Feb

9

What can you monitor and how to configure notifications

Filed Under Monitoring 

Our server monitoring solution can be installed on any computer that has network connection to all resources that should be monitored. The product includes data base that is used to store all statistical data. A convenient Flash-based web interface is used to configure the monitoring system and work with the data collected during the monitoring process. This means that the system can be accessed remotely from any location with help of a web browser. To provide proper security we use SSL-protected connection and password protected user logins.

Now let’s see how to configure our system. To monitor the availability and correct work of each network resource you should create a monitor object responsible for that resource. The following types of monitors will be available:

  • Network (Ping, TCP, Network bandwidth);
  • DNS;
  • HTTP, HTTP Content, HTTP Transaction;
  • Specific monitors for Apache and IIS web servers;
  • Process execution monitor;
  • Data base monitors for MS SQL and MySQL;
  • Mail servers (SMTP, POP3, IMAP4);
  • FTP server;
  • OS resources (CPU, Memory, Disk space, file).

We selected these types of monitors in order to cover all areas essential for web sites and web applications. At the same time, many of these monitors can be used for general monitoring purposes. For example, you can ping any computer inside LAN to confirm its availability or check that some process is permanently active on a system with a process execution monitor.

Q: Would you like to add another monitor type?

In general you can create several monitors for single resource. This is useful to check it for different types of faults. For example, you can configure ping monitor along with HTTP and HTTP content monitors for your web site. Ping will simply check the availability of the computer on the network. HTTP monitor will check the ability to connect to HTTP port of your web site, whereas HTTP content monitor will check that the response of the web site it correct. The latter would mean that not only the web site engine is working, but that your web application and data base that it uses are also up and running.

Some monitors measure certain parameters rather than check something for presence or correct work. For example, ping monitor measures ping time, CPU usage monitor measures CPU load on a system. It is up to you to decide what values of the corresponding parameters are acceptable and what values should be treated as faults. In our system you can specify warning level and error level for these values. So, depending on the value produced as a result of the latest execution of a monitor, that monitor can be in one of tree states:

  • Ok;
  • Warning;
  • Error.

Q: What do you think about the warning levels?

The state can be changed when the monitor is executed next time. Of course, you can specify the time between executions for each monitor. For example, some resources can be checked once a minute, some every 10 minutes, etc.

When the state of a monitor is changed a specified action can be performed. Moreover, you can specify a list of actions for each type of change for each monitor. For example, you can configure the system so that it would send an email message to your network administrator every time when the state of a monitor that pings your web site changes from “Ok” to “Warning”. For now the following notification methods are available:

  • E-mail messages;
  • Instant messengers (ICQ, Yahoo, MSN);
  • SMS.

Different people can be notified in case of different problems using different methods. For example, most urgent notifications can be sent as SMS messages to the system administrator and duplicated by email to other people who manage corresponding server resource.

Q: Are you Ok with the proposed notification methods?

Comments

Leave a Reply