Beginning with version 5.0, Orion Application Performance Monitor, (APM), has been renamed to SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor, (SAM). These release notes provide additional guidance for SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) version 5.0.1.

Installing this Version

As with all modifications to your production environment, it is suggested that you complete the following tasks before implementing any changes:

• Back up your database.
• Test the change in a lab environment that mimics your production environment.

If you need a temporary license to install an instance of the software in a lab, please download an evaluation copy of the latest software from our website. Evaluation copies come with a fully functional 30-day license.

Warnings:

• Additional Orion Web Servers must be able to communicate with the primary SAM server on TCP port 17777. If you are within a secured network and have separated the polling engine component from the Web Console or are using additional pollers, make sure the polling engine is reachable on port 17777.
• Whenever you upgrade SAM, ensure you first back up your database.

Note:

If you are installing SAM through a terminal server session, use the Add or Remove Programs utility on your server (Start > Control Panel > Add or Remove Programs) to run the SAM installer. For more information, see "Installing Server & Application Monitor" in the SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor Administrator Guide.

Upgrading and Configuring

If you have both NPM and APM installed, upgrade NPM on all SolarWinds servers first, followed by the pollers. Once that is complete, you can successfully upgrade to SAM. Failure to upgrade in the correct order will result with the Configuration Wizard generating a Database Configuration Failure error.

If you have additional APM pollers or web consoles, upgrade them at the same time as your APM server. Update the main poller first, then the additional pollers and/or web consoles. Additional web consoles and pollers communicate with the primary SAM server on port 17777.

If you have version 3.1 or lower of Application Performance Monitor installed, you must first upgrade to NPM 10 and then upgrade to APM 3.5 before you can upgrade to SAM 5.0.1.

If you have version 3.5 of Application Performance Monitor installed, upgrade both NPM and APM on your current SolarWinds Server, in that order. Failure to upgrade in the correct order will result in the Configuration Wizard generating a Database Configuration Failure error.

Follow the appropriate procedure in the section "Upgrading Server & Application Monitor" in the SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor Administrator Guide.

Repeat this procedure for any additional pollers or Web Consoles, making sure to use the correct installers for pollers (SolarWinds-Orion-APM-vx.y.z-Poller.exe) or web consoles (SolarWinds-Orion-APM-vx.y.z-WebOnly.exe), since these are different from the standard installer package.

If you are licensed for additional polling engines or additional web servers, they can be found in your SolarWinds Customer Portal. The additional Poller components must be installed on all additional pollers. The additional web server components should also be installed on all additional web servers. Both the additional poller and web server components should be at the same version as the primary SAM server.

Notes:

• SolarWinds SAM does not support monitoring interfaces. To monitor interfaces, please explore the features of NPM.
• If you purchase a SAM license to use with NPM, the additional nodes allowed in the SAM license can monitor CPU, Memory, and response times for nodes, however they cannot monitor interfaces.
• Downgrades of SolarWinds products are not supported. If you are upgrading or installing multiple SolarWinds products, confirm that you are installing them in the order given in the Upgrade Instructions located in your SolarWinds Customer Portal.

Migrating to Another Server

If you are installing the new SAM version to a new server, but plan to use an existing database, you are required to manually copy the original security certificate to the new server before installing the new SAM version. Otherwise you will need to re-enter passwords for all your SAM credentials. For information about copying the security certificate and a workaround to avoid re-entering passwords (if you migrated without copying the security certificate), refer to the following knowledge base article: How can I migrate my credentials when upgrading Orion APM 3.5 to Orion APM 4.0, or higher, on a new server?

Open Issues in this Release

This release of SolarWinds SAM includes the following open issues:

• Oracle probe not working with Oracle 11g via IPv6 due to the limitations of the ADO.Net driver. (Use ODP.NET to correct this issue.)
• The EntryID field value is duplicated in the Windows Event Log Monitor configuration section. However, if the value is written to the second field, that value is deleted but will work correctly for the first EntryID field.
• The TACACS+ User Experience Monitor goes into a state of Unknown rather than Down when the TACACS+ server is unable to respond.

Fixed Issues in this Release

This release of SAM includes the following fixes and updates:

