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

List resources is the menu where you can select or deselect which interfaces (including operationally down and administratively shutdown ones) are monitored for a node. This allows you to uncheck unnecessary or down interfaces and prevent them from impacting the node status.

To receive and process flow data, SolarWinds NTA/HCO must have flow sources enabled and must listen on the correct flow collection port. SolarWinds states that flow-enabled nodes and interfaces must be monitored before they can be recognized as flow sources in NTA, so monitoring the relevant interfaces under flow sources is required. SolarWinds also documents UDP port 2055 as the default port for receiving flows on an NTA collector. Port 1434 is related to SQL Server Browser/dynamic SQL discovery scenarios, not NetFlow collection. Adding nodes directly to “NetFlow endpoints” is not the correct SolarWinds configuration model; devices and interfaces are monitored and then enabled as flow sources.

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SolarWinds allows you to confirm which metrics (contributors) are used to determine node status. In the node status contributors configuration, you can check if CPU load is included for status calculation. This ensures that CPU thresholds are considered when evaluating overall node health.

Applications and NBAR2 applications in top applications are sorted by bytes: The default sorting for the “Top Applications” view, including NBAR2 apps, is by bytes.

It is possible to combine applications and NBAR2 applications: SolarWinds allows combining standard and NBAR2-classified apps for alerting and reporting purposes.

Exact Extract from Official Guide:

" Top Applications, including NBAR2, are sorted by bytes and you can combine standard and NBAR2 application data in alerts and reports. "

— (Network Performance Monitor Administrator Guide, “NBAR2 Applications” section)

To test connections from two separate locations using NetPath or similar functionality in Hybrid Cloud Observability, you need to create two probes and assign each probe to an agent at each respective location. This allows network path and experience monitoring from the point of view of both locations.

Exact Extract from Official Guide:

“To monitor network paths from multiple locations, create a separate probe for each location and assign the probe to an agent deployed at that site.”

— (Network Performance Monitor Administrator Guide, “NetPath and Probes” section)

If interfaces on a node show an “unknown” status, the recommended solution is to delete and rediscover the node. This ensures all current interface information, OIDs, and properties are correctly detected and polled, resolving mismatch or missing data that can cause an “unknown” status.

NetFlow is the Cisco IOS feature designed for monitoring and analyzing network traffic to pinpoint specific applications or endpoints consuming bandwidth or causing network slowness. It captures detailed flow information, including source/destination, ports, and protocols.

You can check the status of the flow collector service from the NetFlow collector services section and from NetFlow settings in the SolarWinds web console. These locations provide service health, up/down status, and logs. " Flow and CBQoS sources " and " Top XX receivers " do not display service health.

If flows are confirmed as reaching the poller but no data appears in the web console, the most common cause is a missing or incorrect source address field in the flow configuration on the sending device. SolarWinds uses the source address to match incoming flows to the correct device record in its database; if this field is missing or misconfigured, the data will not be processed or displayed.

Exact Extract from Official Guide:

“If the source address field is missing or incorrectly configured in the flow-exporting device, the system cannot associate the flow with a monitored device, and no data will appear in the console.”

— (Network Performance Monitor Administrator Guide, “Troubleshooting NetFlow” section)

For organizations with very large environments and strict requirements for data freshness and availability, SolarWinds documentation prescribes several specific steps:

A. Deploy multiple additional polling engines (APEs) in each regional datacenter and configure load balancing. " For environments exceeding 20,000 monitored interfaces, deploy multiple Additional Polling Engines (APEs) to distribute load and maintain polling intervals. Place APEs close to monitored devices to reduce latency. "

B. Implement SolarWinds High Availability (HA) pools for both the main and polling engine servers, with active-passive failover. " SolarWinds HA pools provide automatic failover for platform and polling engines, ensuring service continuity in case of hardware or network failures. "

C. Configure the SolarWinds database server in a Microsoft SQL Server Always On Availability Group. " To protect against database outages, deploy the SolarWinds database in a SQL Server Always On Availability Group or Failover Cluster Instance (FCI). "

Option D is incorrect; overlapping node groups are not a requirement and, in fact, the documentation suggests using dynamic assignment to balance load, not strictly static node groups.