solarwinds n-central release notes · 2019-11-05 · category description bug core...

RELEASE NOTES

SolarWinds N-centralVersion 12.2 SP1 (build 12.2.1.198)

Last Updated: Monday, November 4, 2019

Release Notes: SolarWinds N-central

What's New in SolarWinds N-centralWelcome to SolarWinds N-central Release12.2 SP1. This release contains a wide range of awesome updates tomake your day-to-day a little bit better and we’re excited to introduce Disk Encryption Manager as a newintegrated feature!

We’re leveling up your security offering with Disk EncryptionManager!Your customer's data is critical to their business. If their data lands in the wrong hands, it can lead to animpaired reputation, loss of customers as well as financial loss. Disk encryption is one of the tools you can useto secure your customer's data by rendering the information on their disk drives unreadable to unauthorizedusers. While there are many ways to encrypt data, they typically have significant drawbacks - some are difficultto deploy at scale, others don't show you what's happening with the rollout of encryption across an environment,and still more don't provide customer-facing reporting. We've solved all those issues with Disk EncryptionManager – based on SolarWinds AV Defender, powered by Bitdefender©. Disk Encryption Manager makes it easyto manage, monitor and report on the encryption status of your customer's data.

Leveraging Disk Encryption Manager will bring you several benefits:

n It leverages industry-standard Bitlocker technology from Microsoft®, ensuring optimal compatibility andperformance.

n You can use Rules and bulk editing to easily deploy Disk Encryption Manager, with a standardized set ofsettings, to one or more devices.

n You can use the new "Disk Encryption Status" service to monitor and manage your encrypted devices,including volume-specific metrics.

n The All Devices View has been updated so that you can easily recognize your encrypted devices with ournew icon and filters for Disk Encryption Manager.

n You'll no longer need to install and maintain a Key Management server - N-central stores your RecoveryKeys safely with permission-based access.

n A new Encryption report makes it easy to demonstrate encryption compliance to your customers.n Should one of your customer's devices fall into the wrong hands, you can use N-central to confirm the last

known encryption state of the device's drives.

It’s time for an Autotask PSA Integration Update!For those of you that are using Datto's Autotask PSA, we've updated N-central to use v1.6 of the Autotask PSAAPI. But for N-central to continue to create tickets and push asset data over to your Autotask PSA instance,you'll need to ensure that the Autotask PSA user account you've given N-central has been given the API User(API Only) security level. We strongly recommend making that change in Autotask before upgrading to N-central12.2 SP1, so that you do not experience any disruptions in the communication between your N-central andAutotask environments.

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We’ve made some pretty sweet enhancements and updatesthat’ll make you love N-central even more!Network Topology Maps were already awesome, but we've managed to make them even better by making thefollowing tweaks:

n You can now launch N-central's remote-control tools from within the topology map.n Additionally, when you click on a service in the topology map you can see the details of the service.n We've separated out the Asset data and Monitoring data about a node into separate tabs, making it

quicker and easier to understand the details about a node on the network.

Automation Manager has been significantly updated - we've made some great usability updates and added aslew of new objects!

n You can now re-order input parameters within an Automation Manager policy - making it easy to ensurethat the input parameters are presented in the right order when the AMP is run from N-central.

n The "Send Commands and Receive Response" object has been updated to include a user-configurabletimeout value.

n A new "N-central" category has been added to Automation Manager and includes two new objects: Get N-central Agent Information and Get N-central Probe Information. Plus, the "Get Logged in Users" object hasbeen updated to expose the User Name property.

n We’re not stopping there and making sure we provide more ways to use Automation Manager! Check outthe list of new objects that you wanted so we added:

o Objects for adding and removing Windows Features, retrieving the version of PowerShell that isinstalled on the device, and retrieving Registry Keys.

o Objects in the VMware category for creating and deleting snapshots and several new objects thatlet you interact with Windows Features.

How you upgrade it changing! We’ve overhauled our Modular Agent/Probe upgrades to save you time andallow better reliability. By completely overhauling how the Windows Agent and Windows Probe upgradethemselves, they no longer upgrade by doing a complete uninstall/reinstall. Instead they only upgrade their sub-components that require an upgrade which result in quicker and more reliable upgrades in the field.

Wait, there’s more:n SolarWinds N-central has been updated to support macOS 10.15 (Catalina) - so your customers can

upgrade their Mac devices whenever they'd like! SolarWinds N-central has your back and is ready tosupport those devices.

n The customer-specific Mac installer has been updated to use the modern, securely-signed DMG format!Making installation as easy as dragging and dropping right into the Application folder.

n We’ve added a "Password" type of Custom Property allowing you to securely store, transmit and use apassword as an Input Parameter to an Automation Manager Policy – expanding the types of automationactivities that you can do, securely and easily!

