Advanced Server Monitoring Setup Guide

Transcription

1 Setup Guide This guide assumes you have already added Advanced Server Monitoring to your account and will take you through the Advanced Server Monitoring Control panel. Teach you how to set up the control panel, guide you through some of the common processes and show you how to make the most of your Advanced Server Monitoring.

2 Table of contents Introduction... 3 Important notes regarding SMS and alerts... 3 Setting up your Server... 4 Windows Windows Linux Operating Systems Default Settings Getting Started Logging into the advanced Server Monitoring Control Panel Your Dashboard Customising your dashboard Available Widgets Navigating the Advanced Server Monitoring control panel Level 1 (Server Summary) Level 2 (Server Performance) Level 3 (Server Properties) Configuring your alerts Changing your system alert thresholds Port Monitoring Web content monitoring Monitoring a MySQL database on a Linux Server and SMS alerts Changing the recipients of or SMS alerts Temporarily suspending and SMS alerts Cancelling SMS alerts Where to find additional help Page 2 of 62

3 Introduction Advanced Server Monitoring provides alerts and statistics on a large range of services and features on your server. It uses the SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) to connect to your server. Most reports can be customised to fit in with your exact requirements, meaning you can be kept informed of your servers health at all times. This guide is designed to show you how to make the most of this powerful tool, guiding you through each of the following steps: 1. Set up the SNMP service on your server. 2. Logging into the Advanced Server Monitoring control panel. 3. Configuring your alerts and thresholds. 4. Customised dashboards to suit your requirements. Important notes regarding SMS and alerts By default, the Advanced Server Monitoring tool will generate a number of events when it is unable to connect to your server. To avoid a large number of s or SMS notifications being received, we recommend you temporarily disable alerting through your control panel when you reboot or rebuild your server. If rebuilding your server or setting up Advanced Monitoring for the first time, these alerts should remain suspended until you have set up your server as detailed below. Once your server has been set up, you can activate your or SMS alerts again through your control panel. Page 3 of 62

4 Setting up your Server The Advanced Monitoring solution uses the SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) to gather data on your server. While this may not be installed by default, it is a standard component of most operating systems, and can be activated easily. Before you can see statistics in your Advanced Monitoring control panel you need to allow the statistical software access to your server to gather the information required. This is a slightly different process depending upon the type of server you have, and the operating system you are using. Note: This process may require a reboot of your server to complete. The process for setting up your server can be split into three sections: 1. Installing the SNMP monitoring service, 2. Configuring the SNMP service 3. Allowing connections to the SNMP service This manual will guide you through the process for Windows 2008, Windows 2003 and Linux operating systems. Windows 2008 This process can be split into three sections. 1. Adding the SMNP monitoring service (Dedicated servers only) 2. Configuring the SNMP service (Dedicated and Virtual servers) 3. Allowing connections to the SNMP service (Dedicated servers only) Quick Tip: If you have a virtual server you only need to configure the SNMP service. If you have a dedicated server you should follow each of the steps in this guide. Page 4 of 62

5 1. Adding the SNMP service (Dedicated servers only) Step 1.1 Log into your server. In the start menu, right click on Computer, then select Manage from the pull out menu. Step 1.2 The Server manager will open. In the left hand pane, click Features. Step 1.3 In the main pane, the features options will appear. Click Add Features. A list of available features will appear. Page 5 of 62

6 Step 1.4 Scroll down this list until you find SNMP Services. Expand this section, then select SNMP Service. Once done click Next. Step 1.5 Click Install to start installing this new feature. Finally click Close to finish the installation. 2. Configuring the SNMP Service Step 2.1 Keep the server manager open, In the left hand pane expand the section marked Configuration, then select Services. A list of your services will appear in the large viewing pane. Step 2.2 Scroll down the list of services. Right click SNMP Service and click Properties in the pull out menu. Page 6 of 62

7 Step 2.3 The services properties window will open, click on the Security tab. Tick the box marked Send authentication trap, then click Add. Step 2.4 Select Read only from the Community rights drop down menu, then enter LiveServers in the Community Name text box provided. Once done, click Add. Step 2.5 Select the option to Accept SNMP packets from these hosts, then click Add. Step 2.6 Enter in the text box provided. This is the IP address of our monitoring service. Once done click Add. Step 2.7 Finally, click Apply, then OK then restart the service for the changes to take effect. Page 7 of 62

8 3. Connecting with the SNMP service (Dedicated servers only) Step 3.1 Keeping the server manager open, expand the Windows Firewall with advanced features section and select Inbound rules. Step 3.2 A list of your inbound firewall rules will appear in the viewing pane. Scroll down the list until you see two entries marked SNMP Service UDP In. These firewall rules apply to the different profiles within Windows Firewall. You could either delete one of these rules, and modify the remaining rule, or you can modify both rules using the details shown below. Step 3.3 Right click on the rule then select properties from the expanded menu. The properties window will appear. Step 3.4 Click on the Advanced tab, then select All Profiles. Once done, click Apply then OK to make the changes. Repeat steps 3.2 and 3.3 for the remaining firewall rule if needed. Note: The Plesk control panel also contains a software firewall. If you have this installed on your server you should log into the Plesk control panel, then navigate to the firewall settings page and allow incoming UDP connections through port 161 in order to allow SNMP traffic to pass. Page 8 of 62

