How do you customize Orion?

I'm going to attempt to write some code into Orion to show the MAC address of connected devices to our switches along with their IP addresses. I believe the 'Switch Port Mapper' in the Toolset does something to this effect.

I also plan on writing a custom page that'll show the status of my backup jobs (Symantec Backup Exec). Right now I have Backup Exec sending SNMP Traps to Orion but I'm looking for something similar to the Backup Exec 'Job Monitor' tab's 'Job History' section.

Here's a few for starters;

I'd like my team to be able to manage & unmanage nodes &/or interfaces from the Web Console.

Create reports using the Web Console.
Publish Report Writer reports as a graph & publish multiple data lines on one Graph.

Use AD groups via domain passthru authentication to manage users.
Managing 100's of individual Orion users is a huge task. AFAIK, no one here has been able to get Windows AD groups working for authentication.



-=Cheers=-
NG

~seek & ye shall find---> <---no need to wait for answers~

1) I would like to have an easy mechanism to control not only the menu bars, but the tabs at the top of the page as well. As it is today, we have created a lot of different groups of views for various functional areas of our network, and it would be nice to be able to tie them to tabs at the top of the page for easy retrieval, while still having the menu bars on the pages associated with each tab for granularity. Furthermore, this could also be used to facilitate connections to other web-based apps or documentation repositories, and would better position Orion as a single touch point for all monitoring and management needs. We do some of this today with links that open in a new window, but it would be nice to be able to do this from a single window.

I've seen other apps with this type of functionality, and the thing I disliked most is the fact that they opened a new session whenever a different tab was selected. I don't know if there's any way to have each tab (session) remain memory resident, so that one can return right to the point at which they were previously.

This is how I would like to eventually be able to access Cirrus, but along with that comes another thing I would like to see, which is for Orion and Cirrus to share a common database. This may just be wishful thinking. :)

2) When managing a large number of users, it would be quite helpful to be able to assign those users to groups, so that all the parameters such as account limitations, view selections, and such can be controlled from a single place for everyone in the group.

3) The ability to see who's logged in now, rather than just the time of last log in would be nice as well.

Vic Cato
Technical Lead - Network Operations
Georgia Pacific

Using the Custom Property editor I have added a "notes" field for Nodes and Interfaces, and added them to the respective views.  The purpose of this is to allow my NOC clients to add information pertaining to status.  I have also set up Advanced Alerts to trigger off of keywords in "notes"; such as the word "removed."  When a node has the word removed in the notes field an email is sent to myself and my backup Orion admin letting us know to remove the node from Orion. The interface notes field is predominantly used for recording Service provider ticket numbers and at the end of the month it is also useful in validating SLAs with the carrier from a MTTR vs. ticket perspective.

Additionally the notes are extremely helpful for the NOC staff in preventing multiple analysts from working on the same issue at the same time; they just put their name in the notes to indicate they are performing the initial problem determination.  My biggest demand was for the NOC to be able to Acknowledge down devices/interfaces, as a former manager of the NOC, I have first hand experience with that and I couldn't even begin to count how many times someone acknowledged an issue yet nothing was done... The standard answer was "I took another call." (etc...) 

The one downside to the notes field is that I had to check the Allow View Customization box for the NOC staff.  Not only did that take a while in the Account List (I miss the old Account Manager on the server), but it opened Pandora's box in that the Edit Resource Icon is now usable from a NOC client perspective.  Sure enough, even with graphical instructions,  the very first person clicked that instead of the Update Notes button.

 

Nice work jtimes, any chance you could upload your custom code to the 'Content Sharing Zone'?

I warming up to the Content Sharing Zone, still a little cumbersome :)

When viewing specific nodes (our switches) I would love to have the MAC address and the IP addresses their associated with linked to the port. I plan on doing this myself (if I have to) but it would cut into my Counter-Strike time and I would rather not do that. :-)

My work around for the visible Edit Resource Icon:

Backup the existing image first: C:\Inetpub\SolarWinds\NetPerfMon\images\SmallButton.Edit.gif
Then replace it with a tiny 5x5 pixel transparent image.

5x5 is pretty hard to hit, but its still there for the Admin

I described this in the old forum but I'll rehash it here in case someone didn't see it.

I've customized alerting so when viewing a node in the interface you can see who is being alerted on it and then if you have admin rights you are able to select/unselect who is being notified.