• RTPE polling via SNMP fails when hrSWRunPerfCPU overflows to a negative value.
• An issue concerning incorrect data appearing in a hardware alert email has been fixed.
  Note: In order for this to be resolved, you must delete the current hardware alert that is not working from the Advanced Alert Manager. Once deleted, re-run the configuration wizard (Select Database) to resolve this issue.
• Hardware monitoring: Missing memory information on some servers.
• Test jobs set to run in 64-bit mode were not running in 64-bit mode.
• Starting the Orion Module Engine services in the wrong order caused issues.
• Nagios: Broken test result of component.
• Improper components are displayed in the Test Results table when assigning components to node.
• Manually Assign Application monitors: "Where do you want to apply" page getting stuck with over 1,000 nodes in several groups.
• DHCPMessage - IsIPAddress check method is incorrect in the case of DHCPv6.
• Hardware monitoring: Error when saving data to database.
• Hardware: ESX servers are not polling Hardware data on Additional Pollers.
• SNMP Process Monitor does not handle trailing whitespaces.
• Overflow in delete component data procedure.
• Error in SNMP Process monitor: Process not found.
• Log Parser (Powershell) does not work in SAM 5.0.
• Some old APM logs are not deleted automatically.
• RTPE does not work for users with account limitation related to node entity.
• APM-OrionReportWriter.schema fixed to handle Node dependencies.
• Linux Scripts temporary files are always deleted from target server.
• SAM not detecting all disks in Array (HP servers).
• Improve performance of processing SNMP process probe results.
• DHCP User Experience Monitor over IPv6 fails when acting as dhcp relay agent.
• IBM Disk Drive collecting from wrong WMI class.
• IBM servers missing model number for WMI nodes.
• Thwack: Cannot export template, exporting never ends.
• Windows Service Monitor (WMI): Improve performance by grouping all monitors during application polling job.
• Hardware: HPSNMP poller is not polling all the sensors for Powersupply.
• WMI: Cannot connect to certain computers via IP address.
• An issue concerning VMware performance components becoming unknown at irregular intervals has been fixed.
• Windows Service monitor: Cannot find Services on Windows 2003.
• Real Time Process Monitor is not able to monitor certain linux devices.
• User account for the Real Time monitor properly displays a passed “\”.
• Added the following Service Release Application Templates:
• Active Directory 2008 R2 Services and Counters
• AIX LPD
• Apache Tomcat (Note: UPDATED)
• Common Unix Printing System (CUPS)
• Helix Universal Media Server (Linux/Unix)
• Helix Universal Media Server (Windows)
• Microsoft Lync Server (Edge Role)
• Microsoft Lync Server (Front-End Role)
• Microsoft Lync Server (Mediation Role)
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Failover Cluster
• Microsoft Windows Server 2008 Failover Cluster
• Postfix
• Solaris LPD
• SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer Database
• SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer
• Windows 2003-2008 FTP Service
• Windows 2008 R2 FTP Service
• Windows Network Load Balancing
• Windows Remote Desktop Services (Session Host Role)

Release History

Previous releases of APM/SAM include the following fixes and additions:

Version 5.0

• Orion Application and Performance Monitor (APM) has been renamed to SolarWinds Server & Application Monitor (SAM) beginning with version 5.0.
• Real-Time Process Monitoring for both monitored and unmonitored processes has been incorporated.
• SAM provides out-of-the-box performance statistics for unmonitored processes and services. These monitors include:
• Top XX Unmonitored Processes/Services by CPU utilization
• Top XX Unmonitored Processes/Services by Memory utilization
• Top XX Unmonitored Processes/Services by Virtual Memory utilization
• Top XX Unmonitored Processes/Services by Disk I/O
• SAM now supports Hardware Health Monitoring for the following vendors with links to the software needed to enable hardware monitoring:

Vendor	Software Required
VMware hosts	None
Hewlett-Packard (HP) – ProLiant	HP System Insight Manager
	HP Insight Management WBEM Providers for Windows Server 2003/2008
Dell – PowerEdgea	Dell OpenManage Server Administrator
IBM – X-Series	IBM Director
	IBM's ServeRAID Manager