9 The SNMP service is now set up on your Windows 2008 server and statistical information will now be sent to the Advanced Monitoring solutions control panel. Windows 2003 This process can be split into three sections. 1. Adding the SMNP monitoring service (Dedicated servers only) 2. Configuring the SNMP service (Dedicated and Virtual servers) 3. Allowing connections to the SNMP service (Dedicated servers only) Quick Tip: If you have a virtual server you only need to configure the SNMP service. If you have a dedicated server you should follow each of the steps in this guide. 1. Adding the SNMP Service (Dedicated servers only) Step 1.1 Log into your server. In the start menu, select Add or Remove Programs from the Control Panel expanded menu. Step 1.2 The Add or Remove Programs window will open. Click the button marked Add/Remove Windows Components in the left hand side of the window. Page 9 of 62

10 Step 1.3 A list of the Windows Components will be displayed, scroll down this list until you find Management and Monitoring tools. Click this listing (but do not check the box) and click Details. Step 1.4 A list of the features associated with management and monitoring tools will be displayed. Select Simple Network Management Protocol and click OK then Next. Step 1.5 You will be prompted for the location some additional files. Browse to the folder, containing the file, then click OK. Page 10 of 62

11 Quick Tip: File locations: If Windows requests the Service Pack 2 disc, then the file will be located at: C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\amd64 (or C:\WINDOWS\ServicePackFiles\i386 for 32 bit operating systems). If Windows requests the installation disc, the files will be located at: C:\WINDOWS\amd64 (or C:\WINDOWS\i386 for 32 bit operating systems). Alternatively, these files are available for download at: Step 1.6 Repeat Step 1.5 until all the required files have been installed. 2. Configuring the SNMP Service (Dedicated and Virtual Servers) Step 2.1 In the start menu, click Run, then enter services.msc in the text box provided. Once done, click OK. Step 2.2 The Services console will appear. Scroll down the list of services and right click on the SNMP service and click Properties, in the actions menu. Page 11 of 62

12 Step 2.3 Click the Security tab, then click Add in the community names section. Step 2.4 Select READ ONLY from the Community Rights drop down menu, and enter LiveServers in the text box provided. Once done, click Add. Step 2.5 Ensure that Accept SNMP packets from these hosts is selected. By default Localhost will be set up. Highlight this entry and click Edit. Step 2.6 Next, enter in the text box provided. This is the IP address of our monitoring server. Click OK to make the change, then Apply and OK to save your changes. Page 12 of 62

13 3. Connecting with the SNMP service (Dedicated servers only) Step 3.1 In the start menu, select Local Security Policy from the Administrative Tools extended menu. Step 3.2 The local security console will open, in the left hand menu, select IP Security Policies on Local Computer. Step 3.3 Select Default Security Policy in the middle viewing pane. Unselect SNMP, then click Apply and OK to save your changes. Step 3.4 Finally, restart this service for the changes to take effect. SNMP is now set up and configured on your server. Page 13 of 62

14 Note: The Plesk control panel also contains a software firewall. If you have this installed on your server you should log into the Plesk control panel, then navigate to the firewall settings page and allow incoming UDP connections through port 161 in order to allow SNMP traffic to pass. Linux Operating Systems This process is split into three sections: 1. Installing the SMNP monitoring service 2. Configuring the SMNP monitoring service 3. Allowing connections to the SNMP service If you have a virtual server, the SNMP monitoring service has already been installed for you. Dedicated server customers should complete each of these stages for Advanced Server Monitoring to work. Installing the SNMP service Step 1 Install net-snmp with the following command: yum -y install net-snmp Or for Ubuntu servers, use the commands apt-get update then apt-get y install snmpd Step 2 Configure snmp to start on server reboot. chkconfig snmpd on Step 1 Configuring the SMNP monitoring service Edit the snmpd.config file (located at /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf) with the following: 1 rocommunity LiveServers #### 3 # First, map the community name "public" into a "security name" 4 # sec.name source community Page 14 of 62

15 5 com2sec em7user LiveServers 6 7 #### 8 # Second, map the security name into a group name: 9 # groupname securitymodel securityname 10 group em7group v1 em7user 11 group em7group v2c em7user #### 14 # Third, create a view for us to let the group have rights to: 15 # name incl/excl subtree mask(optional) 16 view all included #### 19 # Next, grant the group read-only access to the systemview view. 20 # group context sec.model sec.level prefix read write notif 21 access em7group "" any noauth exact all none none # Finally, Define the disc partitions so that unallocated space is correctly displayed. 24 disk /home 25 disk /var 26 disk /tmp Quick Tip: You can download a text file of the above at: Step 2 Start the snmp service /etc/init.d/snmpd start Allowing the connection through your firewall By default, your server may not allow the Advanced Monitoring tool to collect data. This is easily rectified by adding an exception to your firewall. Step 1 Edit the firewall file located at: Page 15 of 62

16 Virtual Servers: /etc/sysconfig/iptables. Dedicated servers: /etc/sysconfig/firewall On the line above # Drop all other inbound traffic Enter the following lines: 1 # SNMPD for monitoring 2 /sbin/iptables -A INPUT -p udp --dport 161 -m state --state NEW -j ACCEPT 3 4 # Allow ICMP Traffic 5 /sbin/iptables -A INPUT -p icmp -m state --state NEW -j ACCEPT Step 2 Then restart the iptables for these changes to take place. service iptables restart Page 16 of 62

17 Default Settings Advanced server monitoring is set up with the following monitoring and alert thresholds set up. You can change these at any time. Server Health Resource type Alert Threshold Physical Memory >80% Swap/Virtual Memory >60% CPU >90% File System (Windows Servers) Resource type C Drive Drives D and E Alert Threshold <500mb free space or when >90% usage occurs <10000mb free space or when >90% usage occurs Note: These alerts are independent, so if your space drops below the mb limit and the % limit you will receive two separate alerts. File System (Linux Servers) Resource type /home /tmp /var Alert Threshold <10000 free space or when >90% usage occurs <100mb free space or when >90% usage occurs <100mb free space or when >90% usage occurs Note: These alerts are independent, so if your space drops below the mb limit and the % limit you will receive two separate alerts. Page 17 of 62

