GETTING STARTED GUIDE

Storage Resource Monitor

Last Updated: Tuesday, September 12, 2017

Retrieve the latest version from: https://support.solarwinds.com/Success_Center/Storage_Resource_Monitor_(SRM)/SRM_Documentation

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GETTING STARTED GUIDE: STORAGE RESOURCE MONITOR

Table of Contents
Storage Resource Monitor Getting Started Guide 5

Product terminology 5

SRM Profiler 6

Enable an array 7

How arrays and SRM communicate 7

What provider does my array use? 7

Add an array to SolarWinds SRM 10

Add an array 11

Add additional arrays 13

Troubleshoot an unreachable array 14

Navigation 15

Explore your SRM environment 15

Performance monitoring 17

What is the performance dashboard? 17

Troubleshooting performance issues 18

Thresholds 24

How thresholds work in SRM 24

Edit a threshold for a device type 24

Edit a threshold for a device 25

Dynamic baseline settings 27

Alerts 28

How alerts work in SRM 28

Configure an alert for a storage object 30

Capacity planning 33

What is multi-vendor capacity planning? 33

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 What is the capacity dashboard? 35

Generate capacity reports 37

AppStack integration 42

Use AppStack with SRM 42

Investigate a performance issue using AppStack 43

PerfStack™ integration 49

Using PerfStack with SRM 49

Use the Performance Analysis dashboard to investigate a performance issue 50

Get connected 53

Access the customer portal to download SolarWinds SRM installation files 53

Create your user profile 53

Explore the Customer Portal 54

Set up additional customer portal user accounts for SolarWinds SRM users 55

Engage with the SolarWinds community 55

Create a THWACK account 55

Explore the THWACK site 56

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GETTING STARTED GUIDE: STORAGE RESOURCE MONITOR

Storage Resource Monitor Getting Started Guide

If you have version 6.5 of SRM or higher, use the SolarWinds Orion Installer to install or upgrade
one or more Orion Platform products simultaneously. For previous releases, please see the SRM
Legacy Installation Guide.

Welcome to the Storage Resource Monitor (SRM) Getting Started Guide. This guide will take you from
adding your first array to full implementation of SRM, and includes the following sections:

1. Enable an array. How to configure an array in your environment for SRM monitoring.
2. Add an array. How to add an enabled array to SRM.
3. Thresholds. How to fine-tune warning and critical threshold levels for the devices being monitored.
4. Alerts. How to create notifications when performance and capacity issues are detected.
5. Performance monitoring. How to monitor your storage devices, and stay on top of performance
issues with customized thresholds and alerts.
6. Capacity planning. How to keep track of current storage usage and anticipate future storage
needs.
7. AppStack integration. How to use AppStack, and integrate SRM with other SolarWinds Orion
products.
8. PerfStack integration. How to view metrics across the Orion Platform using PerfStack, and
integrate SRM with other SolarWinds Orion products.
9. Get connected. How to access the SolarWinds Customer Portal and engage with the SolarWinds
community.

Existing customers: access your licensed software from the SolarWinds Customer Portal. If you need any
implementation help, contact our Support Geeks.

Evaluators: download your free 30-day evaluation copy of SRM from the SolarWinds SRM page. If you
need assistance with your evaluation, contact [email protected].

Product terminology
Orion Platform: The common backend platform used by the SolarWinds Orion suite of products,
including NPM, SAM, SRM, and more. The platform provides the backbone for navigation, settings, and
common features like alerts and reports. It also provides a consistent look-and-feel across products, giving
you a "single pane of glass" view of all your Orion monitoring tools.

Orion Web Console: The web interface you see when you log in to Orion that is used to view, configure,
and manage all of your monitored objects.

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 Check out this video on navigating the Web Console.

Orion Application Server: A Windows server that runs the Orion Web Console and collects data from
monitored objects. Also called the Orion Main Poller.

Orion Database Server: A Windows SQL server that should be hosted on a dedicated server in a
production environment, separately from the Orion Application Server. It stores Orion configuration data
and all collected performance and syslog data.

For a general introduction to storage basics, understanding storage performance and capacity,
forecasting storage usage and storage best practices, download the Essential Enterprise Storage
Concepts ebook.

SRM Profiler
SRM also comes with SRM Profiler, a separate application that provides support for older storage arrays.
For more information, including installation instructions, integrating SRM and SRM Profiler, and a list of
array types covered, see the SRM Administrator Guide.

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Enable an array
This section contains the following topics:

l How arrays and SRM communicate

l What provider does my array use?

How arrays and SRM communicate

Storage arrays produce performance and capacity data that can be acquired using protocols and methods
that depend on manufacturer and model. The majority of arrays supported by SRM use SMI-S (Storage
Management Initiative Specification). This is an industry standard that defines Common Information Model
management profiles for arrays, switches, and other storage devices. Others arrays that can be monitored
by SRM use SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol), embedded APIs or proprietary methods to
enable access to storage data. Some arrays use a combination of methods for different classes of data,
such as EMC VNX NAS Gateway / Celerra arrays that retrieve performance data via API, and all other data
via the SMI-S provider.

Arrays need to be enabled for use with SRM in different ways depending on manufacturer and model. In
most cases, arrays use an external or embedded provider. A provider is a software component that parses
requests for data and then provides this data in the required form. Some providers are enabled by
default, others need to be enabled manually.

The What provider does my array use? topic provides information on how to enable performance data
collection on your array, making it available for SRM to monitor. It assumes that the arrays and discs are
already set up and operating correctly in your network.

What provider does my array use?

The following tables links to SolarWinds knowledge base articles that give the credentials and other
information needed to add arrays to SRM using the Getting Started with Storage Resource Monitor
wizard. In some cases arrays need to be enabled first, and a provider set up either on the array or on an
associated server to enable performance data collection.

ARRAY TYPE PROVIDER /METHOD KB ARTICLE

Dell EMC Compellent External SMI-S provider Enable a Dell Compellent array

Dell EMC EqualLogic PS Series SNMP on the array Enable a Dell EqualLogic PS
Series array

Dell EMC PowerVault MD 3xxx External SMI-S provider Enable a Dell PowerVault, IBM
DS3xxx, DS4xxx, DS5xxx, LSI or

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ARRAY TYPE PROVIDER /METHOD KB ARTICLE

NetApp E-Series array

Dot Hill AssuredSAN 4xxx/5xxx Onboard SMI-S provider and Enable a Dot Hill AssuredSAN
(now Quantum QXS) APIs 4xxx/5xxx array

EMC Isilon SNMP and APIs on the array Enable an EMC Isilon array

EMC Symmetrix VMAX / VMAXe / External SMI-S provider Enable the Solutions Enabler
DMX-4 / VMAX3 Appliance for EMC Symmetrix
VMAX / VMAXe / DMX-4 / VMAX3
and VNX / CLARiiON array

EMC VNX / CLARiiON External SMI-S provider / EMC Enable the Solutions Enabler
Solutions Enabler Appliance for EMC Symmetrix
VMAX / VMAXe / DMX-4 / VMAX3
and VNX / CLARiiON array

EMC VNX NAS Gateway / Celerra Onboard SMI-S provider and Enable an EMC VNX NAS
APIs Gateway / Celerra SMI-S array

EMC XtremIO REST API on the array Enable an EMC Xtremio array

HDS (External Provider) External SMI-S provider Enable a HDS external SMI-S
provider

HDS (Onboard Provider) Onboard SMI-S provider Enable a HDS onboard SMI-S
provider

HPE 3PAR / StoreServ Onboard SMI-S provider Enable a 3PAR SMI-S array

HPE P2xxx/MSA Onboard SMI-S provider and Enable a HP P2xxx / MSA

APIs onboard array

HPE StorageWorks XP (External External SMI-S provider Enable the HP Command View
Provider) Advanced Edition SMI-S
provider

HPE StorageWorks XP (Onboard Onboard SMI-S provider Enable a HP Storage Works XP

Provider) onboard provider

IBM DS3xxx / DS4xxx / DS5xxx External SMI-S provider Enable a Dell PowerVault, IBM
DS3xxx, DS4xxx, DS5xxx, LSI or
NetApp E-Series array

IBM N Series Onboard APIs Enable an IBM N Series array

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GETTING STARTED GUIDE: STORAGE RESOURCE MONITOR

ARRAY TYPE PROVIDER /METHOD KB ARTICLE

IBM SVC / V7000 / V3700 Onboard SMI-S provider Enable the IBM SVC array

IBM XIV Onboard SMI-S provider Enable an IBM XIV array

LSI External SMI-S provider Enable a Dell PowerVault, IBM

DS3xxx, DS4xxx, DS5xxx, LSI or
NetApp E-Series array

NetAPP E-Series External SMI-S provider Enable a Dell PowerVault, IBM

DS3xxx, DS4xxx, DS5xxx, LSI or
NetApp E-Series array

NetApp Filer (Direct Polling) Onboard APIs Enable a NetApp Filer (Direct
Poll) array

NetApp OnCommand for 7-mode APIs on external Operations Enable a NetApp OnCommand
Manager software for 7-mode or Clustered Data
ONTAP array

NetApp OnCommand for Clustered APIs on external OnCommand Enable a NetApp OnCommand
Data on Tap Unified Manager software for 7-mode or Clustered Data
ONTAP array

Pure Storage Onboard SMI-S provider and Enable a Pure provider

REST API

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Add an array to SolarWinds SRM
This section contains the following topics:

l Add an array
l Add additional arrays
l Troubleshoot an unreachable array

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Add an array
After you have enabled an array, you can add it to SRM for monitoring:

The credentials required for each array type can be found in the Knowledge Base articles linked
from the What provider does my array use? table.

1. Navigate to My Dashboards > Storage Summary, and click Add Storage Device on the Getting
Started with Storage Resource Monitor resource.
If the Getting Started with Storage Resource Monitor resource has been removed from the
dashboard, go to Settings > All Settings and click Add Storage Device in the Getting Started
with Orion section.

2. Select the array type from the Choose Array Type drop-down menu, and click Next.
If you are running multiple pollers, select the poller to monitor this array and click Next.

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3. Click Add SMI-S Provider on the Choose Data Source pane.

For some array types this label may be different or this step may be skipped.
4. Enter the IP Address (or Hostname), and other information requested for the provider.
The fields displayed depend on the array type selected.
When you set up a provider, you need to create a Credential Display Name. This is displayed
on the Choose Providers table shown above, so that you can select this provider in future.

5. With some array types, you can change the default protocol ports and namespaces. Click Advanced
to access these additional options.

6. Click Test Connection. If SRM can connect to the provider, click Next.
If the test was unsuccessful, a message provide information about how to correct any errors.
When SRM connects to the provider, a discovery routine runs to find compatible arrays for the
provider. When this has finished, the discovered arrays are listed.
Monitored arrays are also listed.

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 7. Select the array to monitor and click Next.

The Results page is displayed, showing licensing and poller information in addition to the array
details.
8. Click Finish.
The Storage Summary dashboard is displayed, showing data from the monitored array.

Add additional arrays

After you have set up a provider for an array type, the provider is available when you select this array type
in future, as shown below. You can select the provider from the list, or specify a new provider.

l If you want to select an existing provider, click Next to display Choose Data Target.
l If you want to add a new provider, click Add to display the Add Provider window.
The text for this label will depend on the array being added.

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Troubleshoot an unreachable array

An array is indicated as unreachable if SRM is unable to communicate with either the provider or the array
itself, depending on the device type.

1. Go to SRM Settings > All Settings >Manage Storage Objects > Arrays.
2. Select the unreachable array.
3. Check that your credentials are correct.
4. Test the connection:
If your credentials are correct, but the connection fails, it could be that:
l Your account does not have the proper permissions
l You may have a network issue such as a blocked port
You can change credentials under Manage Storage Objects > Credentials.

5. Confirm the correct ports are open between SRM Orion and your provider or array.
6. Confirm that you have the latest hotfixes installed.
7. Confirm your provider is properly configured. See the appropriate KB article for your provider.

After correcting the above issues, wait 15-30 minutes and the array status should update.

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Navigation
This section contains the following topic:

l Explore your SRM environment

Explore your SRM environment

All storage data is displayed through SRM into the Orion Web Console in three default dashboards:
Storage Summary, Performance Dashboard, and Capacity Dashboard. These examples show how to drill-
down and manage resources in details pages. Each page displays specific resources and options for
storage arrays, storage pools, volumes, LUNs, and file shares.

Use the Storage Summary as a stepping-off point to review monitored resources, and respond to alerts.

Getting Started Enables you to add storage arrays to be monitored by SRM.

All Storage An expandable tree enabling you to drill down through manufacturers,
Objects arrays, storage pool, LUNs, volumes and file shares, and view the detail
pages for these objects.

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GETTING STARTED GUIDE: STORAGE RESOURCE MONITOR

All Active Alerts Shows all active alerts triggered by SRM objects. Click an alert name to
review details and troubleshoot the issue.

Storage Objects Shows the objects with the most serious performance issues. Click the
by Performance object name to display the details page for the object at risk.
Risk

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Performance monitoring
This section contains the following topics:

l What is the performance dashboard?

l Troubleshooting performance issues

What is the performance dashboard?

