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Congratulations on your purchase of SolarWinds Orion Network Configuration Manager (Orion NCM). Orion NCM is a comprehensive, intuitive solution designed to streamline and automate network configuration management. Orion NCM increases availability, saves time, improves security, and ensures policy adherence. The automation capabilities of Orion NCM reduce the amount of time network engineers spend on mundane network tasks, allowing them to focus on business-critical network projects.

This version adds the following key features to the already robust Orion NCM feature set:

  • Orion Advanced Alert Integration: automatically execute an NCM action and include results within the relevant Orion alert notifications
  • Change Configuration Templates: a framework that allows IT team leaders to create scripts that can be efficiently executed on multiple devices, without concern for differences in command syntax, based on input to a runtime wizard interface
  • Connected Port Search: find information on the connected ports for a specific node without leaving the Orion Web Console
  • Topology Reports: for nodes discovered with the Network Discovery engine two new reports, Discovered Links and Wireless Host Mapping, are generated based on connection data collected at discovery time

Fixes in this Release

Note: If you have applied Service Packs or Hotfixes to your product, they were delivered with readme.txt files. These files contain fixes that supersede the information found in the Release Notes.

This release of Orion Network Configuration Manager includes the following fixes:

Version 6.0

  • Fixes an issue in which NCM, following upgrade from NCM 4.x to 5.x, shutsdown while running an inventory.
  • Fixes an issue observed with policy cache updating.
  • Fixes an issue with white space being added to configurations during backup and resulting in irrelevant config comparison reports.
  • Adds columns to a database table to stop a type of warning from being issued from the Syslog and Trap services.
  • Adds support for the command prompt provided on HP Procurve switches.
  • Added support for XML-based config files such as used in Extreme XOS.
  • Fixes an error seen when compliance reports are run from the Orion Web Console.
  • Adds special handling of non-alphanumeric characters and extends the character limit in defining customer node properties to 1000.
  • Fixes an issue with MAC addresses not being displayed in inventory reports.
  • Corrects the behavior of a Cancel operation so that the entire queue of devices to be inventoried is targeted, not just the inventories concurrently underway.
  • Adds support for non-alphanumeric characters in defining scheduled jobs.
  • Fixes an issue with node imports from NPM so that NPM default login settings are properly recognized.
  • Fixes truncated display of configs with more than 2330 lines.
  • Fixes mislabeling observed when scheduling jobs with the 'Weekly' option.
  • Enables users with rights other than Administrator to use the SCP tool.
  • Fixes an error seen in a specific workflow such that the Download Config resource in the integrated Orion Web Console was unavailable.

Previous Version Fixes:

Version 5.5.2

  • SNMP v3 password length limitation is now fixed. You can now create and use passwords of 30 characters or fewer.
  • Policy Reports Cache Generation Improvements.
  • The Date/Time format now reflects regional settings in website resources.
  • Config change report containing RegEx patterns correctly displays on NCM website.
  • The 'AllResults' file now references macros ${SysLocation}, ${Caption} as a file name.
  • Fixes an issue with newly created scheduled jobs not appearing in the job list.
  • Fixes an issue with the NCM EVAL version being installed on servers with non US regional settings.
  • Fixes an issue with TFTP server reporting a port 69 conflict.
  • Fixes an issue with custom properties that contained '-' symbols causing NCM resrouces to ask for credentials.
  • Fixes an issue with the NCM Job results file containing macros not saving in "AllResults' file.
  • Compliance reports are now generated correctly on the additional Orion web server with NCM integration.
  • Fixes an issue with Windows 2008 - UAC: NCM Config Wizard not launching with administrator's permissions when launched manually.
  • Fixes an issue with the incorrect number of lines displayed in configuration change notifications for downloaded jobs and RTN logs.
  • Caching service now collects information for all granularities in the 'Policy Report Violations' and 'Devices Backed Up vs. All Devices' chart resources.