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n The Linux agent has been updated to support specifying both a Primary IP address and a Secondary IPaddress for your SolarWinds N-central server so you don’t have to worry about missing that additional IPaddress.

n Taking the guesswork out of changes! The Windows agent has been updated to detect if the device'shostname has been changed on reboot and will submit that information once it's able to access thenetwork.

n SolarWinds N-central has been updated to discover the OS version, Model and Serial Number of ZyXeland Juniper devices.

n And finally, when you're at the device level, the Title of your browser window has been updated to showyou not just the device's name, but also its Network Address – putting more information at yourfingertips and making it easier to troubleshoot the device.

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Upgrade paths and notesTo upgrade to 12.2 SP1, your SolarWinds N-central server must be running one of the following versions:

n SolarWinds N-central 12.1.1.187–400n SolarWinds N-central 12.2.0.274–350n SolarWinds N-central 12.2.1.67+

Note the following when upgrading SolarWinds N-central.

Self Signed SSL Certificates!SolarWinds N-central 12.2 no longer supports the ability to use Self-Signed SSL Certificates inconjunction with the LDAP-based SSO module. If you've configured SolarWinds N-central in thismanner, upgrading to version 12.2 will remove the self-signed SSL certificate from the SolarWinds N-central certificate store, and as a result you will not be able to login with your LDAP account. Westrongly recommend securing your LDAP-based SSO connection with a valid, verified SSL certificatebefore upgrading to SolarWinds N-central 12.2, so that you do not experience any issues when logginginto SolarWinds N-central with your LDAP user account.

Upgrade Agents and Probes!You will need to upgrade your Agents and Probes to SolarWinds N-central 12.1 SP1 before upgradingto SolarWinds N-central 12.2 SP1. Without first upgrading to 12.1 SP1, your Agents and Probes won’tleverage TLS 1.2 properly, and won't be able to communicate with SolarWinds N-central 12.2 SP1.

Check your Time Zone Setting!Before upgrading to SolarWinds N-central12.2 SP1, verify your correct Time Zone in the SolarWinds N-central UI and ensure it is a Standard Time Zone, not an Alias. If you are using an Alias Time Zone, anerror message will display notifying you to use the Primary (Canonical) IANA time zone name for yourlocation. For more information about Canonical time zone names, please seehttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones.

Scheduled Tasks may expire if the Agent on an associated device is being upgraded when the task isscheduled to be completed. Agent upgrades are normally short in duration but may be delayed if a re-start of the device is pending.

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_tz_database_time_zones

Fixed Issues in SolarWinds N-centralRelease 12.2 SP1CATEGORY DESCRIPTION BUG

Security Recovery Key report is still visible at the Customer/Site level when the "RecoveryKey Report" permission is set to "None".

NSBM-3525

Security Drive Is incorrectly decrypted when Disk Encryption Manager takes over an already-encrypted drive.

NSBM-3503

Security Disk Encryption report does not show all devices that have Disk Encryptionenabled.

NSBM-3499

Security Recovery Key report shows the Recovery Key GUID instead of the Recovery Keyvalue.

NSBM-3498

Security System Error When Running The Disk Encryption Report. NSBM-3314

Security Disk Encryption Report Should Not Display Recovery Keys. NSBM-3249

Security Recovery Key Report Doesn't Show Devices When Filtering By Device Class orOS.

NSBM-3222

Security AV Defender Version - N-central Incorrectly Specifies "(Updated to 6.6.6.84)". NSBM-2954

Core An authenticated user can turn off their own MFA via URL crafting. NCCF-11838

Core Hardware monitoring of N-central when run on HPE G9 or older servers doesn'twork.

NCCF-11803

Core Windows agents crashes in certain situations when the AVD maintenance threadchecks for the last boot time of the device.

NCCF-11722

Core Installing the Windows agent with the customer-specific installer fails to link to asite-level device.

NCCF-11718

Core CSUC Notification Received For An Internal N-central Build. NCCF-11649

Core Availability of One Service on Multiple Devices report height is fixed. NCCF-11491

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CATEGORY DESCRIPTION BUG

Core LDAP SSO not functioning on upgrade to 12.2 due to "incorrectaccount_attribute"mapping.

NCCF-11436

Core Executing Device always on "Best Available". NCCF-11403

Core Service Template Defaults Propagate options appears at the site level, instead ofat the customer level.

