Hybrid-Cloud-Observability-Network-Monitoring SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability Network Monitoring Exam Free Practice Exam Questions (2025 Updated)

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

For effective network capacity planning:

Enough historical data (at least 7 days) must be available: This ensures meaningful trend and forecast analysis.

Relevant objects (nodes, interfaces, volumes) must be managed: Only managed entities are included in capacity planning calculations.

Polling every OID or updating the MIB database (A, D) is not a direct requirement for capacity planning.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability supports multiple industry flow protocols:

J-Flow: Supported and commonly used by Juniper devices.

NetFlow v9: Supported, providing flexible flow data and templates.

sFlow: Supported, widely used in vendor-agnostic environments.

NetFlow v6 is not a recognized protocol; SolarWinds documentation does not list it as a supported standard.

"SolarWinds NTA and HCO support NetFlow (v5/v9), sFlow, J-Flow, and IPFIX for collecting and analyzing flow data."

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

The MIB browser tool in the SolarWinds web console is designed to browse, query, and verify OIDs on monitored nodes. It allows you to test if an OID returns valid data for a specific device before assigning it in a custom poller. This ensures compatibility and accuracy of your custom monitoring setup.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

According to the SolarWinds documentation:

"The maximum number of resources that can be displayed in any flow chart or view is 50. Attempting to display more may impact performance and will not be rendered in the UI."

This ensures optimal performance and usability of the charts within the platform.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

In NetPath visualizations, the thickness of the connection lines represents the likelihood or frequency of traffic using that path.

From the documentation:

“In NetPath, thicker lines between nodes indicate a higher probability that traffic will flow along that path. This visualization is based on the frequency of successful probes and actual traffic analysis.”

The official SolarWinds documentation specifies that the minimum RAM requirement for setting up log collection (Log Analyzer/LA) in Hybrid Cloud Observability is 16 GB. This ensures optimal performance and stability for log collection, processing, and storage within the SolarWinds environment.

Exact Extract from Official Guide:

“Minimum hardware requirements for Log Analyzer and log collection: 16 GB RAM, quad-core CPU, and sufficient storage depending on log volume.”

— (Log Analyzer Administrator Guide, “System Requirements” section)

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Device Studio allows you to define calculated values based on multiple polled results. To aggregate per-core CPU usage into a single metric, you can create a calculated value (such as the average) using the outputs from all cores.

From the documentation:

“Device Studio enables you to define calculated values (such as sum or average) when multiple SNMP values are returned, allowing you to represent a total or average CPU usage.”

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Flow collectors differ from polling engines because they passively receive and process flow records sent by network devices, while polling engines actively poll devices for data (like SNMP). Devices must be explicitly configured to export their NetFlow, sFlow, or J-Flow records to the IP address and port of the flow collector, rather than being queried by the SolarWinds server.

The documentation states:

"To monitor flow data, devices must be configured to send their flow records to the collector. Unlike traditional polling, the collector does not initiate contact; it listens for incoming flow exports from network devices."

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

To edit trigger conditions for flow alerts in SolarWinds, the SolarWinds Query Language (SWQL) is required. SWQL is a proprietary subset of SQL designed specifically for the SolarWinds Orion Platform. The documentation specifies:

“Editing advanced alert trigger conditions and custom queries for flow-based alerts requires the use of SWQL, not PowerShell, Python, or standard SQL.”

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

If devices respond to SNMP queries individually but aren't discovered during network scans, the most likely cause is the discovery timeout value being set too low. This can result in slower devices timing out before responding to discovery requests, even though they are operational and SNMP-enabled.

The documentation explains:

"If devices are not discovered but respond to SNMP queries, increase the discovery timeout and retry. Short timeouts can cause missed responses from devices that take longer to reply during scanning."

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

The Universal Device Poller (UnDP) in SolarWinds allows you to create custom SNMP pollers. Results from UnDPs can be displayed as charts, gauges, or tables on SolarWinds web console views. The administrator guide states:

“Universal Device Pollers (UnDPs) allow you to collect SNMP data not provided natively by SolarWinds. The collected results can be displayed as charts, gauges, or tables, making it easier to visualize the custom metrics.”

