Network Management

Offline help files for SolarWinds products

Offline (local) help files for SolarWinds products are available by request.

First published date

4/1/2019 3:41 PM

Last published date

8/18/2026 11:02 PM

Overview

Offline help files are created and made available upon request. The previously created offline help files are listed below. If you need offline help for a product version that is not listed, please submit a Support ticket and include the product and version.

Product section

Orion Platform

Resolution

Installing offline help for SolarWinds Platform products

Complete the following steps to install help for a SolarWinds Platform product and configure the help to open when you click a Help button within the product.

The version of the offline help files you download should match the version of your installed SolarWinds Platform product.

1. Download and prepare the help files

Do this every time: on first setup, and again whenever you update to a new product version.

  1. Download the offline help .zip archive for the SolarWinds Platform and for each additional to the SolarWinds Platform server.

  1. Find your Web folder. Depending on your environment, it may be at one of the following paths:

    • C:\Program Files\SolarWinds\Orion\Web\

    • C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Orion\Web\

  1. Extract the SolarWinds Platform .zip archive, then copy the \documentation folder from the extracted files into your Web folder. Afterward, you should have a file at a path like:

    • C:\Program Files\SolarWinds\Orion\Web\documentation\en\flarehelp\orionplatform\default.htm

  1. Repeat the previous step for each module's downloaded .zip file. If prompted to overwrite existing files, select Yes.

    Depending on the modules you're installing offline help for, you should have files such as:

    • For NPM: C:\Program Files\SolarWinds\Orion\Web\documentation\en\flarehelp\npm\default.htm

    • For NCM: C:\Program Files\SolarWinds\Orion\Web\documentation\en\flarehelp\ncm\default.htm

    • For SolarWinds Platform: C:\Program Files\SolarWinds\Orion\Web\documentation\en\flarehelp\orionplatform\default.htm

  1. Copy the bin folder from your Web folder into the \documentation folder:

    • Original location: C:\Program Files\SolarWinds\Orion\Web\bin

    • Target location: C:\Program Files\SolarWinds\Orion\Web\documentation\bin

  1. In \documentation\bin, check for the files App_Code.dll and App_Code.compiled. If they exist, delete them.

2. Set up the offline help website

Do this on first setup only. If you already have the offline help website set up in IIS and you're just updating the help files, skip this section.

  1. Open Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.

  2. Expand Sites > SolarWinds NetPerfMon, and select the \documentation folder.

  3. Right-click the folder, click Convert to Application, then click OK.

3. Configure SolarWinds Platform to use your local files

Do this on first setup only. If the URL of your SolarWinds Platform server with the help files didn’t change, you don’t need to change anything here.

  1. Log in to the SolarWinds Platform Web Console as an administrator.

  2. Click Settings > All Settings > Web Console Settings. In the Help Server field, replace the default value (https://www.solarwinds.com) with the URL used to access your offline help (your SolarWinds Platform server URL).

Things to know when setting the Help Server field:

  • Use the actual URL you type into your browser to reach your web console. It is used to build help links, so they resolve correctly for anyone using the product.

  • https://localhost can work as a fallback if you can't determine your URL yet, but it only resolves correctly when you're browsing the help from the same server — it won't work for other users.

Known Issues

  • Some help links, such as those in NetPath and High Availability, do not support offline help.