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SolarWinds Documentation



 

 Other SolarWinds software -   Orion Network Performance Monitor, Cirrus Configuration Manager, Engineer's Edition Toolset 
 

SolarWinds Documentation » What You Need to Know
 

SolarWinds Toolsets
 
Orion Network Performance Monitor
 
Orion NPM Modules
 
Orion Enterprise Operations Console
 
Orion Network Configuration Manager
formerly Cirrus Configuration Manager
 
ipMonitor
 
LANsurveyor
 
LANsurveyor Express
 
Kiwi Tools
 
Third-Party Software List

Orion System Sizing guidelines

What is a Network Element?

A Network Element is any unique node, router, hub, switch, port, interface, or virtual interface that is IP addressable.  If you have a router with 6 interfaces and want to monitor the traffic on each interface as well as poll the loopback address  on the router you would configure the Orion Network Performance Monitor to monitor a total of 7 elements.

The SL100  Edition of the Orion Network Performance Monitor can monitor up to 100 elements, the SL 250 monitors 250 elements and so on. The SLX Edition is unlimited
System Requirements
 
Software Requirements
Operating System The following operating systems are supported:
bulletWindows 2003 Server (32-bit) with IIS installed, including R2
.NET Framework Version 2.0 or later
SQL Server The following SQL Server version are supported:
bulletSQL Server 2000 SP4
bulletSQL Server 2005 Express, Standard, or Enterprise
Web Console Browser The following browsers are supported:
bulletMicrosoft Internet Explorer version 6 or later
bulletFirefox 1.5 or 2.0

System Sizing Chart

SolarWinds Orion NPM is capable of monitoring networks of any size — from small corporate LANs to large enterprise and service-provider networks. Most SolarWinds Orion NPM systems will perform well on Pentium-class 1GHz systems with 512MB of RAM running Windows 2000 and using the default polling engine settings. However, when monitoring large networks, you should give additional consideration to the hardware used and the configuration of the system.

There are three primary variables that affect scalability. The most important item to keep in mind is the number of elements that you’ll be managing. Systems monitoring more than 2,500 elements may need to be tuned to offer optimal performance. The second item to consider is polling frequency. For instance, if you are collecting statistics every five minutes instead of the default nine, the system will have to work harder and system requirements will increase. Finally, the number of simultaneous web users accessing the system will have a direct impact on the performance of the system.

For the purposes of this document, we will assume that you are using the default settings for status polling and statistics collection and that you have a moderate number of web users.

When planning your SolarWinds Orion installation, there are four main factors to keep in mind with respect to scalability. These four items are CPU, memory, number of polling engines, and polling engine settings. The following table displays SolarWinds’ recommendations for minimum configuration of CPU, memory, and numbers of polling engines. Polling engine settings are discussed in the next section, Polling Engine Tuning.

This matrix assumes default statistics collection intervals of nine minutes. Decreasing the polling interval will increase the system requirements.

Orion Version

SL100

SL250

SL500

SL2000

Managed Elements1

100

250

500

2K

CPU Speed

800MHz

1.0GHz

2.0GHz

2.4GHz

RAM

500MB

1GB

1GB

2GB

SQL 2000

DE2

DE2

DE2

DE2/SE3,4

Orion Version

SLX

Managed Elements1

5K

10K

15K

20K

25K

30K

35K

40K

45K

50K

50K

CPU Speed (in GHz)

2.6

3

2.6

3

2.6

3

2.6

3

2.6

3

3

RAM (in GB)

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2

2+5

Additional Polling Engines6

0

0

1

1

2

2

3

3

4

4

5+5

Location of SQL Server

Local6

Rem7

Rem7

Rem7

Rem7

Rem7

Rem7

Rem7

Rem7

Rem7

Rem7

SQL 2000

SE3

SE3

SE3

SE3

SE3

SE3

SE3

SE3

SE3

SE3

SE3

1. An element is defined as the smallest managed component of a device for which statistics are stored. Examples of an element would be a serial interface on a router or a VLAN on a switch. For the purposes of counting elements, Orion NPM keeps track of the number of nodes, the number of interfaces, and the number of volumes you have selected for monitoring.

2. SQL Server Desktop Edition (included with Orion NPM distribution) is adequate, but you may use the Standard or Enterprise version.

3. SQL Server Standard or Enterprise Edition

4. If you have configured Orion for frequent polling and/or roll data up into statistics on a long schedule, or due to other performance reasons, you may need SE.

5. Increasing the number of polling engines will decrease the system requirements. The inverse is true as well. Additional Polling Engines are sold separately.

6. SQL may be installed on the same (local) machine as Orion if performance requirements are modest.

7. Remote SQL Server. For systems monitoring more than 8,000 elements, it is recommended that SQL Server be installed on a separate server.
 
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