Device Studio pollers are templates used to define UnDPs, but it is the UnDP that presents data visually. Hardware health and Network Insight are not custom pollers.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

A. Communication issue exists in new device: If there is an SNMP or network issue, the poller cannot retrieve data.

D. Object IDs (OIDs) are not supported: The new device may not support the same OIDs as the test device, resulting in no data returned.

SolarWinds documentation notes:

"When extending a poller to other devices, ensure network/SNMP communication is successful and that the target devices support the required OIDs. Differences in support or access may cause data collection to fail on some nodes."

The best practices for creating a Universal Device Poller (UDP) in SolarWinds are:

Consult vendor documentation for OID: Always check the device/vendor documentation for the correct OID to monitor the desired metric.

Perform SNMPwalk to determine if OID exists: Use SNMPwalk to verify the OID’s existence and see if it is supported and returns the correct values from the device.

Calling SolarWinds support is not a standard step for obtaining OIDs, and WBemtest is a Windows tool for WMI, not SNMP/OID polling.

Exact Extract from Official Guide:

“Consult device vendor documentation for correct OIDs and perform SNMPwalk to ensure the OID exists and is supported by the device before creating a UDP.”

— (Network Performance Monitor Administrator Guide, “Best Practices for Universal Device Pollers” section)

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

If a node remains in “unknown” status:

A. Ping device from assigned polling engine: Verifies direct network connectivity from the poller to the node.

C. Verify the appropriate polling method is set for this node: Ensures SolarWinds uses the correct protocol (ICMP, SNMP, WMI, etc.) for monitoring.

D. Verify a ping response for this node is received through the ICMP: Confirms basic reachability and that the node is not blocking ping requests.

Running an SNMP walk (B) can help diagnose SNMP-specific issues but is not always directly relevant to a node simply being in “unknown” status unless SNMP is the configured polling method.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

SolarWinds provides several statistics for network capacity planning, most notably:

Memory usage data on nodes: Useful for forecasting resource exhaustion on network devices.

Receive utilization on interfaces: Essential for predicting bandwidth saturation and planning upgrades.

The documentation states:

"Key statistics for network capacity planning include interface utilization trends (receive and transmit) and memory utilization, which allow for forecasting and proactive infrastructure management."

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

For secure syslog (Syslog over TLS), the standard port used is TCP 6514. SolarWinds Log Analyzer and Platform listen on TCP port 6514 for secure syslog messages.

Exact Extract from Official Guide:

"Log Analyzer supports receiving secure syslog messages over TCP port 6514, in accordance with the RFC 5425 standard."

— (Log Analyzer Administrator Guide, “Syslog Configuration” section)

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Device Studio pollers are used to build custom pollers for advanced device-specific metrics and widgets. The technologies explicitly supported for Device Studio pollers include:

Machine type for node details widget: Device Studio can create custom pollers to display specific node details, such as machine type, chassis ID, or serial number, within a node details widget.

Power supply status for vital statistics view: Device Studio also allows polling and visualizing metrics such as power supply status, fan status, and other vital statistics that are not natively included in basic SNMP polling.

While Device Studio can poll for advanced or composite data such as VLAN, VRF, and device health, certain interface statistics or single CPU/memory metrics are typically managed by standard SNMP pollers or Universal Device Pollers rather than Device Studio.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

When the SolarWinds Log Analyzer web console is in "live mode," it automatically refreshes the log viewer data every 10 seconds by default, ensuring users see near real-time event streams.

The documentation states:

"In live mode, Log Analyzer refreshes data every 10 seconds to display the most recent events as they arrive."

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

A "no data" message in NetFlow charts usually indicates that the flow collector service is not receiving or processing flow data. One of the primary troubleshooting steps recommended in the SolarWinds documentation is to restart the collector service. This resolves issues caused by service interruptions, memory leaks, or flow processing errors.

The documentation states:

"If NetFlow charts display 'no data,' verify that the NetFlow collector service is running. Restart the collector service if necessary, as service interruptions can cause a lack of flow data display."