Version 5.5.1

  • Resolves an issue when installing on SQL 2008 would require an instance name.
  • Resolves an issue when the Node List would constantly refresh, resulting in poor web console performance.
  • Resolves an issue on Windows 2008 platform with importing devices during the Config Wizard.
  • Resolves an issue with Avara Device login failure.
  • Resolves an issue with NCM Integration breaking the APM App Builder application.
  • Resolves an issue where the Help buttons on the NCM web site for users with Win 2008 x64 platform wouldn't work.
  • Resolves an issue which SSH Downloads would timeout on banner.
  • Resolves an issue with Orion NPM import jobs not merging properly with SSH/Telnet settings.
  • Resolves an issue with Orion NPM Integration: Inventory reports results page hangs and shows IE error instead of appropriate message in case no Inventory is done.
  • Orion NPM Integration - Compare Configs: Change is not tracked at all on the Node Details page of Orion NPM web in case user modified 'Comparison output Width' value in NCM Settings.
  • The policy recurrence time format is displayed according to regional settings set in the browser on machines with non-US regional settings.
  • Resolves an issue when installing on SQL 2008 would require an instance name.
  • Resolves an issue when the Node List would constantly refresh, resulting in poor web console performance.
  • Resolves an issue on Windows 2008 platform with importing devices during the Config Wizard.
  • Resolves an issue with Avara Device login failure.
  • SNMP v3 password length limitation now fixed.
  • Resolves an issue with NCM Integration breaking the APM App Builder application.
  • Resolves an issue where the Help buttons on the NCM web site for users with Win 2008 x64 platform wouldn't work.
  • Resolves an issue which SSH Downloads would timeout on banner.
  • Resolves an issue with Orion NPM import jobs not merging properly with SSH/Telnet settings.
  • Resolves an issue with Orion NPM Integration: Inventory reports results page hangs and shows IE error instead of appropriate message in case no Inventory is done.
  • Orion NPM Integration - Compare Configs: Change is not tracked at all on the Node Details page of Orion NPM web in case user modified 'Comparison output Width' value in NCM Settings.

Version 5.5

  • Offers support for Cisco VPN Concentrator menu-drive devices (3002, 2005, and 3030) for configuration transfer using the following protocol combinations: Telnet\Telnet, SSH1\SSH1, Telnet\TFTP, SSH\TFTP.
  • Added more CAT OS templates to the builtin device templates (5000, 5500, 5509, 4006, 6006, and 6500).
  • Provides the ability to change the minimal config length. To adjust the minimal length for a configuration file, launch the Orion NCM client user interface, and then click File > Setting. Expand Configs, and then click Config Transfers in the left pane. Adjust the Config Min Length slider to change the minimal number of lines to keep as a configuration file.
  • Improved script execution on Dell PowerConnect switches.
  • Enhances the logic used to ignore multiline crypto strings, hex data, and certificate information when executing configuration comparisons. These settings can be found by clicking File > Setting. Expand Configs, and then click Comparison Criteria in the left pane.
  • Corrects an issue in which the term Error was used instead of Critical for critical policy violations.
  • Compares configuration files against the last downloaded config if a match cannot be made on a specified period. This allows you to successfully run the change comparisons even when your nightly backup is set to discard unchanged configurations.
  • Removes the truncation of change detection line descriptions in emailed reports. Line allowance was raised to 250 characters.
  • Enhanced performance of the realtime change detection feature to correct excessive CPU usage in some configurations.
  • Fixes an issue surrounding the inclusion of building configuration... when comparing running versus startup configurations on Aruba devices.
  • Adds the As of last update time period to a number of chart resources in the Orion NCM Web Console and the Orion NCM integration for Orion NPM. This time period removes the confusion caused by config conflicts shown through time, instead of a comparison only against the last configuration.
  • Corrects an issue in which extra spaces at the end of lines were counted as changes when running configuration comparisons using the Config Change report.
  • Provides the ability to disable email notification for Real-Time Change Detection.
  • Resolves an issue in which the ${SysName} variable was overwriting the node Caption when running an inventory that includes system information.