NCCF-11375

Core HTTPS Service Fails to Evaluate the SSL Certificate, Due to a Bad Login. NCCF-11356

Core Beta 12.2 - Maintenance Service on N-central isn't Running. NCCF-11332

Core Probe/Agent installer code starting external processes is not using correctparameters.

NCCF-11303

Core System Error When Generating an SO-Level Audit Log Report. NCCF-11275

Core Probe reinstall doesn't prompt for reactivation key. NCCF-11233

Core QuantitativeTabledOldState variable showing in notification as HTML. NCCF-11171

Core IIS monitors running every hour at the 10th minute instead of every 10 minutes. NCCF-11136

Core Cannot use Domain User Management with any client domains. NCCF-11115

Core Same AMP uploaded to different customers can't be retrieved by an agent. NCCF-11106

Core Under Administration --> Defaults --> Backup and SNMP Defaults, The "SNMPVersion" Column Does Not Sort Correctly.

NCCF-11016

Core AMP-based Custom Service Doesn't Show Full String Thresholds When a Very LongString Is Specified.

NCCF-10982

Core Pop-Up Message For An Incoming Take Control Session Doesn't ProperlyProcess The (Ã¨) Character.

NCCF-10922

Core N-central Shows "Take Control is not configured for the Device" On UnsupportedDevices.

NCCF-10921

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Core System Error When Modifying A Custom Device Property That Is Used As BothThe Input And Output Of A Scheduled Task Profile.

NCCF-10610

Core Missing "Use Default Values" from "Event Conditions" on Windows Event Logservice.

NCCF-10556

Core Custom PSA Connection Test Message Doesn't Tell Users When There's No BodyIn The Return Message.

NCCF-10554

Core Service Alias not available in notification template. NCCF-10540

Core The "Veeam Job Monitor" Isn't Displaying a PickList of Available Jobs. NCCF-10467

Core Support Specifying a Secondary IP Address for N-central in the Linux Agent. NCCF-10455

Core Export failed to ConnectWise with error "invalid IP". NCCF-10333

Core Changing remote control Destination Address doesn't save. NCCF-10142

Core Unable to Propagate Remote Control Defaults to Existing Devices (Servers - Linuxand Workstations - Linux).

NCCF-10085

Core Device import failure due to conflict between custom service and auto assignedfilter.

NCCF-10071

Core PSA Ticket Queue Is Improperly Cleaned Up When Transitioning From A System-Level PSA Setup To An SO-Level PSA Setup.

NCCF-10054

Core Remove N-central Stock AMP "Remove Cached Meta Data". NCCF-10012

Core X-Frame-Options missing from some secondary webapps. NCCF-9772

Core Tools -> Command Prompt Sessions Can Cause Jetty Restarts Due To An ImproperlyClosed Thread.

NCCF-9576

Core Filters not filtering Service Executable Name. NCCF-9476

Core NAC: Reflected XSS in NAC 404 Page. NCCF-9427

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Core Administration API Interface for Axis Incorrectly Exposed. NCCF-9002

Core Wrong effective date is sent to ConnectWise (specific time zones). NCCF-8943

Core Incident Summary report on Customer Level doesn't display events from SiteLevel.

NCCF-8714

Core CW Customer Mapping: adjustable filter limit. NCCF-8581

Core Return to normal doesn't work when service switches to normal during ticketcreation.

NCCF-8430

Core Enable Outbound Communication after a restore does not schedule Report Managerexports.

NCCF-7952

TopologyMaps

Topology job remains in an "In Progress" state due to an unhandled exception. BEAT-1013

Monitoring The "DHCP Server" service template monitors the wrong Windows Event Log source. BEAT-994

PatchManager

Agents Offline After Upgrading To 12.2; "Verify that you have sufficient privilegesto install system services." Logged In The Application Event Log.

NCPM-4080

PatchManager

Can't run Patch On Demand without "Patch Approval - Manage" Permission. NCPM-3968

PatchManager

"Run Rule Now" On Automatic Approval Rules Are Slow/May Time Out. NCPM-3942

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Known LimitationsThe "Known Issues" list for the current version of the SolarWinds N-central software is composed of materialissues significantly impacting performance whose cause has been replicated by SolarWinds MSP and where afix has not yet been released. The list is not exclusive and does not contain items that are under investigation.Any Known Issues set forth herein may not impact every customer environment. The SolarWinds N-centralsoftware is being provided as it operates today. Any potential modifications, including a specific bug fix or anypotential delivery of the same, are not considered part of the current SolarWinds N-central software and are notguaranteed.

