Documentation Plugins SolarWinds Configure

Configure the SolarWinds data source

This document explains how to configure the SolarWinds data source in Grafana.

Before you begin

Before you configure the data source, ensure you have:

• SolarWinds data source plugin installed: For installation instructions, refer to Install the SolarWinds data source.
• Grafana permissions: Organization administrator role.
• SolarWinds credentials: A username and password that can access the SolarWinds Information Service API.
• Network access: Outbound connectivity from Grafana to your SolarWinds instance on port 17774.

Add the data source

To add the SolarWinds data source:

1. Click Connections in the left-side menu.
2. Click Add new connection.
3. Type SolarWinds in the search bar.
4. Select SolarWinds.
5. Click Add new data source.

Configure settings

Configure the following settings for the SolarWinds data source:

Configure the connection

The SolarWinds data source connects to the SolarWinds Information Service (SWIS) API, not the SolarWinds Orion web UI. Configure the connection so that Grafana can reach the SWIS API.

Server URL

Enter only the scheme and host of your SolarWinds server in the URL field, for example https://solarwinds.example.com. The data source automatically appends the SWIS port (17774) and API path, so you don’t add them yourself.

Required port

The SWIS REST API listens on port 17774 by default. This port must be open between your Grafana server and your SolarWinds server. Port 443, which serves the Orion web UI, isn’t used by this data source.

Authentication

The SolarWinds data source uses basic authentication. Provide the credentials for a SolarWinds account that can access the SWIS API.

Use a SolarWinds Orion account that’s allowed to authenticate against the SWIS API and that has permission to read the entities you query, such as Orion.Nodes and Orion.AlertActive. If you can sign in to the Orion web console but queries fail with authorization errors, confirm the account is permitted to use the SWIS API.

TLS settings

If your SolarWinds instance uses a self-signed or custom certificate, configure one of the following TLS options:

Verify the connection

Click Save & test to verify the connection. Grafana runs a SWQL health check query against your SolarWinds instance. When the connection succeeds, Grafana displays the message health check succeeded for 'SWQL Query' query.

If the test fails, refer to Troubleshoot the SolarWinds data source for solutions to common connection, authentication, and TLS errors.

Provision the data source

You can define the data source in YAML files as part of the Grafana provisioning system. For more information, refer to Provision Grafana.

YAML Copy

apiVersion: 1
datasources:
  - name: SolarWinds
    type: grafana-solarwinds-datasource
    jsonData:
      variables:
        url: https://<HOSTNAME>
      services:
        solarwinds:
          auth:
            username: <USERNAME>
    secureJsonData:
      solarwinds.password: <PASSWORD>

Replace <HOSTNAME> with the hostname of your SolarWinds instance, <USERNAME> with your SolarWinds username, and <PASSWORD> with your SolarWinds password.

Provision with Terraform

You can provision the data source using the Grafana Terraform provider.

hcl Copy

resource "grafana_data_source" "solarwinds" {
  type = "grafana-solarwinds-datasource"
  name = "SolarWinds"

  json_data_encoded = jsonencode({
    variables = {
      url = "https://<HOSTNAME>"
    }
    services = {
      solarwinds = {
        auth = {
          username = var.solarwinds_username
        }
      }
    }
  })

  secure_json_data_encoded = jsonencode({
    "solarwinds.password" = var.solarwinds_password
  })
}

For more information, refer to the Grafana Terraform provider documentation.