As soon as you add an array to SRM, data begins to populate the resources on the dashboards. To see how
your storage objects are performing, go to the Performance dashboard.

All SRM dashboards show information about all your devices and show monitored metrics in the same way
and on the same resource regardless of the brand or model.

For more on understanding storage performance, see the Understanding Storage Performance and
Capacity section in the Essential Enterprise Storage Concepts ebook.

Click My Dashboards > Storage > Performance Dashboard.

The performance dashboard contains resources that show the Input/Output Operations per Second (IOPS),
latency, and throughput data for your monitored storage objects. The most commonly used resources are
Storage Objects by Performance Risk, All Storage Objects, LUNs by Performance, and All Active Alerts.

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The Storage Objects by Performance Risk resource shows all objects in descending order of risk, letting you
see immediately which objects are experiencing problems.

Other resources on the performance dashboard show performance data by object type.

For more detailed performance information about an object in any resource, click the object name to
display the details page.

The All Storage Object tree, All Active Alerts, and the Events Summary are also shown by default on
the Performance dashboard.

Troubleshooting performance issues

SRM resources display a yellow or red background for monitored values that have reached warnings or
critical levels. To get more information and determine the cause, drill down and click the storage resource.

The following scenario begins with a triggered performance alert, and then shows you how to identify the
root cause of the issue.

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Go to the All Active Alerts resource to view all objects that have triggered alerts and need attention.

1. Go to My Dashboards > Storage > Storage Summary to see the All Active Alerts resource. This
shows current alerts for storage objects and all other objects monitored by SolarWinds.
In this example, an alert called LUN Total Latency is greater than 10ms has been triggered by SYD-
2K3-FCHBA:EMC LUN.
The alert also shows how long it has been active.

2. Move the cursor over the triggering object name to display information and any additional issues
that exist for the LUN.

In this example it shows that not only is the device displaying high latency, but it has also reached
total capacity. In some situations this might be enough information for you to take action, but in
other you may need to investigate further.

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3. Click on the name of the triggering object to open the details page.

The LUN Details resource provides technical information about the device, together with a number of
performance resources.

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 4. Go to the Performance Summary resource for a more detailed view of this specific LUN's latency
issues in relationship to other metrics. By moving the cursor over the chart, you can see all the
performance metrics at any given time during the last 24 hours.

You can zoom in or out between 24 hours, 12 hours, and 1 hour, as well as focus on the
relevant time period using the slider bars below the chart.

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5. Click on a graph label to expand the information.

For example, clicking Latency opens the Latency Performance resource. This gives a more precise
record of performance over time, so you can see exactly when problems are occurring.

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 6. Scroll down to Latency Performance Per Related LUNs.
This resource shows latency performance for the selected LUN, compared with other LUNs in the
same storage pool over the required period. You can see which other LUNs (known as "noisy
neighbors") have high latency at the same time as the LUN you are troubleshooting. Based on the
information in this example you might want to:
l Reallocate the applications that use this LUN to another storage pool
l Add more resources to the array

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Thresholds
This section contains the following topics:

l How thresholds work in SRM

l Edit a threshold for a device type
l Edit a threshold for a device

How thresholds work in SRM

Thresholds are the values assigned to metrics of a monitored device or device type to indicate the levels at
which the device require attention. You can set Critical and Warning status thresholds for each metric for
each object type (or individual objects).

In the following example, the Latency (Total) threshold for LUNs is set to 20 milliseconds or higher for
Critical, and 10 to 19 milliseconds for Warning.

The resource on the right shows three LUNs and their current latency:

l The first LUN exceeds the Critical level threshold, so Latency is shown against a red background,
and the resource name is preceded by the Critical icon.
l The second LUN exceeds the Warning level but not the critical level so is shown against a yellow
background, and the resource name is preceded by the Warning icon.
l The third LUN is below the Warning level so it is not highlighted, and the resource name is
preceded by the Up icon.

Edit a threshold for a device type

You can change the default threshold settings to match your environment needs. You can adjust these
settings for an entire range of objects (such as Storage Pools or LUNs), or individually for a specific object.

The following example shows how to increase the Critical and Warning thresholds for LUNs.

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 1. Click Settings > All Settings > SRM Thresholds.
2. Click Global LUN Thresholds.

The thresholds for all LUN metrics are displayed, showing the permissible range of values.
3. Edit the required Critical and Warning levels as required.

