SolarWinds NPM Exam Dumps & Practice Test Questions

Question 1:

Which of the following statements about the Device Studio Poller is incorrect?

A. It retrieves data from Orion Failover Engine or Hot Standby Engine setups
B. It supports data transformations and logical operations during polling
C. It displays collected values in pre-existing Orion resources by default
D. It can query multiple Object Identifiers (OIDs) for a single technology

Correct Answer: C

Explanation:

The Device Studio Poller is a powerful and flexible tool within the SolarWinds Orion platform that enables administrators to collect and manage SNMP-based data from network devices, especially those not natively supported. However, there's often confusion regarding how and where the polled data is displayed, which leads us to the false statement in this list.

Let’s analyze each option. Option A states that the poller can collect data from the Orion Failover Engine or Hot Standby Engines. This is accurate—these high availability components ensure continuous monitoring, and the Device Studio Poller is fully compatible with them for data collection, ensuring resiliency and reliability in failover scenarios.

Option B correctly mentions that the Device Studio Poller can perform logical operations or transformations. This is a key feature: administrators can manipulate the collected raw SNMP values using formulas, apply conditional logic, or even adjust formats to suit specific monitoring needs. This makes the poller highly adaptable.

Option D is also true. The poller supports the querying of multiple OIDs within a single technology. This is useful for gathering a range of metrics from a device—for example, querying different OIDs for CPU load, memory usage, and temperature sensors all under the same polling configuration.

Option C, however, is incorrect and is the correct answer to this question. Contrary to this statement, values polled using the Device Studio Poller do not automatically appear in pre-configured or existing Orion resources. Instead, they require custom views or widgets—often using custom tables or charts—to be created manually within the web console. The Orion platform separates out-of-the-box resources from custom polled data, meaning any values collected using Device Studio must be explicitly integrated into dashboards or reports.

To summarize, the Device Studio Poller is a customizable and powerful tool, but it does not automatically insert polled data into the default interface. That integration must be done by the user, making C the false statement.

Question 2:

What method does Network Performance Monitor (NPM) primarily use to calculate and track trends in capacity usage?

A. Monitoring total volume capacity
B. Computing usage based on average values
C. Using the capacity forecasting widget
D. Analyzing historical performance data

Correct Answer: D

Explanation:

Network Performance Monitor (NPM), part of the SolarWinds Orion platform, offers robust tools for monitoring network health, including tracking capacity usage over time. Understanding how NPM calculates these trends is key for administrators to manage their infrastructure proactively and avoid issues like bandwidth saturation or disk space exhaustion.

Let’s review the options. Option A, which refers to volume capacity, indicates the total available space or bandwidth in a system. While NPM certainly monitors this metric, it's not the mechanism by which it calculates trends. Capacity is a snapshot—it tells you the "what" but not the "how" it changes over time.

Option B, using average values, sounds plausible because averages can show usage patterns. However, average calculations alone don't provide the depth needed to observe real trends. Averages can mask spikes, outliers, and seasonal variations, which are crucial for forecasting or proactive maintenance. Thus, while averages may support trend analysis, they are not the core method NPM uses.

Option C, the capacity forecasting widget, is a visualization tool that projects future usage. It uses trend data to make predictions, but it's important to note that it doesn't perform the actual trend calculation—it simply presents results based on already collected data.

Option D, historical data, is the correct answer. NPM leverages long-term historical performance data to determine usage trends. This includes storing and analyzing past measurements of bandwidth, CPU load, disk usage, and more. By aggregating this information over days, weeks, or months, NPM can create baselines and recognize patterns. For instance, if CPU usage has steadily climbed over several months, historical data will reflect that, allowing NPM to predict when capacity might be exceeded.

This approach provides a reliable and detailed view of how system utilization evolves. Administrators can use it for trend analysis, capacity planning, and risk mitigation. Without historical data, such insight would be impossible.

In conclusion, Option D is correct because NPM relies on historical data to accurately track and calculate capacity usage trends, forming the foundation for reliable network performance management.

Question 3:

Is it possible to display Palo Alto firewall devices within Orion Maps using SolarWinds?

A. False
B. True

Correct Answer: B

Explanation:

Orion Maps, a component of the SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM), serves as a powerful visualization tool that enables IT professionals to create dynamic and interactive network topology diagrams. These maps display real-time performance data and relationships between network nodes, interfaces, and other critical elements, offering a centralized view of the infrastructure.