18 Operating system Health Resource type System availability System Latency Alert Threshold <99% availability >100ms(/1000) Network Checks Resource type Bandwidth Usage Alert Threshold 2 occurrences of >75% usage within a 30 minute time period. Port Monitors Port Common Use Check 80 HTTP (Viewing websites) Not responding to connection Website monitoring Your first website monitor has been created, but is not configured by default. It only takes a few minutes to set up this alert, our chapter on Website Content Monitoring will show you how. Page 18 of 62

19 Getting Started Logging into the advanced Server Monitoring Control Panel You can log into the Advanced server monitoring control panel at with the username and password you chose when you were setting up live monitoring. Your Dashboard The dashboard is the heart of your Advanced Server Monitoring control panel. You can configure this screen to suit your needs, allowing you to see the precise state of your servers at a glance. Customising your dashboard By Customising your dashboard you can ensure that the information important to you is displayed in a way that works best for your business. We have a number of preconfigured widgets to help you along the way. Quick Tip: Before making changes to your dashboard, it s worth spending a little time planning precisely what you would like to monitor and how you would like this information to be displayed. You can create a new dashboard, or customise an existing dashboard through the Advanced Monitoring Solutions control panel. Click on the Dashboards button, then either choose the dashboard you want to edit from the drop down menu, or click New to create a new Dashboard. Page 19 of 62

20 Adding a new Widget The main portion of this screen is a grid display. Click and hold the mouse button over where you would like a new widget to be displayed, then drag the cursor over the area you would like the widget. Don t worry, you can also change the size of the widget at any time in the future. You will now be prompted to select a widget to use: Note: A list of available Widgets and definitions is available in the Available Widgets chapter of this guide. Select a Widget from the drop down menu, then add a title in the text box provided. If needed, you can also change the refresh rate. Depending upon the widget, you will also be asked for some additional information regarding what you would like to monitor and how you would like to display the information. Enter your details in the sections provided, then click Save. Page 20 of 62

21 Your Widget will now be displayed on your dashboard. Editing an existing Widget To edit an existing report, hover your mouse over the top right hand corner of the widget. A button will appear marked Options. Click this button to open a drop down menu. This menu provides all the options available for modifying an existing widget. Refresh: Allows you to update the widget with newly polled data. Configure: Allows you to change the widget type, display or configuration. Duplicate: Will make a copy of this widget on your dashboard. Remove: Deletes the widget from your dashboard. You can also resize any widget by hovering your mouse over the corners of any widget and dragging the boundary to your new position. Note: Some Widgets have a minimum size. You can also move any widget by clicking on the title bar and dragging it to your chosen position. Page 21 of 62

22 Available Widgets Advanced Server monitoring comes complete with a large range of pre-configured widgets to allow you to customise your dashboard to fit your precise needs..bigscreen Events List Type: Organisational Description: Lists all events in your organisations excluding those relating to space and hosting response. This uses a large 20pt font size, which makes it better for use on big screens. Drill Down Navigation: No Refresh Default: 1 Minute.BigScreen Host Response Type: Administration Description: This is a specially configured Widget used internally. This will not display any data and should not be used. Refresh Default: 1 Minute.BigScreen Space Check Type: Administration Description: This shows Available MB space related alerts triggered on a monitored server. You can select a font size between 11-45pt to display any alerts. Refresh Default: 1 Minute Note: If you do not have any alerts, this widget will appear blank. Page 22 of 62

23 Content Verification Type: Organisational Description: Tabulated results of one or more selected web content monitoring policies. For each policy, the widget can display availability, Page-size, Download Speed, Lookup Speed, Transaction Speed. Optional Columns: o Page Size o Download Speed o Lookup Time o Connection Time o Transaction time Drill Down Navigation: Yes Refresh Default: 1 Minute Device Tear Sheet Type: Device Description: Displays overview information about a device, much like the Summary page in the Device Management tools. Drill Down Navigation: Yes: (To the Device performance window) Refresh Default: 5 Minutes Page 23 of 62

24 Dynamic Application Config Type: Device Description: Displays information rather than performance related data relating to software or CPU on a specific server. Drill Down Navigation: Yes Refresh Default: 2 Minutes Dynamic Applications Array Type: Device Description: Displays the value of a monitored object. For objects of type array, displays the value of each instance. Depending upon the display type, trends the object over time. Drill Down Navigation: No Refresh Default: 5 Minutes Configurable Display Types: Pie, Column, Horizontal Bar, Radar, Spreadsheet, Scoreboard You can monitor the following Applications and Objects: Application FileSystem Available Space CPU Memory Object Available Space (MB) CPU Physical Memory Size Physical Memory Used Physical Memory Utilization Swap Memory Size Page 24 of 62

25 Microsoft IIS: HTTP Statistics (IIS6 Only) Swap Memory Used Swap Memory Utilization 404 as a percentage of gets 404 Requests Active Current Connections Bandwidth Used CGI Requests in Process Current Anonymous Users Current Blocked Requests GET Requests HTTP Connection Attempts Http Error Rate Dynamic Applications Multi-Object Type: Device Description: Displays the value of a monitored object. For objects of type array, displays the value of each instance. Depending upon the display type, trends the object over time. Drill Down Navigation: Yes Refresh Default: 1 Minutes Configurable Display Types: Line, Spreadsheet You can monitor the following Applications and Objects... Application FileSystem Available Space CPU Memory Object Available Space (MB) CPU Physical Memory Size Page 25 of 62

