarWinds
Orion database.
SolarWinds uses SQL Server Authentication to ensure the SolarWinds Orion server can always
access the SolarWinds Orion database, even when hosted remotely on a separate server.
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Install a licensed copy of NPM
These instructions provide stand-alone installation steps for installing SolarWinds Network Performance
Monitor on a dedicated server.
For advanced configuration requirements and steps such as FIPS, see the Administrator Guide.
Do not install SolarWinds NPM on a domain controller or use the same database server as a
Research in Motion (RIM) Blackberry server.
1. Download If you have not yet created a SolarWinds account, see Access the Customer Portal to
installation create an account.
files and
license from 1. Go to customerportal.solarwinds.com.
Customer 2. In the Log In tab, enter your organization's SWID and your email address.
Portal 3. In the Latest Downloads table, click Choose Download for the installation files
for your product. Also check and download any available hotfixes.
4. Depending on your environment, you may also need installers for the
additional polling engines and additional web server. These installers include a
bundle or a Scalability Engine.
Downloading and installing Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 can take more
than 20 minutes. If your system reboots, run the installation again.
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INSTALLATION GUIDE: SOLARWINDS NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITOR
4. Run the After the installation completes, the Configuration wizard automatically runs. If the
Configuratio Configuration wizard does not load automatically, start the Configuration wizard in
n wizard the SolarWinds Orion > Configuration and Auto-Discovery program folder.
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4. In the Database Settings dialog box, select a database from Use an existing
database, and click Next.
5. In the Database Account dialog box, create an account or use an existing
account that the polling engine and Web Console use to access the database,
and click Next.
6. In the Website Settings dialog box, complete selections for your installation:
If you select Skip website binding, the Configuration Wizard does not
make changes within the website configuration in your IIS. This option
blocks IPaddress, port, and SSLcertificate options.
If you specify any port other than 80, include that port in the URL
used to access the Web Console.
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INSTALLATION GUIDE: SOLARWINDS NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITOR
10. In the Completing the Orion Configuration Wizard dialog box, click Next.
11. If prompted to activate your installation, enter the License Key for your
product noted from the SolarWinds Customer Portal.
12. When completed, click Finish to launch the Orion Web Console.
Click Start > All Programs > SolarWinds > Orion Web Console
or
Open a web browser on your Orion server and enter http://ipAddress or
http://hostname, where ipAddress is the IP address of your server and
hostname is the host name of your server.
13. Log in with user name admin and leave the password field blank.
For security purposes, SolarWinds recommends that you change the password
to your admin account.
5. Install any If the Customer Portal listed hotfixes for the product version you downloaded, run
available those installations.
hotfixes
(optional) 1. Download the zip file.
2. Extract the zip files to the main polling engine or Orion server.
3. Review the READMEfor details on the release and further instructions.
4. Run the installation file according to the READMEinstructions.
6. Add If you are not prompted to activate the product license during installation, activate
license key the license through the Orion Web Console.
Get the license key for your product from the Customer Portal:
Add and activate the license key from the Customer Portal.
7. Install on If you have an additional polling engine (APE), download and install the product using
the the Scalability Engine Installer.
additional
polling 1. In the Orion Web Console, click Settings > All Settings > Polling Engines.
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engine 2. Click the Download Installer Now and move the downloaded file to the
(optional) additional polling engine server.
3. Run the installation file. The steps should mirror the installation steps
completed on the main polling engine server. During installation, select the
option for Additional Polling Engine.
4. To activate the license, access the Orion Web Console on the main polling
engine or Orion server.
Do not activate the license directly on the additional polling engine.
Best Practice: If the product included hotfixes, you can also run those directly on the
additional polling engines. The Scalability Engine Installer should have included
them. If the hotfix installation states the fixes are already installed, do not continue.
Otherwise, complete the installation instructions from the README file.
