SolarWinds Certified Professional

Exam Preparation Guide

Introduction
The SolarWinds Certified Professional (SCP) exam is designed to test your knowledge of general networking
management topics and how to utilize SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) in a real-world
environment. Upon successfully passing the exam, you will receive an industry-standard technology certification,
as well as the special status of SCP in the SolarWinds online community.

This guide is designed to provide an overview of the exam, recommended study resources, and sample questions
to assist you in preparing for the exam.

We encourage you to register for the exam, if you have done so already. If you have any questions or need
assistance, you can contact us via email.

Helpful Links

SolarWinds Official SCP Site »

SolarWinds thwack Community Forum »
Introduction to the SCP Program (Video) »

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Exam Sections
Network Management Fundamentals
Objectives
• Use and explain network management protocols (e.g. SNMP, SNMP Traps, Syslog, ICMP, NetFlow, etc.)
• Leverage MIBs, OIDs, and WMI performance counters to diagnose and troubleshoot network problems

Study Resources
Learning Center »
Video: Network Management Fundamentals »
Video: Introduction to Network Management Protocols »
Video: Understanding MIBs, OIDs and Performance Counters

Sample Questions

1. A network engineer has been asked to monitor 3. While attempting to monitor a Windows 2003
an Object Identifier (OID) using a custom Server using WMI, a network management
poller. The custom poller does not seem to be system is unable to pull the requested values
working, so the engineer takes a packet capture from the server. Packet traces reveal that the
from the router in question. To best filter the requests are making it to and from the server.
capture data and determine if the router is What is the most likely cause of the problem?
sending information about that OID, what
would the engineer filter on? (A) firewall rules
(B) Windows updates
(A) destination IP address of the network
management system (NMS) and port 162 (C) WMI versioning

(B) destination IP address of the router and (D) Windows permissions

port 161
4. Your network management system (NMS)
(C) destination IP address of the network leverages WMI to query Windows servers for
management system (NMS) and port 161
status. Each of the servers is a part of the same
(D) destination IP address of the router and Active Directory domain and utilizes the same
port 162 credentials for login and authorization.
Overnight, one of the servers stops responding
2. When is NetFlow data exported from a router to queries from the NMS. A quick check reveals
to a NetFlow collector? that the server is otherwise running normally.
(A) when the router is queried by the NetFlow What should you check or verify next?
collector (A) The SNMP service is running on the server.
(B) whenever the router configuration is (B) The server has all available Windows
changed updates installed.
(C) when ten or more conversations have (C) The WMI service is running on the server.
started
(D) The WMI user has read permissions
(D) when a TCP conversation is finished allowed.

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 Network Management Planning

Objectives
• Translate business requirements into monitoring needs, thresholds, and SolarWinds NPM
configurations
• Design a reporting system that meets the needs of the various stakeholders
• Determine monitoring scope and impact on the network
• Determine the impact of network topology on monitoring

Study Resources
Network Management Planning »
Video: Network Management Planning »

Sample Questions

1. A managed service provider (MSP) is planning 3. Which list of protocols is in order from lowest
to deploy a network management system impact on network bandwidth to highest
(NMS) to monitor multiple customer networks. impact on network bandwidth?
The MSP must choose between a centralized or
distributed management architecture. What (A) SNMP, ICMP, NetFlow, WMI
are the two most important factors to (B) NetFlow, ICMP, WMI, SNMP
consider? (Choose two.) (C) ICMP, SNMP, WMI, NetFlow
(A) available bandwidth between the MSP and (D) SNMP, ICMP, WMI, NetFlow
customers
(B) total number of devices to be managed
(C) choice of SNMP version for polling
(D) overlapping IP address space between
customers
(E) choice of SSL versus VPN tunnel for
communication

2. A switch has started to show recent CPU spikes

and buffer misses. No users have complained.
You are able to telnet to the device, but the
device has stopped responding to SNMP. What
is the most likely cause?
(A) There is an SNMP-based Denial of Service
(DOS) attack on a server plugged into the
switch.
(B) SNMP has been manually disabled.
(C) The switch is getting overloaded and has
de-prioritized SNMP responses.
(D) There is an IP address conflict on the
switch.
 Network Management Operations

Objectives
• Enable devices for network management
• Determine future capacity requirements
• Define, monitor, and report on SLAs

Study Resources
Network Management Operations »
Video: Network Management Operations »

Sample Questions
1. Which type of Syslog message indicates the
lowest severity level? 3. Which aspect of network monitoring typically
causes a network management system (NMS)
(A) alerts database to grow quickly?
(B) critical
(A) bandwidth utilization
(C) debugging
(B) NetFlow collection
(D) errors
(C) CPU utilization
(E) informational
(D) application performance
(F) notifications
4. Which calculation should you use to filter out
2. Which protocol is the most secure for peaks in network utilization data?
establishing remote terminal access to a
system? (A) six sigma
(B) standard deviation
(A) Telnet
(C) 95th percentile
(B) SNMPv2
(D) harmonic mean
(C) SSHv2
(D) SNMPv3

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 Network Fault & Performance Troubleshooting

Objectives
• Detect and verify network faults • Determine the scope of the performance
issue
• Determine the scope of the network fault
• Collect and analyze network monitoring
• Collect and analyze network monitoring
data to determine the cause of the
data to determine the cause of a network
performance issue
fault
• Detect and verify performance issues

Study Resources
Network Fault and Performance Troubleshooting »
Video: Network Fault and Performance Troubleshooting »