• Server hardware monitoring will include the following components (where available):
• Hard drive status
• Battery status
• Array status
• Array controller status
• Power supply status
• Fan status
• Chassis intrusion status
• Chassis temperature and/or status
• Chassis fan speed and/or status
• CPU temperature and/or status
• CPU fan speed and/or status
• Memory module status
• Voltage regulator status
• Machine serial number
• New and Updated Templates:
• Windows
  • Active Directory Group Policy
  • Citrix XenApp 6.0 Core Counters
  • Citrix XenApp 6.0 ICA Session
  • Citrix XenApp 6.0 Presentation Server
  • Citrix XenApp 6.0 Services
  • Distributed File System (DFS)
  • Log Parser (PowerShell)
  • Microsoft BizTalk Server 2010 Adapters Performance Counters
  • Microsoft BizTalk Server 2010 Host Throttling Performance Counters
  • Microsoft BizTalk Server 2010 Message Box and Orchestrations Performance Counters
  • Microsoft Forefront Threat Management Gateway 2010
  • Microsoft Network Policy Server Events
  • Microsoft Network Policy Server RADIUS Proxy
  • Microsoft Network Policy Server RADIUS Server
  • Microsoft Windows Update
  • Streaming Media Services 2008
  • Windows DHCP Server
  • Windows DNS Server
  • Windows Server 2003 Domain Controller Security
  • Windows Server 2008 Domain Controller Security
• Unix/Linux
  • DHCP ISC/Internet Systems Consortium
  • DNS ISC/Internet Systems Consortium (BIND)
  • Log Parser (Perl)
  • OpenLDAP
• Databases
  • IBM DB2
  • IBM Informix
  • MySQL
  • Oracle Database (Updated)
  • PostgreSQL
  • Sybase ASE Database
• IPv6 is now supported.
• Users can now define a SAM Administrator role independent of the Orion Administrator role.^{b, c, d, f}
• Users now have the option to choose the platform (x86/x64) on which to run polling jobs. This option is found under the Advanced section in Applications, Component Monitors, and Templates.
• The PowerShell Monitor now supports impersonation for Local Script Execution Mode.
• Improvement in credentials handling for application templates applied to Windows nodes managed via WMI.
• The "Count as Difference" option has been added to the following monitors:
• Nagios Script Monitor
• ODBC User Experience Monitor
• Oracle User Experience Monitor
• PowerShell Script Monitor
• SQL User Experience Monitor
• Unix/Linix Script Monitors
• Windows Script Monitor
• The Message Center now provides options to filter/suppress SAM-specific events.
• Polling nodes using the WMI protocol has been implemented.
• Display memory usage by processes with greater precision.^e
• SAM now supports Google's Chrome web browser.
• Scan Nodes for Applications results in "Status: unassigned Failure reason: Unknown." This issue has been fixed.^g
• An issue concerning the Windows Event Log and ineffective Keyword matching has been resolved.^h
• An issue concerning missing statistics for application availability when unmanaged has been resolved.ⁱ
• An issue concerning the status of application with dependencies has been resolved.^j
• An issue concerning the creation of unexpected events from alerts has been resolved.^k
• An issue concerning Unix script files not being automatically deleted has been fixed.^l

Version 4.2

• Dates now follow regional formatting.
• Issue with nodes with duplicate names not being included in selection count fixed.
• Issue when the window for selecting a node for testing is not displayed has been fixed.
• Issue with pop-up windows not appearing for node selection has been fixed.
• An issue concerning messages being truncated in the database field has been fixed.
• Default thresholds are now set for imported templates.
• For the VMWare wizard, the counter selection has been fixed when switching between Single and Multiple wizard modes for Internet Explorer.
• An issue concerning the Find Processes wizard continuing with wrong credentials for VMware has been fixed.
• An issue concerning the Active Application Alerts resource showing an invalid status has been fixed.
• APM now cleans the records for Node Child Status when an application is deleted.
• APM Process Monitor – SNMP no longer randomly fails when SNMPv3 is used.
• CPU load on SQL server has been decreased.
• An issue with the creation of duplicate tables in the database has been resolved.
• The failing of two queries in APMViewsAndResources.sql when creating duplicate views in the database has been fixed.
• The problem of various monitors; including, but not limited to, the Windows Event Log Monitor, HTTP Monitor, and HTTPS Monitor, reporting a ‘Down’ status instead of an ‘Unknown’ status under certain conditions, has been resolved.
• The ${StatusOrErrorDescription} Advanced Alert Macro for Script Monitors has been fixed.
• An issue with multiple instances of SNMPManager being created unexpectedly has been fixed.
• An issue with the HTTPS Monitor not working after upgrading to APM 4.2 has been resolved.
• The Protected Storage service has been removed from the Windows Server 2003-2008 Service and Counters template due to its default behavior.
• JMX component for Java Monitoring.
• Native Nagios Script Monitor.
• Data Transformations added to component monitors.
• New and Updated Templates.
• Scripts now can return multiple values.
• APM objects can now be used with the Multiple Object Chart.
• SSL Certificate Expiration Date monitor.
• "Not Equal to" threshold operator added.
• Search functionality for various wizards.
• User Notes and Descriptions fields added to templates.
• Message field added to Component Monitor Details.
• Ability to sort Applications by status.
• Help file now one comprehensive document.
• Multiple Statistic Chart.
• The JMX Wizard/Monitor now accepts custom URLs.

Version 4.0.2

• Polling issues with APM have been fixed.
• The Citrix XenApp 5.0 Services template has been fixed.
• Timeouts when displaying CPU charts in the Web Console have been fixed.
• The Citrix XenApp 5.0 Core WMI Counters template has been fixed.
• The DHCP User Experience Monitor now supports ISC DHCP Server.
• The RADIUS User Experience monitor and template have been fixed.
• The Find Processes, Services, and Performance Counters wizard now works correctly when using the VMware Performance Counter Monitor type.
• Rollup logic for Unmanaged applications in All Applications tree has been fixed so that an unmanaged application does not cause the rollup status to be shown as warning (yellow). The rollup status is now correctly shown as green for unmanaged applications.
• Script for dropping APM tables from the NPM database when migrating APM to a standalone server is completed.
• Changed the field name in Windows PowerShell Monitor from PowerShell Version to Execution Mode to reflect its true function.
• Performance Counter monitors are no longer going up and down.
• The component thresholds and status for the Windows PowerShell Monitor were fixed.
• Temporary files created by the Linux/Unix Script Monitor now use a shorter GUID hash code instead of a full GUID.
• VMware Performance Counter monitor no longer causes high network traffic.
• Selecting all application monitors on page now works correctly.
• Database maintenance has been fixed to not throw exceptions with primary key violations.
• Oracle User Experience monitor now returns appropriate statistics data.
• APM no longer creates false alerts for performance counters.
• Testing an RPC Windows Service Monitor now correctly shows Down status if the remote machine is unreachable.
• swjobengineworker2.exe no longer crashes.

Version 4.0.1

• A counter can no longer fail in such a way as to make remaining performance counter requests also fail.
• The colored warning area in linear gauge graphics is now yellow instead of green.
• HTTP-based monitors can now request compressed mode.
• Performance Counter conversion utility will not fail if there is a missing @ViewID parameter.
• Downloading APM template behind the proxy from thwack.com now works properly.
• HTTP/HTTPS component monitor search strings are not case-sensitive.
• Windows Service monitor no longer reports domain user access denied error as "Generic Failure".
• Calculating metrics for average availability has been fixed so there are no discrepancies between calculation methods.
• Importing more than eight application templates in a single file does not result in a Web Console error about having exceeded the maximum message size quota.
• Network Atlas no longer displays disabled components as "unknown" instead of hiding them.
• APM's MAPI exe no longer crashes in OLMAPI32.DLL.
• Application Health Overview pie chart image no longer disappears when applying a custom view limitation.
• DHCP User Experience Monitor now works correctly using new "Sender Adapter IP Address (optional)" field to specify which of the available network adapters is used for the monitor.
• Performance Counters monitor and retry logic: Fixed APM probes configuration file to include more PDH error codes for which retry logic should be applied.
• File count monitor issue for incorrectly counting files in parent directory for a target directory has been resolved.
• File count monitor now correctly compares share names.
• Up-Unknown child status is no longer displayed for node with unmanaged applications.
• Incorrect error is no longer displayed for stopped/disabled services.
• Can now open "Component Statistics - Radial Gauges" header link.
• BlackBerry Delivery Confirmation template has been updated with fixed script.
• Main Menu Links are no longer broken after Storage component installation.
• Charts for Component with enabled "Count As Difference" setting no longer display negative data values.
• Improper event is no longer displayed when Application goes to Unreachable state.
• HTTP/HTTPS Component Monitors are no longer failing.

Version 3.5

• Memory leaks no longer occur in MAPI User Experience and Windows Script component monitors.
• The thwack login box is no longer clipped in Internet Explorer.
• The SWQL filter examples now correctly use curved single quote marks instead of straight single quote marks (').
• "Invalid Core Configuration value" errors no longer cause problems if uninstalling APM.
• APM Warning events are now shown correctly on the Events view.
• The tags "Event Log" and "Event Logs" have been combined into the single tag "Event Log".
• The DHCP User Experience monitor now only leases IP addresses for one second.
• The LDAP User Experience monitor now supports response time statistics.

Version 3.1

• Processes and services in the Application Details view can be sorted
• Conveniently add nodes from APM or assign templates from APM
• APM Additional Polling Engines are now free
• New Windows Event Log monitor and template
• APM built-in templates now use RPC-based Performance Counter monitors
• New Count As Difference option in Performance Counter and WMI Monitor components
• Persistent dropdown filter selections
• Prevent proxy servers from caching monitored URLS
• Improved response time calculations for MAPI User Experience Monitor
• Adding application resources to the Component Details page now works correctly.
• SQL queries are no longer limited to a maximum length of 4000 symbols.
• SNMP-based monitors are no longer prone to UInt32 errors.
• Application scan no longer requires credentials if they are not necessary.
• TCP DNS monitor assigned to Linux servers no longer receive "Error DNS Length".
• Call Manager SNMP process monitors now work correctly after upgrading APM.
• Fixed a memory leak in SWJobSchedulerSvc.exe that caused Performance Counter monitor failures.
• Improved the loading speed of the Application List resource to allow Node Details page to load faster.

Version 3.0

• Help link text is no longer truncated in IE7.0.
• The "Top 10 Processes by CPU Load" resource is no longer missing the "CPU Load" heading.
• The "Select Component Window" is no longer drawn off screen if the page requires scrolling.
• Non-ASCII tags now work as filters.
• An invalid component monitor was removed from the Microsoft Exchange 2003 application template.
• The POP3 User Experience component monitor no longer fails if the user mailbox contains more than 99 messages.
• The Y-axis on charts is now correct for WMI monitors with negative statistics values.

Uninstalling SAM

If you decide to remove SAM from your SolarWinds server, uninstall the SAM program files.

To uninstall the SAM program files:

1. Uninstall the program through Add/Remove Programs. The Web Console continues to display the SAM module.
2. Use the service manager (services.msc) to stop the IIS Admin Service, and then manually delete the following folder from your Inetpub directory: \Inetpub\Solarwinds\Orion\APM.
3. Using the service manager, restart the IIS Admin Service.