26 Microsoft IIS: HTTP Statistics Physical Memory Used Physical Memory Utilization Swap Memory Size Swap Memory Used Swap Memory Utilization 404 as a percentage of gets 404 Requests Active Current Connections Bandwidth Used CGI Requests in Process Current Anonymous Users Current Blocked Requests GET Requests HTTP Connection Attempts Http Error Rate Event Organisation List Type: Organisational Description: Lists all events in your organisations excluding those relating to space and hosting response. Drill Down Navigation: Yes To Device overview screen Refresh Default: 1 Minute Page 26 of 62

27 Event Organisation Status Type: Organisation Description: Displays the status of the most severe event(s) of and Organisation, in spreadsheet format. Drill Down Navigation: Yes (To Events Screen) Refresh Default: 5 Minutes Event Organisation Summary Type: Organisation Description: Displays the status of events across an Organisation. Drill Down Navigation: No Refresh Default: 5 Minutes Configurable Display Types: Pie, Column, Horizontal Bar, Radar, Spreadsheet, Scoreboard. Page 27 of 62

28 Events Summary Type: Organisation Description: For each selected Organisation, displays all events or can be filtered based upon severity (Healthy, Notice, Minor, Major, Critical), or state (Acknowledged, Unacknowledged) Drill Down Navigation: No Refresh Default: 5 Minutes Configurable Display Types: Pie, Column, Horizontal Bar, Radar, Spreadsheet, Scoreboard. Host Response Type: Administration Description: This is a specially configured Widget used internally. This will not display any data and should not be used. Refresh Default: 1 Minute HTML Content Type: Content Description: This allows you to add and execute your own HTML content (Not JavaScript) to the dashboard. Note: You will not be able to access external content using this widget. Only content from your servers will be accessible. Page 28 of 62

29 Iframe Content Type: Content Description: Allows you to include and execute an Iframe tag in the dashboard page. Allowing you to see a particular web page at all times. Refresh Default: Disabled (can be changed) Note: You will not be able to access external content using this widget. Only content from your servers will be accessible. Interface Graph Type: Interface Description: Displays information about any interface discovered by Advanced Monitoring Drill Down Navigation: No Refresh Default: 15 Minutes Configurable Display Types: Line, Spreadsheet Page 29 of 62

30 Interface Manager Type: Device Description: Displays information about all interfaces discovered by Advanced Monitoring. Displays device name, port/sub, interface name, Organisation, alias, MAC address, and Interface ID. Drill Down Navigation: No Refresh Default: Disabled My Bookmarks Description: Displays any bookmarks to other sections of the Advanced Server Monitoring control panel that you may have set up. Drill Down Navigation: Yes To your bookmarks Refresh Default: 1 Minute Quick Tip: You can view your bookmarks page with the shortcut keys CTRL+ALT+B Page 30 of 62

31 Network Leaderboard Type: Organisation Description: Will display network information for up to 20 servers within your account. Drill Down Navigation: Yes Refresh Default: 60 Minutes Configurable Display Types: Pie, Column, Horizontal Bar, Radar, Spreadsheet, Scoreboard. You can monitor the following network statistics: Inbound Bandwidth Outbound Bandwidth Inbound Utilization Outbound Utilization Inbound Discards Outbound Discards Inbound Errors Outbound Errors Small Screen Events List Type: Organisational Description: Lists all events in your organisations excluding those relating to space and hosting response. Optimised for small screens. Drill Down Navigation: Yes To Device Refresh Default: 1 Minute Page 31 of 62

32 Space Check Type: Administration Description: Displays any alerts relating to space on your server. Refresh Default: 1 Minute Note: If your server space is fine and you have not triggered any alerts, this widget will appear blank. Storage Leaderboard Type: Organisation Description: Will display storage information for up to 20 servers within your account. This can be shown as a %, or in mb. Drill Down Navigation: No Refresh Default: 60 Minutes Configurable Display Types: Pie, Column, Horizontal Bar, Radar, Spreadsheet, Scoreboard. System Availability Type: Organisational Description: Displays current availability of one or more devices, for up to 50 devices. Availability means the device's ability to accept connections and data from the network. Drill Down Navigation: No Refresh Default: 60 Minutes Configurable Display Types: Pie, Column, Horizontal Bar, Radar, Spreadsheet, Scoreboard. Page 32 of 62

33 System Availability Meter Type: Organisational Description: Displays current availability of one or more devices, for up to 50 devices. Availability means the device's ability to accept connections and data from the network. Drill Down Navigation: No Refresh Default: 60 Minutes Configurable Display Types: Gauge System Health Type: Organisational Description: For selected devices, displays the status of basic health-parameters (most severe active event, CPU usage, memory usage, swap-space usage, availability, and latency), in spreadsheet format. Drill Down Navigation: Yes To Device Overview Screen Refresh Default: 60 Minutes Note: This displays normalized data calculated hourly. So setting a refresh rate on less than 60 Minutes will make no effect on the display. Page 33 of 62

34 System Health Summary Type: Organisational Description: For selected devices, displays the status of basic health-parameters (most severe active event, CPU usage, memory usage, swap-space usage, availability, and latency), in scoreboard format. Drill Down Navigation: No Refresh Default: 5 Minutes Configurable Display Types: Pie, Column, Horizontal Bar, Radar, Spreadsheet, Scoreboard. System Leaderboard Type: Organisational Description: Will display CPU, Physical memory, Virtual memory or Latency information for up to 20 servers within your account. Drill Down Navigation: Yes Refresh Default: 60 Minutes Configurable Display Types: Pie, Column, Horizontal Bar, Radar, Spreadsheet, Scoreboard. Test (System Admin Test Widget) Type: Administration Description: This is a specially configured Widget used internally. This will not display any data and should not be used. Refresh Default: 1 Minute Page 34 of 62

