Network Management

Export PDF reports in FIPS-compliant SolarWinds Platform deployments

To keep the SolarWinds Platform FIPS-compliant and retain the possibility to generate PDF reports, you need to use a third-party tool to generate the PDF.

First published date

4/3/2020 4:40 AM

Last published date

10/1/2025 3:39 PM

Overview

Export to PDF used in reports or as an alert action uses a third-party tool that is not FIPS-compliant. Therefore, when you enable FIPS on your SolarWinds server, the PDF export option becomes unavailable for scheduled report actions.

  • When you schedule new reports, the PDF export box is disabled.
  • When you have already scheduled actions that use exported PDFs, the PDF is neither attached, nor saved to the disk.
  • When you have configured an Email a web page alert action that exports the page to PDF, the PDF will not be generated.

Product section

Orion Platform

Cause

The default tool used to generate PDFs in the SolarWinds Platform is not FIPS-compliant, so it must be disabled in FIPS-compliant environments.

Resolution

To keep using exported PDFs, change the PDF exporter application used by the SolarWinds Platform to another, FIPS-compliant third-party tool. See the following sections for tools you can use and instructions for changing the exporter application. 

List of FIPS-compliant third-party tools

Note: SolarWinds does not verify FIPS-compliance of the third-party PDF export tool.

  • HTML to PDF Converter (© 2020 - 2022 HiQPdf Software, available at https://www.hiqpdf.com/, obtained on August 26, 2022)
  • SelectPDF  (© 2022 SelectPdf , available at https://selectpdf.com/, obtained on August 26, 2022)
  • PDFreactor  (© 2020 - 2022 RealObjects GmbH, available at https://www.pdfreactor.com/, obtained on August 26, 2022)
  • Winnovative HTML to PDF Converter  (© 2007-2022 Winnovative Software Solutions, available at https://www.winnovative-software.com/, obtained on August 26, 2022)
  • ExpertPDF Pdf Creator SDK  (© 2022 Outside Software Inc., available at https://www.html-to-pdf.net/ obtained on August 26, 2022)
  • VeryPDF (© 2002 - 2022 VeryPDF.com, Inc., available at https://www.verypdf.com/ obtained on August 26, 2022)
  • Total HTML Converter  (© 2003-2022 CoolUtils Development, available at https://www.coolutils.com/ obtained on August 26, 2022)

 

Instructions for changing the PDF exporter application (SolarWinds Platform 2022.4)

In SolarWinds 2022.4, database settings related to the default pdf engine moved from the SolarWinds database to the registry. Change the default PDF engine directly in the Registry Editor.

  1. RDP to Orion server.
  2. Download a third-party PDF export tool and install it to any folder, such as the default Program Files folder on the C drive.
  3. Open the Registry Editor.
  4. Navigate to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\SolarWinds\Orion\Core\PdfEngineManager.
  5. Provide the path to the required PDF engine in PrimaryEnginePath.

 

Instructions for changing the PDF exporter application (Orion Platform 2020.2.6 and earlier, SolarWinds Platform 2022.3 and earlier)

  1. Download a third-party PDF export tool and install it to any folder, such as the default Program Files folder on the C drive.
  2. In the SQL Management Studio, open the "WebSettings" table of the Orion database.
  3. Set the "PdfExport_PrimaryEnginePath" to the full path of the third-party PDF export tool's executable. For example: 
    ${OrionInstallFolder}MyCustomPDFTool.Exe
    Note: To reference the path to the Orion Installation folder, you can either use the ${OrionInstallFolder} variable or provide an absolute path.
     
  4. In "PdfExport_PrimaryEngineArgsPattern", provide the list of parameters required by the third-party PDF export tool in order to perform the export. 
     --url ${URL} --outputfile ${PDFFileNamePath}

    Notes:
    The ${URL} and ${PDFFileNamePath} variables must also be included in the list because they are used by the SolarWinds Platform to properly perform the export to PDF action.
    To find out whether there are other parameters required by the tool, consult the documentation for the selected third party PDF export tool.

  5. Restart Orion services. See Start, stop, or restart Orion services with the Orion Service Manager.
  6. Verify that PDF option is enabled for scheduled report action, and test the action to confirm that the third-party PDF export tool is working and configured properly.
    1. In the SolarWinds Web Console, click Reports > All Reports, and then click Manage Reports in the top right corner.
    2. Click the Schedule Manager tab, select the schedule using PDF reports, and click Edit Schedule.
    3. In the Edit Report Schedule wizard, go to Actions to execute tab and click Edit for the action.
    4. Expand Message and check that PDF is enabled.

Learn more: