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

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

A. MIB files define the available SNMP objects and metrics that can be polled from a device.

C. MIB files provide human-readable names and descriptions for OIDs, allowing SolarWinds to display metrics in a clear, user-friendly format instead of raw OID numbers.

Automatic device discovery is handled by network scanning, not by MIB files, and OIDs are created by device vendors, not by SolarWinds.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability supports multiple flow protocols for monitoring network traffic. The correct supported sources are:

J-Flow: This is the flow protocol used by Juniper devices.

NetStream: This is the flow protocol used by Huawei devices.

“Cisco” is not a flow protocol (Cisco devices use NetFlow), and “cFlow” is not a supported protocol.

Exact Extract from Official Guide:

"Hybrid Cloud Observability supports NetFlow (Cisco), J-Flow (Juniper), NetStream (Huawei), sFlow, and IPFIX for comprehensive traffic analysis."

— (Network Performance Monitor Administrator Guide, “Supported Flow Sources” section)

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Unreadable fields in SNMP traps from a device typically indicate either the device is not monitored as a node (so SolarWinds cannot fully parse its SNMP data) or the MIB file for that device is not included in the SolarWinds MIB database, making it impossible to decode certain OIDs.

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."

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

If a device studio poller is configured with a static textual value (rather than a dynamic OID), any change in the actual value on the node will not be detected automatically; the poller’s configuration must be manually updated to reflect the new value. OID-based pollers update automatically as values change on the device.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

For a node-specific log view, navigate to the node’s details summary and choose “Analyze Logs” under the Management section. This provides a filtered view of log messages for the selected node, allowing you to drill into relevant log events and details.

From the documentation:

“To view logs for a specific node, open Node Details > Management > Analyze Logs for node-level log analysis and troubleshooting.”

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

If the flow source view in SolarWinds NTA shows “never received” and firewall issues are ruled out, it is often because the device (node) is no longer monitored by SolarWinds. If a node is removed or its monitoring is disabled, the collector will not associate incoming flows from that node, resulting in "never received" status.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

By default, SolarWinds Log Analyzer retains log data for 7 days. This means log messages are searchable and available in the web console for one week unless the retention settings are adjusted.

The documentation states:

"Log Analyzer's default retention period for storage and search is 7 days. Administrators can adjust this period as required to meet compliance or storage needs."

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:

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:

When displaying Universal Device Poller (UDP) data in different web console views, each view must be configured to show the UDP results as charts.

From the documentation:

“In the Universal Device Poller application, under the Web Display tab, you must check the ‘chart’ box for every web view where you want to display the poller data. If the box is not checked for the current view, the data will not be visible as a chart widget.”

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

The SolarWinds MIB database is used for SNMP-based monitoring and performs these critical functions:

A. It defines which OIDs are recognized and what metrics can be polled via Universal Device Pollers or other custom monitors.

C. It maps OIDs (numeric identifiers) to their human-readable textual names for reporting and alerting.

Options B and D are not accurate; the database does not enable automatic polling nor does it update device OIDs during polling.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

With Network Insight features (including for Palo Alto and F5 BIG-IP devices) installed alongside Network Configuration Manager and Performance Monitoring, you can monitor:

High availability details: Provides information on device redundancy, failover status, and clustering.

Policy details: Enables insight into firewall, security, and NAT policies for managed devices.

Access lists and VPNs may be monitored in other modules, but the primary, advanced insight is for high availability and policy configurations.

Universal Device Pollers (UDPs) are tied to the polling engine on which they are created. This means if a UDP is created on the main polling engine, it will only collect data for devices polled by that engine. To collect data from devices polled by an additional polling engine, you must create or assign the UDP on that engine as well.

Exact Extract from Official Guide:

“Universal Device Pollers are tied to the polling engine on which they are created. To monitor devices assigned to an Additional Polling Engine, the UDP must be created or assigned on that engine.”

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

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Enabling DNS resolution but not storing hostnames immediately results in:

Reduced database memory/storage used for DNS info, as hostnames aren’t stored with each flow record.

Less database space used for flows, since flow records will reference IPs rather than resolved DNS names.

Reduced SQL server reads/writes since the platform does not immediately resolve and store hostnames with every received flow, decreasing load.

DNS names will still appear in reports where resolved dynamically, so option C is incorrect.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

In NetFlow (especially Flexible NetFlow on Cisco devices), a flow monitor is applied to an interface to track and collect information about IPv4 (or IPv6) traffic. The flow monitor references a flow record and a flow exporter. The monitor itself is the entity configured on an interface to start the flow tracking process.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

To monitor a custom application using flow monitoring in SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability, you must define the application by specifying its port or port range (and optionally protocol). After this, the application can be assigned to flows involving specific machines, but the primary step is to define application ports first.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

B. NetFlow data is commonly used to diagnose network performance issues, such as identifying sources of congestion or bottlenecks.

