SolarWinds Hybrid-Cloud-Observability-Network-Monitoring - Hybrid Cloud Observability Network Monitoring Exam

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

When a node status is “unknown,” it often means the SolarWinds platform cannot communicate with the node. The first checks should be:

Ping response: Verify if the node is reachable via ICMP ping, as lack of response leads to an unknown status.

Polling method: Confirm the correct polling method (ICMP, SNMP, WMI, API) is configured and functioning.

OID (A) is related to SNMP but not directly to basic node status, and view method (D) is not a relevant diagnostic step.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

For critical devices and connections, peak calculation is the recommended capacity planning method. This approach uses the highest observed utilization values within a time period, ensuring that planning accounts for maximum network demand and helps avoid bottlenecks during traffic spikes. SolarWinds documentation advises using peak calculations for important links to ensure network reliability and performance.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Universal Device Pollers (UDPs) in SolarWinds are tightly coupled with the polling engine on which they are configured. If the main polling engine fails, custom pollers do not automatically failover; as a result, statistics collection for those UDPs is interrupted. According to SolarWinds documentation:

"UDPs are assigned to a specific polling engine. If the polling engine fails, UDP statistics are not collected until the engine is restored."

"Universal Device Pollers are not supported on failover engines; they do not collect data from hot standby or failover engines."

Thus, options C and D directly reflect the official guidance.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

For a transformer to correctly process and display a value, the custom poller used for transformation must be assigned to the same node; otherwise, the transformation cannot occur. Additionally, both the custom poller and the transformer must have the same polling interval to ensure synchronized data collection and processing. If their intervals do not match, the transformation can fail or display incorrect results.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Accuracy is decreased: By increasing the polling interval, you reduce the frequency of path checks, which can cause the data to be less granular and less timely, reducing overall accuracy.

Probe is more likely to show all routes: With a longer interval, transient or temporary routes are less likely to be missed, and NetPath might display more complete route information over time.

The probe will still complete successfully; it is just executed less frequently. Accuracy is not increased with a higher polling interval.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Hardware health monitoring can be enabled during node discovery or after a node is added via the "List Resources" option. Additionally, hardware health can be enabled or viewed in the Asset Inventory page for nodes that support it.

From the documentation:

“You can enable hardware health sensors by selecting the option during resource discovery (List Resources) or later via Asset Inventory for individual nodes.”

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Only SNMP version 3 supports advanced authentication methods such as MD5, SHA1, SHA256, and SHA512 in SolarWinds and other SNMP-compliant platforms.

The documentation specifies:

"SNMP v3 provides secure authentication and encryption options, including MD5, SHA1, SHA256, and SHA512. Versions 1 and 2c only support community string authentication."

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability supports a wide range of flow technologies for IP traffic monitoring. Per the SolarWinds NPM Administrator Guide:

"SolarWinds supports NetFlow, sFlow, J-Flow, and IPFIX for monitoring traffic flows. These protocols are used by devices from different vendors to export flow information."

J-Flow: Used by Juniper devices and fully supported.

NetFlow (nFlow): The industry standard from Cisco and widely supported.

sFlow: A vendor-neutral flow technology supported by multiple devices.

IPF1X is not a recognized flow protocol in SolarWinds documentation.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

By default, SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor uses historical data from the last 7 to 30 days to calculate capacity forecasts. This range balances the need for relevant recent data with enough samples to provide trend accuracy.

The documentation states:

“Capacity forecasting in SolarWinds NPM uses the last 7 to 30 days of historical data by default for its projections.”

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Network Insight in SolarWinds supports in-depth monitoring for certain advanced switch platforms. According to the latest SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor Administrator Guide:

"Network Insight for Cisco Nexus provides advanced visibility into the health, configuration, and performance of Nexus switches. This includes inventory, configuration changes, interface health, VDCs, and more."

Other switch families such as Brocade, Juniper, and Meraki are not currently supported by Network Insight.