When it comes to integrating Palo Alto firewalls with Orion Maps, the answer is yes—they are fully supported and can be displayed on the maps. SolarWinds NPM supports a wide range of vendor devices, and Palo Alto is among them. Through SNMP and API-based polling, SolarWinds can collect relevant performance data from these firewalls, including interface statistics, CPU usage, session data, and more. Once the devices are discovered and properly monitored, administrators can add them to Orion Maps just like any other network node.

This visual integration is not only convenient but also strategic. By including firewalls in Orion Maps, administrators can track firewall health, identify traffic bottlenecks, and monitor connections across the network in a more holistic manner. These insights are particularly valuable in environments where security and network performance must be closely aligned.

Option A is incorrect because it falsely suggests that Palo Alto devices cannot be visualized using Orion Maps. The correct and confirmed functionality of SolarWinds tools includes support for Palo Alto firewalls, so Option B is the right choice.

In summary, enabling visibility of Palo Alto firewalls within Orion Maps enhances network monitoring, improves incident response, and provides better insight into how security appliances interact with the rest of the infrastructure.

Question 4:

After inheriting an environment monitored by NPM, you notice recurring high traffic utilization alerts that resolve on their own. How can you adjust the system to reduce unnecessary alerts?

A. Set alerts to trigger only if high traffic persists over time
B. Reset alerts only if high traffic persists over time
C. Increase status polling frequency on the affected interfaces
D. Increase statistics polling frequency on the affected interfaces

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

High traffic utilization alerts in SolarWinds NPM are triggered when the monitored interface exceeds a predefined traffic threshold. However, not all spikes are indicative of a true problem. Brief bursts of traffic can cause false alerts that resolve themselves quickly and do not require administrative intervention.

To address this issue effectively, the alerting system must distinguish between temporary traffic fluctuations and sustained high utilization. The best way to do this is to modify the alert conditions so that they only trigger when traffic remains consistently high for a designated period. Option A provides this solution. By setting a delay or threshold duration before triggering an alert, transient network conditions will be ignored, and only meaningful performance issues will be flagged.

Option B discusses resetting alerts after sustained high traffic, but that doesn’t prevent the initial false alert from being triggered—it only controls how long the alert remains active. Options C and D, which involve modifying polling frequencies, may slightly affect the granularity of collected data but do not solve the underlying issue of unnecessary alerts caused by momentary spikes.

By configuring alerts to require persistent threshold violations, you effectively filter out noise from your alerting system. This ensures that you receive fewer false positives and can focus on real performance concerns. It also improves the efficiency of network operations by reducing alert fatigue among administrators.

Question 5:

Your organization transitions from physical to virtual servers using VMware. Which monitoring capability will SolarWinds NPM lose after virtualization?

A. Hardware health monitoring of the virtualization hosts
B. Monitoring of VM sprawl
C. Collection of VM and host performance data
D. Visibility into the virtualization tree structure

Correct Answer: A

Explanation:

When physical servers are migrated to a virtualized environment, certain monitoring capabilities change due to the abstraction layer introduced by virtualization. While SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) maintains robust support for virtual infrastructures, including VMware, it cannot monitor every aspect in the same way it does with physical servers.

The most notable limitation post-virtualization is the inability of NPM to monitor the physical hardware health of virtualization hosts. This includes metrics such as fan speeds, power supply status, and physical temperature sensors, which are accessible in traditional, bare-metal server monitoring via protocols like IPMI or SNMP. Once servers are virtualized, these low-level hardware details are no longer exposed directly to NPM.

Option A is correct because this hardware-level visibility is typically managed through the hypervisor (such as VMware ESXi) and its own tools, like vCenter. Monitoring solutions specialized for virtual environments, such as SolarWinds Virtualization Manager (VMAN), are better suited for this task.

Meanwhile, options B, C, and D remain well within NPM's capabilities. NPM can continue to monitor virtual machine performance (such as CPU and memory usage), detect and report VM sprawl (an excess of unused or unnecessary VMs), and display the virtualization environment tree, including hosts and guest machines.

In conclusion, while NPM still provides broad visibility into the virtualized network infrastructure, direct hardware monitoring of the hosts is lost after virtualization. For that level of insight, additional monitoring tools that integrate with hypervisor APIs are required.