C. NetFlow analysis provides visibility into which applications and endpoints are consuming bandwidth and causing congestion.

User authorization and link status events are not functions of NetFlow; those are handled by other monitoring tools or features.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

SolarWinds NTA (and Hybrid Cloud Observability) supports a range of flow technologies including J-Flow (used by Juniper devices) and sFlow (an industry standard for network monitoring and traffic analysis). GFlow and HFlow are not supported flow technologies in SolarWinds' official documentation.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

If a NetPath probe displays “no data found” while others work, the most common and recommended first step is to restart the SolarWinds agent service on the node where the problematic probe is deployed. This action often resolves agent-to-probe communication issues or agent service hiccups.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

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.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Unknown flow traffic often occurs when SolarWinds receives flow data from sources not defined in its database, or when flow-enabled devices are not sending data to the expected port.

Add the devices and interfaces to SolarWinds' database: Ensures flow data is properly associated with monitored objects, resolving the "unknown" status.

Ensure flow-enabled devices send data to the appropriate port: If data is sent to the wrong port, SolarWinds cannot process it correctly, leading to unknown events.

SolarWinds documentation notes:

"Unknown flow traffic typically indicates a mismatch between flow sources and known device/interface configurations, or incorrect UDP port configuration. Registering devices/interfaces and verifying port assignments resolves most unknown flow issues."

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

To monitor an application on a server with SolarWinds, you must first find the application in the list of available (supported or discovered) applications and enable monitoring for it. The platform also provides a “monitor recommended applications” button to automatically suggest and enable monitoring for best-practice applications on a given server.

From the documentation:

“To monitor an application, select it from the list of available applications and enable it for the target server. The ‘Monitor Recommended Applications’ option helps you quickly enable commonly used application monitors.”

Grouping IP addresses or configuring specific source/destination pairs is not required for standard application monitoring.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

The correct process for creating a poller in Device Studio is:

Select the technology

Specify the data source

Assign the poller to a node

Save the poller

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:

SolarWinds Log Analyzer and Hybrid Cloud Observability support log collection from current, supported Windows operating systems, such as Windows 10 (workstation) and Windows Server 2019. Older or unsupported versions like Windows Vista or Server 2012 may not be supported.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

This message means the NetFlow collector is receiving flow data from a device whose IP address is not managed in the SolarWinds platform, so the flow data is discarded. To resolve this, you must either:

Add the sending device as a managed node using the correct IP address, or

Enable the "Allow matching nodes by another IP" option in the NetFlow settings, which allows SolarWinds to match flows sent from an interface IP or secondary IP.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

NetPath probes require a supported Windows environment for deployment. According to the SolarWinds documentation, probes can be run from the Hybrid Cloud Observability (HCO) server itself, which must be a Windows server, or from any Windows client computer, including Windows 10. NetPath agents are not available for Linux or for network devices such as routers; the agent cannot be installed on Red Hat Linux or routers.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

SolarWinds' log processing policies for svslog (syslog) and traps (SNMP traps) are processed independently and concurrently. This is because syslog and SNMP trap processing are separate services with their own processing pipelines, unlike the global pre and post policies which affect overall log routing or rule order.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

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)

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Hiding an IP address group in IPAM management means that group will not appear in dashboards, charts, or reports, but the underlying data and group definition remain intact and are not deleted.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

The Flow Navigator in SolarWinds NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA) is a powerful custom filter and analysis tool. It enables users to apply multiple filters to NetFlow data, allowing the visualization of specific statistics about the entire network or selected subsets, such as all traffic from a certain IP range or application. This approach eliminates the need to manually click through device-by-device views, instead providing comprehensive traffic analysis across the whole monitored environment through a single, customizable interface.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Flow sampling reduces resource usage by analyzing a subset of traffic. The following protocols support sampling:

Cisco NetFlow (except v1): Most NetFlow versions support sampling.

IPFIX: Supports flow sampling as part of its standard.

NetFlow Lite: Designed to provide sampled flow data.

NetFlow V1 does not support flow sampling.

Exact Extract from Official Guide:

"NetFlow (except v1), IPFIX, and NetFlow Lite support flow sampling, enabling high-performance monitoring of large traffic volumes."