35 Test_eventslist_je Type: Administration Description: This is a specially configured Widget used internally. This will not display any data and should not be used. Refresh Default: 1 Minute Ticketing Summary Type: Administration Description: This function is not available Navigating the Advanced Server Monitoring control panel There are three main levels to your Advanced server monitoring control panel Level 1 (Server Summary) Dashboard Events Knowledge base Level 2 (Server Performance) Summary Performance Profile Topology Configs Interfaces Logs Events Software Processes Services TCP Ports Level 3 (Server Properties) Properties Thresholds Monitors Logs Interfaces Page 35 of 62

36 Level 1 (Server Summary) This level contains your dashboard view, and allows you to quickly see any events that are triggering on any of the servers within your account. It also contains the knowledgebase, allowing you easy access to any additional information within the Advanced Monitoring control panel. Any screen on this level can be identified by the three tabs and title graphic at the top of the screen. There are three main pages to this level. Dashboard Your dashboard is blank by default. From his screen you can add any reports and monitors you want, allowing you easy access to all the details you need on your server in one location. Our chapter on customising your dashboard will show you how. Events This screen shows all the events for all servers you are monitoring. You can also acknowledge and remove alerts from this screen if you want. To acknowledge or delete an alert from the display, simply check the box you would like to edit, then click either the Ack or Del button. Note: Deleting an event will not disable the monitoring of the event. If you delete an event, and it recurs, the event will appear on this screen again. Knowledge The Knowledge button allows you access to the Advanced Server Monitoring knowledge base. This knowledgebase deals solely with articles relating to the Advanced Server Monitoring control panel, but can guide you through many of the functions and processes you may want to complete. Page 36 of 62

37 Level 2 (Server Performance) This level contains detailed information regarding a specific server (device) on your account. The summary page acts as a dashboard for your specific server, while you can use the tabs at the top of the screen, or click on individual reports for find out more information. You can navigate to the Device Monitors by clicking on the This button is located within individual widgets. button within your dashboard. Quick Tip: Any Widget, where you can drill down to find specific information regarding a report will take you to the Device Monitors level. Summary (Server summary level) The summary screen acts as a Server specific dashboard, and shows you a brief overview of all the reports and monitors you have set up on your server. Page 37 of 62

38 Quick Tip: You can click on any of the reports shown to find more information. Performance (Server summary level) This screen allows you to find historic data and trends for your reports, from here you can see graphs that display over time for the following System Vitals System Availability System Latency CPU Usage Physical Memory Usage Virtual Memory Usage File Systems Usage Network Interfaces and bandwidth usage System Process Availability TCP/IP Port Availability Web Content Availability Profile (Server summary level) The server profile page displays a graphical representation of your server and all its Page 38 of 62

39 components. This page includes the following: Hovering your mouse over an Icon will display more information. The screen can be broken down as follows: This icon represents your server Page 39 of 62

40 IP addresses assigned to your server Open ports on your server This is your Server Additional IP addresses System resources (CPU, Memory, etc) Network Interfaces Software on your server. Page 40 of 62

41 Processors These icons represent local area connections. Installed software. System processes. Services. Topology (Server summary level) This page shows a map of your server and it s relationships with our network. This screen is largely unused as your server will have no connections with other servers that Advanced Server Monitoring will report upon. Configs (Server summary level) This page shows read only information regarding the configuration of the Advanced Server Monitoring tool. This screen is not editable and is used by our administrators. Interfaces (Server summary level) This shows a display of all the interfaces found by advanced server monitoring. Some of these interfaces will relate to services you have running on the server, others relate to services running on your Ethernet ports, like the QOS Packet scheduler. Logs (Server summary level) Page 41 of 62

42 The Logs page lists all the messages that Advanced Server Monitoring has collected from your server. For each log entry, the following information is displayed: Date Time: The date and time the entry was recorded by Advanced Server Monitoring. Source: Where the entry was generated from. o Internal: Generated by internal system monitoring processes. o Dynamic: Generated by a dynamic application within the monitoring system. Event ID: If the alert generates an event, then the unique ID will be shown here. Priority: Not used Message: Text of the log entry, if the message related to an event it s also colourcoded to match the event severity. Quick Tip: There are also auto filters and a search bar at the top of the screen to allow you to search for specific logs. Events (Server summary level) This screen is similar to the Logs screen, however it will only show you a list of events generated by Advanced Server Monitoring. You can view open, or cleared events. Open Events For each event, the following information is displayed: Event Message Severity: Message generated by event, colour-coded by severity. Acknowledged: Specifies if anyone has acknowledged this event. Age / Elapse: Number of days, hours, and minutes since the last occurrence of the event. Ticket: N/A. Last Detected: Date and time this event last triggered. EID: If the alert generates an event, then the unique ID will be shown here. Source: Where the entry was generated from. o Internal: Generated by internal system monitoring processes. o Dynamic: Generated by a dynamic application within the monitoring system. Page 42 of 62

