Applications Systems

AppInsight for IIS: Grayed-out / stopped IIS sites remain visible and cannot be removed from monitoring.

In AppInsight for IIS, stopped or grayed-out IIS sites may remain visible and cannot be removed individually from the application; this is expected behavior, and you must either unmanage the site, delete it in IIS, or remove/recreate the AppInsight application to stop monitoring it.

First published date

4/30/2026 6:30 PM

Last published date

4/30/2026 6:53 PM

Overview

Problem
An IIS website in an AppInsight for IIS application is:

  • Grayed out (status Unknown / Data is not available / Stopped), and
  • Cannot be removed individually from the AppInsight for IIS application, and
  • Does not disappear automatically from the template or application, even when the corresponding IIS site is stopped or no longer active.

 

Product section

Server Application Monitor

Cause

Cause

This is expected behavior / by design:

  • AppInsight for IIS discovers IIS Sites and Application Pools as dynamic child components of the AppInsight application.
  • Once discovered, these child objects remain in the AppInsight application for history and configuration context, even when the underlying IIS site is stopped or unavailable.
  • A stopped/unreachable site appears grayed out and may show “Data is not available,” but it is not automatically removed from the AppInsight application.

In many cases, the site also cannot be deleted individually while the AppInsight application is still assigned to that node.

The only “hard” removal is to remove/recreate the AppInsight application on that node or delete the node itself.

Resolution

Resolution:

  • There is no current option to automatically remove a single grayed-out / stopped IIS site from the AppInsight for IIS application while leaving the rest of AppInsight in place.
  • The fact that the site remains visible, even after it is stopped or no longer active, is expected behavior.

    Workarounds / Recommended Actions

    Depending on your goal (reduce alert noise, declutter UI, or fully remove the object), you may do one or more of the following:

    1. Stop monitoring the specific IIS site (recommended)

      • Open the AppInsight for IIS application.
      • Navigate to the Website Details view for the site.
      • Click Unmanage for that site.
      • Result: The site will no longer be polled or generate alerts, but will remain listed for reference/history (and can be re-managed later if needed).

    2. Delete the IIS site in IIS Manager (if truly decommissioned)

      • If the website is permanently decommissioned, remove it from IIS Manager on the server.
      • After the next polling / discovery update, AppInsight will no longer show that IIS site in the monitored list.
      • Note: In some edge cases, you may need to remove and re-add the AppInsight for IIS application:
        • Go to SAM Settings > Manage Application Monitors, delete the Microsoft IIS application for that node, then
        • Re-add AppInsight for IIS via List Resources on the node.

    3. Remove AppInsight for IIS from the node (if IIS monitoring is no longer required)

      • If the entire IIS instance is no longer needed, unassign AppInsight for IIS from that node.
      • This removes the AppInsight application and all of its IIS sites/pools from monitoring for that node.

    4. Suppress alert noise and hide inactive sites from day-to-day views

      • Disable or adjust alerts related to that specific site or to sites in Stopped/Unknown status, especially when the site is intentionally offline.
      • Use Custom Views / Filters in the SolarWinds Platform Web Console to hide sites with Stopped/Unknown/Undefined status from standard dashboards, while still keeping them in the background for troubleshooting and audit.