Other Known Core Issues

The following sections provide information related to previously unmentioned, known issues in Core.

• Storage Reservation on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Server Volumes
• The ${AcknowledgeURL} Variable Does Not Respect SSL
• Export to PDF is not Working with Self-signed Certificates (SSL)
• Report Scheduler is Unable to Convert Web Page to PDF
• Alert Trigger Variables Are Not Available in Advanced Alert Manager
• Windows Net Message Not Supported in Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, or Windows 7
• Maximum Number of Searchable Events on Web Console Events View
• Groups and IP SLA Manager
• Email a Web Page Alert Action with Active Directory
• Toolset Integration Does Not Automatically Install on Windows Server 2008 R2
• Case Sensitivity in Trap Rules
• Printing Web Pages from Report Scheduler
• Orion Report Scheduler and Internet Explorer Enhanced Security
• Scheduled Tasks in Windows 2008
• Charts in Application Performance Monitor
• Sending Alert Emails
• Internationalization
• Syslog Messages Reporting Incorrect Source IP Address
• Remote Access to System Manager
• Special Characters in Custom Property Names
• Discovery Profiles in Upgrade
• Log Adjuster Fault
• Database Names and the Trap and Syslog Viewers
• Reports and Users with Account Limitations
• Error on Links from the Last XX Syslog Message Resource

Storage Reservation on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 Server Volumes95

SolarWinds products do not properly account for the storage reservation when polling volumes on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 servers. This discrepancy should be addressed in a future release. For more information, see "Storage Reservation on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 (RHEL5) Server Volumes".

The ${AcknowledgeURL} Variable Does Not Respect SSL13

Links provided by SolarWinds applications to acknowledge alerts using the ${AcknowledgeURL} variable do not automatically respect Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) security (https:) settings on your SolarWinds server. By default, SolarWinds operates as though SSL is not enabled. For more information about a possible workaround, see "Links provided to acknowledge alerts using the ${AcknowledgeURL} variable do not respect SSL."

Export to PDF is not Working with Self-signed Certificates (SSL)16

In environments using self-signed certificates, the following error has occurred when attempting to use the Export to PDF function in the Web Console:

There was an error trying to export the page to PDF. Please try again later.

Export to PDF failed. Err: The underlying connections was closed; could not establish trust relationship for the SSL/TLS secure channel.

For more information about a possible workaround, see "Export to PDF is not working.".

Report Scheduler is Unable to Convert Web Page to PDF32

The default timeout for completing the conversion of a web page to .pdf using SolarWinds Report Scheduler with the Retrieve a Printable Version of this Page option enabled is three (3) minutes. Some larger reports may take a significant period of time to complete conversion, and in a default configuration, the following error displays if it takes longer than three (3) minutes to complete the conversion:

Unable to convert the Web Page to PDF

For more information about a possible workaround, see "I am unable to convert a web page to PDF in Report Scheduler".

Alert Trigger Variables Are Not Available in Advanced Alert Manager39

Alert trigger variables may not be available if the schemas associated with monitored network objects are not updated when the Advanced Alert manager starts. Typically, these updates occur automatically, but there have been cases where these updates are prevented by having Windows User Account Control (UAC) enabled on Windows Server 2008. For more information about a possible workaround, see "Alert trigger variables for nodes are not available in Advanced Alert Manager".

Windows Net Message Not Supported in Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, or Windows 715

Beginning with Windows Vista, Microsoft has removed Net Send as a function from all operating systems, so the Send a Windows Net message alert action is not available to SolarWinds installations on either Windows Vista, Windows Server 2008, or Windows 7. As a result, the Send a Windows Net Message alert action is not functional for SolarWinds installations on these operating systems. For more information about a possible workaround, see "I am unable to send a Windows Net Message".

Maximum Number of Searchable Events on Web Console Events View

Currently, the web console Events view is unable to search more than 3000 events. Increasing this maximum is under consideration for a future release.

Groups and IP SLA Manager

Links from IP SLA operations listed in Group Members and Group Root Cause resources in the web console are inoperable. This is a known issue that is scheduled to be addressed in a future release.

Email a Web Page Alert Action with Active Directory

The Email a Web Page alert action does not function as designed for users who are logged in to the SolarWinds Web Console using an Active Directory account or group. This is a known issue that may be addressed in a future release.

Toolset Integration Does Not Automatically Install on Windows Server 2008 R2

The SolarWinds Toolset Integration for the Web Console is unable to install automatically on Windows Server 2008 R2 due to an Internet Explorer version 8 (IE8) security feature. As a result, whenever the web console opens a view containing resources that can use the Toolset integration, a warning dialog displays. If you want to install the Toolset integration, click More Options, and then click Always Install. If you do not want to install the Toolset integration, click More Options, and then click Never Install.

Case Sensitivity in Trap Rules

When defining trap rules for the Trap Viewer, the DNS Hostname Pattern is case-sensitive.

Printing Web Pages from Report Scheduler

If any warning dialogs are open on the SolarWinds server when a web page is scheduled for printing in Report Scheduler, the print job may not complete. To ensure that print jobs configured in the Report Scheduler complete, confirm the following:

• Print the Web Page is selected when the scheduled task is configured in Report Scheduler
• All open dialogs, including SWToolset.exe and javascript warnings, are closed
• All scheduled print tasks are configured to run even when the current user is not logged in

SolarWinds Report Scheduler and Internet Explorer Enhanced Security

When Internet Explorer (IE) Enhanced Security Configuration is installed, SolarWinds report Scheduler may hang intermittently when attempting to perform a scheduled report print job. To address this issue, complete either of the following procedures:

• Recommended - Add the Web Console to the listed of trusted sites in your browser. For more information about Internet Explorer Enhanced Security Configuration and adding sites to the trusted sites list, see, "Adding Sites to the Enhanced Security Configuration Zones"
• Uninstall IE Enhanced Security Configuration.

Scheduled Tasks in Windows 2008 Server

The Report Scheduler uses the Windows Task Scheduler technology to execute scheduled tasks. These scheduled tasks are configured to run in user-based contexts, and, by default in Windows Server 2008, they will only run when the user who scheduled the task is logged in. In the event that the currently logged-in user is different from the user corresponding to the configured task, the scheduled task may not proceed as expected. The default configuration of any scheduled task may be edited as shown in the following procedure:

To modify the configuration of a scheduled task in Windows Server 2008:

1. Click Start > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Task Scheduler.
2. Right-click scheduled task, and then click Properties.
3. Check Run whether user is logged on or not.

Note: You may need to change the context of the job to enable the ability to change this settings.

4. Click OK.

Charts in Application Performance Monitor

In installations of APM 2.0 on NPM 9.1, labels on the y-axis of Application Performance Monitor charts may display as misaligned or staggered. Chart data is not affected by this misalignment. This is a known issue to be fixed in a future release.

Internationalization

International Date/Time Settings

A number of areas in the Web Console, including the NCM Integration for NPM, display the wrong time format when you change the system settings to display an international time setting. This is a known issue and will be corrected in an upcoming release.

Cyrillic Characters

The Web Console does not permit the use of Cyrillic characters in user account passwords.

Syslog Messages Reporting Incorrect Source IP Address

In an earlier release, it was thought that the source field of forwarded Syslog messages was correctly populated with the IP address of the Syslog message source, instead of the IP address of the forwarding NPM server, but this is not the case. This is a known issue, and it will be corrected in an upcoming release.

Remote Access to System Manager

System Manager uses DCOM (Distributed Component Object Model) to interact with monitored network devices. With the release of Windows 2003 Server Service Pack 1, Microsoft tightened default DCOM permissions settings for remote connections. For more information about these changes, see the following Microsoft Support articles:

• Description of the changes to DCOM security settings after you install Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1
• Programs that use DCOM do not work correctly after you install Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1

As a result of these changes, remote connections to System Manager may not have sufficient permissions. Attempts to connect remotely to System Manager may result in the following error:

Run-time error '70':
Permission Denied

For more information about resolving this error by increasing the permissions granted to clients accessing DCOM remotely, see the Microsoft Support article "How To Troubleshoot Run-time Error '70' in DCOM Applications".

Special Characters in Custom Property Names

Although most non-alphanumeric characters used in custom property names are replaced by underscores (_) when names are stored in the SolarWinds database, SolarWinds recommends against using non alphanumeric characters in custom property names. Hash characters (#) are not allowed in any property name. This is a known issue that may be addressed in a future release.

Discovery Profiles in Upgrade

Discovery profiles from older NPM versions are not retained through upgrades to this NPM version. If you want to retain a discovery profile, prior to starting your upgrade, externally record the configuration of the profiles you want to retain.

Log Adjuster Fault

If you are unable to launch the Log Adjuster utility or you are receiving an error with Event ID 1000 when you try to launch the Log Adjuster utility, it may be due to a limitation of your .NET Framework installation. Upgrade your .NET Framework to version 3.5 SP1. For more information about upgrading your .NET Framework, see Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1. This condition may be addressed in a future release.

Database Names and the Trap and Syslog Viewers

Both the Trap and Syslog Viewers may fail to connect to the SolarWinds database if special characters are used in the database name. This condition may be addressed in a future release.

Reports and Users with Account Limitations

For security reasons, by default, web console users with account limitations may not be able to view reports in the web console. For more information, see "Reports and Account Limitations" in the SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor Administrator Guide.

Error on Links from the Last XX Syslog Message Resource

Clicking messages in the Last XX Syslog Messages resource may result in an exception. To address this issue, confirm that you are using EN-US regional browser settings and confirm that you have installed the latest version of the SolarWinds Information Service (SWIS). For more information about SWIS, see "Why is the SolarWinds Information Service (SWIS) failing to upgrade?"