Version 5.1.1

  • Provides an updated Cisco Catalyst 1900 device template to correct an issue downloading configurations.
  • Provides an updated Cisco Catalyst 4000 device template to correct an issue communicating with the device.
  • Corrects an issue with transferring data to and from the Cisco VPN Concentrator 3000 series.
  • Resolves a problem in which selecting the Search last downloaded Config from each Node only could result in empty search results in the Web Console.
  • Enhances the speed at which the Select Routers / Switches dialog returns results in the local client and the speed at which results of matching devices specified through the Specify a Selection Criteria are returned.
  • Fixes an issue launching the Cisco Cards report from the Node Details view.
  • Corrects an issue in which logging in from the Configuration Change Report view, after the Web Console times out, could cause an unhandled exception.
  • Resolves an issue where transfers could be performed for unmanaged nodes.
  • Fixes an issue in which the Download Configs resource was not respecting Windows local and domain accounts in Orion NPM through the Integration module.
  • Corrects an issue where the Last Month range of the Advanced Search in the Web Console offered a range that was off by one day.
  • Fixes an error when attempting to designate a website root directory other than the default during the Configuration wizard.
  • Provides the ability to reconfigure Orion NCM to use a SQL Server 2000 database after using a SQL Server 2005 database server.
  • Corrects an issue in which user settings were not properly migrating when upgrading from version 3.5.
  • Fixes an issue when searching within configurations for a selected node when the NCM database is configured on SQL 2005 Server and configuration snippets exist in the database.

Version 5.1

  • Provides the No Group category in the Web Console when policy reports contain nodes that are not assigned to groups.
  • Allows you to click a violation on a policy violation report in the Web Console and navigate to the configuration details view of the offending device.
  • Corrects an issue in which mass config changes could cause high CPU and memory use when Realtime Config Change Detection is enabled.
  • Resolves an issue in which certificates in downloaded configurations could not be ignored. All certificate lines are now ignored.
  • Fixes the services not restarting after the server reboots when installed with Orion NPM.
  • Corrects a problem in the Web Console when mousing over a violation in which the device name was shown surrounded by HTML anchor tags.
  • Resolves an issue executing scripts on menu-based devices while in CLI mode.
  • Adds node name and system name to the search in nodes capability of the Web Console.
  • Fixes an issue in which correcting the community string of a node was ignored and the node would not respond correctly to an inventory request.
  • Resolves an issue where the Inventory Report could time out when run against very large data sets through the Web Console.
  • Corrects an issue in which only groups were displayed in certain reports when Automatically expand Node list to 'Group' level was selected.
  • Fixes an issue in which the node grouping selected in the Execute Script user interface was not retained after being closed.
  • Updates the behavior of the baseline action to update the cache on which the Baseline vs. Running Config Conflicts chart is based.
  • Corrects an issue in which cancelling the editing of a custom HTML resource in the Web Console would add extraneous HTML code to the view.
  • Fixes an issue in which variables were not correctly parsed and replaced when used in scheduled jobs.
  • Correctly displays backed up configuration information in the Devices Backed Up vs Not Backed Up chart in the Web Console when the option to only backup configurations that have changed is selected.
  • Fixes an issue in which different Cisco vendor icons were displayed for different devices, causing strange node tree behavior.
  • Resolves an issue in which creating snippets would not correctly update the Devices Backed Up vs Not Backed Up chart in the Web Console.
  • Corrects an issue in which extra carriage returns were added after every line when adding a banner on some Cisco routers.
  • Fixes a problem in which the Orion NCM Web Console related to the incorrect SQL security schema being set by the configuration wizard resulting in an unhandled exception.
  • Resolves a performance issue when running the Policy reports.
  • Corrects intermittent download failures on Cisco 4006 CatOS.
  • Fixes an issue caused by the use of non-US date formatting.
  • Saves configurations in the correct location when the nodes do not have a system name value.
  • Updated the Search Whole Word option to return only what is declared and nothing more. For example, searching for 10.199.1.1 only returns 10.199.1.1 and does not return 10.199.1.10.
  • Removes confusing message declaring No SNMP Support for unmanaged nodes with valid SNMP credentials.

Known Issues in this Release

The following issues have been identified in version 6.0:

FIPS and NCM

As Ajax-based software, the NCM Web Console relies on the Microsoft ASP.Net ScriptManager to facilitate page-level application functions. Since the version of ScriptManager in Windows 2008 (R2) and Windows 7 use encryption that FIPS does not support, the NCM Web Console cannot function properly on these operating systems. This Microsoft issue currently has no solution or workaround. If you must enable FIPS, and you have an option of which Windows operating system to use, do not use Windows 2008 (R2) or Windows 7 for your NCM server. Note: In any case, Windows 7 is supported only for evaluation purposes.

