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Using Agent Monitors

Agent-based service monitors require either the up.time Agent to be installed and running on the monitored system, or for Windows systems, metrics collection via WMI.

Agents or WMI enable you to collect very detailed data about a system, such as information about processes and low-level system statistics. The level of granularity of the information collected by agents is greater than that of the information collected by agentless monitors.

The monitors that require an agent are:

Note that the up.time Agent service monitor specifically requires the up.time Agent, and cannot be used with systems whose metrics are collected via WMI.

Using Agentless Monitors

Agentless monitors do not require the monitored system use WMI or the up.time Agent. Your Monitoring Station communicates with the remote system to:

  • determine the status of the service that is being monitored
  • collect information from the service that is being monitored

The monitors that do not require an agent are:

 

Using Advanced Monitors

You can configure monitors to carry out service or performance checks that may be specific to your environment. Using advanced monitors, you can:

  • monitor any service that does not have an up.time service monitor
  • monitor the performance of Elements in your environment
  • perform common database administration tasks

For more information, see Advanced Monitors. Contact uptime software Client Care for assistance with configuring advanced monitors.

Types of Advanced Monitors

There are three advanced monitors:

  • Custom

Monitors that return the status of a monitor and an automated message to clarify the returned status.

  • Custom with Retained Data

Monitors that return the following:

  • up to 10 values that you can capture and can evaluate
  • a return status
  • a message

You can also configure these monitors to save data to the database, which you can use to generate a Service Metrics report (see Service Monitor Metrics Report) or a Service Metrics graph (see ).

  • External Check

Monitors that rely on an external event to trigger the capture of service information. External check monitors enable you to determine when to collect service data based on an external application event that you specify.

For more information on configuring and using advanced monitors, see Advanced Monitors.

Selecting a Monitor

To select a monitor, do the following:

  1. Click Services on the up.time tool bar.
  2. Click In the left pane, click Add Service Instance in the Tree panelMonitor.
    The Add Service Monitor window appears.
  3. Select one of the monitors in the monitors that is listed in the window, and then click Continue.

The Monitor Template

You use a general template to configure monitors. While the specific configuration information varies from monitor to monitor, every template contains areas for the following:

Monitor Identification

Each service monitor template has a monitor identification information area that you use to:

  • specify the name of the monitor
  • include an optional description of the monitor
  • select the system, node, or virtual node that you want up.time to monitor

You must ensure that the system can be resolved by a naming service running on an operating system - for example, DNS or NIS/YP.

Adding Monitor Identification Information

To add monitor identification information, do the following:

  1. Enter a name for the monitor in the Service Name field.
    The name can, for example, describe the purpose of the monitor - for example, Ping - Web Server.
  2. Optionally, enter a description of the monitor in the Description field.
  3. Assign the monitor to a system by doing one of the following:
    • Click the Single System option, and then select the name of the system that you want to monitor from the dropdown list.
    • Click Service Group to attach the monitor to multiple systems. Then, select the service group from the dropdown list. For more information about service groups, see Service Groups.
    • Click the Unassigned option.
    This step is mandatory.
  4. Complete the following fields:
    • Port
      The number of the port on which up.time is listening.
    • Use SSL
      Select this option if the up.time agent is configured to use SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) for security .
      If you have configured your agent to use SSL but do not select Use SSL , up.time will not receive performance information.

Monitor Settings Configuration

Each up.time service monitor has settings particular to the service that is it monitoring.

Comparison Methods

You can configure settings that compare the Warning and Critical threshold values that you have set to the values that up.time captures. up.time issues an alert when these thresholds are exceeded. You choose a comparison methods from the Select a comparison method dropdown list, as shown below:

After selecting a comparison method, you enter a value in field beside or below the dropdown list.

The following are the available comparison methods:

  • exactly matches

The string returned by the monitor exactly matches the string that you defined.

  • does not match

The string returned but the monitor does not match the string that you defined.

  • regular expression

The string returned by the monitor exactly matches the pattern result of a regular expression that you define.

  • inverse regular expression

up.time accepts any patterns that do not correspond to the regular expression you define.

For example, if creating a service monitor for your Leech and Microsoft IIS FTP servers, you may want to ensure any message from them includes the FTP server name as part of the standard response. In this case, you can enter the following expression:

Leech|Microsoft

A missing name means a server may have been compromised or is not working correctly, in which case up.time would generate a critical alert.

  • contains

The string returned by the monitor contains the string that you defined.

  • does not contain

The string returned by the monitor does not contain the string that you defined.

If you select a method from the dropdown list and either enter an incorrect value in the field or do not enter a value, then an error message appears and you cannot save the monitor. If you do not want to specify a comparison value, do not select an option from the Select a comparison method dropdown list.

Configuring Warning and Critical Thresholds

In many instances, you must configure Warning and Critical thresholds to determine the conditions under which up.time issues an alert. For example, if hard disk usage on a server reaches 85% up.time issues a Warning alert. If disk usage reaches 95%, up.time issues a Critical alert.

