Do you need to eek out a little more automation from your Orion products? Or maybe you want to integrate the great information collected by SolarWinds with other systems and make bulk changes. This is the session for you!

1. How to use the SolarWinds® API and SDK
Presented By: Mav Turner and Jiri Cvachovec
COPYRIGHT © 2012, SOLARWINDS WORLDWIDE, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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2. What is an API and SDK
» Application Programming Interface (API)
 Managed access to an application
 More maintainable and stable compared to direct SQL access
 Good for automating bulk tasks
 Accessible via SolarWinds Information Service (SWIS)
 Read access available for Orion® Platform based products (NPM, SAM, IPAM, NTA,
VNQM, WPM, UDT, NCM)
 Limited but growing access to create and update
 Many Orion resources built using this interface instead of direct SQL
» Software Development Kit (SDK)
 Collection of tools and documentation to help build on top of SolarWinds data
collection
 SolarWinds ships SolarWinds Query Language Studio (SWQL Studio) to browse the
Information Service schema and run test queries
Support is not able to provide assistance with using the API or the SDK.
Please use the thwack® forum:
http://thwack.solarwinds.com/community/labs_tht/orion-sdk
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3. Why should you use the API or SDK?
» Mainly for automation of repetitive tasks or integration with
external script or application
» If you really need backend access to the data, API scripting is
more maintainable than direct SQL queries
» Sample Use Cases:
 Bulk add nodes
 Bulk add interfaces for monitoring
 Create and modify node properties
 Bulk add or modify custom properties
 Balance nodes across polling engines
 Change credentials
 Deploy application monitors for SAM
 Execute NCM script changes
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4. Demos
1. Sometimes you have an existing database you want to pull node
information from or you want to keep NPM in synch with nodes in
that database.
We will show you how to add a node using the API with
PowerShell®, Visual Basic®, or Perl® (please vote for which one you
would like to see).
2. NCM includes a very powerful scripting engine. However,
sometimes you need to bring data in from other SolarWinds
products like UDT or other systems.
We will show you how to execute NCM changes based on data
from UDT.
3. We will show how to apply SAM component monitors with the
API. This can be helpful if you have another software inventory
system you want to synch SAM with.
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5. Thanks for your attention!
» Q&A
Q&A
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6. Continue the Conversation…
» Chat with product experts in the thwackCamp Product
Showcase
» Join us in the thwackCamp group on thwack® to continue
Q&A for this session
» Discover additional information in the SolarWinds® Resource
Center
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