Question 6:

After a router monitored by Network Performance Monitor (NPM) restarts, the interface index statuses show as "unknown" in NPM. Once you delete these unknown interfaces, what is the recommended next step to correctly update the interface indexes?

A. Update the internal NPM ID numbers
B. Manually modify the interface indexes
C. Generate a resource list on the node and add interfaces with the new index IDs
D. Use the Configuration Wizard to refresh the interface indexes

Correct Answer: D

Explanation:

When a router that is under the watch of Network Performance Monitor (NPM) reboots, it often causes the interface indexes to change or reset, which in turn leads NPM to mark the interface statuses as "unknown." This happens because the underlying interface index values assigned by the router’s operating system are not persistent across reboots, meaning they can be reassigned or reordered when the device comes back online.

Simply deleting these unknown interfaces from NPM is only a partial solution because NPM still needs to reconcile its internal database with the router’s current configuration. To fully restore accurate monitoring and ensure that NPM correctly tracks interfaces, a proper update to interface indexing is necessary.

Let’s consider the options:

• Option A involves updating internal NPM ID numbers, but these IDs typically identify nodes, not interfaces, and are not tied to the dynamic index changes that occur on the router reboot. Therefore, this action will not fix the interface status problem.

• Option B suggests manually adjusting interface indexes, which is tedious and prone to human error. Moreover, manual updates do not scale well and don’t protect against future index changes from additional reboots.

• Option C recommends running a resource list to add interfaces with new IDs. While this might restore some interfaces, it is not automated and does not fully address index synchronization or prevent recurring issues.

• Option D, running the Configuration Wizard, is the most effective approach. This tool automatically scans the router’s current state, detects the new interface indexes, and updates NPM’s database accordingly. It eliminates manual effort and ensures that the interface data remains accurate and synchronized with the device. The wizard’s automated nature also reduces errors and helps maintain consistent monitoring after device changes.

In summary, running the Configuration Wizard after removing unknown interfaces is the best practice for restoring correct interface statuses in NPM following a router reboot. This method provides an efficient, automated, and reliable solution to interface indexing problems caused by device restarts.

Question 7:

You have created an NPM (Network Performance Monitor) report featuring custom charts for availability and response time, scheduled it, and set up an action to export it. 

However, you are unable to export the report as an Excel file. What is the most probable cause of this problem?

A. The report must be linked to a URL in an email action to run live in the web console B. Excel export formats are not supported by NPM
C. Custom charts restrict the export to PDF only
D. Your user account lacks the necessary permissions to export the report

Correct Answer: D

Explanation:

When you face difficulties exporting an NPM report, especially to Excel format, the root cause often lies in user permissions rather than technical or format limitations. Network Performance Monitor (NPM) typically supports exporting reports in several file formats, including Excel, CSV, and PDF. So, issues with Excel export usually aren’t due to a lack of feature support.

Option A suggests that you need to link the report via a URL in an email action to enable exporting in the web console. This is unrelated because email actions are primarily for notification purposes and do not affect export functionality directly. Scheduling a report and setting export actions are separate configurations.

Option B is incorrect as Excel is a commonly supported export format within NPM. If Excel export were genuinely unsupported, the system would provide clearer messaging indicating this limitation.

Option C states that custom charts limit exports to PDF only. While some systems might restrict certain complex visualizations to specific formats, NPM generally allows exporting custom charts into Excel as well. Hence, this is not the reason for the export failure.

The correct explanation is D: your user account likely lacks the permissions to export reports. NPM’s role-based access control can restrict exporting capabilities to certain users for security or compliance reasons. Without explicit export permissions, users will not be able to generate or download Excel files, even if the report and charts are otherwise configured correctly.

To resolve this, you should check with your NPM administrator to confirm that your account has the export privileges. This permission control is crucial in many environments to prevent unauthorized access or leakage of sensitive network performance data.

Question 8:

What is the proper way to grant users access to specific reports within a system?

A. Log in as each user, create reports, and set permissions individually
B. Manage access by applying custom properties and account limitations
C. Set up the report with a Report Limitation and assign this limitation to the relevant users
D. Store reports in separate subdirectories and configure directory-level permissions for each user

Correct Answer: C

Explanation:

Controlling access to specific reports is critical for ensuring users only see data appropriate to their roles or responsibilities. The most effective and manageable way to do this is through the use of Report Limitations — a built-in mechanism designed to restrict report visibility based on user assignments.

