NPM Scheduled report export to PDF shows login page

10/24/2018 5:27 PM

10/27/2026 4:26 PM

A scheduled report exported to pdf shows the login page or not complete information.



In the following log: 

• %ProgramData%\SolarWinds\Logs\Orion\Core.BusinessLayer.log

The following message can be located: 

INFO SolarWinds.Orion.Security.ProcessRunner - (null) stdout: Input file does not exist --url http(s)://{HOSTNAME}:{PORT}/Orion/Report.aspx?ReportID={REPORTID}&X-SW-Scheduler=true&InlineRendering=TRUE&Printable=True&LoginNonce={LOGINNONCE}&RenderAsImage=True --outputfile {%ProgramData%}\SolarWinds\Orion\{FILENAME} or does not user as argument
Try read settings explicitly from command line args.
SUCCESS:{%ProgramData%}\SolarWinds\Orion\{FILENAME}:Title:OrionExport

Orion Platform

Possible causes:

• Environmental configuration or issue.
• 3rd party component issue.
• Credentials used to create the report and report schedule

Option 1: Change the account used to run the Orion Module Engine to a built-in Local Administrator

1. RDP to the SolarWinds Platform server.
2. Open Services (Default Location: %windir%\system32\services.msc).
3. Right-click on SolarWinds Orion Module Engine.
4. Select Properties.
5. Select the Log On tab.
6. Select This Account.
7. Provide credentials for Built-in Local Administrator account, click OK.
8. Restart the SolarWinds Platform services by using the SolarWinds Platform Service Manager (Default location: C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Orion\StopNetPerfMon.exe).

Option 2: Clear Windows Temp

1. RDP to the SolarWinds Platform server.
2. From the following location, remove files older than 30 days: 
   • %windir%\Temp
3. Restart the SolarWinds Platform services by using the SolarWinds Platform Service Manager (Default location: C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Orion\StopNetPerfMon.exe).

Option 3: Change the PDF exporter application used by the SolarWinds Platform to a 3rd party component

The default PDF component splits table rows across pages, even when you use page-break-inside: avoid. To address this, install a third-party component for generating PDFs and use it instead of the default component. 

Note: Before you begin, back up your database.

Settings for the default PDF engine have moved from the SolarWinds Platform database to the registry. Change the default PDF engine directly in the Registry Editor.

1. Install Google Chrome on the main polling engine server for SolarWinds Observability Self-Hosted.
2. Open the Registry Editor (regedit) and back up the original values before making changes.
3. Navigate to Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\WOW6432Node\SolarWinds\Orion\Core\PdfEngineManager.
4. Change the value for PrimaryEngineArgsPattern to the following:

   --headless=new --disable-gpu --no-sandbox --print-to-pdf=${PDFFileNamePath} --virtual-time-budget=10000 ${URL} 

   To disable certificate validation, add this parameter to the pattern: --ignore-certificate-errors

   Warning: Disabling certificate validation reduces security. Use this parameter only if certificate issues can’t be resolved another way.

   

5. Set the value of Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\SolarWinds\Orion\Core\PdfEngineManager\PrimaryEnginePath to the full path of chrome.exe in the Chrome installation directory.

   For example, C:\Program Files\Google\Chrome\Application\chrome.exe 

6. (Optional) Modify Orionmaster.js.
   1. Back up the following file: C:\Program Files\SolarWinds\Orion\Web\Orion\js\OrionMaster.js.
   2. In the C:\Program Files\SolarWinds\Orion\Web\Orion\js\OrionMaster.js file replace the following line:

      if (typeof (eopdf) === 'object') $('html').addClass('RenderPdf');

      With this line:

      if (window.location.href.toLowerCase().indexOf('x-sw-scheduler=true')>-1) $('html').addClass('RenderPdf');

7. Save the file.
8. Open SolarWinds Platform Service Manager and restart all services. The default location is C:\Program Files\SolarWinds\Orion\StopNetPerfMon.exe.
9. Verify that exporting reports to PDF works correctly.

Option 4: Bypass the login screen with DirectLink 

1. Create a new Orion account named DirectLink to bypass the login screen.
2. Rerun the scheduled report.
3. If you see this as a security issue, you may delete the DirectLink account, and that should still work.

Option 5: Check the printable version option

If the PDF report is blank, check the printable version option. The permanent solution is to upgrade to the latest version.

1. Revert to the original PDF converter as per the steps in Option 3.
2. Upgrade to the latest SolarWinds Platform version: NPM release notes.

Option 6: Change user account used for Report Schedule

Used when a specific account other than admin is used to create the report.

1. Browse to Reports > Manage Reports > Schedule Manager.
2. Browse to the schedule that includes the reports.
3. Check the schedule and click Edit Schedule.
4. Under Advanced settings, kindly check if the user account used for the report schedule is the one that created the report.
5. Use the account creator's credentials and click Next. 
6. On the Schedule Manager, click the Schedule and click Run Now to simulate.