SolarWinds Certified Professional Observability-Self-Hosted-Fundamentals Updated Exam

In Hybrid Cloud Observability (HCO), report visibility is controlled byReport Limitation Categories. While standard users are typically restricted to specific categories (e.g., "Finance Reports" or "Network Reports"), administrators often require a global view of all reporting assets.

According to theSolarWinds Platform Documentation on Restricting Report Access, the setting"No Limitation"is the specific value used to bypass all category-based filters. When an account is configured with the "No Limitation" report category, the platform security layer allows that user to see every report stored in the database, including reports marked as "private" or those assigned to specific siloed departments.

It is important to distinguish this from the"Default"setting (Option A), which typically only allows users to see reports that have not been assigned to any specific limitation category. To ensure a Platform Administrator has a truly comprehensive view for auditing or management purposes, the "No Limitation" setting must be explicitly selected in their User Account settings underSettings > All Settings > Manage Accounts > Edit User.

In the SolarWinds Platform, the "Node" acts as the primary parent object for all other monitored elements related to that IP address or hostname. According to theSolarWinds Platform Node Managementguide, the deletion process follows a strict parent-child relationship hierarchy.

When an administrator selects a node and chooses to delete it, thenode and all its associated objects are immediately removed (B)from the active monitoring database. Associated objects include interfaces, volumes, hardware health sensors, and application monitors (such as those assigned via SAM). This is an irreversible action. Unlike "Unmanaging" or "Muting," which keep the node record intact, "Delete" purges the entity and its historical data pointers from the current view.

It is important to understand that while the records are removed from the web console immediately, the actual data rows in the SQL database may be marked for deletion and cleared during the next scheduled "Database Maintenance" (Option C). However, from the perspective of the user and the monitoring engine, theresultis immediate: the node stops being polled, its alerts are cancelled, and it no longer appears in any dashboards or reports. The platform does not allow "orphaned" objects; you cannot have a monitored interface in the database if its parent node has been deleted (Option D).

The transition from the legacy Orion Platform toHybrid Cloud Observability (HCO)introduced stricter hardware and software prerequisites to support modern features like AIOps, advanced mapping, and high-performance data processing. According to theSolarWinds Hybrid Cloud Observability System Requirements, the platform requires modern SQL features for optimal performance.

While legacy versions of the Orion Platform may have supported SQL Server 2016 or even 2012 in older iterations,MS SQL Server 2019is identified as theminimum supported versionfor new HCO installations. This requirement ensures compatibility with the latest database indexing and query optimization techniques used by the SolarWinds Platform to handle the high volume of time-series data generated by observability nodes. Additionally, using SQL 2019 or later (including SQL 2022) is necessary to ensure the platform can utilize specific security protocols and memory management improvements that are not available in the end-of-life SQL 2012 or SP1 versions of 2016.

According to theSolarWinds Platformconfiguration documentation, the option toEncrypt connections with SSLduring the database configuration wizard specifically dictates the security level of the communication channel between the application server and the database backend. When this box is checked, the platform ensures thatthe network data between SolarWinds' Hybrid Cloud Observability Platform server and the SQL server will be encrypted. This security measure is critical for protecting the integrity and confidentiality of the performance metrics, configuration data, and credentials as they traverse the internal network between these two primary architectural components.

This encryption utilizesTransport Layer Security (TLS)to wrap theTDS (Tabular Data Stream)protocol used by Microsoft SQL Server. By enabling this feature, the platform prevents potential "man-in-the-middle" attacks where an adversary could sniff network traffic to intercept sensitive monitoring data or administrative information stored within the SQL database. It is important to note that for this setting to function correctly, theSQL Servermust be configured with a valid SSL/TLS certificate that is trusted by the SolarWinds application server.

This setting differs from simple credential encryption (Option C) or secure storage (Option B) because it applies toall datatransmitted during the session, not just the initial login exchange. Furthermore, while the configuration wizard does require a login account (Option A), that account's specific permissions are a separate functional requirement from the underlying encryption of the transport layer. Enabling SSL encryption is a standard best practice for organizations following strict compliance frameworks likeHIPAA,PCI-DSS, orSOC2, where protecting data-in-transit is a mandatory requirement even on internal, "trusted" network segments. This centralized encryption toggle simplifies the deployment of high-security observability environments by orchestrating the secure connection parameters through the standard SolarWinds Configuration Wizard interface.