SolarWinds licensing covers a portfolio of IT operations software sold by SolarWinds Worldwide, LLC: the self-hosted observability platform formerly known as the Orion Platform and now marketed as SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted, the individual monitoring modules that run on that platform, database monitoring (Database Performance Analyzer and SQL Sentry), IT service management (Web Help Desk and SolarWinds Service Desk), file transfer (Serv-U), remote support (Dameware) and security tools, plus SaaS offerings such as SolarWinds Observability SaaS. On-premises software is licensed under an End User License Agreement (EULA) for the License Term set out in the Order, solely for internal business purposes or, for managed service providers, on behalf of their clients.[1] SaaS offerings are governed by a separate Software as a Service Agreement.[2] The EULA defers the licence metric to the product documentation, so each product counts a different unit: nodes, network elements, component monitors, sockets, drives, database instances or technicians. This article summarises the whole estate; the articles listed under See also cover each construct in more depth.
Editions
SolarWinds sells two broad kinds of self-hosted licence for its monitoring platform. The current model is SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted, a node-based subscription in Essentials, Advanced and Premier tiers that bundles capabilities previously sold as separate Orion modules.[3] The older model licenses each module on its own metric, and several modules are still available that way for standalone monitoring.[3]
| Product family | Commercial units the vendor names | Detail article |
|---|---|---|
| SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted | Essentials, Advanced, Premier tiers by node count; Standard or Enterprise edition | Observability Self-Hosted licensing |
| SolarWinds Platform (Orion) modules | NPM SL100 to SLX, SAM SAM10 to SAM5000 or AL150 to ALX, NCM DL50 to DLX, IPAM IP1000 to IPX, UDT UT2500 to UTX, VMAN VMS8 to VMS4800, SRM and WPM tiers | SolarWinds Platform module licensing |
| Database Performance Analyzer and SQL Sentry | Database Self-Hosted (DBSH) and DBaaS (DBSHDS) per instance; legacy Category 1 and 2 licences | Database Performance Analyzer licensing |
| Web Help Desk, Serv-U, Dameware, SEM, Patch Manager | Technician tiers, edition and copies, seats, universal and workstation nodes, managed systems | Web Help Desk, Serv-U and Dameware licensing |
| SaaS (SolarWinds Observability SaaS, Service Desk, Incident Response) | Subscription under the Software as a Service Agreement | this article |
The pricing page for Observability Self-Hosted describes the model as node-based, subscription only and billed annually, sold as a term-based subscription on a multi-year contract.[4] Premier adds storage and web performance monitoring, Incident Response user licences, a SolarWinds Observability SaaS Network & Infrastructure licence and value-based licensing to the Advanced tier.[4] Every tier can be bought as an Enterprise edition, which is available from 500 nodes, required above 1,500 nodes and includes lab licences, additional polling engines, additional web servers, High Availability, the Enterprise Operations Console and Advanced Support (Enterprise edition).[3]
Metrics
The vendor metrics recorded in the catalog are:
- Node (SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted), with ICMP availability-only nodes free and value-based weighting in Premier.[3][4]
- Monitored element (node, interface, volume) for Network Performance Monitor and NetFlow Traffic Analyzer, licensed by the largest of the three counts.[5]
- Managed node (SAM) and Component monitor (SAM) for the two Server & Application Monitor licence types.[6]
- Device (NCM), Managed IP address (IPAM), Port (UDT), CPU socket (VMAN), Drive (SRM) and Transaction (WPM) for the other modules.[7][8][9][10][11][12]
- Additional Polling Engine and High Availability pool for platform scale-out.[5][13]
- Database instance (DPA) for Database Performance Analyzer and SQL Sentry.[14]
- Technician seat (WHD), Seat (Dameware), Copy (Serv-U installation), Universal node (SEM), Workstation node (SEM), Managed system (Patch Manager) and Enabled Active Directory account (ARM).[15][16][17][18][19][12]
- Device (EULA licence key), the default unit when the documentation is silent: each licence key may be used on a single Device.[1]
Counting / floors
Use rights and restrictions
The EULA grant is limited, worldwide, nonexclusive and nontransferable, for the License Term in the Order, and use is confined to the licensee’s internal business purposes or, for an MSP, to use on behalf of its Clients (rule).[1] For each licence key the software may be used on any single Device unless the documentation clearly indicates otherwise, and it is in use on a Device when loaded into memory or installed (rule).[1] Section 3.1.1 prohibits transfer, sublicensing and renting, use by anyone other than authorised Users, benchmarking or competitive use, and use that results in excessive use or circumvention of technical limitations or usage limits; forbidden use terminates the licence immediately (rule).[1]
Evaluation, beta and No-Fee Licenses may only be used for internal evaluation during the evaluation period, and production use is at the licensee’s risk without support or warranty (rule).[1] A redundant copy bought solely for high availability or disaster recovery may run actively only when the primary production Device is down, being upgraded or replaced, or during other temporary disruption, and may not monitor anything the primary does not (rule).[1]