SolarWinds Toolset Add-on

If you are running the NCM server on Windows 2008, and have Microsoft Internet Explorer versions 7 or above, you can install the SolarWinds Toolset by following the steps this Knowledge Base article: How do I repair or change my NCM installation?

NCM Repair and Change Processes

If you are running NCM server on Windows 2008, and you need to repair NCM or change its installation, follow the steps in this Knowledge Base article: How do I enable the SolarWinds Toolset integration?

Syslog and Trap Services

 Note: The SCP / SFTP server currently only supports version 2 of SSH.

Although the SolarWinds Syslog Server and Trap Server are installed and launched with Administrator access, you must manually grant them such access in order for them and their jobs to run correctly.

To grant Administrator access to the SolarWinds Syslog Server and Trap Server:

  1. Navigate to the location where SolarWinds NCM software is installed.

    Note: The default installation path is C:\Program Files\SolarWinds\Configuration Management.

  2. Right click NCMSyslogService in the right pane and select Properties
  3. Select the Compatibility tab
  4. Click Run this program as an administrator in Privilege Level, click Apply, then click OK.
  5. Right click NCMTrapService in the right pane and select Properties
  6. Select the Compatibility tab
  7. Click Run this program as an administrator in Privilege Level, click Apply, and then click OK.

Configuration Wizard

The last two windows of the Configuration wizard are not displayed during installation on Windows 2008. These windows allow you to import nodes from Orion NPM and to automatically discover your network. Both of these procedures can be accomplished outside the Configuration Wizard. For more information, see the Administrator Guide.

Internet Explorer Issues

The following issues have been identified with Internet Explorer and are being investigated.

Telnet Icon

The Telnet icon on the NCM Node Details page and the Configuration Change Report results page of the Orion NCM Web Console does not launch the Telnet window. To correct this issue, add the following registry value: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main\FeatureControl\FEATURE_DISABLE_TELNET_PROTOCOL] "iexplore.exe"=dword:00000000. This is a known issue with Internet Explorer 7.

Orion NCM Integration for Orion NPM - Inventory Reports

If you are using Internet Explorer 8, you need to be running in Compatibility mode to ensure Inventory report navigation works correctly.

Search Does Not Find Partial Word Values

Due to the use of Full-Text Search, partial word searches are not supported. You can find the beginning of a word, but you cannot specify the middle or end of a word on which to search.

EnergyWise

The following EnergyWise issues are being investigated:

Importance

Currently, the importance of policy updates is hard coded to 100. At this time, this is caused by a limitation imposed by the EnergyWise MIB data collection mechanism.

Time

The time returned by and EnergyWise device is based on the device time. Therefore, recurrence policies (based on chron jobs) respect the time set on the device, not the time of Orion NPM or Orion NCM.

Recurrence Policy and Chron Jobs

Do not use a 7 to represent Sunday in the day of the week option of your recurrence policy. At this time, 7 is not recognized by Orion NPM as Sunday and will cause problems with your EnergyWise Policy Overview Calendar.

Internationalization

A number of areas in the Local Client application, the Web Console, and the Orion NCM Integration for Orion NPM display the wrong time format when you change the system settings to display an international time setting. This is a known issue and will be corrected in an upcoming release.

Adding Orion NPM Resources to Orion NCM Node Details or Summary views

Adding Orion NPM summary or node details resources to Orion NCM views can result in the Orion NPM resources no longer respecting node filtering, essentially providing a network-wide view.

Installing this Version

You do not need to uninstall your previous version before installing this version of Orion NCM. Shutdown any running Orion NCM applications, and then run the setup program. The setup program will detect and uninstall your previous version without a loss of customizations, other than customizations to the toolbar. Toolbar customizations are overwritten to ensure new toolbar options are included.