8. Install on If you have an additional web server (AWS), download and install the product using
the the Scalability Engine Installer.
additional
web server 1. In the Orion Web Console, click Settings > All Settings > Web Console Settings.
(optional) 2. Click the Download Installer Now and move the downloaded file to the
additional polling engine server.
3. Run the installation file. The steps should mirror the installation steps
completed on the main polling engine server. During installation, select the
option for Additional Web Server.
4. To activate the license, access the Orion Web Console on the main polling
engine or Orion server.
Do not activate the license directly on the additional polling engine.
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INSTALLATION GUIDE: SOLARWINDS NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITOR
Best Practice: If the product included hotfixes, you can also run those directly on the
additional web server. The Scalability Engine Installer should have included them. If
the hotfix installation states the fixes are already installed, do not continue.
Otherwise, complete the installation instructions from the README file.
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Integrate NPM with other Orion Platform
products
To integrate SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor with an existing Orion Platform, you may need to
install the stand-alone product onto the Orion server and perform additional steps. These instructions
walk-through the specific installation steps, Configuration wizard selections, and any additional licensing
and integration options to select.
l When integrating with the existing Orion SQLdatabase, the user account needs only to be in the
db_owner database role for the existing database.
l For advanced configuration requirements and steps such as FIPS, see the Administrator Guide.
l If you have High Availability as part of your Orion Platform installation, review Install SolarWinds
NPM with High Availability
l Install NPM on the Orion server with other products including NCM, SAM, and SRM.
l Installing products on the same server provides a single pane of glass for monitoring: consolidates
polling calls and traffic through polling methods, stores and tracks nodes in one system without
cross-referencing, provides data for alerts and reports on one system, and manages all logic easily
on one system.
l Select the same Orion SQL database used by the current Orion Platform environment.
l If you need to migrate Orion products and install NPM on a new server due to requirements,
migrate the Orion products first.
Adding a new product into an existing Orion Platform may require upgrading the current products
prior to the installation.
l Using compatibility information and the SolarWinds Product Upgrade Advisor, determine if
currently installed products must be upgraded prior to installing this product.
l Depending on the upgrade path, upgrade products following the SolarWinds Upgrade
Guide. When complete, install the new product following these instructions.
l When preparing the server, review the multi-module system guidelines when installing into
an existing Orion Platform.
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INSTALLATION GUIDE: SOLARWINDS NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITOR
3. If the wizard detects that Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS) is not
installed, select the recommended option to continue and install IIS
automatically.
4. If the wizard detects that the Microsoft .Net framework is not installed, select
the recommended option to continue and install it automatically.
Downloading and installing Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5 can take more
than 20 minutes. If your system reboots, run the installation again.
If you are using Microsoft Internet Explorer, SolarWinds recommends you add
the URL of your Orion website (http://FullOrionServerName/), the URL of
SolarWinds support (http://solarwinds.com/support), and about:blank to the
list of trusted sites.
2. Run the After the installation completes, the Configuration wizard automatically runs. If the
Configuratio Configuration wizard does not load automatically, start the Configuration wizard in the
n wizard SolarWinds Orion > Configuration and Auto-Discovery program folder.
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3. In the Database Settings dialog box, select an SQL Server and authentication
method, and click Next.
Use SQL Server Authentication to ensure the SolarWinds Orion server can
always access SQL Server, even when hosted remotely on a separate
server.
4. In the Database Settings dialog box, select a database from Use an existing
database, and click Next.
5. In the Database Account dialog box, create an account or use an existing
account that the polling engine and Web Console use to access the database,
and click Next.
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INSTALLATION GUIDE: SOLARWINDS NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITOR
6. In the Website Settings dialog box, complete selections for your installation:
If you select Skip website binding, the Configuration Wizard does not
make changes within the website configuration in your IIS. This option
blocks IPaddress, port, and SSLcertificate options.
If you specify any port other than 80, include that port in the URL
used to access the Web Console.
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12. When completed, click Finish to launch the Orion Web Console.
