MSP End User Version 3.0 Technical Solution Guide
N-Compass Remote Networking Monitoring Architecture How Does N-Compass Help Small & Medium Businesses? Proactive IT management The ability to do predictive analysis and capacity management by tracking and managing key metrics of your IT infrastructure. You can predict the need for extra capacity with a server or network. By setting the thresholds for HDD, CPU, Swap and Traffic, you can be alerted when these metrics reach warning states - indicating the need for extra capacity. If you use the N-central Service History report, you can trend the utilization of DriveSpace, and CPU/Memory saturation. This can be used to predict the over utilization of a machine and the need to schedule upgrades weeks or even months in advance. Expands your coverage With N-central, your IT infrastructure is monitored 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The Web interface and architecture allows your IT infrastructure to be managed remotely eliminating wasted (expensive) service calls know if problems are Internet related (core router down) or Local Network related (require visit). Historical information N-central provides you with historical information about your IT infrastructure. Access to this data can help you identify areas of future concern and enable you to make informed purchase decisions.
Notification N-Compass capabilities for notification include: Notification of an event via any e-mail capable device, alpha-numeric or numeric pager Notification to multiple individuals in the event of an alert, via their preferred method Concurrent multiple notification profiles covering what s critical to different individuals Notification escalations based on individual time periods Notification Acknowledgment to assign incident ownership N-Compass allows you to maintain complete control over managing your IT infrastructure at a fraction of the cost of most network management systems. Eliminate false-positives due to performance spikes Simply choose the persons to be notified and how often to repeat notifications Enable escalations based on time of first notification sent Multiple levels of escalation to meet client needs
N-Compass Version 3.0 N-Compass capabilities for availability & performance monitoring include: Service Status Define thresholds and rules on a per task basis Combine elements of an IT service into a single folder Notification Receive notifications via email or alphanumeric or numeric pager Configurable triggers for notification Configurable escalations for time and notification recipients Notification acknowledgments Reporting HTML, XML and PDF reports in both table and graph format Availability trend reports to analyze detailed performance over time Service Metric trend reports that display detailed service data over time Detailed Status reports provide a snapshot of how long services were in each state Raw data export allows the user to export data for all reports in CSV format to a third party solution A notification log displaying the last 30 notifications System Level Metrics Remotely view agent-based CPU, Hard Disk Drive (HDD) and SWAP usage levels Monitor active processes and/or Windows services (i.e. Exchange MTA, OracleDB, Domino) Configure notifications for specific events logged by the Windows Event Viewer Monitor applications that generate a batch or appended text log file SNMP Monitor traffic statistics from any managed router/switch Flexible system allows for new SNMP-based services Network Level Metrics Remotely monitor the following TCP/IP services: Connectivity SMTP SSH HTTP IMAP4 FTP NNTP POP3 Custom Ports Telnet DNS Other Features Network discovery for simplified deployment Distributed N-tier Architecture (Server, Appliance, Agent) XML data structure with SOAP communication protocols Encrypted data transport Flexible permission levels Agents Linux, Windows 2000, Windows NT, Windows XP, Windows 9x, Novell and Solaris (Sparc) operating systems
What is a probe? N-Compass is the catalyst to our proactive managed service arrangement with ABC Networks. This has allowed us to optimize our technology investment and pay for the IT we need when we need it. The Web-based dashboard and reporting provides us the peace of mind our network is being monitored 24x7. Customer Quote A probe is a component of the N-Compass network monitoring system that resides within a customer s corporate network. The probe performs synthetic network tests on key network elements that are not directly accessible to the N-Compass server, acts as a scanning point for auto discovery and performs SNMP queries. This allows N- Compass to move the active part of its monitoring process to a device located on the same network or subnet, as the devices it is trying to monitor. The use of probes enables N-Compass to monitor multiple private networks no matter what IP addressing scheme they may be using, without compromising existing security measures. An attention icon indicates that a problem occurred or that a warning threshold has been met. A trouble icon indicates there is an error that requires your attention (web service not responding or the death of important service).
Deployment Traditional network monitoring software programs are difficult to deploy and can take weeks, or even months, to properly configure. How can I get a solution now? N-Compass s capabilities for deployment include: The intuitive configuration allows you to create your configuration in minutes, rather than days or weeks. You can begin monitoring key network elements immediately. Monitoring new key network elements, or re-configuring existing key network elements through an easy-touse Web interface. Agents are easily installed as services and do not require rebooting the machine. Entire infrastructures can be configured automatically through the use of auto discovery. Agents/Probes do not require any client-side configuration. As they report, they update their configurations from the N-Compass server appliance. All communication from private client networks is client-side initiated using SOAP (simple object access protocol) encapsulated with HTTP or HTTPS, so there are no firewall changes required. Probes and agents work seamlessly with most standard network configurations including HTTP proxies. N-Compass modular approach allows you to choose the IT monitoring capability you need, as you need it. Torus Business Group, LLC 2200 North Central Avenue, Suite 203 Phoenix, Arizona 85004-1431 Telephone: 1(602) 274-5096 Fax: (602) 212-0034 E-mail: info@torusgroup.com www.torusgroup.com