SolarWinds SolarWinds Network Performance Monitor (NPM) Exam SCP-NPM Exam Dumps: Updated Questions & Answers (October 2025)

 NetPath is a feature of NPM that helps you identify network problems faster by automatically creating a map of the problem area, with a wide variety of supporting information. NetPath displays the performance details of devices inside and outside of your network. NetPath can analyze paths to any network segment, whether it is on-premise, cloud, or hybrid. NetPath uses distributed monitoring and path analysis to discover how applications are delivered through the network to your users. You can deploy agents on Windows computers that act as synthetic users and use advanced probing to discover and test the network path that traffic takes to any network endpoint, such as your local file print server, your website, or external websites. NetPath can also incorporate data from NPM, NCM, and NTA about your on-premises gear, as well as data from the Internet nodes and providers12. References: 1: Discover your network paths in NPM3, 2: NetPath - Easy Visual Network Path Analysis | SolarWinds4

The Universal Device Poller (UnDP) is a feature of SolarWinds NPM that allows you to create custom monitors for almost any statistic provided by SNMP based on its Management Information Base (MIB) and object identifier (OID). An OID is a unique identifier for a variable that can be polled or set via SNMP. The UnDP retrieves management data in the OID format from the devices that support SNMP. The other formats (WMI, XML, ANSI 1) are not used by the UnDP. References:

Monitor custom statistics based on OIDs with Universal Device Pollers

NPM Universal Device Pollers

SNMP traps are unsolicited messages sent by SNMP-enabled devices to notify the NPM server of important events or problems, such as device failures, configuration changes, or performance issues. SNMP traps contain information about the device and the event, such as the device name, IP address, timestamp, and OID (Object Identifier). An OID is a unique identifier for a specific variable in a MIB (Management Information Base), which is a hierarchical database of device information that can be accessed by SNMP. However, not all OIDs are recognized by NPM by default, as different devices may use different or custom MIBs and OIDs. Therefore, to ensure NPM correctly interprets SNMP traps from a new router on your network, you need to update the MIB database with the latest MIBs from the router vendor or from the SolarWinds website. This will allow NPM to translate the OIDs in the SNMP traps into meaningful names and values, and display them in the Trap Viewer or use them in alerts12.

To update the MIB database, follow these steps3:

Download the MIB files from the router vendor’s website or from the SolarWinds MIB Database.

Copy the MIB files to the \SolarWinds\Orion\Mibs folder on the NPM server.

Click Settings > All Settings > Manage MIBs.

Click Add New MIB and browse to the MIB file that you want to add.

Click Submit.

Repeat steps 4 and 5 for each MIB file that you want to add.

Click Compile to compile the MIBs and update the MIB database.

You can now view the SNMP traps from the new router in the Trap Viewer or use them in alerts. References: 1: SNMP Traps Explained: How to View SNMP Traps, 2: SNMP Traps in NPM, 3: Update the SolarWinds MIB Database for the SolarWinds Platform, : SolarWinds MIB Database, : 2, : 1, : 3, : 4

An agent is a software component that you can install on a node to collect and send data to the Orion server. Agents are useful when you need to monitor nodes that are behind firewalls, in the cloud, or have overlapping IP addresses. Agents can also provide more detailed information about the node’s performance and status than SNMP or WMI. Agents can use either agent-initiated or server-initiated communication, depending on your network configuration and security requirements. References: NPM Administrator Guide, page 67; SCP Study Aid - NPM, page 15.

 Packet loss is a measure of how many packets are lost or discarded during transmission over a network. Packet loss can cause network performance issues such as slow response time, jitter, and degraded voice quality. NPM can monitor packet loss on nodes and interfaces using ICMP ping or SNMP statistics. You can review the packet loss metrics on the Node Details or Interface Details views, or create a custom chart or report to compare packet loss across multiple nodes or interfaces. By reviewing the packet loss on the nodes on either side of the connection, you can identify which node or interface is experiencing the problem and troubleshoot the root cause. You can also use the Performance Analysis dashboard (PerfStack) to correlate packet loss with other metrics such as response time, CPU load, memory usage, buffer misses, and interface errors123. References:

Monitor packet loss in NPM - SolarWinds

Troubleshoot intermittent network slowdowns with NPM - SolarWinds

SCP Study Aid - SolarWinds (page 9)

NPM provides several default reports that can be used as templates for creating custom reports. One of them is the Top 100 Interfaces by Percent Utilization report, which shows the average and peak utilization of the most used interfaces in the network. To create a report that shows only the top 50 interfaces, you can copy this report and edit it to change the number of rows displayed. You can also modify other parameters such as the time period, the grouping, the sorting, and the filtering criteria. To copy and edit a default report, follow these steps1:

Click Reports > All Reports > Manage Reports.

Find the Top 100 Interfaces by Percent Utilization report and click Duplicate & Edit.

On the Layout Builder panel, click Edit Table.

On the Edit Resource panel, change the Maximum Number of Rows to 50.

Optionally, change other settings such as the Time Period, the Group By, the Sort By, and the Filter Results.

Click Submit.

Optionally, change the Report Name, the Report Description, and the Report Category.

Click Next and then Save.

You can now run or schedule the report to show the top 50 interfaces by percent utilization. References: 1: Create a custom report for NPM showing availability of devices in the last 30 days

NPM uses SNMP to collect utilization statistics from network devices, such as routers, switches, firewalls, etc. If NPM only shows Availability and Response Time statuses for a device, it means that SNMP is not configured correctly on that device or NPM cannot access the device via SNMP1. Some possible reasons for this are:

The device does not support SNMP or SNMP is disabled on the device

The device has a different SNMP version or community string than NPM

The device has a firewall or access control list that blocks SNMP traffic from NPM

The device has a misconfigured SNMP agent or MIB To troubleshoot this issue, you can use the SNMP Test Tool in NPM to verify the SNMP settings and connectivity of the device2. You can also check the device logs and configuration to ensure that SNMP is enabled and properly configured3. References: 1: Network Performance Monitor Administrator Guide - Troubleshoot SNMP issues 2: Network Performance Monitor Administrator Guide - Test SNMP access 3: Network Performance Monitor Getting Started Guide - Troubleshoot SNMP issues

 When you configure a report in the SolarWinds Platform Web Console, you can limit access to specific users by assigning a report limitation category to the report and to the user account. A report limitation category is a custom label that defines which reports a user can see. For example, you can create a “finance” category and assign it to the reports and users related to the finance department. Users with the “finance” category can only access the reports with the same category, and not the reports with other categories, such as “marketing” or “IT”. You can also prevent users from accessing any reports by applying the “No Reports” limitation to their account, or allow administrators to see all reports by applying the “No Limitation” category to their account. References: Restrict who can access reports in the SolarWinds Platform, Define what users can access and do in the SolarWinds Platform.

Capacity usage trends are calculated based on historical data. By default, the longest time period taken into account for calculating the capacity forecast is 180 days. The more historical data up to 180 days are available, the more precise is the calculated forecast. Forecast calculation methods include peak calculation and average calculation, which can be set globally or customized for individual objects. Capacity forecasting is available for nodes, interfaces, and volumes that meet certain requirements, such as being managed in NPM and having enough historical data in the database. References: Monitor capacity usage trends on the network and forecast capacity issues in NPM, Forecast capacity for nodes, interfaces, or volumes in NPM, Real-Time Network Monitoring Tool

 Capacity Forecast Charts in NPM show the usage trends and forecasts for nodes, interfaces, and volumes based on historical data. By default, 7 days of data are required to generate these charts1. You can change this setting globally or individually for each object2. Capacity Forecast Charts are available for the following metrics: CPU utilization, memory usage, space usage, receive utilization, and transmit utilization3. References: 1: Monitor capacity usage trends on the network and forecast capacity issues in NPM - Capacity forecasting is available for nodes, interfaces, and volumes that meet the following requirements 2: Change capacity forecasting settings globally in NPM - Change the number of days of historical data required for capacity forecasting 3: Monitor capacity usage trends on the network and forecast capacity issues in NPM- Capacity forecasting is available for the following metrics of monitored nodes, interfaces, and volumes monitored