All global SRM settings are for maximum values. In the above example the Warning Level is 90,000 -
99,999 and the Critical Level is 100,000 and higher.
4. Click Submit.
If you want to create a threshold for a minimum value (for example, you want to show devices
as Critical if the Input/Output drops below 2,000 IOPS), you will need to change the settings on
individual devices, as described in Edit a threshold for a device

Edit a threshold for a device

You may need to adjust the threshold settings for a specific device. For example, you might have a
troublesome storage pool that you want to monitor closely, so you might set the critical and warning
threshold levels lower than the global settings used for all the other storage pools.

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1. Click All Storage Objects and then click the name of the storage pool.
The storage pool details page is displayed.

2. Click Manage.
The Edit Properties page is displayed. The thresholds show the current global settings for storage
pools.
3. Scroll down, and in the Alerting Thresholds section, select the Override Orion General Threshold
check box for the metric you want to change.

4. Enter the new value(s) for this metric on this specific storage pool.
You can also change the relational operator from Greater Than to Less Than. For example, the Less
Than operator is useful if you want to be notified when the IOPS for a device falls below an
acceptable level.

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Dynamic baseline settings
After you have monitored your storage objects for more than a week, you will have sufficient data to use
Dynamic Baseline Thresholds for individual devices. This means you can use the last seven days of
collected statistical values for a device to determine its normal operating range using mean and standard
deviation. You can monitor for deviations using IOPS and latency values rather than a set of fixed values.

For more information, see Baselines and baseline calculations.

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Alerts
This section contains the following topics:

l How alerts work in SRM

l Configure an alert for a storage object

How alerts work in SRM

SRM comes with a number of out-of-the-box alerts that have been created, based on best practices. These
are enabled by default, so if there are problems with any monitored storage devices, alerts are displayed
on the All Active Alerts on Storage Objects resource on the Storage Home page as soon as these triggering
conditions are detected.

The image below shows two alerts. These indicate that storage pools aggr1 and aggr0 have less than 20%
free space remaining.

In addition to displaying messages, you can associate alerts with actions so you can provide an immediate
response to problems. These include:

l Send emails or messages

l Execute programs and scripts
l Create ServiceNow Incidents
l Log entries in logs or text files
l Create custom properties

Emails can be tailored to contain information specific to the condition of the alert, sent to different
recipients depending on time or date or other variables, and can be escalated if not responded to within a
set time.

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 For complete information on adding actions to alerts, setting up repeating actions and escalations,
and customizing actions for your specific environment, see Use alerts to monitor your environment
in the NPM Administrator Guide.

To see more information about an alert, click on the alert name. This opens the Active Alert Details page,
where you can:

l View more information on the alert

l Acknowledge the alert
l Edit or turn off the alert

Acknowledging an alert stops any actions or escalations associated with the triggered alert.

To display all active alerts for all your Orion products:

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GETTING STARTED GUIDE: STORAGE RESOURCE MONITOR

1. Navigate to Alerts & Activity > Alerts.

2. Click Manage Alerts in the upperright corner opens the Alert Manager. Here you can view, enable,
disable and manage all out-of-the-box and custom alerts.
If you Group by Object Type using the drop-down menu in the left column, you can see the
alerts already set up for Storage Arrays, LUNs, Pools, and other storage objects.

Configure an alert for a storage object

The preconfigured alerts cover all devices within an object type. You can also create alerts for specific
objects to trigger actions that depend on the location or ownership of the device, the time of the
occurrence, or the device.

This example shows you how to copy the preconfigured alert triggered when storage array space is less
than 20%, and configure it to only be triggered if the device is a NetApp array.

1. Go to Alerts & Activity > Alerts and click Manage Alerts in the upper-right corner.
2. On the Manage Alerts page:

Select Object type from the Group By drop-down.

Select Storage Array.

Check Storage Array Usable Free Space is less than 20%.

Click Duplicate & Edit.

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 3. On the Properties panel, edit the alert name.
4. On the Trigger Condition panel:

Check Only following set of objects button.

Select Vendor from the drop-down menu.

Select the Vendor, and click Next to continue.

5. On the Trigger Actions panel, click Add Action to list the available actions.
6. Select Send an Email/Page, and click Configure Action.
7. Enter a name for the action, and enter the recipients for this email alert.

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8. Complete the other configuration sections as required, and click Next.