Click Start > All Programs > SolarWinds > Orion Web Console
or
Open a web browser on your Orion server and enter http://ipAddress or
http://hostname, where ipAddress is the IP address of your server and
hostname is the host name of your server.
13. Log in with user name admin and leave the password field blank.
For security purposes, SolarWinds recommends that you change the password
to your admin account.
3. Install any If the Customer Portal listed hotfixes for the product version you downloaded, run
available those installations.
hotfixes
(optional) 1. Download the zip file.
2. Extract the zip files to the main polling engine or Orion server.
3. Review the READMEfor details on the release and further instructions.
4. Run the installation file according to the READMEinstructions.
4. Add Add and activate the license key from the Customer Portal.
license key
1. Open the Orion Web Console in a web browser.
Click Start > All Programs > SolarWinds > Orion Web Console
or
Open a web browser on your Orion server and enter http://ipAddress or
http://hostname, where ipAddress is the IP address of your server and
hostname is the host name of your server.
5. Integrate
the product
into the
Orion
Platform
6. Install on If you have an additional polling engine (APE), download and install the product using
the the Scalability Engine Installer.
additional
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INSTALLATION GUIDE: SOLARWINDS NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITOR
polling 1. In the Orion Web Console, click Settings > All Settings > Polling Engines.
engine
2. Click the Download Installer Now and move the downloaded file to the
(optional)
additional polling engine server.
3. Run the installation file. The steps should mirror the installation steps
completed on the main polling engine server. During installation, select the
option for Additional Polling Engine.
4. To activate the license, access the Orion Web Console on the main polling
engine or Orion server.
Do not activate the license directly on the additional polling engine.
Best Practice: If the product included hotfixes, you can also run those directly on the
additional polling engines. The Scalability Engine Installer should have included them.
If the hotfix installation states the fixes are already installed, do not continue.
Otherwise, complete the installation instructions from the README file.
7. Install on If you have an additional web server (AWS), download and install the product using
the the Scalability Engine Installer.
additional
web server 1. In the Orion Web Console, click Settings > All Settings > Web Console Settings.
(optional) 2. Click the Download Installer Now and move the downloaded file to the
additional polling engine server.
3. Run the installation file. The steps should mirror the installation steps
completed on the main polling engine server. During installation, select the
option for Additional Web Server.
4. To activate the license, access the Orion Web Console on the main polling
engine or Orion server.
Do not activate the license directly on the additional polling engine.
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8. You may need to assign the license to the additional web server.
a. Click Assign.
b. Select the additional web server and click Assign.
Best Practice: If the product included hotfixes, you can also run those directly on the
additional web server. The Scalability Engine Installer should have included them. If
the hotfix installation states the fixes are already installed, do not continue. Otherwise,
complete the installation instructions from the README file.
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INSTALLATION GUIDE: SOLARWINDS NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITOR
If you have enabled SolarWinds High Availability, you must disable HA before you can install. All
SolarWinds product versions must match on the primary and secondary servers before you can re-
enable your HA pools.
For more information on SolarWinds HA, see High Availability in SolarWinds products.
l A VIP address
l The secondary HA server
l An available HA pool license
1. Prepare the 1. Reserve an available IP address to use as the Virtual IP (VIP) address on
secondary server the same subnet as the primary and secondary servers.
2. Build a standby server on the same subnet as the server you want to
protect.
3. Open port 5671 (TCP) on the primary (incoming) and secondary
(outgoing) servers.
4. Open ports 4369 and 25672 (TCP) on the main Orion server and its
secondary server. These ports are not required when protecting
additional polling engines.
2. Install on the Follow the install instructions for the product. Install on the primary server.
primary server
Do not run the product installer on the secondary server. The HA process
creates the secondary server installer.
3. Activate the HA Have your HA license from the Customer Portal to activate prior to creating a
license pool. The License Manager through the Orion Web Console provides a 30-day
evaluation license to test HA features.