Core Fixes

The following sections provide information related to fixes in this and previous versions of Core.

• Fixes to the Core in this Release
• Fixes to the Core in Previous Versions

Fixes in Core Version 2011.2

• Issue with Installer log files not being packaged with SolarWinds Diagnostics on non-English operating systems has been fixed.

Fixes in Core Version 2011.1

This release includes the following fixes and updates to the Core:

• Unpluggable interfaces no longer generate "Up" events when they are reconnected.4^, 5^, 9
• Default database connection timeouts were reconfigured to correct an issue causing frequent restarts of the SolarWinds Module Engine service.1
• Security vulnerabilities (dwBkThrd.dll) allowing the execution of arbitrary code within the context of a currently logged-on user have been addressed. These vulnerabilities were found by Lincoln, a member of the Corelan Team.
• An issue with successfully completing asynchronous polling requests on SNMPv3-enabled devices has been addressed with a repair to the Core SNMP library.10
• The Trap Viewer now correctly handles IPSEC tunnel-related peer addresses provided in hexadecimal format.11
• Square bracket characters ([ and ]) used in virtual machine names are now displayed correctly in virtual machine resources in the web console.11^, 12
• The following vendor icons are now correctly displayed in the web console:21
  
  • Asentria
  • Ceragon
  • Dragonwave
  • Motorola PTP (formerly Piping Hot Networks or Orthogon System)
  • Redline
  • Wichorus/Tellabs
• Additional Poller installations that encounter licensing issues requiring a license reset no longer fail quietly.14
• Cisco Small Business Pro ESW 520 series switches are no longer incorrectly identified as Cisco Catalyst Express 520 series switches.18
• A condition leading to false reboot alerts after certain SolarWinds upgrades has been fixed.24^, 52^, 53^, 54^, 55^, 57^, 59^, 66^, 67^, 69^, 70^, 71^, 72^, 73^, 75^, 78^, 83^, 84^, 85^, 87^, 91
• SNMP traps sent to multiple specific destinations as the result of an alert trigger are now correctly sent to only those destinations designated and are no longer broadcast, as previously.20
• When completing an installation, the Configuration Wizard now correctly identifies and properly handles older copies of required .dll files.22^, 30^, 31
• Auto-detection for mobile devices has been improved, and it is now enabled by default.29
• The acknowledge alert link in emails sent by triggered APM application alerts now functions as designed.26^, 48
• An issue encountered by users using account names starting with u (Domain\User) while attempting to acknowledge alerts through the web console as viewed in Internet Explorer has been resolved.37
• The method used to calculate response time was reverted to restore correct results, as displayed in earlier versions of NPM.35^, 61^, 86^, 88^, 89
• Network Sonar now accepts discovery profiles supplying unencrypted SNMPv3 credentials.36
• Delays in the Syslog Viewer related to high memory utilization by the Syslog service and have been corrected.33^, 34^, 38^, 46^, 50^, 56
• A note prohibiting the use of physical address extension (PAE) on x86 servers has been added to the SolarWinds Server Hardware Requirements section in the SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor Administrator Guide.42
• A "No Software License Key Installed for Standard Edition" error caused by a failure to update Orion8NetPerfMon.dll on upgrade has been corrected.40^, 41^, 44^, 45
• SolarWinds no longer displays Cisco 1900 Series integrated services routers as wireless devices.43
• The SolarWinds Server Hardware Requirements section in the SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor Administrator Guide has been updated to indicate the minimum size of the primary C: drive on the SolarWinds server.25
• Credentials handling for monitored SNMPv3 devices has been improved to address high CPU usage on the SolarWinds server.58^, 64
• An issue preventing SolarWinds from respecting custom values greater than 300 seconds for the Node Warning Level polling setting has been resolved.51
• The caption field for traps is now updated correctly, so the caption field is now viewable, as intended, in the Trap Viewer.19^, 60
• The method used to calculate packet loss was reverted to restore correct results, as displayed in earlier versions of NPM.49
• An issue where cached maps were displayed for different users, overriding local settings, has been fixed.62^, 79
• When multiple Syslog messages are forwarded as traps, each trap is now assigned its own varbind, so that all Syslog messages are now received and viewed correctly in Trap viewer, instead of only the first.63
• AccountID and Password are no longer included in links to original views that are exported as .pdf from Report Scheduler.68^, 65
• Data losses due to a fatal error where access to the Job Engine is denied because of the excessive size of a job result have been corrected.74^, 81
• Changes made to community strings stored for devices monitored by SolarWinds no longer require a restart of the SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor service to take effect.76^, 77^, 80^, 92^, 93
• Cisco Catalyst 2960-S Series Switches (Model WS-C2960S-48FPS-L) are now correctly identified by Network Sonar discovery.90^, 94

Fixes in Core Version 2010.2

Core version 2010.2 included the following fixes and updates:

• The SolarWinds Report Scheduler is now able to update the associated tasks in the Windows Task Scheduler, as required to disable a currently scheduled report, on both Windows Server 2008 and Windows Server 2008 R2.
• Cisco 4400 and 5500 series wireless controllers are now correctly identified in the web console.
• Group names are no longer duplicated when used for sorting in web console reports.
• Error messaging has been improved in the Report Scheduler to more clearly indicate when insufficient permissions exist to create a Windows task for a scheduled report.
• Web Node Management operations, including deletion, now operate as designed when multiple objects are selected simultaneously.
• The Web Console now properly handles both views that have been administratively deleted and views that have been edited to not include any resources.
• Typographical errors in the web console have been corrected.
• An error that would occur when the Configuration Wizard would attempt to connect to a SQL Server hosting both full and express instances has been fixed.
• A conflict error occurring during database maintenance on selected tables related to network discovery profiles has been fixed.
• The ConnectNow feature of Network Atlas is now able to correctly connect Cisco switches with VLAN functionality regardless of whether or not VLAN indexing is enabled on the switch.
• SNMPv3 credentials now update to empty strings when the SNMP version used to poll a monitored device is changed from SNMPv1 or SNMPv2c to SNMPv3.
• Syslog- and traps-related errors occurring on installations that include multiple polling engines and that monitor multiple nodes with the same IP address have been resolved.
• A condition where changes to the IP address of a monitored object are overwritten during Network Discovery has been corrected.
• In the event that SNMPv3 is selected as the SNMP version for a monitored device, SolarWinds no longer tries to use default SNMPv2c credentials if no SNMPv3 credentials are provided.
• Unmanaged devices are now cleared from web console resources and views, as designed.
• Existing schema files required by SolarWinds modules are no longer deleted during an upgrade.
• Upgrades no longer create new menu bars within additional tabs for all web console users.
• The SolarWinds Information Service is now able to properly handle Memo-type custom properties.
• For installations that include it, the NetFlow Traffic Analyzer tab is no longer deleted on upgrade.
• On upgrade, older SolarwindsJobEngine and SolarwindsJobScheduler registry entries are correctly deleted.
• More accurate OIDs are now used to determine the memory utilization of monitored Linux devices.
• Reports with Day of Week and Time of Day fields now display correctly, consistent with each other, both in Report Writer and in the Web Console.
• Network Sonar Discovery correctly determines and deletes duplicate node and volume entries.
• A security vulnerability related to windows authentication that allowed one user to log in, log out, and then log in again as a second user if the second user's password was blank, has been fixed.
• Nodes marked as External no longer display in the Nodes with High Response Time resource.
• SolarWinds is now able to better handle upgrades of installations that maintain tens or hundreds of thousand of Syslog records.
• Conditions leading to an Exception in Service Timer Tick error occurring in environments where a Hot Standby Engine is deployed have been corrected.
• Files required for Network Atlas maps have been reorganized to improve performance.
• This version of SolarWinds introduces significant performance improvements to regular and upgraded installations of Network Atlas.
• Non-administrative web console users are no longer denied access to Events and Alerts views, provided they are not otherwise aubject to related account limitations.
• Report Scheduler is now able create scheduled reporting jobs for user that are authenticated with passwords that include special characters.
• When multiple web console administrator accounts have been enabled, the Configuration Wizard now uses the correct account to import sample maps, correcting an issue causing "Import of Sample Map Failed" errors.
• The Current Response Time & Packet Loss resource on Node Details views now displays correct values for Current Response Time and Packet Loss. The Nodes with High Response Time resource on Node Details views now displays the correct values for Current and Minimum Response Time.
• A report generation error occurring in the Report from Report Writer resource in the Web Console has been corrected.
• Filtering by interface has been restored to the Custom Property Editor.
• Status is now correctly determined and reported for volumes on nodes that have been down in the past.
• A condition causing some advanced alerts to trigger twice when they should only fire once has been corrected.
• Report Writer and Advanced Alert Manager now function as designed when launched by multiple users, some administrative and others not.
• A condition causing unauthorized access exceptions when running the SolarWinds Diagnostics tool on Windows Server 2008 has been corrected.
• Images now display as designed in resources and reports generated as Report Scheduler jobs.
• Reports resources now display correctly in the web console when viewed in Internet Explorer.
• The installation path for the MIB database has been corrected for SolarWinds installations on German operating systems.
• Monitored devices previously displaying with "Sunfire" as the vendor now display correctly with Sun as the vendor.
• The "Change interface status" action now functions as designed when triggered by a received trap.

Table of Fixed Core Issues with Development and Support IDs

The following table provides the internal Development ID numbers and external support ID numbers for recent items for Core documented in these release notes. Search in the Support ID Number column for the number assigned to your support case. The Superscript link will take you to the relevant item in these release notes.

Note: Missing superscript numbers in column one of the table refer to Network Performance Monitor (NPM) issues and therefore are not listed in the APM release notes.

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