Hybrid-Cloud-Observability-Network-Monitoring Practice Exam Questions with Answers Hybrid Cloud Observability Network Monitoring Exam Certification

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:

Universal Device Pollers (UDPs) in SolarWinds are tightly coupled with the polling engine on which they are configured. If the main polling engine fails, custom pollers do not automatically failover; as a result, statistics collection for those UDPs is interrupted. According to SolarWinds documentation:

"UDPs are assigned to a specific polling engine. If the polling engine fails, UDP statistics are not collected until the engine is restored."

"Universal Device Pollers are not supported on failover engines; they do not collect data from hot standby or failover engines."

Thus, options C and D directly reflect the official guidance.

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:

When you observe an "unknown traffic event" in the SolarWinds web console, it usually means the collector is receiving NetFlow or other flow data from a device that is not currently managed or monitored in the SolarWinds database. The collector can receive flows from any device, but if the device is not added or properly monitored, the traffic will show up as "unknown" because SolarWinds cannot associate the flows with a known interface or 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:

ICMP polling in SolarWinds only provides basic status (up/down) by sending ping requests to the device. For more detailed statistics such as interface traffic, CPU load, and memory usage, SNMP polling must be enabled. The documentation states:

"ICMP polling provides only basic reachability and response time. To collect detailed statistics such as device health, performance, and interface details, SNMP polling must be configured on the device and enabled in SolarWinds."

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:

To detect duplex mismatches:

The node must be monitored (i.e., managed in SolarWinds).

The node must be in "up" status, so SNMP data about interface status, speed, and errors can be polled and compared.

Description in MIB (A) is not necessary if the device is already SNMP-capable, and "warning" status (C) is a result, not a requirement.

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:

Resolving and storing hostnames at the time a flow record is received means the platform does not need to resolve the hostname each time a report or widget is loaded, which:

Decreases database query times: Hostnames are already resolved, making queries for reports and dashboards much faster.

Flow views and widgets load faster: With DNS already resolved, the interface does not have to perform on-demand DNS lookups, reducing latency in the web console.

The SolarWinds documentation states:

"Immediate DNS resolution upon flow record ingestion reduces lookup delays during analysis and widget loading, resulting in improved performance and reduced query times."

Domain widgets and reports run with DNS names, but the core advantage is performance rather than widget availability.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

For organizations with very large environments and strict requirements for data freshness and availability, SolarWinds documentation prescribes several specific steps:

A. Deploy multiple additional polling engines (APEs) in each regional datacenter and configure load balancing."For environments exceeding 20,000 monitored interfaces, deploy multiple Additional Polling Engines (APEs) to distribute load and maintain polling intervals. Place APEs close to monitored devices to reduce latency."

B. Implement SolarWinds High Availability (HA) pools for both the main and polling engine servers, with active-passive failover."SolarWinds HA pools provide automatic failover for platform and polling engines, ensuring service continuity in case of hardware or network failures."

C. Configure the SolarWinds database server in a Microsoft SQL Server Always On Availability Group."To protect against database outages, deploy the SolarWinds database in a SQL Server Always On Availability Group or Failover Cluster Instance (FCI)."

Option D is incorrect; overlapping node groups are not a requirement and, in fact, the documentation suggests using dynamic assignment to balance load, not strictly static node groups.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

NetPath is specifically designed to trace and troubleshoot connectivity paths between nodes.

Network Insight provides in-depth analysis and diagnostics for specific vendors/devices, including health, connectivity, and configuration.

Asset inventory and MIB browser are not direct troubleshooting tools for connectivity.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

When monitoring F5 BIG-IP load balancers, SolarWinds Network Insight requires both SNMP for device status and iControl (a proprietary F5 API) for advanced configuration and health monitoring. The SolarWinds guide states:

"After adding an F5 load balancer with SNMP, configure the iControl connection to access additional F5-specific health and configuration metrics."

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:

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 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:

When collecting Windows event logs without installing an agent, SolarWinds recommends converting those events to SNMP traps or syslog messages using the SolarWinds Event Log Forwarder for Windows. This allows the platform to ingest and recognize Windows events through standard logging protocols.

"The SolarWinds Event Log Forwarder for Windows enables you to forward Windows event logs as SNMP traps or syslog messages, allowing agentless collection and integration into your SolarWinds platform."