9. For more information on setting up email alerts, see Send an email or page in the NPM
Administrator Guide.
10. On the Summary panel, review the settings for this alert.
11. Review the message above the Submit button. The message shows how many objects trigger this
alert. Make updates to this number as needed.

12. Click Submit.

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Capacity planning
This section contains the following topics:

l What is multi-vendor capacity planning?

l What is the capacity dashboard?
l Generate capacity reports

What is multi-vendor capacity planning?

SRM provides "single-pane-of glass" monitoring, so that all your storage devices are visible in a common,
unified view, regardless of vendor or model. Instead of having multiple monitoring applications, where
data may be displayed in different formats and units, SRM provides a straightforward, at-a-glance
representation of your entire storage environment.

For example, on the SRM Storage Home page, is the Array Usable Capacity Summary resource. This lists all
your arrays in one resource, showing total available and remaining capacity.

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The Array Usable Capacity Summary resource provides a simple, overall picture of how much storage
space remains. SRM also provides predictive resources that show when objects approach capacity and
how long until an object is 90% full, 95% full, or at capacity. SRM does this for all objects, from arrays to
individual LUNS and volumes.

In the image below, the LUNs, NAS volumes, pools, and arrays in a monitored environment that are over
90% are highlighted. Two are over 95% full and will be at 100% capacity within a year.

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What is the capacity dashboard?
The default capacity dashboard gives you a snapshot of the state of your storage objects, showing current
and projected capacity by storage object type.

Go to My Dashboards > Storage > Capacity Dashboards.

Storage objects that are at the highest risk of running out of space display at the top of the resource and
provide details of when each resource is predicted to reach warning (>90%), critical (>95%), and total
capacity levels. These threshold levels cannot be altered.

In the image below, you can see:

l Two LUNS, swi-hyv-12r2 and Thin volume, at 100% capacity

l A NAS volume, vol0, on the NetApp (Cluster-Mode) array is 99.9% full and likely to reach total
capacity in one day

Sparkline charts showing growth trends over the last 7 days are also displayed.

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This information helps you plan storage capacity now and for the future.

Other resources on the capacity dashboard show capacity data by object type, for Thick and Thin
provisioned storage objects.

Thick provisioning: storage capacity is pre-allocated when the object is set up.

Thin provisioning: capacity is allocated on an as-needed basis, which avoids wasted physical
capacity.

Because provisioning is set up when you set up your storage devices, you should refer to your
vendor documentation for further information.

For example, the following Thin Storage Pool by Capacity resource shows that all storage pools are within
threshold levels aside from Virtual Pool, which is showing a warning for Provisioned Capacity. It is
projected not to run out of capacity for at least another year.

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For further information on the other SRM resources available on this and other storage dashboards, see
the SRM Administrator Guide.

Generate capacity reports

SRM comes with pre-configured reports for capacity planning.

1. Go to Reports > All Reports.

2. Select Report Category from the Group By drop-down.
3. Click Storage.
4. The Storage reports are listed, using information from your monitored devices.
SRM includes 20 preconfigured reports: These include:
l Executive Storage Summary.
Use this report when you need a current, comprehensive record of all capacity information for
all your arrays.

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 l Executive Storage Summary - Array Graphs Percentage
Use this report to understand capacity growth trends across different devices, and see where
available capacity is located for future projects. In addition, see where and when more capacity
might be needed.

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l Free LUNs
Use this report to understand the LUN capacity that is allocated but not assigned over the last
month. Tracking your free LUNs gives you an understanding of space that can be re-assigned if
it is not being used.

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 l LUNs and Volume by Run Out Date
This report helps you better understand when you will need to assign more capacity to avoid
running out of storage space for your applications and users.

All SRM reports are customizable. For information on customizing these and other SolarWinds Orion
reports, see Create and view reports in the NPM Administrator Guide.

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AppStack integration
This section contains the following topics:

l Use AppStack with SRM

l Investigate a performance issue using AppStack

Use AppStack with SRM

The Application Stack, or AppStack, is a term used to describe the various layers that make up a complex
application delivery infrastructure. The AppStack Environment view is an interactive visual mapping within
Orion that provides an in-depth perspective through the entire environment to help identify the root cause
of performance and availability issues.

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AppStack automatically gathers information about the objects in your environment, as well as their
respective relationships, and displays the information. Some relationships, such as groups and
dependencies, can be defined by the user.

You can monitor the health status of storage devices along with associated entities of the storage device.
The AppStack Environment reports the status of the arrays, storage pools, volumes, LUNs, servers, hosts,
applications, and groups.

