SolarWinds Platform (Orion): Network Monitoring Overview
Official site · Latest version: 2026.2.1
The SolarWinds Platform — still universally called Orion after its long-running codename — is a modular, self-hosted monitoring suite built around a shared SQL Server back end and a web console. You license modules individually and they share one inventory, one alerting engine and one query language (SWQL).
SolarWinds ships a new platform release every few months. Our SolarWinds Platform release notes review covers what’s new, every fixed customer issue and the end-of-life dates for each version — plus a searchable index of all fixed issues for tracking down a specific bug or SolarWinds case number.
The modules you’ll actually meet
| Module | Acronym | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Network Performance Monitor | NPM | SNMP/ICMP polling, interface stats, topology |
| Network Configuration Manager | NCM | Config backup, change detection, compliance |
| NetFlow Traffic Analyzer | NTA | Flow-based bandwidth analysis |
| Server & Application Monitor | SAM | App/server component monitoring |
Where SWQL fits
Everything in Orion is exposed through the SolarWinds Information Service (SWIS), queried
with SWQL — a read-only, SQL-like language. If you can write SELECT ... FROM ... WHERE,
you can pull any metric, build custom alert trigger conditions, or drive a custom dashboard
widget. See our SWQL config examples for copy-paste starting points.
SWQL is read-only by design. To change data you use the SWIS verbs (CRUD via the API), not SWQL itself.
When it’s the right call
SolarWinds suits mid-to-large enterprises that want a single self-hosted pane of glass and are comfortable running SQL Server. It is heavier and pricier than open-source options like Zabbix or Prometheus, but the polling engine, out-of-the-box device templates and NCM compliance reporting are hard to match without significant build effort.