Bulk or Mass Update Node Name (Caption) with Host SysName in SolarWinds Orion

SolarWinds Orion is a network performance monitoring system that easy to use yet powerful. The SolarWinds Orion NPM or NMS allows users add nodes or devices for statistics polling and availability tracking. For device or system with SNMP enabled, Orion will automatically assign the host name or device name as the display name (aka node name) in Orion Web Console or System Manager, although users also have ability to change and assign whatever name they want.

Over the time, when administrator updates, changes or edit the hostname of the systems or device name for network nodes, the actual name of the system or device will be different and not the same with node name displayed on Orion.

SolarWinds Orion has rediscovery feature that continuously poll the monitored switch, router, firewall, computer, and other devices for it’s current hostname. However, the rediscovering function will only update the SysName field in the Solarwinds database, and not the Caption field which represents the node name to display in Orion.

Administrators who want to maintain the same node name between the host name of actual physical device and Orion node name can either manually change the node name in Orion, or use the trick below to let Orion automatically uses the latest and current name as node name: Go to System Manager, right click the node to change name, and then click on Node Details. Delete and empty the current Name text box, and then hit Enter. Orion will obtain the new hostname of the device from SysName field in database. Save the new name by clicking on Apply Changes.

Above trick works on change of name on a few nodes. However, if the number of devices is huge and many, it’s possible to mass or bulk change using the SQL manipulation queries directly in the Orion database. To do so, users have to use Database Manager or SQL Server Management Studio to run the SQL statements.

Note: Users using SolarWinds Orion NPM prior to version 9 have to Network Performance Monitor service prior to running the SQL update statement to update the caption.

SQL Query to Check for Nodes with Different or Not Matching Caption and SysName (To Update Caption)

SELECT Caption, SysName, IP_Address FROM Nodes
WHERE ((Caption <> SysName) AND (SysName <> ”))
ORDER BY Caption

SQL Command to Update the Node Caption Field with Value from SysName Field (Current Host Name)

UPDATE Nodes
SET Caption = SysName
WHERE Caption in (SELECT Caption FROM Nodes WHERE ((Nodes.Caption <> Nodes.SysName) AND (Nodes.SysName <> ”)))

Both SQL statements above exclude nodes that have blank SysName field, which is normally the case for devices that are monitored as ICMP only (ping). All other SNMP nodes, including nodes that have been manually renamed, will have a overwritten and updated node name according to the SysName after running the update command.