What defines SolarWinds NPM licensing and how does it affect scalability?

• A. Licensing is based on data volume
• B. Licenses are based on number of users
• C. Licenses are based on nodes/interfaces; exceeding limits may require additional license packs or poller scalability planning
• D. Licensing is a flat fee regardless of deployment size

Answer: (C)

Licensing for SolarWinds NPM is tied to the number of nodes (devices) and interfaces you plan to monitor. This means the license determines how many elements you can actively monitor under a single deployment. As your network grows and you monitor more devices or more interfaces than your licensed count allows, you’ll need to add license packs or plan for poller scalability to handle the larger environment. Adding more pollers helps distribute the monitoring load so you can expand without breaking the licensed limits. This approach keeps scaling aligned with monitored capacity rather than data volume or user numbers, and it isn’t a flat fee—the licensed environment size drives the costs.