43 Quick tip: To delete an alert from the display, simply check the box you would like to edit, then click either the Del button. Cleared Events By clicking the Cleared button in the top right corner of the viewing pane, you can see a list of all the events that have already been cleared. For each closed event, the following information is displayed: Event Message Severity: Message generated by event, colour-coded by severity. Acknowledged: Specifies if anyone has acknowledged this event. Ticket: N/A. Cleared By: User name of the person or process that cleared the ticket. Cleared Date: Date and time when the event was cleared. Time Since Cleared: Number of days, hours, and minutes since the event was cleared. EID: If the alert generates an event, then the unique ID will be shown here. Source: Where the entry was generated from. o Internal: Generated by internal system monitoring processes. o Dynamic: Generated by a dynamic application within the monitoring system. Viewing event statistics You can view graphical data relating to the frequency of event types for both Open and Cleared events. Simply Click the button marked Stats in the top right corner of the screen to view a line graph of event frequency for a selected time period. Page 43 of 62

44 Software (Server summary level) This screen lists all the software installed on your server, alone with the date the software was installed. Processes (Server summary level) This page displays a list of all the processes running on your server Process Name: The name of the process. A single process name can have multiple entries. Arguments: The arguments with which the process was invoked. Path/User: The path where the process executable resides. PID: A unique ID for the process. Memory: The amount of memory currently being used or reserved for the process. Run State: This can be one of the following: o Runnable: Process is ready to run as needed. o Running: Process is currently running. o Not Running: Process is in a "waiting" state. This could also mean that the process is part of an operation that failed or was not ended gracefully. Monitored: Provides information of if a specific process is monitored by the Advanced Server monitoring tool. Page 44 of 62

45 Services (Server summary level) This page details all the services running on your server. Service Name: The name of the service. Arguments: The arguments with which the process was invoked. ID: Not used. Run State: This can be one of the following: o Runnable: Process is ready to run as needed. o Running: Process is currently running. o Not Running: Process is in a "waiting" state. This could also mean that the process is part of an operation that failed or was not ended gracefully. Monitored: Provides information of if a specific process is monitored by the Advanced Server monitoring tool. TCP Ports (Server summary level) This page shows all the open ports that Advanced Server monitoring find open on your server. This is updated each night. Each listing contains the following information regarding the port: Interface IP: The IP address that Advanced Server Monitoring uses to communicate with your server. Port Number: The ID number of the port Service: The service usually associated with the port number Protocol: TCP or UDP Certificate Issuer: Names the certificate authority on ports that use an SSL certificate (HTTPS, SSL, SSH and SFTP for example). Cert Expiration: Provides the expiration date for any certificates associated with ports on your server. Note: If you have secured a port in your firewall to specific IP addresses the Advanced Monitoring tool may not be able to tell that the port is open. In these instances, you should also configure your port to allow access from Page 45 of 62

46 Level 3 (Server Properties) This level allows you to set up and configure all your alerts and monitors. Further information regarding configuring your alerts is available in a later chapter of this guide. You can navigate to this level from the server performance level. Simply click on the spanner icon on the server display in the top right corner of the screen. Properties (Server properties level) This screen shows read only information regarding the configuration of Advanced Server Monitoring on your server. No settings on this page can be edited. Thresholds (Server properties level) This screen allows you to adjust the thresholds of your system alerts. This page is described in more detail in our chapter Configuring your alerts. Monitors (Server properties level) This screen shows you all the monitors you have set up on your server. This is typically both web content monitors, and monitors on specific ports. By selecting a monitor, you are able to edit or change the configuration of these monitors. Logs (Server properties level) The Alert Logs page lists all the messages that Advanced Server Monitoring has collected from your server. For each log entry, the following information is displayed: Date Time: The date and time the entry was recorded by Advanced Server Monitoring. Source: Where the entry was generated from. Page 46 of 62

47 o Internal: Entry was generated by your Advanced Server Monitoring tool. o Trap: Entry was generated by an SNMP trap. o Dynamic: Entry was generated by a monitoring application running on the device (MySQL database for example). o API: Entry was generated by another application. Event ID: If the message is generated by an event, then the unique ID will be shown here. Priority: Not used Message: Text of the log entry, if the message related to an event it s also colourcoded to match the event severity. Interfaces (Server properties level) This shows a display of all the interfaces found by advanced server monitoring. Some of these interfaces will relate to services you have running on the server, others relate to services running on your Ethernet ports, like the QOS Packet scheduler. Configuring your alerts There are a number of alerts that can be set up according to your needs. While at first glance these can appear daunting, they are easy to configure and match precisely the services you want to monitor according to your server deployment. This chapter will take a look at each type of alert in turn. All alerts are configured from the Server Properties level. To navigate to this level, click on a report within your dashboard. A new window will open. On this new windows, click on the spanner icon located in the device graphic in the top right hand corner of the screen. This will take you to the alert configuration level. Changing your system alert thresholds Advanced Monitoring will automatically check the status of your Memory, CPU, and hard disk usage. Each of these alerts have preset thresholds (described in the previous chapter default settings ). You can change the alert thresholds at any time through your Advanced Monitoring control panel. Page 47 of 62

48 From the Server Properties level, click the tab marked Thresholds. You will see a number of Slidebars which can be adjusted to set your new thresholds. Click Save to save the changes. You can set the following thresholds from this screen. File System Available Space (mb) o C Drive o D Drive o E Drive CPU usage (%) Memory (%) o Physical Memory o Swap Memory 404 Error rate (IIS6 only) (%) File System usage (%) o C Drive (Warning) o C Drive (Critical) o D Drive (Warning) o D Drive (Critical) Operating system o Availability (%) o Latency (ms) Counter Rollover o Rollover % Page 48 of 62

