HiddenOne

At work we recently converted from a network monitoring package that was provided by our switching vendor, to Orion Network Performance Monitor from Solarwinds. Shortly after installing and configuring Orion, I configured a Linux server running Rancid for configuration management. In my eyes, both Orion and Rancid fall under the network monitoring/management category, so I wanted to make accessing both as easy as possible.

Orion allows you to create and add custom links to your menu bars, but adding a typical link is a bit “clunky” since the link either takes the user away from the Orion page or opens in a new window. The steps below describe how to create a custom link that will retain the Orion header and menu barat the top of the page. This has made navigating between the two much easier and has eliminated the need for me to have both Orion and Rancid open in separate browser tabs.

Creating a Custom Link

First, make sure you log into Orion with credentials that have administrator access. After you do that, click the “Admin” link that appears in the Orion menu bar.

On the admin page, click the “Customize Menu Bars” link under the Customize section.

On the “Customize Menu Bars” page, I choose to edit the admin menu bar by clicking the “Edit” button under the menu bar. If you want different groups of users to see this link, you may have to edit different or multiple menu bars.

On the edit menu bar page, click the “Add” button that appears towards the bottom of the page.

This will open the dialog box shown below.

Fill in the name and description fields as you see fit. Next, uncheck the “Open in a New Window” option box. In the URL field type the following:

http://YOUR_SERVER/Orion/External.aspx?Title=Rancid&URL=

After the “URL=” argument, type the URL of the web page you wish the link to display. When you are finished, click the “OK” button.

Back on the edit menu bar page, you will notice your new link in the “Available Items” list. Click and drag the link from this list to the “Selected Items” list.

When finished, click the “Submit” button and enjoy the fruits of your 30 seconds of labor!

This is a very simple process, but it came in handy for me and makes day to day management a bit easier.