Option C, converting events to traps, is the correct method supported for agentless environments.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

When configuring database log collection (e.g., from SQL Server), SolarWinds supports:

Mixed mode authentication (SQL Server and Windows authentication)

Windows authentication

Kerberos and oAUTH are not supported directly as authentication methods for log collection from SQL Server databases in the SolarWinds platform.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Device Studio supports the following data sources:

Calculated result from transformation of polled values: You can apply calculations (such as average, sum, transformation) to the raw polled data.

Polled value by a device on an object ID: Device Studio can directly poll an OID from a device and use its value for monitoring.

Night/day standard deviation and predicted/baseline values are not direct data sources in Device Studio.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

To add additional NetFlow collector ports, you must stop the NetFlow service and then specify multiple ports separated by commas in the NetFlow collector services widget.

From the documentation:

"To configure multiple collector ports, stop the NetFlow service, edit the collector ports in the widget by separating them with commas, and then restart the service."

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Disabling NetFlow/CBQoS stops flow data collection, resulting in gaps in graphs during the disabled period (A). However, historical data collected prior to disabling is retained in the database (C), so you can still view past flow information.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

SolarWinds identifies and classifies flow traffic based on application and port mapping in the platform.

"Unclassified traffic in flow charts often occurs when an application is not mapped in the system, or when the application uses a port that is not defined in the SolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability (HCO) application mapping database. Flows from unsupported devices or flow direction do not cause unclassified application traffic—rather, they will not be collected or will be marked as unknown flows."

Thus, unclassified traffic can result from new or custom applications or changes in port usage that are not reflected in the configuration.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

SolarWinds platform allows for customizing threshold behavior to reduce false positives and tune alerting sensitivity. The three primary customizable threshold settings are:

Single poll: A threshold is triggered immediately if the value breaches the limit in a single polling cycle.

X consecutive polls: The threshold must be exceeded in X consecutive polling intervals before being considered breached.

X of Y polls: The threshold is triggered if the value exceeds the limit in X out of Y most recent polls.

"X concurrent polls" is not an available threshold customization in the SolarWinds platform.

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:

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:

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.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Network Insight in SolarWinds supports in-depth monitoring for certain advanced switch platforms. According to the latest SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor Administrator Guide:

"Network Insight for Cisco Nexus provides advanced visibility into the health, configuration, and performance of Nexus switches. This includes inventory, configuration changes, interface health, VDCs, and more."

Other switch families such as Brocade, Juniper, and Meraki are not currently supported by Network Insight.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

Device Studio supports advanced custom polling, allowing you to build pollers for technologies such as multi-CPU/memory, node details (e.g., chassis, serial number), and single CPU/memory. While interface traffic polling is best accomplished through standard interface resources, Device Studio is designed for more advanced or complex device metrics that are not available via built-in polling.

Comprehensive and Detailed Explanation From Exact Extract:

SolarWinds NTA maps flow sources to nodes by matching the IP address. If a device exports flows using a secondary IP (not the one defined as "primary" in SolarWinds), and the setting "Allow matching by other IPs" is not enabled, the flow will not map to a known node. The documentation explains:

"If flow packets are received from an IP address not designated as primary in SolarWinds, and matching by other IPs is disabled, the flow source is not linked to a node. Enable the setting to match by any device IP to resolve this issue."

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:

SolarWinds provides a MIB Browser utility that lets you search and verify whether a specific object ID (OID) exists in the SolarWinds MIB database. By entering the OID in the MIB Browser, you can confirm its presence and also test polling against the device.

The documentation states:

"Use the MIB Browser to search for and verify OIDs in the SolarWinds MIB database. The tool also allows you to test poll the device to ensure the OID is being returned."

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:

SolarWinds allows users to customize the display of NetFlow and other flow-based data for ingress (incoming) or egress (outgoing) traffic. The selected view (direction) is retained for 24 hours for the user session.

As stated in the official guide:

“Both ingress and egress traffic views are available and retained for 24 hours for the user session on the SolarWinds platform.”

Other time frames are not referenced in the official documentation.

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:

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:

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:

To change the polling interval for a specific node, navigate to the Node Details Summary, then choose “Edit Node.” In the polling section, you can configure how often SolarWinds polls this node for status and statistics. This is the correct place for per-node polling interval adjustments.

The global polling settings under “Settings > All Settings > Polling Settings” (option D) affect all nodes, not an individual node.

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:

The Universal Device Poller (UnDP) allows administrators to define custom SNMP OIDs for statistics (like UPS battery status) that are not natively polled. You can assign a new UnDP to an existing node to monitor additional values such as UPS battery status, provided the device supports the necessary OID.

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.