49 o Out of order % Port Monitoring You can monitor hundreds of ports with the advanced monitoring control panel. By default your first port monitor is set up for you. But it is quick and easy to set up additional monitors from the configuration level of your control panel. All alerts are configured from the Server Properties window. To navigate to this window log into your Advanced Monitoring control panel at and then click on a report within your dashboard. A new window will open. On this new window click on the spanner icon located in the device graphic in the top right hand corner of the screen. Editing or disabling an existing port monitor From the third level Server Properties window, click on the button marked Monitors in the top left of the screen. A list of your port and website content monitors will appear. Click the spanner icon next to the monitor you want to edit. The edit port policy window will open, from here you can change the values shown in the following fields: Device IP address: If your server has more than 1 IP address in use you can choose which address to monitor. Port/Service: Select the port number and corresponding service on your server. Monitor State: Enable or disable the port monitoring service. Critical Poll: Advanced Server Monitoring can "ping" the device. If enabled the service will ping your server every 60 seconds. Note: Advanced Server Monitoring does not use ping data to create device-availability reports and will continue to collect device-availability data every five minutes. Page 49 of 62

50 Once you updated your policy, click Save, then Close/Esc to close the window. Adding a new port monitor To add a new port monitor, follow the process detailed above for editing a port. When the Port policy window opens, click the New button at the top of the window. Enter the details you want to monitor in the fields provided, click Save, then Close/Esc to save your new policy and start recording data. Deleting a port monitor It is not currently possible to completely remove a port monitoring policy from your control panel. To avoid receiving alerts regarding a port monitor, you can follow the instructions provided above for editing a policy. Then set the Monitor State to Disabled. If you contact us once the policy has been disabled, we can manually remove it for you. Page 50 of 62

51 Web content monitoring You can monitor as many websites as you want using the advanced server monitoring tool. By default, one policy has already been added for you. This will have to be configured before it can start gathering useful information regarding a specific website. Once these have been configured, you can add more policies as and when required. All alerts are configured from the Server Properties window. To navigate to this window log into your Advanced Monitoring control panel at and then click on a report within your dashboard. A new window will open. On this new window click on the spanner icon located in the device graphic in the top right hand corner of the screen. Editing or disabling an existing web content monitor From the third level alert configuration window, click on the button marked Monitors in the top left of the screen. A list of your port and website content monitors will appear. Click the spanner icon next to the monitor you want to edit. The edit web content policy page will open. Page 51 of 62

52 While it appears that there is a lot of information to be entered, the fields themselves are easy to complete and provide you with the flexibility to monitor any part of your website. The screen itself is broken down into three sections. Policy Name: Enter a name for your policy, this can be anything you want. State: Enabled will set the policy to poll for information every 5 minutes, Disabled will turn the monitoring off. Port: Specified the port to use when polling for information. This is usually port 80 for standard websites and port 443 for any websites over SSL. Timeout: Sets the number of seconds that the monitoring should wait for the specified content to be displayed. If the content is not verified within this time an event is created. Error Codes: Specify the HTTP code you expect to receive in the response from the web server. Proxy Server:Port: If you have set up your server as a proxy server and want to monitor a website elsewhere, you should enter your server and port number here. This is entered in the format URL:Port Proxy Account:Password: If you are using a proxy server that requires a username and password enter them in this box in the format username:password Uniform Resource Locator: Enter the IP address or the URL for the website to be monitored. Post String: You can enter a POST string in this field. This data is then transferred with the curl equivalent of a HTTP POST command. If you are including more than one variable, separate each variable with the ampersand (&). Page 52 of 62

53 Important: The contents of the URL field will appear in alerts and events. For security reasons you should enter any authentication information within the POST String field rather than passing it through as a URL. Cookie Value: If you are monitoring a web page that requires a specific cookie value to be set, enter the required value in this text box. Browser Emulation: Choose the web browser that you would like to emulate when connecting to your website. Auth Account:Password: This is used for monitoring websites that ask you to login using a pop-up dialogue box. Data should be entered in the format username:password SSL Encryption: Allows you to specify if SSL should be used when communicating with the website. (If you are connecting to a web form for example) Expression Check #1: Regular expression to search for Expression check #2: Another regular expression to search for Referrer String: If you have entered an IP address in the URL field, you can use this option to spoof a fully qualified host name in this field. This is useful for monitoring some load balanced configurations. Once you have entered all the details required, click Save, then Close/Esc to save the changes to your policy and start monitoring your website. Page 53 of 62

54 Adding a new web content monitor To add a new web content monitor, follow the process detailed above for editing a content monitor. When the content policy window opens, click the New button at the top of the window. Enter the details you want to monitor in the fields provided, click Save, then Close/Esc to save your new policy and start recording data. Deleting a web content monitor It is not currently possible to completely remove a web content monitoring policy from your control panel. To avoid receiving alerts regarding a port monitor, you can follow the instructions provided above for editing a policy. Then set the State to Disabled. If you contact us once the policy has been disabled, we can manually remove it for you. Monitoring a MySQL database on a Linux Server You can configure your permissions and create a cron job so that the Advanced Server Monitoring tool can harvest performance related data regarding your MySQL database. Follow the steps below to start monitoring any MySQL databases on your server. Step 1 Add a user to MySQL which has SELECT and PROCESS permissions, this user doesn't need a password, however if you do add a password, you will need to modify the script to use the password. mysql> show grants; Grants for YourMySQLUserNameHere@localhost GRANT SELECT, PROCESS ON *.* TO 'YourMySQLUserNameHere'@'localhost' row in set (0.00 sec) Page 54 of 62