 Notes:

  • During your upgrade, you are presented with the option to select one or more Orion Network Configuration Manager components to modify on the Welcome window of the Configuration wizard. Check all three options, Database, Website, and Services. Failure to do so can result in a Sys.WebForms.PageRequestManagerParserEroorException error. It is optional to update your Startup Settings during an upgrade.
  • Upgrading or installing Orion NCM stops Microsoft IIS and restarts it. Ensure you upgrade at a time when your IIS server is least likely to be accessed.

Upgrading Orion NCM

Backup your database before performing any upgrade of Orion NCM.

Warning Warning:

The upgrade installer overwrites default device templates. It is against template management best practices to modify a default template without copying, renaming it and--if it applies to a specific version of a device--verifying that the system OID is unique. However, in case you did this, you should copy your edited version of the default template to a backup location to avoid losing your work.

Upgrading the Orion NCM Integration with Orion NPM

To take advantage of the updates in the Orion NCM Integration for Orion NPM, you must first upgrade your Orion NCM server. After upgrading Orion NCM, upgrade your Orion NPM server with the new Orion NCM integration module. When you begin your installation, upgrades are detected automatically.

Warning Warnings:

  • The Orion NCM Integration for Orion NPM shipped with version 6.0 requires Orion NPM 10.0.
  • Upgrading or installing Orion NCM stops Microsoft IIS and restarts it. Ensure you upgrade at a time when your IIS server is least likely to be accessed.

 Notes:

  • During installation of the NCM integration module, you are presented with the option to select one or more Orion Network Configuration Manager components to modify on the Welcome window of the Configuration wizard. Be sure to check all three options, Database,Website, and Services. Failure to do so can result in malfunction of some NCM features when accessed in the Orion Web Console.
  • EnergyWise functionality requires Cisco IOS version 12.2(50)SE1 for Cisco Catalyst 2960, 3560, 3560-E, 3750,3750-E series switches and IOS 12.2(52)SG for Cisco Catalyst 4500 switches.
  • Previous versions of the Orion NCM Integration for Orion NPM, versions 5.1 and 5.1.1, are compatible with Orion NPM 9.5.

Updated Requirements

Orion NCM no longer supports Windows 2000, nor does Orion NCM support SQL 2000, SQL 2000 MSDE, or Microsoft Access database as datastores.

Documentation Updates

For the Nortel 520-48T (1.2.6.1.4.1.45.3.59.2) and 470-48T-PWR (1.2.6.1.4.1.45.3.64 switches, the device templates included in the Orion NCM installation directory ( C:\Program Files\SolarWinds\Configuration Management\Device Types, by default) contain a value for the EnterCLI command that is valid only if the device is running as a standalone switch. In this case, as a user needs to do in order to enter CLI mode, the template inputs 14 consecutive down arrow keystrokes.

However, if either Nortel device is configured in stack of two or more devices, the result of 14 down arrow keystrokes is a reboot of all devices in the stack. When configured in a stack, to enter CLI mode, the user (in this case, the template) must input 16 down arrow keystrokes. To edit the existing device templates, you would add two additional ${DownArrow} instructions to the value of the EnterCLI command:

<Command Name="EnterCLI" Value="${DownArrow}${DownArrow}${DownArrow}${DownArrow}${DownArrow}${DownArrow}${DownArrow}${DownArrow}${DownArrow}${DownArrow}${DownArrow}${DownArrow}${DownArrow}${DownArrow}${DownArrow}${DownArrow}${CRLF}" Delay="300" RegEx=""/>

A new device template command is available in Orion NCM 5.5. If your device does not use the Username: prompt when waiting for the username, you can add the following lines to your device template: <Command Name="CustomUserNamePrompt" Value="Username:"/>

A new time frame, As of last update, was added to the Web Console charts provided in both the Orion NCM Web Console and in the Orion NCM Integration for Orion NPM. This time frame lets you see data based on the latest action, for example, the last download of a configuration file will be used for the Devices Backed Up Vs Not Backed Up resource.

Administrator Requirement to Run NCM Windows Console

Your user account must be a member of the Administrators group in the operating system to run the NCM Windows console.

Integrating NCM into Additional Orion NPM Web Server

Integrating NCM into your additional Orion NPM web server requires that you apply your NCM certificate by following the steps in this SolarWinds Knowledge Base article on integration, migration, and licensing.