Option C is the best approach because it centralizes access control. By configuring a report with a Report Limitation, administrators can then assign this limitation to specific users or groups. This means the system only allows those users to view or generate the report, without needing to duplicate reports or manage complex file permissions. It also makes auditing access simpler and reduces the potential for mistakes.

Option A, creating reports separately for each user and setting permissions per user, is inefficient and does not scale well in larger environments. It multiplies administrative effort and increases complexity without offering better security.

Option B—using custom properties and account limitations—could indirectly control access, but it is a less direct and more complicated approach. Custom properties are useful for categorizing users but do not inherently manage report permissions as effectively as Report Limitations.

Option D suggests managing access through file system subdirectories and permissions. This method is prone to errors, difficult to maintain, and does not integrate well with modern reporting platforms that have their own access control features.

In conclusion, Report Limitations (Option C) offer a streamlined, secure, and scalable method to control user access to reports. It simplifies management, aligns with best practices, and ensures that only authorized personnel can access sensitive report data.

Question 9:

Your retention policy requires keeping Syslog messages in the database for nine days, but you notice that messages from eight days ago are missing. What is the most probable cause?

A. The database compaction process runs once a week
B. The default Syslog retention period is set to seven days
C. The default Syslog web filter only shows seven days of data
D. Detailed Syslog records are summarized after seven days

Correct Answer: B

Explanation:

Retention policies are critical in managing Syslog data, especially for compliance and audit purposes. In this scenario, the disappearance of Syslog messages that are eight days old, despite a policy to retain data for nine days, indicates a misalignment between expected retention and actual system behavior.

The most likely cause is that the system’s default Syslog retention period is seven days (Option B). Many platforms and network management systems come pre-configured to retain Syslog messages only for seven days unless explicitly reconfigured. This means messages older than seven days are automatically purged or archived, which explains why logs from eight days ago are missing even though the policy states nine days.

Option A, which refers to database compaction running weekly, relates to optimizing database storage by reclaiming space and reorganizing data. However, compaction itself does not delete data based on age, so it is not the primary reason for missing Syslog messages.

Option C, mentioning the Syslog web filter set to seven days, confuses data retention with data presentation. Web filters affect how much data is displayed in user interfaces but do not influence the underlying data retention in the database.

Option D points to summarization of detailed records after seven days. Some systems aggregate or compress older logs to save space, but this process doesn’t explain the complete absence of eight-day-old messages. Summarization typically reduces detail but retains the record itself.

Therefore, the most reasonable explanation is the system's default retention of seven days. To fix this, the retention setting must be explicitly configured to nine days to match the policy. This makes Option B the correct answer.

Question 10:

After creating a Universal Device Poller (UnDP), you cannot locate the expected OID in the MIB tree. What is the best way to address this problem?

A. Restart the Universal Device Poller service
B. Update the MIB database with the latest definitions
C. Rediscover the device using Network Sonar Discovery
D. Add the device to Network Performance Monitor (NPM) for tracking

Correct Answer: B

Explanation:

In SNMP-based monitoring environments, the MIB (Management Information Base) is a structured database that defines all the Object Identifiers (OIDs) devices expose for monitoring. When you create a Universal Device Poller (UnDP) but cannot find the corresponding OID in the MIB tree, it indicates that the monitoring system’s MIB repository is out of date or incomplete.

The optimal solution is to update the MIB database (Option B). This update refreshes the list of available OIDs and their descriptions, ensuring that new or custom OIDs can be recognized and used in polling. Typically, this involves importing the latest MIB files from the device vendor or network equipment manufacturer into the monitoring system.

Option A, restarting the UnDP, is generally ineffective in this context. Restarting the poller service won’t add new OIDs to the database; it only reloads the current configurations and cached data.

Option C, rediscovering the device with Network Sonar Discovery, is designed to detect devices and their capabilities on the network. While useful for identifying new devices, rediscovery does not update the MIB database or resolve missing OIDs.

Option D suggests adding the node to the Network Performance Monitor (NPM). However, if the MIB database lacks the required OID definitions, merely adding the device to NPM won’t solve the problem of absent OIDs.

In summary, updating the MIB database ensures the monitoring system knows about all current OIDs, enabling the Universal Device Poller to locate and poll the correct OIDs. This makes Option B the most appropriate solution.