— (Network Performance Monitor Administrator Guide, “Flow Protocols and Sampling” section)

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

When the NetFlow collector service is showing a "down" status, the SolarWinds documentation recommends the following troubleshooting steps:

Confirm the database connection is up and server has free resources.

Explanation:The NetFlow collector service relies on connectivity to the SolarWinds database. If the database connection is lost or the server is out of resources (such as CPU or RAM), the service may go down or fail to start. Ensuring that the database is reachable and that the server has enough resources is a primary troubleshooting step.

Start or restart SolarWinds’ NetFlow service from Orion Service Manager.

Explanation:The official troubleshooting guidance instructs administrators to use the Orion Service Manager to start or restart the NetFlow service. This is a direct method to recover the NetFlow collector from a "down" state and is one of the first actions recommended by SolarWinds support.

Options B and C arenotrecommended in the official documentation:

Deleting and re-adding the NetFlow collector service is not a documented troubleshooting step and may cause loss of configuration.

Starting or restarting the generic "collector service" is not specific to NetFlow; the correct service is the NetFlow service.

Exact Extract from Official Guide:

"If NetFlow collector service status is down:

Ensure the SolarWinds database is online and the server is not experiencing resource issues.

Use the Orion Service Manager to start or restart the NetFlow service.

If the issue persists, review the NetFlow logs for errors and consult the SolarWinds Success Center for advanced troubleshooting."— (Network Performance Monitor Administrator Guide, Troubleshooting NetFlow and Service Issues)

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:

SolarWinds NTA processes flow data via a dedicated collector component. Devices are configured to export flow records to the NTA collector, which ingests, stores, and analyzes the data.

"NetFlow Traffic Analyzer receives flow data from network devices using the NetFlow Collector service, which processes and stores traffic information for analysis."

No agent is required on target devices, and the collector is the key processing method.

Ping the device from the polling engine: Verifies network connectivity and correct polling engine assignment.

Verify hardware health sensors: Ensures the platform is receiving valid sensor data; missing data may indicate sensor or device communication issues.

Adding a remote site node and waiting are not direct troubleshooting steps for missing data on a node that is already “up.”

Exact Extract from Official Guide:

“If a node is up but data is missing, check network connectivity from the polling engine using ping or SNMP walk tools, and verify that hardware health sensors are reporting valid data.”

— (Network Performance Monitor Administrator Guide, “Troubleshooting Nodes and Data Collection” section)

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

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.

The “top talkers” feature tracks the highest-bandwidth consumers in your network. Lowering the optimization value means more flows and more detailed data are collected and stored, which can increase the storage requirement on your server.

Exact Extract from Official Guide:

“Decreasing the Top Talkers optimization value results in the storage of more detailed data, which increases the database and storage requirements.”

— (Network Performance Monitor Administrator Guide, “NetFlow and Top Talkers Optimization” section)

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Log Analyzer listens for syslog messages by default on:

TCP port 514 (the standard syslog port)

TCP port 6514 (the default port for syslog over TLS/SSL, i.e., secure syslog)

Port 162 is for SNMP traps, and 1463 is not standard for syslog in SolarWinds.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

In SolarWinds Log Analyzer and other log-based alerting systems, "flood protection" is a key feature to prevent alert storms when numerous events trigger a rule in a very short period. From the SolarWinds documentation:

"Flood protection ensures that if an excessive number of log entries match a rule in a short period, only a manageable number of actions are triggered, and the remainder are suppressed or summarized. This prevents overwhelming the system and users with repeated alerts."

This is best practice for maintaining alert quality and system performance.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

If only response time and packet loss are visible, the node is currently being polled via ICMP (ping), which does not provide detailed statistics like CPU, memory, or interface data. Switching the polling method to SNMP enables SolarWinds to gather detailed device metrics and statistics, as SNMP supports comprehensive monitoring.

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:

Resource is showing outdated information: If polling intervals are too long or if there is a communication problem, the hardware health resource may not update promptly, resulting in inaccurate status display.

Wrong MIB being used for polling: If SolarWinds is using an incorrect or generic MIB, it may not retrieve accurate hardware health data for the specific fan sensor, causing the status to incorrectly display as “up” even when failed.

While disabled sensors and forced thresholds may impact alerting or monitoring, they are less likely to cause this direct display inconsistency.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

To monitor and configure High Availability (HA) mode for site-to-site VPN tunnels on a Cisco ASA firewall, SolarWinds uses SNMP for standard device and interface metrics, and CLI polling for advanced VPN and HA state details. SNMP provides general health data, while CLI polling (using Device Studio or Network Insight) collects information not available via SNMP, such as detailed VPN and HA status.