SRM automatically constructs a view in the Web Console. No configuration is needed.

As a standalone product, AppStack is available in the software versions listed below. If you own two or
more of the listed products, AppStack will not function properly unless each version of the software is
upgraded to the versions listed:

l Storage Resource Monitor 6.0 or later

l Virtualization Manager 6.2 or later
l Server & Application Monitor 6.2 or later
l Web Performance Monitor 2.2 or later

For a full description of the AppStack Environment and the features associated with it, see Monitor with
AppStack.

Investigate a performance issue using AppStack

This example uses AppStack with SRM and SAM An alert has been triggered because an application has
entered a critical state. Use Appstack to determine what caused this alert.

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1. Navigate to My Dashboards > Summary to display the All Active Alerts resource.

2. Move the cursor over the triggering object name to see a snapshot of information about the object.
In this example, the SQL application is reporting high read latency across many databases.

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 3. Click the triggering object name to display the application details page.
The AppStack environment shows the infrastructure on which the SQL server depends. The server is
up, but one or more interfaces is down, and the LUN that the SQL server uses is in a critical state.

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4. Move the cursor over the LUN icon to show more information.

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 5. Click the LUN icon to display the LUN details page. The Performance Summary resource shows the
high latency.

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6. Look at the Latency Performance Per Related LUNs on the same page.
You can see that the related LUN tex-esx-02_Lun13 is also showing high latency. This is known as a
noisy neighbor, an object making demands on resources that adversely affects other objects in the
same pool.

In this example, tex-esx-02_Lun13 is a database in query that is not supposed to be running at this
time, so you could get with the database team to stop it or investigate if requirements have changed.

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PerfStack™ integration
This section contains the following topics:

l Using PerfStack with SRM

l Use the Performance Analysis dashboard to investigate a performance issue

Using PerfStack with SRM

With complex networks consisting of cloud, hybrid IT, virtualization, storage area networks, and so on,
multi-faceted IT issues can be difficult to pinpoint and diagnose. When an issue surfaces, for example a
badly performing application or server, the investigation can take significant time to locate the core issue.
The problem could be in storage, network connectivity, user access, or a mix of resources and
configurations.

To investigate the issue, create troubleshooting projects with the Performance Analysis (PerfStack™)
dashboard that visually correlate historical data from multiple SolarWinds products and entity types in a
single view.

With Performance Analysis dashboards, you can do the following:

l Compare and analyze multiple metric types in a single view, including status, events, and statistics.
l Compare and analyze metrics for multiple entities in a single view, including, nodes, interfaces,
volumes, applications, and more.
l Correlate data from across the Orion Platform on a single shared time line.
l Visualize hybrid data for on-premises, cloud, and everything in between.
l Share a troubleshooting project with your teams and experts to review historical data for an issue.

PerfStack is a feature provided with all Orion product releases for v2017.1 or later:

l Network Performance Monitor (NPM)12.1

l Server & Application Monitor (SAM) 6.4
l NetFlow Traffic Analyzer (NTA) 4.2.2
l Virtualization Manager (VM) 7.x
l Storage Resource Monitor (SRM) 6.4
l Web Performance Monitor (WPM) 2.2.1

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Use the Performance Analysis dashboard to investigate a

performance issue
In this example you investigate an issue in an environment with SRM and SAM, where an SQL server
occasionally goes into critical status.

Use the following metrics from SRM and SAM:

l Availability: to see when the SQL server goes into a critical state.
l Average CPU Load and Average Percent Memory Used: to see if system-wide resources are
becoming overloaded and causing this issue.
l I/O Latency Total: to see if high latency on the storage device impacted the SQL server.

1. Click My Dashboard > Home > Performance Availability.

2. On the Metric Palette, click Add Entities.

3. Select Type to filter the available entities and select Application.

4. From the list of applications, select an application. This example selects SQL Server 2012 Reporting
Services.

5. Click Add Selected Items.

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 6. The Metric Palette now contains an Application group. Expand this and click the icon after the
application name. This adds all related entities.

7. Expand the Node and LUN entities.

8. Click the application name. The metric groups associated with this entity are shown in the next
column.

9. Expand the metric groups to display the metrics.

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10. Drag the Availability metric into the right side of the view. A chart showing Availability for the last 12
hours is displayed.