Sample Questions
1. Your network management system (NMS)
indicates that a device is down. As a 3. Your company outsources CRM to a SaaS
troubleshooting step you attempt to telnet to company. Users are complaining that the CRM
the device, and you are able to successfully is down. You are able to verify that Internet
connect. However, pinging the device fails. connectivity is good and that other Internet
What should you do next to troubleshoot this sites can be accessed. You contact the CRM
situation? provider and find that none of their other
customers are having issues. You attempt to
(A) verify layer 2 connectivity to the device ping the IP address from your network
(B) verify that the "down" device can ping the management system (NMS), but the ping fails.
NMS After reviewing recent changes to your outside
(C) verify that the ICMP service on the NMS is router's configuration, you determine that an
functioning access control list (ACL) update is causing the
problem. At which layer of the OSI model is the
(D) verify the SNMP community string for the
problem occurring?
device
(A) layer 1
2. You have recently started deploying a new type (B) layer 2
of router on your network. What should you do
(C) layer 3
to ensure that the SNMP traps received from
these devices are correctly interpreted by your (D) layer 5
network management system (NMS)?
(A) contact the router vendor for a firmware
update
(B) review your firewall rules to ensure the
traps are not being blocked en route
(C) contact the router vendor for the latest
MIBs and apply to your NMS
(D) verify that your NMS is using the correct
SNMP community strings

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 SolarWinds NPM Administration

Objectives
• Manage accounts in SolarWinds NPM • Customize SolarWinds NPM custom
properties, views, and menu bars
• Discover and manage network elements
(e.g. nodes, interfaces, volumes) using • Create and maintain SolarWinds NPM
SolarWinds NPM maps
• Configure and use the SolarWinds NPM • Scale SolarWinds NPM and optimize its
Universal Device Poller (UnDP) performance
• Create and run standard and customized • Identify the ways in which SolarWinds
SolarWinds NPM reports NPM can integrate with other management
products
• Configure an SolarWinds NPM alert and
verify the logic • Explain the technical capabilities and
limitations of each Orion module
• Configure and manage Syslog and SNMP
Traps • Leverage the expertise and custom
resources on thwack
• Customize Orion web console

Study Resources
NPM Administration »
Video: NPM Administration »
Video: Web Administration and Customization »
Video: Managing Devices »
Video: Alerts and Events »
Video: Managing Syslog and SNMP Traps »
Video: Scalability and Performance »

Sample Questions

1. You need to create an account that can see 2. One of your network engineers is using both
only a subset of the nodes being monitored by SolarWinds NPM and Engineer's Toolset. The
SolarWinds NPM. What would you add to the engineer cannot access the toolset from within
account to make this possible? the Orion Web Console. What should you
(A) account views enable on the engineer's Orion account?
(B) account limitations (A) Allow Administrator Rights
(C) account permissions (B) Allow Browser Integration
(D) view permissions (C) Allow PassLink
(D) Allow Advanced Customization
3. Universal Device Pollers (UnDP) can be applied 7. You have been asked to provide reports on
to which two object types? (Choose two.) bandwidth utilization during business hours for
each of your remote sales offices for the last
(A) nodes
month. How should you design this report in
(B) volumes SolarWinds NPM?
(C) interfaces
(A) pull all of the usage data and average it by
(D) applications month
(E) monitors (B) pull last month's usage data and sort it by
time of day
4. Where should an alert be created for a
(C) pull this year's usage data and filter by
Universal Device Poller (UnDP)?
month
(A) Basic Alerts Manager
(D) pull last month's usage data and filter out
(B) Universal Device Poller non-business hours
(C) Orion Web Console
8. In SolarWinds NPM, you want to send an alert
(D) Advanced Alert Manager
to Engineer A first. If Engineer A fails to
5. What can be accomplished with the Report acknowledge the alert within 30 minutes, you
Grouping feature in Report Writer? want to send the alert to Engineer. Which two
settings must be defined to achieve this type of
(A) limit the content of the reports alert escalation? (Choose two.)
(B) modify the format of the reports
(A) suppress this alert (Do Not Trigger) when
(C) manage the distribution of the reports the following condition exists
(D) schedule the distribution of the reports (B) reset this alert when the following
condition exists
6. You have been asked for a report that shows
(C) execute this action XX
the top 50 interfaces by percent utilization.
minutes/hours/days after the alert
What is the most time-efficient way to create
this report in SolarWinds NPM? (D) check this alert every XX
seconds/minutes/hours
(A) create a new interface report and restrict
(E) do not trigger this action until the condition
to the top 50 using a filter
exists for more than XX
(B) run the default top 25 interfaces by percent seconds/minutes/hours
utilization over different timeframes
(F) do not execute this action if the alert has
(C) edit default top 25 interfaces by percent been acknowledged
utilization report and update to the top 50
(D) create a new advanced SQL query report

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9. You have added several WAN routers from 10. During the planning process, which two factors
different company sites to a network map and determine the license level required for
added a link line connecting the routers. How SolarWinds NPM? (Choose two.)
do you display link status on an SolarWinds
NPM map? (A) total number of nodes
(B) total number of CPUs of monitored devices
(A) drag and drop the status object on the link
line (C) total number of users

(B) edit the link line and select the appropriate (D) total number of interfaces
router interface (E) total number of sites
(C) edit the router interface and enable Link
Status
(D) edit Router Status and enable the Link
Status option

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Sample Questions Answer Key
Network Management Fundamentals
1. C 2. D 3. D 4. C

Network Management Planning

1. A, D 2. C 3. C

Network Management Operations

1. C 2. C 3. B 4. C

Network Fault & Performance Troubleshooting

1. B 2. C 3. C

SolarWinds NPM Administration

1. B 2. B 3. A, C 4. D 5. B
6. C 7. D 8. C, F 9. B 10. A, D

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