SQL Express

SQL Express, a free version of SQL Server 2005 with a 4GB database limit, is a supported database platform for Orion NCM.

Specifying Your Instance

During the database section of the Configuration wizard, it is possible that the browse function of the wizard will not find your database. If you experience difficulty browsing to your SQL Express instance, type ServerName\sqlexpress in the SQL Server field on the Login to SQL Server dialog, where ServerName is the pre-Windows 2000 name of your SQL Server.

Creating Data Directories

The Configuration wizard does not create nor offer to create data directories for the database you install during the Setup Database section of the wizard. If you create new data directories using Windows Explorer or some other tool while on the Create/Connect to Database dialog, you must click Back to return to the Login to SQL Server dialog, then click Continue. You will be able to select the newly created directory for your database data.

Web Console Shortcut

If you specify a port other than the default port of 8888, the shortcut provided in the start menu may not reflect your custom port. To remedy this issue, edit the following file with a text editor and update it to reflect your selected port number: \Program Files\SolarWinds\Configuration Management\NCM Web Console.url.

Cisco Catalyst Issues

The following issues have been identified with the use of Orion NCM and Cisco Catalyst devices.

Indirect Download

The device template provided with Orion NCM was designed for software version 8.1(3). If you are experiencing issues downloading a config using TFTP from a CatOS device, change the DownloadConfigIndirect command in the device template to the following: <Command Name="DownloadConfigIndirect" Value="copy ${ConfigType} ${TransferProtocol}://${StorageAddress}/${StorageFilename}${CRLF}${StorageAddress}${CRLF}y"/>. For more information about command template variables, see the Administrator Guide.

Last Transmitted/Last Received

Cisco Catalyst switches do not provide Time since last data Received nor the Time since last data Transmitted values to the Orion NCM client user interface.

Status Remains Gray

There is a known issue in which the status indicator icons remain gray in the locally installed user interface if you have selected grouping by Node Group, included the Vendor Icon at the top of the displayed properties list, and are showing status in the left Node tree.

To alleviate this issue and consistently show status for nodes:
  1. Click File > Settings.
  2. Select Node List in the left navigation tree, and then move Vendor Icon lower in or remove it from the list of Selected Properties.
  3. Click OK.

Script Error When Editing Jobs

When editing a job, you may receive an error stating: An error has occurred in the script on this page. Click Yes to confirm that you want to continue running scripts on the page. This will allow you to continue working without losing data.

Connections and Cancellations

When Orion NCM experiences connection loss and when operations are cancelled, dialogs and notifications may not always clearly reflect the appropriate message.

Scheduled Jobs and Node Filters

When creating a scheduled job and specifying a condition of "Where Node Name starts with ABC". Devices that begin with ABC are not being selected when the job runs. As a workaround, change the filter for the node selection to be "Where System Name starts with ABC".

Realtime Changes and Baselines

When utilizing the Realtime Configuration Change Detection feature, if a baseline configuration has not been established for a node, the last configuration file received will be used for the comparison.

Indirect Transfers with Multiple IP Addresses

When using indirect transfers on a server that has multiple IP addresses (for example, a main IP and a vpn IP), the retrieved TFTP IP address may not be the desired IP address. To manually specify a TFTP IP address, click File > Settings > TFTP Server, and then clear Do not automatically retrieve IP, and then type the desired TFTP IP address.

Removing the Orion NCM Integration for NPM

Removal of the Orion NCM Integration for NPM component requires manual interaction with the Orion NPM website. Complete the following procedure to completely remove the integration component.

To remove the Orion NCM Integration component:

  1. Stop the Orion NPM website using the Microsoft Internet Information Service Manager.
  2. Stop the IIS Admin Service using the Service Control Manager (services.msc).
  3. Delete the NCM folder in the \inetpub\SolarWinds\Orion folder.
  4. Restart the IIS Admin Service.
  5. Restart the Orion NPM website.
  6. Navigate to http://hostnameOrIPaddress/orion/admin/listviews.aspx and remove Orion NCM resources from the following views:
    • Network Summary Home
    • Node Details

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