11. Repeat steps 8 to 10 to add the node and LUN metrics.

12. You can drop node metrics into the same chart to save space.
You now have a dashboard that shows specific SRM and SAM data for the last 12 hours.
You can easily see that while Average CPU Load and Average Percentage Memory Used remained
stable, the LUN showed high latency at the moment the SQL server became unavailable. This
suggests that you should move the database from this LUN to a faster LUN.

Click Save to save this dashboard. Any dashboard can be shared by its creator. It can then be used
as-is or form the basis for future investigation.

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Get connected
This section contains information on accessing the SolarWinds Customer Portal and engaging with thwack,
the SolarWinds community of IT professionals:

l Access the customer portal to download SolarWinds SRM installation files

l Set up additional customer portal user accounts for SolarWinds SRM users
l Engage with the SolarWinds community

Access the customer portal to download SolarWinds SRM

installation files
The SolarWinds Customer Portal provides access to license and maintenance information, support cases,
and product downloads, as well as live and instructor-led virtual classroom training.

Create your user profile

To create a user profile, you must know the SolarWinds customer ID (SWID) issued to your company. If you
are a SolarWinds customer but do not have a SWID, contact SolarWinds Customer Support.

Users with multiple SWIDs require only one user profile. Your user profile can be linked to multiple
SWIDs.

1. Go to customerportal.solarwinds.com.
2. Click the Register tab.
3. Enter your organization's SWID and your email address.
If you have multiple SWIDs, enter any SWID to create your profile. Later, use the User Profile
menu to link the other SWIDs to your profile.
The account administrator reviews the request, and sends you an email when it is approved.

For more information about creating an account, see Frequently Asked Questions about Customer Portal
accounts and logins.

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Explore the Customer Portal

Manage licenses and access license keys.

Download purchased products.

Open a new support case and monitor existing cases.

Download free trials of integrated products.

Sign up for training.

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Set up additional customer portal user accounts for
SolarWinds SRM users
If you are an account administrator for the SolarWinds Customer Portal, you can add additional user
accounts and define each user's access level. Set up additional accounts to allow other users to view
information in the portal, create a support case, access information about existing support cases, or sign
up for training.

For more information about user account types and permissions, see Frequently Asked Questions
about Customer Portal accounts and logins.

1. Log in to the SolarWinds Customer Portal using an account with Account Administrator level access.
2. In the user account drop-down menu in the upper-right corner, click Company Account Settings.
3. Click the Add User button.
4. Enter the user's email address.
5. Specify the user's access level, and click Create:
l Account Administrator: Can access all areas of the Customer Portal. Can also add and remove
users, edit user profile information, and assign roles and contact types to users.
l Standard Access: Can access all areas of the Customer Portal.
l No Access: Cannot access the Customer Portal, but is listed as a contact on the account.

The system sends a user profile creation email to the user. The user account is listed as Pending in
the Admin portal until the user activates their account through the user profile creation email.

Engage with the SolarWinds community

Use the SolarWinds THWACK community website to learn more about SolarWinds products, participate in
discussions, and get help resolving issues.

Create a THWACK account

You can read content on THWACK without an account. However, having an account allows you to take full
advantage of the site by submitting feature requests, liking or following posts, and contributing content.
When you create a THWACK account, SolarWinds does not send you unsolicited emails or add you to
marketing lists.

1. Go to thwack.solarwinds.com.
2. Click Register in the top right.
3. Enter the required information and accept the license agreement.
4. Click Create Account.

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After you create a THWACK account, you are asked if you want to link your THWACK account
with your Customer Portal account. If you link the accounts, you see more relevant content
and messages in the Customer Portal.

Explore the THWACK site

After you create an account, complete the onboarding mission to begin exploring THWACK. Participating
in the THWACK community earns points, which you can use to purchase items in the THWACK store.

As a member of the THWACK community, you can:

l Participate in community discussions and get answers to your questions.

In the product forums, you can post questions and view responses to other users' questions. Advice,
resolutions, and troubleshooting tips are provided by community members and by SolarWinds
employees.

l Extend product capabilities with custom templates, reports, and scripts.

The THWACK product forums include thousands of downloadable templates, reports, and scripts you
can use to customize or extend your SolarWinds products. This content is contributed by SolarWinds
employees and by other community members.

l View product roadmaps, which list the features currently being developed for future product
releases.
l Be notified of User Experience sessions where you can share your experiences, and help make
SolarWinds products better.
l Influence the direction of a product by submitting feature requests and voting for other users'
feature requests.
l Read blogs about SolarWinds products and about general IT topics.

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