To do this I created custom fields (yes/no) for the nodes each with the name of the person to be alerted along with an "alert" field so you can turn of monitoring of a particular node. Then using the advanced alerts I created an alert rule for each person. The rule is simply if "alert" is checked and the users name is checked and the node is down then alert. Reset is the same rule except the node needs an up status (obviously).

Then on the node status pages I inserted a custom fields section and checked off all the users names that I added as  custom properties. Their names show up with "true" next to them if they are getting alerts, "false" if the were getting alerts and now are not and wont show up at all if they were never selected to see the alerts.

In that section I also created a link to an edit page which is a page I created that allows you to modify the yes/no status of each custom field entry allowing you to select and deselect people to be notified.

Now this only works for the up/down status of the node but could be easily migrated to included monitored interfaces but I didn't do that as not everyone here needs to know that type of info. Most people just want up/down unless you are in the networking group. So for now I just use basic alerts for the few people that need/want to get notified of interface (or application) status.

I always wished I could of set up alert groups and then assigned them to each node (or interface) and I sort of accomplished that with this customization.

 Hey John,

I posted something similar a while ago.

I also use a Custom Property called "Comments" for the OPS folks to use for ticketing info etc.
As for the Pandora's box, I got around this by using the "Allow Event Clearing" property of the users account to allow them to add comments & custom Properties.

Have a look at this post -http://thwack.com/forums/p/274/2900.aspx#2900

Now that I can upload some .jpgs, I'll post some more pics of my customizations.

 

I see that now, and you usually beat me to these things... :) (this one by a year or more)

Both techniques will work, the main difference I see is that when a new release of Orion comes out yours will have to be re-hacked, where as mine "should" flow right in.  Don't get me wrong, I like yours, but I am to leary and lazy for that matter to rewrite code.

I would like to have the ability to customize views based on the web server being used. We have two additional web servers, one sits on a DMZ with access to the internet and the other sits on a closed network with no access to the Internet. Due to this setup, I cannot add any live data pulled from the internet to any of my views since the data will not be availabe when someone is using our web server on the closed network.

 

 

jkennedy:

I would like to have the ability to customize views based on the web server being used.

 

 

 

I have a similar but different need.  I would like to be able to customize which views are used for a node that somehow ties into the user settings.  I have my node details view set to "by device type", but I would like to somehow differentiate between more technical network support users, and helpdesk users.  When my network analysts view "switch 123", I'd like their "by device type" have many more resources of information that the helpdesk staff doesn't need/doesn't care about, but still have "by device type" for all people.  Maybe some "by device type for usergroup" - and the ability to create custom user groups and assign a Node Details view FOR that group?

 Thoughts on structure...

By Device Type for UserGroup
-------------------------------------------

USER GROUPS
    - Network Group
    - General IT Group
    - User Group

When creating/editing a view under "Manage Views", have a RADIOBOX (multiple selections would create issues) which let the administrator(s) say which user group this view is associated with.  When a a Node Details display is set to "By device type for UserGroup", Orion will see MY account belongs to the "Network Group" and show me the Node with the appropriate Node Details.  When my Helpdesk users log in, Orion will see THEIR accounts belong in the "General IT Group", etc. - and display THEIR appropriate Node Details view.
 

Mithrilhall:

I'm going to attempt to write some code into Orion to show the MAC address of connected devices to our switches along with their IP addresses. I believe the 'Switch Port Mapper' in the Toolset does something to this effect.

I also plan on writing a custom page that'll show the status of my backup jobs (Symantec Backup Exec). Right now I have Backup Exec sending SNMP Traps to Orion but I'm looking for something similar to the Backup Exec 'Job Monitor' tab's 'Job History' section.

 I would love to see something that shows the MAC and IP of connected devices.  I would settle for just the MAC and a box to search for specific MAC address on my summary page.

I would also like to have a client for the Orion Systems Manager.  This way I could manage my different Orion boxes without having to use remote desktop. 

As for searching for the MAC address. You can do that today by adding the Search for Interfaces resource on your summary page. This is like search for Nodes but pulls from the Interfaces table which contains the MAC address of all monitored interfaces.

Hope this helps.

Stephen Moreau:

As for searching for the MAC address. You can do that today by adding the Search for Interfaces resource on your summary page. This is like search for Nodes but pulls from the Interfaces table which contains the MAC address of all monitored interfaces.

Hope this helps.

Hi Stephen, I think you mis-understood the request.

jeff.stewart:

I would love to see something that shows the MAC and IP of connected devices. 

Your solution only gives the MAC address of the switch/router port, not the connected devices.
Only Cirrus or Switchport Mapper can give the MACs of connected devices at this time.