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4. Enter your license information.
If you do not have a license key, enable the HA evaluation license.
4. Download and HA provides a downloadable installer from the primary server with a list of all
install secondary products and versions. This installer ensures both servers match.
server
1. In the Orion Web Console, click Settings > All Settings > High Availability
Deployment Summary.
2. Click Setup a new HA server.
3. In the dialog box, click Get started setting up a server.
4. In the Setup a High Availability Server dialog box, click Download
installer now.
5. Move the downloaded installer to your secondary server and run it.
Select which type of backup server you want to install under High
Availability.
Enter your SQL credentials for your Orion SQL database when
prompted.
5. Create the HA You can now add the backup server to a pool with your main server or
pool additional polling engine.
1. In the Orion Web Console, click Settings > All Settings > High Availability
Deployment Summary.
2. Click Setup High Availability pool next to your standby server.
3. Enter the pool name and the virtual IP (VIP) address.
The VIP must be unassigned and on the same subnet as the primary and
secondary servers.
If you have enabled SolarWinds High Availability, you must disable HA before you can install. All
SolarWinds product versions must match on the primary and secondary servers before you can re-
enable your HA pools.
These instructions assume you have an HA pool already created and enabled. For more information on
SolarWinds HA, see High Availability in SolarWinds products.
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INSTALLATION GUIDE: SOLARWINDS NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITOR
1. Disable the HA The HA pool must be disabled to begin installation. If you install prior to
pool disabling, the pool is automatically disabled.
1. In the Orion Web Console, click Settings > All Settings > High Availability
Deployment Summary.
2. Select the pool you want to disable.
4. Enable the HA After the servers are installed, enable the HA pool using the following
pool instructions. You may need to recreate the HA pool. For details, see Set up an
HA pool for NPM.
1. In the Orion Web Console, click Settings > All Settings > High Availability
Deployment Summary.
2. Select the pool you want to enable.
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Enable FIPS
You can run your Orion Platform product in FIPS-compliant (Federal Information Processing Standard)
mode to comply with computer security and interoperability standards used by non-military US
government agencies and contractors.
For the full list of tested Orion products for international standards for computer security, see this
site. For a certification letter of Orion FIPScompliance, contact us with your request.
l If FIPS compliance is required, SolarWinds recommends that you enable FIPS as part of a
fresh install instead of as part of an upgrade.
l Before you enable FIPS ensure that the hardware is FIPS-compliant. See the Microsoft
Support knowledge base for more information.
l Not all Orion Platform products are FIPS-compliant. SolarWinds recommends that you
install all FIPS-compliant SolarWinds software on FIPS-compliant servers and maintain all
non-compliant SolarWinds software on non-compliant servers.
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l Click the non-compliant monitored node, and edit its Polling Method to be FIPS-
compliant.
a. Select SNMPv3 as the SNMP Version.
b. Select FIPS-compliant Authentication and Privacy/Encryption methods, and
provide the passwords.
c. Click Submit.
l Click the non-compliant network discovery, and edit SNMP credentials to be FIPS-
compliant.
a. Confirm that all SNMP credentials are SNMPv3. Delete or edit any credentials that
are not FIPS-compliant SNMPv3.
b. Confirm that all SNMP credentials use FIPS-compliant Authentication and
Privacy/Encryption methods, and provide the passwords.
c. Complete the Network Sonar Wizard using the updated credentials.
4. Click Restart now to restart all relevant SolarWinds services.
While the software is FIPS-compliant, you must choose to use FIPS-compliant polling methods, such as
SNMPv3, to monitor and discover nodes.
Authentication SHA1
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Install an evaluation copy of SolarWinds NPM
The evaluation version of this product is a full version of the product, functional for 30 days. After the
evaluation period, you can easily convert your evaluation license to a production license by obtaining and
applying a license key.
To update your license, contact SolarWinds sales to purchase a full license of the product. For Orion
products, access the License Manager to update the license with the purchased key. For details, see
Activate licenses.
