Licensed Components Versus Monitored Components

11/19/2019 10:01 PM

12/23/2025 4:33 PM

The term 'licensed components' is sometimes used to express SAM component count while other times, 'monitored components' is used. So which is correct and what is the difference? 

Server Application Monitor

Licensed Components

Licensed components are the number of licenses that all active component monitors are consuming. Every component within SAM uses 1 license. A template, can use many licenses. To view the licenses a template consumes, go to Settings > All Settings > SAM Settings > Manage Templates. Licensed components are within the appropriately named column. Each server this template is assigned to uses the number listed. You may not exceed your SAM licensing. 

 • Only concerns SAM licenses that are not unlimited  (i.e. AL150, AL300, AL700, AL1100, AL1500, AL2500).
 • Can be determined here: Settings > All Settings > License Details.
 • May not exceed the 'Allowed Number of Component Monitors' value.

Monitored Components

Monitored components are the lesser known term within SAM. Monitored components are the total number of components that a template is polling. The only templates that poll a different value than the number of licensed components are the 4 AppInsight templates. AppInsight for IIS/Active Directory/SQL/Exchange, each of these use 30/50/50/50 licenses per server/instance/etc. However, they're monitoring much more than this behind the scenes. For example, AppInsight for SQL uses 50 licenses but typically polls over 100 component monitors. This is because this template scales up with each database that is attached to the instance, in the case of this template, it is 27 components per database. The number of monitored components typically is only a concern with unlimited license installations. This is because a maximum of 8,000-10,000 monitored components per polling engine can be monitored.

 • Typically only concerns the SAM license that is unlimited number of components/nodes/volumes (i.e. SAM ALX license). 
 • Can be determined here: Settings > All Settings > Database Details > Total elements per poller > value under component.
 • May not exceed 8,000-10,000 components per polling engine (*with the exception of node-based licensing).

Element Count

The term Element count is a term that is often heard in Orion. This term was defined for the Network Performance Monitor (NPM) module. So it is not associated directly with Server & Application Monitor (SAM). However, just as SAM component limits cannot be exceeded, neither can NPM element count. This is defined as the total number of the following: Nodes + Volumes + Network Interfaces. The limits of NPM must also not be exceeded which is 12,000 network Elements per polling engine.

 

Other helpful information

Note: Recent changes to SAM licensing models negate the information on 'Licensed components' in the section above. Node-based licensing allows for essentially unlimited component polling. The licensing is based upon node count rather than components. More information here.
Symptoms of overpolling SAM components and how you can reduce your count. 
Determine your SAM license type [https://documentation.solarwinds.com/en/Success_Center/SAM/Content/SAM_Licensing_Model.htm#Determine]