Active Issues

DESCRIPTION BUG

When exporting a large list of Active Issues items to PDF format at either the System orService Organization level, the server may fail. Exporting to CSV format does not cause thisproblem.

62860

Agents & Probes

DESCRIPTION BUG

Communication issues may be encountered for SolarWinds N-central Probes installed onWindows servers that have multiple NICs. For more information, refer to "KBA20020:Configuring A Server With Multiple NICs" in the online Help.

67778

Automation Manager

DESCRIPTION BUG

Running Automation Manager Policies created using Automation Manager 1.6 or earlier mayresult in Failed to create an EndDate ... errors if the Policies are run on a computerusing a different date format. This issue does not affect Policies created using AutomationManager 1.7 or later.

65712

AV Defender and Backup Manager – D2D

DESCRIPTION BUG

Custom Settings option no longer available in 10 for backup profiles. NSBM-709

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DESCRIPTION BUG

The About Backup Manager dialog box no longer indicates if the Backup Manager software islicensed.

68226

Custom Services

DESCRIPTION BUG

Custom services may appear as misconfigured when the system locale of the device is notset to English. For example, in Portuguese the default decimal in c#/.net is not a period, ".", itis a comma, ",". If you are having this issue, please contact SolarWinds N-able TechnicalSupport.

65288

Dashboards

DESCRIPTION BUG

Modifying a Dashboard that is associated with a large number of services may causeperformance issues when using the Firefox browser.

70326

Core Functionality

DESCRIPTION BUG

Installing SolarWinds N-central on Servers that have an Nvidia Video Card

Due to a bug in CentOS 7 with Nvidia's "Nouveau" driver, installing SolarWinds N-central onservers that have an Nvidia video card may result in the SolarWinds N-central console showing ablack/blank screen, or displaying an Anaconda Installer screen with an error message about thevideo card driver.

NCCF-11842

HDM doesn’t not work with the “Last 5 Tickets” widget. NCCF-10855

Warranty information might be inaccurate when determining the warranty expiry dates ofdevices that are not located in the USA.

NCCF-3649

URL with embedded username and password prompts for Java upgrade, logging in manually doesnot prompt.

NCCF-2415

Chrome 42.x does not support NPAPI plugins which means that Java and Direct Connect willnot function with that browser version. When attempting to open remote control connectionsin Chrome 42.x, users will be repeatedly prompted to install either Java or the NTRglobal

73359

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DESCRIPTION BUG

plugin with no successful connections made.To resolve this issue, perform the following:

1. In the Chrome address bar, type chrome://flags/.2. Under Enable NPAPI, click Enable.3. Restart Chrome.

PSA Integration

DESCRIPTION BUG

In some instances, tickets closed in PSAs are not being cleared in SolarWinds N-central. Thisis likely because the ticketing recipient profile in SolarWinds N-central has Do not change theTicket Status selected (in order to manually configure tickets). Then, when the ticket isremoved in the PSA, SolarWinds N-central will not be able to update/resolve the ticket's statusand new tickets cannot be created for the same issue. Until a solution is available through theUI for this situation, the work around is to set a Return to Normal status and set a non-usedstatus in the 'updatable statuses' section or set the same status as the return to normal one.This will cause SolarWinds N-central to add a note to the ticket on return to normal but will notalter the ticket's status. This will allow the stale ticket check to remove the ticket from thesystem.

65620

UI

DESCRIPTION BUG

After re-naming, the Names of files or Registry entries may not be displayed properly in theFile System window and the Registry window of the Tools tab when using Internet Explorer.

68149

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End of supportThe following are being deprecated in a future release of SolarWinds N-central:

InternetExplorer11

Due to declining usage in the field, a future release of SolarWinds N-central will dropsupport for the Internet Explorer 11 web browser.

Agents As of next major release for those of you still utilizing the AV5 Bitdefender Antivirusbe advised that monitoring from our AV5 agents will no longer continue. As a resultthis will leave your environments in a vulnerable state. We encourage you to reviewyour agents to ensure you are now utilizing our latest AV6 agents. Reminder that ouronline help for Security Manager is available on the NRC.

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https://secure.n-able.com/webhelp/NC_11-0-0_en/Content/Help_20/AVDefender/AVDef_Home.htm

SolarWinds N-central System RequirementsThe following requirements are for typical usage patterns, acknowledging that some patterns may requiregreater system resources for a SolarWinds N-central server than others.

If you have any questions about how your needs affect the system requirements of your SolarWinds N-centralserver, contact your Channel Sales Specialist or email [email protected].

Processor Server class x86_64 CPUs manufactured by Intel or AMD (i.e. Xeon or EPYC). Please refer to theRed Hat Hardware Ecosystem for further details.

OperatingSystem

You do not need to install a separate Operating System to run SolarWinds N-central. TheSolarWinds N-central ISO includes a modified version of CentOS 7, based on the upstream RedHat Enterprise Linux 7.

PhysicalHardware

The physical server used to install SolarWinds N-central in a bare metal environment must becertified to run Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.6 (x64) by Red Hat, or the hardware vendor, withoutany additional drivers. Please check the Red Hat Hardware Ecosystem for details.

Server Grade hard drives connected to a RAID controller with a Battery/Capacitor Backed Cacheare Required. Examples include 10K+ RPM SCSI or SAS drives, Enterprise Grade SSDs or NVMesfor bare metal and virtualized hosts, or a Fibre Channel connected SAN with Enterprise Gradehard drives for virtualized hosts (Fibre Channel cards can be used for bare metal if they areconfigured in the pre-boot environment and do NOT require vendor-provided drivers).

Although Desktop Hard Drives will work with the Operating System, they do not meet theminimum throughput required for the back-end Database of SolarWinds N-central.

For more details, please refer to the Red Hat Hardware Ecosystem to see if your current hardware will workwith our customized version of CentOS 7.

System requirements by number of devices managedThe table below lists the minimum specifications required to manage the number of devices indicated (based onaverage usage). Performance can be improved by exceeding these requirements. When determining yourhardware requirements, consider any growth in managed device count that may occur over time.

NUMBER OF DEVICES CPU CORES MEMORY STORAGE

Up to 1,000 2 4 GB RAM 80 GB HDD




Up to 12,000 16 32 GB RAM 600 GB HDD

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mailto:[email protected]

https://access.redhat.com/ecosystem/search/#/category/Server?certifications=Red%20Hat%20Enterprise%20Linux%207&architectures=x86_64&ecosystem=Red%20Hat%20Enterprise%20Linux



NUMBER OF DEVICES CPU CORES MEMORY STORAGE

Up to 16,000 22 48 GB RAM 800 GB HDD

Up to 20,000 28 64 GB RAM 1 TB HDD

Up to 24,000 34 80 GB RAM 1.2 TB HDD

Notes

1. Server Grade hard drives connected to a RAID controller with a Battery/Capacitor Backed Cache, arerequired to ensure performance and unexpected power-loss data protection.

2. In a virtualized environment, hard drives for the SolarWinds N-central server must not be shared with anyother applications or VM guests that have significant I/O workloads. For example, Report Manager, SQLDatabases, E-Mail Servers, Active Directory Domain Controllers, SharePoint, or similar should not beinstalled on the same physical hard drive as SolarWinds N-central.

3. SolarWinds MSP recommends two or more hard drives be placed in a redundant RAID configuration. Withtwo drives, RAID 1 must be used. With more than two drives, RAID 1+0 or RAID 5 are recommended. RAID 6is an option on servers with less than 1,000 devices (the additional write latency of RAID 6 becomes anissue above 1,000 devices).

4. SolarWinds MSP recommends more, smaller disks in a RAID array, as opposed to fewer larger disks.Database-backed applications, like SolarWinds N-central, have better write performance with an increasednumber of parallel writes (hard drives).

5. If using Solid State Drives (SSDs), SolarWinds MSP requires Enterprise Grade, SLC based (or better) SSDswith a SAS interface, or Enterprise Grade NVMes. SSD and NVMe drives must have an endurance rating ofat least 0.2 DWPD (Drive Writes Per Day), and at least 2 physical disks in a redundant RAID array. On BareMetal servers, the RAID array must appear to the operating system as a single Block or NVMe Device.Currently, many PCIe and NVMe drives do not meet this last requirement and would only work in avirtualized environment.

6. Configure the RAID controller to use the default stripe size and a Read/Write cache of 50%/50%.

The underlying customized version of CentOS 7 has certain hardware limits that are consistent with theupstream Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 distribution. Of note are the following:

SUBSYSTEM LIMIT

Minimum disk space 80GB

Maximum physical disk size (BIOS) 2TB

Maximum physical disk size (UEFI) 50TB

Required minimum memory 4GB for 4 or fewer logical CPUs

1GB per logical CPU for more than 4 logical CPUs

Maximum memory 12TB

Maximum logical CPUs 768

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Examples of supported servers

Due to the ecosystem of different hardware, SolarWinds MSP does not certify specific hardware configurations.Instead we rely on the upstream Red Hat Enterprise Linux and hardware vendor testing and certification.