For evaluation installations only, you can install the Orion server and the Microsoft SQL Server
database on the same machine. The installer automatically installs SQL Server 2014. You can use that
database, or configure the server to use another MS SQL database.
To use a separate Microsoft SQL Server database, or if you are installing this product into the production
deployment of an existing Orion Platform, see Plan for a production deployment.
For evaluation installations only, installation on a desktop operating system is possible, but not supported.
This product is intended for use in a production environment that meets system requirements.
Windows Server 2016 Windows 8.1 Update 1 (except for Standard Edition)
Windows 10
1. Download the Download the evaluation file for SolarWinds NPM from www.solarwinds.com.
evaluation file
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INSTALLATION GUIDE: SOLARWINDS NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITOR
2. Install using the Follow the standalone installation instructions including the installation and
stand-alone Configuration wizard.
instructions
To use the Microsoft SQL Server Express database that installs with the
product, click Express Install. To use your own Microsoft SQL Server database,
click Advanced Install.
3. Open the Orion If the login page does not open automatically, launch the Orion Web Console in
Web Console your SolarWinds Orion program folder.
Log in with the user name admin and leave the password field blank.
For security purposes, SolarWinds recommends that you change the password
to your admin account.
After the evaluation period, you can easily convert your evaluation license to a production license by
obtaining and applying a license key.
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Steps to take after SolarWinds NPM is installed
After SolarWinds NPM is installed, there are a variety of resources you can access to learn the product.
l SolarWinds NPM Getting Started Guide - Get Started: SolarWinds recommends reading the
SolarWinds NPM Getting Started Guide first. Learn about how to configure SolarWinds NPM, begin
collecting data, and alert and report on your mission-critical environment.
Quickly identify performance issues and problems before your customers call the help desk.
Depending on your workload, you should be able to get started in five days or less.
l SolarWinds NPM Getting Started Guide - Customize: Learn how to customize views, alerts, and
reports.
Tailor SolarWinds NPM to your internal processes so you can more effectively respond to
performance issues. Depending on your workload, you should be able to customize SolarWinds NPM
in five or fewer days.
l SolarWinds NPM Administrator Guide: Refer to the SolarWinds NPM Administrator Guide for a
deeper dive into SolarWinds NPM features.
l SolarWinds Customer Success Center: Access the Customer Success Center for all SolarWinds NPM
documentation and troubleshooting knowledge base articles.
l SolarWinds NPM on THWACK: Interact with SolarWinds VNQM Pros who provide answers to your
questions and share lessons learned.
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INSTALLATION GUIDE: SOLARWINDS NETWORK PERFORMANCE MONITOR
You may need to uninstall SolarWinds NPM to reinstall for resolving issues or to move to a new server
during a migration.
Backup the To preserve your data, back up your database(s). If you need help with backups,
existing database check your vendor's site for documentation and instructions.
If you have your database on a VM, create a snapshot or copy of your VM.
Backup product Create copies and backups of your product folders. You may have
folders customizations in these folders specific to your installations.
To remove SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor from a server, complete the following steps:
1. Remove product Follow the steps for your specific product to remove the SolarWinds
licenses product licenses.
1. In the Orion Web Console, select Settings > All Settings > and click
License Manager.
2. In the web-based License Manager, select the product license to
remove.
3. Click Deactivate. This removes the license activation and server
assignment.
With the license deactivated, it is parked, or available but unused.
2. Uninstall SolarWinds 1. Open Programs and Features in the Windows Control Panel.
products 2. Select the product(s) to remove one at a time and click Uninstall.
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3. Delete or rename Delete files from the following locations to fully clear all files. If you
SolarWinds folders installed to a different domain, look on that location instead of C:\.
4. Remove specific Important: These steps affect your Registry settings. For assistance,
Registry keys contact Support.
5. Restart and reinstall Restart the server. You can reinstall new products following this guide.
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