SAM PowerShell Scripting Template

I write a lot of PowerShell scripts.  Like a lot, a lot.  I write them for any manner of things, but recently I’ve been tasked to help out with a few Server & Application Monitor templates.  These are some of the most interesting things that SAM has to offer.

Looking at each of the scripts, I decided it was worth revisiting based on some of my newly acquired PowerShell superpowers (cape not included).

SAM script templates (Windows Scripting, PowerShell, Perl, Python, whatever) require two things – a statistic and an exit code.

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Mass Export of NCM Device Templates

Do you run a bunch of Orion servers?  Do you hate exporting your custom NCM Device Templates one at a time?

No?  Only me?

Well, if you are ever like me, I’ve got something to help you out.

It basically checks for all the device templates in your database for those that aren’t out of the box and exports them in the proper format.

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Installed Modules (Orion)

Installed Orion Modules

SELECT CASE
          WHEN Name = 'APM'     THEN 'Server & Application Monitor'
          WHEN Name = 'IPAM'    THEN 'IP Address Manager'
          WHEN Name = 'NCM'     THEN 'Network Configuration Manager'
          WHEN Name = 'NPM'     THEN 'Network Performance Monitor'
          WHEN Name = 'NTA'     THEN 'NetFlow Traffic Analyzer'
          WHEN Name = 'Orion'   THEN 'Orion Core'
          WHEN Name = 'SEUM'    THEN 'Web Performance Analyzer'
          WHEN Name = 'SRM'     THEN 'Storage Resource Monitor'
          WHEN Name = 'Toolset' THEN 'Enterprise Toolset'
          WHEN Name = 'UDT'     THEN 'User Device Tracker'
          WHEN Name = 'VoIP'    THEN 'VoIP & Network Quality Manager'
          WHEN Name = 'EOC'     THEN 'Enterprise Operations Console'
          ELSE Name
     END AS [Product Name]
     , Version
     , CASE
          WHEN IsEval = 'True' THEN  CONCAT('Evaluation (', [DaysRemaining], ' days left)')
          ELSE 'Licensed'
       END AS [License Type]
      
FROM Orion.InstalledModule
ORDER BY CASE
          WHEN Name = 'APM'     THEN 9
          WHEN Name = 'IPAM'    THEN 5
          WHEN Name = 'NCM'     THEN 4
          WHEN Name = 'NPM'     THEN 2
          WHEN Name = 'NTA'     THEN 3
          WHEN Name = 'Orion'   THEN 0
          WHEN Name = 'SEUM'    THEN 11
          WHEN Name = 'SRM'     THEN 10
          WHEN Name = 'Toolset' THEN 8
          WHEN Name = 'UDT'     THEN 6
          WHEN Name = 'VoIP'    THEN 7
          WHEN Name = 'EOC'     THEN 1
          ELSE 99
        END

 

Speeding up multiple SolarWinds Orion Products Installations

I stumbled across an article called Install Orion products in unattended or silent mode that made me so happy because I install new Orion servers about 4 times a month.  There are only so many time I want to click “Next,” “Next”, “Finish” in any given day.  So, since I do this so often, I wanted to script this out.  The big two takeaways from this article are that you run the installer silently and can skip the Configuration Wizard from running after installation.

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DIY: Longbow Transport from PVC

Photo courtesy of @Live_Danagerous

So this is a little different than any of my other posts.  Normally I post about something having to do with technology, but this time I’m focusing on something that is decidedly not technological.  I recently took up archery as a hobby – specifically shooting the longbow.  Why the longbow?  Because I’m actually a closet (or maybe not so closet), Renaissance Faire geek.  My close friends already know this about me, but many in the tech community do not.  This is my “coming out of the 16th century closet” post.

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Monitoring & Data Normalization: Clarity via a Single Pane of Glass

As technology professionals, we live in an interruption-driven world — responding to incidents is part of the job. All our other job duties go out the window when a new issue hits the desk. Having the right information and understanding the part it plays in the organization is key to handling these incidents with speed and accuracy. This is why it’s critical to have the ability to compare apples-to-apples when it comes to the all-important troubleshooting process.

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Building my Orion Server [Scripting Edition] – Step 3

I’m keeping this original post active for historical reference, but you should not use the below, since I have an update: Step 3 is dead. Long live step 3.1

This is it.  The endgame.  Here I’ll give you the final steps in configuring my server.  We started with creating the virtual machine then moved to configuring the disks.  We’re at the end – where’s it’s time to do the final configurations.

In summary, we’re going to do several steps here.  They pretty much follows my other guide step-by-step, so I’ll be brief in covering them here.

  1. Variable Declaration
  2. Installing Windows Features
  3. Enabling Disk Performance Metrics
  4. Installing some Utilities
  5. Copying the IIS Folders to a new Location
  6. Enable Deduplication (optional)
  7. Removing unnecessary IIS Websites and Application Pools
  8. Tweaking the IIS Settings
  9. Tweaking the ASP.NET Settings
  10. Creating a location for the TFTP and SFTP Roots (for NCM)
  11. Configuring Folder Redirection
  12. Pre-installing ODBC Drivers (for SAM Templates)

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