Examples of servers that have been Red Hat certified include HPE ProLiant DL360 Gen10 and Dell PowerEdgeR620.

Please consult with your hardware vendor to ensure that any server to be used for a bare metal installationmeets the above requirements, and is Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.6 certified, without the need for additionaldrivers.

SolarWinds MSP recommends that for any Bare Metal server, two or more SAS 10k or faster hard drives beplaced in a RAID array to improve redundancy. RAID 1+0 or RAID 5 are supported (at the hardware RAID BIOSlevel). RAID 6 is an option on servers with less than 1,000 devices (the additional write latency of RAID 6becomes an issue above 1,000 devices).

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https://access.redhat.com/ecosystem/hardware/3108061



Support for virtualized environmentsSolarWinds MSP supports VMware ESX Server 6.0 or newer and Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V or newer LTSversions. SolarWinds MSP recommends use of the latest stable versions of VMware or Hyper-V in order to ensurethe best performance, feature set and compatibility with SolarWinds N-central.

Hyper-V on Windows Desktop Operating Systems not Supported.

SolarWinds N-central installed on a virtual machine running on a Desktop Operating System (such asHyper-V on Windows 10, Virtual Box, Parallels, VMWare Fusion or similar) is not a supportedconfiguration. If you are using Windows Hyper-V, it must be installed on a supported server classWindows Operating System.

Windows Server Semi-Annual Releases are not Supported.

Only Long-Term Support (LTS) versions of the Windows Server Operating System are supported as aHyper-V host for SolarWinds N-central. Microsoft currently releases "Semi-Annual Release" versions ofWindows Server as a technology preview for the next LTS version. Due to their technology preview status,these "Semi-Annual Release" versions of Windows Server are not supported as Hyper-V hosts forSolarWinds N-central.

About virtualization

Virtualization provides an abstraction layer between the hardware and the Operating System which permits theoperation of multiple logical systems on one physical server unit. The table below includes considerations whenusing this deployment method.

SystemPerformance

It is impossible to guarantee the scalability or performance of a SolarWinds N-central serverdeployed on a Virtual Machine due to:

n variability in field environments resulting from host server configurations,n the number of virtual guests run on the host server, andn the performance of the underlying host hardware.

Supportability SolarWinds MSP supports SolarWinds N-central software deployed on VMWare ESX/ESXi 6.0or newer, Windows Server 2012 R2 Hyper-V or newer LTS releases, Microsoft Azure andAmazon AWS EC2 in the same way that we support SolarWinds N-central deployed on BareMetal. This support is limited to the components (Software and Operating System) shippedwith SolarWinds N-central and does not include the troubleshooting of virtualization systemsnor of performance issues related to environmental factors.

SolarWinds MSP recommends reaching out to your hardware or virtualization vendor forsupport on the underlying virtualization and hardware components. Any assistance providedby SolarWinds MSP Support for virtualization or hardware issues is on a best-effort basisonly. In the event of serious performance problems, we might ask you to migrate a virtualizedSolarWinds N-central system to a physical hardware deployment.

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VirtualHardwareSupport

In Windows Server 2016 Hyper-V or newer deployments, it is recommended to create a newGeneration 2 VM. When configuring the VM virtual hardware, if you choose to enable SecureBoot, please select theMicrosoft UEFI Certificate Authority template.

For VMWare ESX/ESXi deployments, it is recommended to select the Red Hat Enterprise Linux7 guest OS template, then under the Boot Options, select the UEFI Firmware.

NetworkAdapters

SolarWinds MSP recommends using the VMXNET3 network card in VMWare. When the VM isconfigured as Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, it will use VMXNET3 by default.

Unless you are using Network Interface Bonding, SolarWinds N-central requires only one (1)network adapter added to the VM configuration. Multiple network adapters that are not usedin a bonding configuration can cause connectivity and licensing issues.

MACAddresses

By default, most virtualization environments use a dynamically assigned MAC address foreach virtual network card. As your SolarWinds N-central license is generated in part by usingthe MAC address of its network card, it is required to use a statically assigned MAC address inorder to avoid becoming de-licensed.

Recommended configuration for the virtualized serverAlthough provisioning virtual disks as "thin" or "thick" results in nearly-identical performance, thickprovisioning is recommended, particularly when more than 1,000 devices will be connected to yourSolarWinds N-central server.

n Assign the highest resource access priority to SolarWinds N-central, as compared to other guest VMs.n Do not over-provision resources (Memory, CPU, Disk) on the virtualization host. Over-provisioning these

resources can causes memory swapping to disk, and other bottlenecks that can impact guest systemperformance.

n Ensure that the system has enough RAM and hard drive space to provide permanently allocated resourcesto the SolarWinds N-central guest.

