Percentiles in SolarWinds: Beyond 95th

SolarWinds provides, by means of a simple check-box, addition of a “95th Percentile” line on statistical graphs. This can be very useful – but what if you wanted the 85th percentile? 

What is a 95th Percentile?

  1. List *all* (traffic, etc) entries, without summarization, sorted by the metric you’re after
  2. Determine the record number of the entry 95% or 85% of the way down the list, always rounding down (assuming ascending sort).
  3. There are a number of ways to do this with SQL, but TruePath has provided our favorite method via this article (see ‘attachments’)

Use & Integration

The functions must first be installed. Once installed, the function may be called with appropriate context from anywhere within SolarWinds that accepts SQL.

  1. Connect to your database directly using either the in-built SolarWinds tool or SQL Server Management Studio from Microsoft.
  2. Open each .sql function script, ensure the database name is correct for your environment, and run the script to install the function.
  3. Now you may use the functions in Reports, Widgets, and more. You may need to specify more or different connection context for your environment and configuration.

Using TruePath’s 85th Percentile function in a SolarWinds Report

An Example Output Widget Using the TruePath 85th Percentile Functions

tpt_get85thbpsIn.sql (762 Bytes)

tpt_get95thbpsOut.sql (766 Bytes)

tpt_get85thbpsOut.sql (765 Bytes)

tpt_get95thbpsIn.sql (762 Bytes)

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