To configure Warning and Critical thresholds, do the following:

  1. Enter the threshold value in the text box next to the Select a comparison method dropdown list.
  2. Select an option from the Select a comparison method dropdown list.
Response Time

The Response Time setting denotes the amount of time that a monitor requires to:

  • initiate a service check
  • transmit a request to a local or remote system, or to a service
  • collect service information
  • return the collected information to the Monitoring Station
  • display the information on the Monitoring Station

Many factors can influence the response time including network connectivity, the type of information that is being collected, and the availability and performance of the service.

Configuring Response Time

To configure response time, do the following:

  1. For each threshold, select an option from the Select a comparison method dropdown list.
  2. Enter a Warning threshold, in milliseconds.
    For information on configuring Warning thresholds, see Configuring Warning and Critical Thresholds.
  3. Enter a Critical threshold, in milliseconds.
    For information on configuring Warning thresholds, see Configuring Warning and Critical Thresholds.
Info

If you select a comparison method, you must enter a value in the corresponding field for the threshold.

 

Monitor Timing Settings

Monitor timing settings determine:

  • whether or not the monitor is active
  • the length of time, in seconds, to wait before determining that a monitor has timed out
  • the interval, in minutes, at which the monitor will perform a service check
  • the interval, in minutes, at which the monitor will recheck the status of a service
  • the maximum number of times that the monitor will recheck a service

The monitor timing settings enable you to set up a master service monitor that you can apply to multiple systems. You can do this when setting up a deployment where you may want to apply a service monitor to a large number of Elements, or want to apply a very similar service monitor and then make further customizations to it and its children.

Timing Settings Options

The following options are available in the Timing Settings area:

  • Monitored

Turns a monitor on or off. The Monitored setting is on by default.

  • Timeout

How long a monitor runs before up.time issues an error message. A timeout occurs when the Monitoring Station has not received a status from the named service monitor after a period of time has passed. When a service monitor does not return data, the status of the monitor changes to Unknown. When a service monitor times out, an error message appears on the Global Scan dashboard.

  • Check Interval

How frequently the monitor checks the status of an Element. The minimum check interval is one minute, and the default is 10 minutes. There is no maximum check interval.

  • Re-Check Interval

The amount of time between checks. A recheck should occur when a monitor has gone from an OK to a Warning, Critical, or Unknown status. The duration for rechecks should be shorter than the regular check interval. The minimum recheck interval is one minute.

Info

Rechecks continue to run as they are needed until the maximum number of rechecks has occurred.

  • Max Rechecks

The maximum number of times that up.time rechecks a service. Once the specified number of rechecks is completed, the last state that was checked is reported. If the last status was not OK, up.time generates an alert.

Adding Monitor Timing Settings Information

To add monitor timing settings information, do the following:

  1. Select the Monitored check box to activate the service monitor.

    Info

    up.time does not send alerts if the service monitor is not activated.

  2. Complete the following settings:

    • Timeout

      Info

      Ensure that the Timeout duration you define is longer than the defined Response Time.

    • Check Interval
    • Recheck Interval
    • Max Rechecks

Monitor Alert Settings

The monitor alert settings enable you to turn alert notifications on or off based the status of a service monitor. The following options are available in this area:

  • Notification

Determines if notifications, regardless of status or interval, should be issued for this monitor.

  • Alert Interval

The frequency, in minutes, at which alerts are issued. The default is 120 minutes.

  • Alert on Critical

Sends an alert when a monitor reaches a Critical status threshold.

  • Alert on Warning

Sends an alert when a monitor reaches a Warning status threshold.

  • Alert on Recovery

Sends an alert when a monitor recovers from a Warning or Critical status.

  • Alert on Unknown

Sends an alert if any metric or time value for a monitor returns a status of Unknown.

 

Adding Monitor Alert Settings Information

To add monitor alert settings information, do the following:

  1. Click the Notification check box to turn on alert notifications.

    Info

    If you do not click the Notification check box, none of the remaining boxes in monitor alert settings template are active.

  2. Enter an amount of time, in minutes, in the Alert Interval field
    The alert interval is the frequency at which an alert is repeated if a monitor does not have an OK status.
  3. Click one or more of the following checkboxes:
    • Alert on Critical
    • Alert on Warning
    • Alert on Recovery
    • Alert on Unknown

Monitoring Period Settings

The Monitoring Period settings determine the time periods at which up.time sends alerts. For more information, see Alerts and Actions.

To set the Monitoring Period, select one of the following options from the Monitoring Period dropdown list to specify when alerts can be sent:

  • 24x7
  • 9 am to 5 pm weekdays
  • 5 pm to 7:30 am weekdays and all weekend until Monday morning
  • 12am to 12:30am Monday

Getting Additional Help

If you need more information about certain fields on the monitor template, hold your mouse over the inverted chevron beside the name of the field. A tool tip that describes the field will be displayed.

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