55 Step 2 As Root, Add the following script to the server: 1 #!/usr/bin/env python 2 import os 3 try: 4 result = os.popen("mysqladmin extended-status -u YourMySQLUserNameHere").readlines() 5 for record in result: 6 word_list = record.split(' ') 7 if len(word_list)!= 4: 8 continue 9 name = word_list[1].strip() 10 value = word_list[2].strip() 11 if name == 'Variable_name': 12 Continue 13 f = open("/home/stats/mysql/%s" % (name), "w") 14 f.write(value) 15 f.close() 16 except IOError, err: 17 print err Quick Tip: You can download a text file of the above at: Step 3 As Root, Create the path: /home/stats/mysql/ Step 4 As Root, Add a crontab for the script: */5 * * * * /usr/local/bin/mysql-report.py Step 5 As Root, Modify the snmpd.conf file (/etc/snmp/snmpd.conf) to add the following lines at the bottom Page 55 of 62

56 1 # MySQL Statistics 2 exec Bytes_sent /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/bytes_sent 3 exec Bytes_received /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/bytes_received 4 exec Com_delete /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/com_delete 5 exec Com_insert /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/com_insert 6 exec Com_select /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/com_select 7 exec Com_update /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/com_update 8 exec Questions /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/questions 9 exec Handler_read_first /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/handler_read_first 10 exec Handler_read_key /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/handler_read_key 11 exec Handler_read_next /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/handler_read_next 12 exec Handler_read_prev /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/handler_read_prev 13 exec Handler_read_rnd /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/handler_read_rnd 14 exec Handler_read_rnd_next /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/handler_read_rnd_next 15 exec Slow_queries /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/slow_queries 16 exec Key_blocks_not_flushed /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/key_blocks_not_flushed 17 exec Key_blocks_unused /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/key_blocks_unused 18 exec Key_blocks_used /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/key_blocks_used 19 exec Key_read_requests /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/key_read_requests 20 exec Key_reads /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/key_reads 21 exec Key_write_requests /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/key_write_requests Page 56 of 62

57 22 exec Key_writes /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/key_writes 23 exec Select_full_join /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/select_full_join 24 exec Select_range_check /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/select_range_check 25 exec Table_locks_waited /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/table_locks_waited 26 exec Threads_created /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/threads_created 27 exec Connections /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/connections 28 exec Sort_merge_passes /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/sort_merge_passes 29 exec Sort_range /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/sort_range 30 exec Sort_rows /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/sort_rows 31 exec Sort_scan /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/sort_scan 32 exec Qcache_free_blocks /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/qcache_free_blocks 33 exec Qcache_free_memory /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/qcache_free_memory 34 exec Qcache_hits /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/qcache_hits 35 exec Qcache_inserts /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/qcache_inserts 36 exec Qcache_lowmem_prunes /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/qcache_lowmem_prunes 37 exec Qcache_not_cached /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/qcache_not_cached 38 exec Qcache_queries_in_cache /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/qcache_queries_in_cache 39 exec Qcache_total_blocks /bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/qcache_total_blocks Page 57 of 62

58 Quick Tip: You can download a text file of the above at: Step 6 Restart SNMP: /etc/init.d/snmpd restart Note: If you are not running snmpd as root, use the user you are using to run snmpd to create the script, modify the snmpd config and create the crontab. and SMS alerts There will be times when you are not able to monitor your monitoring dashboard, but still need to be notified when certain events occur on your server. With Advanced Server Monitoring, you can choose to send a notification to up to five different addresses. Or for the alerting software to send you an SMS text message if anything occurs on your server. and SMS alerts can be controlled by your account control panel. This is the control panel you used when you set up server monitoring in the first place. Important: Some events can trigger multiple alerts. In addition, events that re-occur will also trigger a new notification. Changing the recipients of or SMS alerts While you can monitor the performance of your servers through the dashboard of the Advanced Server Monitoring control panel, there are times when this isn't practical. For moments like these it's easy to set up and SMS alerts to notify you if anything occurs on your server. Page 58 of 62

59 Step 1 Log into your account control panel, and click on Advanced Server Monitoring in the Servers drop down menu. Step 2 A list of available servers will appear. Click Manage next to the server you would like to set up notifications on. Step 3 You will see a list of and SMS recipients. Edit any details you want, then click Save to save your changes. Temporarily suspending and SMS alerts There are certain circumstances where you may not wish to receive or SMS notifications regarding the health of your server, such as when rebooting, rebuilding, or running maintenance. It's quick and easy to disable these alerts during these times. You can activate notifications just as quickly afterwards through your control panel. Step 1 Log into your account control panel, and click on Advanced Server Monitoring in the Servers drop down menu. Page 59 of 62

60 Step 2 A list of available servers will appear. Click Manage next to the server you would like to set up notifications on. Disabling alerts: Scroll down to the Recipients section and untick the box marked Enabled. Disabling SMS alerts: Scroll down to the section marked SMS Alerts and untick the box marked Enabled. Step 3 Once done, click Save to save your changes. Cancelling SMS alerts If you decide that you do not want SMS notifications sent to your device, you can cancel your SMS alerts package at any time through your account control panel. Step 1 Log into your control panel, and click on Advanced Server Monitoring in the Servers drop down menu. Page 60 of 62

61 Step 2 A list of available servers will appear. Click Manage next to the server you would like to cancel SMS notifications on. Step 3 Scroll down to the section marked SMS Alerts and click the button marked Cancel SMS Alerts Service. Step 4 Tick the box confirming that you would like to cancel this service. Then click Continue. SMS alerting will now be removed from your account. Where to find additional help Our Advanced Monitoring control panel comes with its own knowledgebase. This can be accessed from the home page as soon as you log in. To search the knowledgebase simple click the tab marked Knowledge. Page 61 of 62

62 In addition to the knowledgebase, each page of our control panel has a specific guide designed to define any terms used on the page, and to guide you through commonly used processes. These guides can be found by clicking the Guides button located on each page. Page 62 of 62