Updating Legacy SolarWinds-Orion certificates to be compatible with 2026.4

9/16/2026 11:16 PM

10/19/2026 3:49 PM

In 2026.4, a new service was introduced to replace RabbitMQ. The SolarWinds Message Bus service will be present on all systems that do not utilize High Availability.  Some environments that have been maintained for years may still be using the Legacy SolarWinds-Orion certificate, which is still SHA1 1024-bit. This older certificate is incompatible with the SolarWinds Message Bus service and will need to be updated.

 

For assistance in upgrading the Certificate and completing the upgrade, please contact Technical Support.

 

Hybrid Cloud Observability

The SolarWinds Message Bus service is incompatible with the legacy certificate and will fail to start.

How to check your certificate

Run this PowerShell script as an admin on the Primary Poller.

 

Get-ChildItem Cert:\LocalMachine\My | Where-Object { $_.Subject -like "*SolarWinds-Orion*" } | Select-Object Subject,Thumbprint,HasPrivateKey,@{Name="KeySize";Expression={$_.PublicKey.Key.KeySize}},@{Name="KeyAlgorithm";Expression={$_.PublicKey.Oid.FriendlyName}},@{Name="SignatureAlgorithm";Expression={$_.SignatureAlgorithm.FriendlyName}},NotBefore,NotAfter | Format-List

Warning: Potential Impact on Your Environment

Review the section based on the SolarWinds Platform version you are using:

2023.4 and later

If you are running SolarWinds Platform 2023.4 or later, you must carefully review the following. Failure to act may result in broken connections and impaired monitoring across your environment:

• A new certificate will be generated; the keys stay the same.
• The new certificate will be automatically populated in all Scalability Engines.
• Log in to the SolarWinds Platform Web Console is not impaired.

Possible Critical Disruptions:

• Container Monitoring: The connection with all Docker, Kubernetes, Docker Swarm, and Apache Mesos containers in the Container Monitoring feature will be broken. See 'Container Monitoring' below.
• SolarWind Agents: Connection with all SolarWinds Agents will be broken. To solve this, you can do one of the following:
  • Use a group policy to update agent certificates in bulk. For more information, see Mass Updating Agent Certificate on Servers.
  • Partially automate the process using a PowerShell command to reprovision the agent. For more details, see "Agent Certificate" below
  • Reinstall all agents manually.
  • Use the SWIS verb DeployToNode (which deploys one agent at a time).

Steps to update the Certificate

 

1. Create a backup of SolarWinds Platform servers and the database.
2. RDP to the Main Poller.
3. Open the Database Manager (Default location: C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Orion\DatabaseManager.exe) and execute the following query:

   -- Scripts are not supported under any SolarWinds support program or service. 
   -- Scripts are provided AS IS without warranty of any kind. SolarWinds further 
   -- disclaims all warranties including, without limitation, any implied warranties 
   -- of merchantability or of fitness for a particular purpose. The risk arising 
   -- out of the use or performance of the scripts and documentation stays with you. 
   -- In no event shall SolarWinds or anyone else involved in the creation, 
   -- production, or delivery of the scripts be liable for any damages whatsoever 
   -- (including, without limitation, damages for loss of business profits, business 
   -- interruption, loss of business information, or other pecuniary loss) arising 
   -- out of the use of or inability to use the scripts or documentation.
   
   UPDATE [dbo].[ServerCertificates] SET Replaced = GETDATE() WHERE Replaced IS NULL

4. Run the Configuration wizard on the Main Polling Engine, selecting all sections.
5. During the first run, the Configuration wizard might fail because of the Cortex plugin. In that case, run the Configuration wizard again.
6. Restart SolarWinds Administration Service on the Main Polling Engine and Scalability Engines.
7. On the Scalability Engines (additional polling engine, additional web server), run the Configuration wizard with all sections selected.

EOC and High Availability

SolarWinds EOC is not affected by the Orion Platform certificate change, as it has its own certificate. It uses SWIS credentials to communicate with other Orion Platform instances.
HA uses the same Orion Platform certificate on the main and standby servers. After you change the Orion Platform certificate, do the following:

1. Run the Configuration wizard on the standby server to apply the new certificate.
2. Manually restart SolarWinds Administration Service.

Container monitoring

To resolve the broken connection with all Docker, Kubernetes, Docker Swarm, and Apache Mesos containers, complete the following steps:

1. Go to Settings > Manage Container Services page.
2. Edit a container.
3. Go to the second step of the wizard.
4. Run the deployment commands from the wizard on dockers/kubernetes/docker swarm/apache mesos machine.
5. Repeat for all containers.

Orion Agent certificate

The Orion Agent certificate is used for communication with the Main Polling Engine and Additional Polling Engines. It has the Orion Certificate set as the Certificate Authority; therefore, changing the Orion Platform certificate will break connections to all Orion Platform agents. Currently, generating a new Agent certificate cannot be done automatically. Instead, there is a workaround using PowerShell and special commands.

NOTE: This is a workaround for advanced users, providing an alternative way to re-provision the agent on a remote machine using PowerShell. It's not a fully supported feature within the Orion Platform.

An example of using a command to automate the menu to reprovision the agent on the remote machine:

#
Scripts are not supported under any SolarWinds support program or service.
Scripts are provided AS IS without warranty of any kind. SolarWinds further
disclaims all warranties including, without limitation, any implied warranties
of merchantability or of fitness for a particular purpose. The risk arising
out of the use or performance of the scripts and documentation stays with you.
In no event shall SolarWinds or anyone else involved in the creation,
production, or delivery of the scripts be liable for any damages whatsoever
(including, without limitation, damages for loss of business profits, business
interruption, loss of business information, or other pecuniary loss) arising
out of the use of or inability to use the scripts or documentation.
#>
 
Write-Output "1`n1`n2`n<IP_Addr>`n4`n<orion_user>`n5`n<orion_passwd>`n7`n`n" | & 'C:\Program Files (x86)\SolarWinds\Agent\SolarWinds.Agent.Service.exe' /reprovision menu=1

The example shows the command to simulate user input - choose agent-initiated communication, enter Poller IP, Orion Username, Orion Password > Save Changes > Exit.
                         

Additional Note:

When SolarWinds.Agent.Service.exe /reprovision menu=1 is executed, a text menu is displayed. Based on parameters represented by numbers, you need to make the desired command. There is a pattern <menu_no>`n<input>`n.

0. Cancel and Exit without Saving
   1. Agent Mode (1 - Agent Initiated, 0 - Server Initiated)  [1]
   2. Orion Poller Hostname/IP  [hostname]
   3. Orion Poller Port         [17778]
   4. Orion Username            [user]
   5. Orion Password            []
   6. Proxy Settings...         [mode=disabled]
   7. Save Changes and Exit