Supported SoftwareBrowsers

SolarWinds N-central supports the latest versions of:

n Internet Explorer®n Microsoft Edge®n Mozilla Firefox®n Desktop versions Google Chrome®. Mobile phone browsers are not supported.

SolarWinds N-central is not supported on Internet Explorer in Compatibility View mode.

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Remote Control

Remote control connections require the following software on the computers that initiate connections:

n Java 1.8.162 or greater

Report Manager

To use Report Manager with SolarWinds N-central, ensure the you upgrade to the latest version of ReportManager.

Automation Manager

Automation Manager requires .NET Framework 4.5.2 and PowerShell 3.0 to run AMP-based services withSolarWinds N-central.

SNMP Community String

On HPE ProLiant Generation 9 or older Physical Servers, when monitoring the SolarWinds N-central server usingSNMP, the community string used for SNMP queries to the server must use N-central_SNMP, not public.SNMP is only enabled on HPE ProLiant Generation 9 Physical Servers. All other installs do not enable SNMP onthe SolarWinds N-central server.

Supported Operating SystemsThis section describes the supported operating systems for SolarWinds N-central.

Windows Agents:

n Microsoft .NET Framework 4.5.2 (or later)

Windows Server 2019

n Windows Server 2019 Datacentern Windows Server 2019 Standard

Windows Server 2016

n Windows Server 2016 Datacentern Windows Server 2016 Standardn Windows Server 2016 Essentialsn Windows Storage Server 2016n Windows Server 2016 MultiPoint Premium Servern Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2016

Windows Server 2012

n R2 Datacentern R2 Essentials

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n R2 Foundationn R2 Standardn Datacenter 64-bit Editionn Essentials 64-bit Editionn Foundation 64-bit Editionn Standard 64-bit Editionn Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012n Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2012 R2n Storage Server 2012 Enterprise 64-bit Editionn Storage Server 2012 Express 64-bit Editionn Storage Server 2012 Standard 64-bit Editionn Storage Server 2012 Workgroup 64-bit Edition

Windows Server 2008 R2

n Microsoft Hyper-V Server 2008 R2n R2 Datacenter Servern R2 Enterprise Servern R2 Foundation Servern R2 Standard Servern R2 Web Server

The following are required to install Windows Agents on a server using Windows Server 2008 R2 Serverand Windows Hyper-V Server 2008 R2 Core 64-bit:

n The operating system must be Windows Server 2008 R2 Server Core 64-bit SP1 or later.n .NET Framework 4 for Server Core (64-bit) must be installed.

Windows 10

n Microsoft Windows 10 Enterprise & Professionaln Microsoft Windows 10 Education editionsn Windows 10 Pro for Workstations

Windows 8 and 8.1

n 8.1 Enterprisen 8.1 Professionaln 8 Enterprisen 8 Professional

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Windows 7

n Microsoft Windows 7 Enterprise & Professionaln Microsoft Windows 7 Ultimate

Linux Agents

Independent Agents are required for 32-bit and 64-bit Linux OS installations.

The probe performs an SSH connection a Linux device. To discover a Ubuntu/Debian OS device, thedevice must have openssh installed.

n Red Hat Enterprise Linux/CentOS 7 (x86_64 and i686)n Red Hat Enterprise Linux/CentOS 6 (x86_64 and i686)n Ubuntu 18.04 "Bionic Beaver" (x86_64)n Ubuntu 16.04 "Xenial Xerus" (x86_64 and i686)n Debian 8.7/Ubuntu 14.04 "Trusty Tahr" (x86_64 and i686)

Mac Agents

n 10.15 (Catalina)n 10.14 (Mojave)n 10.13 (High Sierra)n 10.12 (Sierra)

AV Defender

Workstation Operating Systems

n Microsoft Windows Vista SP1n Microsoft Windows 7 SP1n Microsoft Windows 8, 8.1n Microsoft Windows 10

Tablet And Embedded Operating Systems

n Windows Embedded Standard 2009n Windows Embedded POSReady 2009n Windows Embedded Enterprise 7n Windows Embedded POSReady 7n Windows Embedded Standard 7

Server Operating Systems

n Microsoft Windows 2008n Microsoft Windows 2008 Servern Microsoft Windows 2008 R2

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n Microsoft Windows Small Business Server 2011n Microsoft Windows Home Server 2011n Microsoft Windows 2012 Servern Microsoft Windows 2012 Server R2n Microsoft Windows 2016 Servern Microsoft Windows 2019 Server

For Microsoft Windows Embedded Standard 7, TCP/IP, Filter Manager, and Windows Installer must all beenabled.

Patch Manager


n Microsoft Windows 7n Microsoft Windows 8n Microsoft Windows 8.1n Microsoft Windows 10 version 1607 and later


n Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 SP1n Microsoft Windows Server 2012n Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 SP1n Microsoft Windows Server 2016

Windows Update Agent

The minimum version of the Windows Update Agent (WUA) needs to be greater than 7.6.7600.320. The base NTbuild version of Windows should be 6.1 or later. Older versions of the base NT build cannot upgrade past version7.6.7600.256 of the Windows Update Agent.

Automation Manager


n Microsoft Windows 7 (32/64-bit)n Microsoft Windows 8 (32/64-bit)n Microsoft Windows 8.1 (32/64-bit)n Microsoft Windows 10 (32/64-bit)


n Microsoft Windows Server 2019n Microsoft Windows Server 2016 (32/64-bit)n Microsoft Windows Server 2012 R2 (32/64-bit)

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n Microsoft Windows Server 2012 (32/64-bit)n Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 (32/64-bit)n Microsoft Windows Server 2008 (32/64-bit)

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Supported operating systems for remote controlThe availability of remote control connections will vary depending on the operating systems of both the clientand target devices. The table below outlines the operating systems and their compatibility with various remotecontrol types.

REMOTE CONTROL TYPE WINDOWS LINUX MAC OS XREMOTE SYSTEM TECHNICIAN REMOTE SYSTEM TECHNICIAN REMOTE SYSTEM TECHNICIAN

Custom

Take Control

Remote Desktop 1

SSH

TeamViewer

Telnet

Web

1. Requires a remote third-party desktop viewer compatible with Mac.

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Licensing and Customer SupportAgent/Probe Installation Software

SolarWinds N-central 12.2 SP1 uses the 7-Zip file archiver for installing agents and probes. 7-Zip is free softwareredistributed under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License as published by the Free SoftwareFoundation. For more information, see http://www.7-zip.org.

Customer Support

Contact SolarWinds MSP to activate your SolarWinds N-central server.

Web Page: http://www.solarwindsmsp.com

Technical Support Self-Service Portal:

https://support.solarwindsmsp.com/kb/

Phone: Toll Free (U.S./CAN): 1-866-302-4689

International: +800-6225-3000

Local: (613) 592-6676, select option 2 for support

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http://www.7-zip.org/

http://www.solarwindsmsp.com/

https://support.solarwindsmsp.com/

© 2019 SolarWinds MSP Canada ULC and SolarWinds MSP UK Ltd. All rights reserved.

No part of this document may be reproduced by any means nor modified, decompiled, disassembled, publishedor distributed, in whole or in part, or translated to any electronic medium or other means without the writtenconsent of SolarWinds MSP Canada ULC ("SolarWinds MSP"). All right, title, and interest in and to the softwareand documentation are and shall remain the exclusive property of SolarWinds MSP and its respective licensors.

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The SolarWinds MSP and N-CENTRAL marks are the exclusive property of SolarWinds MSP Canada ULC and itsaffiliates, are registered with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office, and may be registered or pendingregistration in other countries. All other SolarWinds MSP trademarks, service marks, and logos may be commonlaw marks, registered or pending registration in the United States or in other countries. All other trademarksmentioned herein are used for identification purposes only and may be or are trademarks or registeredtrademarks of their respective companies.

Feedback

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About SolarWinds MSP

SolarWinds is a leading provider of powerful and affordable IT infrastructure management software. Ourproducts give organizations worldwide, regardless of type, size, or IT infrastructure complexity, the power tomonitor and manage the performance of their IT environments, whether on-premises, in the cloud, or in hybridmodels. We continuously engage with all types of technology professionals—IT operations professionals, DevOpsprofessionals, and managed service providers (MSPs)—to understand the challenges they face maintaining high-performing and highly available IT infrastructures. Targeted for MSPs, the SolarWinds MSP product portfoliodelivers broad, scalable IT service management solutions that integrate layered security, collective intelligence,and smart automation. Our products are designed to enable MSPs to provide highly effective outsourced ITservices for their SMB end customers and more efficiently manage their own businesses. Learn more today atsolarwindsmsp.com.

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solarwinds n-central release notes · 2019-11-05 · category description bug core...

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