Tiers, floors and technical limits
Most SolarWinds metrics are sold in fixed tiers rather than per unit. Network Performance Monitor tiers run from SL100 (100 nodes, 100 interfaces and 100 volumes) to SLX, and one polling engine handles at most 12,000 elements at the default polling interval before a licensed Additional Polling Engine is needed (rule).[5] Licences from different modules installed on the same platform are additive, so an NPM SL500 licence and a SAM AL150 licence together allow 650 nodes (rule).[5] Several limits are enforced by the software itself: SAM component monitors above the licence change to Not Licensed, Virtualization Manager refuses new data sources above the licensed sockets, and an expired Web Help Desk licence falls back to a single technician (rule, rule, rule).[6][10][15]
The main SolarWinds Platform server acts as the licensing server for products, polling engines, additional web servers and HA pools, and cannot be down for more than 14 days or the licences may be invalidated (rule).[20]
Term, renewal and subscription conversion
On-premises licences begin on delivery and run for the period in the Order. Unless the Order says otherwise, they renew automatically at SolarWinds’ rates for a term of the same length, and renewal can be prevented only by 90 days’ prior written notice (rule).[1] On termination or expiry the software must be uninstalled, and Fees are non-cancellable and non-refundable (rule).[1] Annually paid, committed subscriptions can be ended at an annual boundary under the Subscription Commercial Specific Terms, but the licensee still owes the current year and 20% of the remaining balance (rule).[21]
SolarWinds formerly sold perpetual licences with annual maintenance; the DPA documentation still describes that model for earlier versions.[14] The On-Premises Product Specific Terms now govern conversion of legacy perpetual products to subscription: the prior licences are terminated and superseded, and must be deactivated and uninstalled within a commercially reasonable time after the new keys are activated (rule).[22] The June 2026 revision of the support terms is summarised in the legal changelog as reflecting “subscription model go to market updates”.[23] The contract details are covered in SolarWinds EULA, subscription and support terms.
Audit
The licensee must keep and provide on request the records needed to show compliance and, on written request, an affidavit declaring its usage and installation of the software. SolarWinds may audit relevant facilities and records on reasonable written notice during business hours, and if the licensed software exceeds what was purchased it invoices the underpayment; the licensee may instead allow electronic access for the audit (rule).[1] Commentary: because many SolarWinds limits are enforced in the License Manager, the practical exposure tends to sit in the areas the software does not police: installations of the same key on several Devices, redundant HA or DR copies used in parallel, perpetual licences still running after a conversion, and trial or No-Fee copies in production. For the general practice see Software license audit.
Virtualization & partitioning
SolarWinds does not publish a hard- or soft-partitioning policy. The EULA Device definition includes virtual servers, so a virtual machine running the software is a Device like a physical one.[1] Where virtual infrastructure is the thing being monitored, the metric decides: Virtualization Manager counts CPU sockets of monitored hosts and covers all child VMs, SAM does not count VMs whose metrics come from the parent hypervisor, and Observability Self-Hosted Premier counts on-premises VMs at a 3:1 ratio.[10][6][4]
Cloud / BYOL
Observability Self-Hosted can be deployed on premises or in customer-managed Microsoft Azure, AWS or Google Cloud instances under the same subscription.[4] Database Performance Analyzer can be licensed per instance on a self-managed server or through the Azure Marketplace, or metered hourly through the AWS Marketplace Metering Service; DPA licences and AWS metering cannot be combined on one DPA server (rule).[14] SaaS subscriptions renew automatically, may allow in-product expansion and overages billed in arrears, and usage above the Order Form capacity is charged (rule).[2] Self-hosted products that enable SaaS features require acceptance of the SaaS Supplement (rule).[22][24]
Programs
- SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted Enterprise edition, Premier overages with the SolarWinds Improvement Program, Value-based licensing and Flexible licensing for the observability platform.[3][25]
- Legacy perpetual product conversion under the On-Premises Product Specific Terms.[22]
- SolarWinds Support and Maintenance, which covers only software obtained from SolarWinds or its authorised partners and only the current generally available release (rule).[26]
- SolarWinds Deployment Services in three fixed-hour packages that require active maintenance and expire after 60 days (rule).[27]
- SolarWinds Platform product evaluation, a 30-day trial per product.[28]
- DPA AWS Marketplace Metering Service.[14]
Out of scope
This article does not cover list prices, which SolarWinds does not publish for most products, or reseller and partner programme terms. SaaS products (SolarWinds Observability SaaS, SolarWinds Service Desk and Incident Response) are mentioned only for their contract terms. Free tools, the Kiwi and Engineer’s Toolset products and SolarWinds Backup, which the licence guide lists with their own licence procedures, are not described.[12] Security incidents and litigation unrelated to licensing are outside the scope of this wiki.