ServersCheck Monitoring Software

From ServersCheck Wiki

This section of the wiki handles all topics published regarding the ServersCheck Monitoring Software.

Contents 1 Background 1.1 Welcome 1.2 Installation Requirements 1.3 Release Notes 1.4 License Agreement 1.5 Installation Overview 1.6 ServersCheck Architecture 1.6.1 Architecture Diagram 1.6.2 Architecture Explained 1.7 Configuring ServersCheck's Services 1.8 Configuring Service for Windows Checks 1.9 Starting ServersCheck 1.10 Configuring Web Server in HTTPS Mode 1.11 Securing Your ServersCheck Configuration 1.12 Firewall Settings 2 Initial Setup 2.1 Configuration Wizard 2.2 Main Screen Explained 2.3 Creating a First Rule 3 Setup & Configuration 3.1 Define Rules 3.2 Define Alerts 3.3 Define Groups 3.4 Define Devices 3.5 Define Users 3.6 Define Teams 4 Alert Configuration 4.1 Alert escalation & acknowledgement 4.2 Email alerts (SMTP) 4.3 SMS alerts via ClickATell 4.4 SMS alerts via GSM modem 4.5 MSN alerts 4.6 Voice Phone Alerts 4.7 RemoteBooting 4.8 Signal Tower Alerting 5 Reporting - Trend Analysis 5.1 Default Graphs 5.2 Create & Schedule new Graphs 5.3 HTML Reporting Template 5.4 Reporting - Publish for Read Only Users 5.5 Reporting - All.html 5.6 RRDTool - Database and graphing engine 6 Business Edition Features 6.1 Monitoring Watcher 6.2 Fail-Over 6.3 ODBC Logging 6.4 Visual Network Map 6.5 Sending Out SNMP Traps 7 Main Checks Overview 7.1 General Settings for Checks 7.2 Common Errors Returned by Checks 8 Network Related Checks 8.1 TCP 8.2 PING 8.3 PINGAVG 8.4 TRACERT 8.5 DNS 8.6 NTP (Network Time Protocol) 9 Internet Related Checks 9.1 URL 9.2 URL Image 9.3 URL Exists 9.4 HTTP Status 9.5 HTTP Header 9.6 FTP 9.7 FTP FILE EXISTS 9.8 FTP FILE FOUND 9.9 NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol) 10 Network Traffic Related Checks 10.1 TRAFFIC 10.2 BANDWIDTH 11 Mail Related Checks 11.1 POP3 11.2 SMTP 11.3 SMTP -> POP3 12 SNMP Related Checks 12.1 SNMP 12.2 SNMPSTRING 12.3 SNMPTRAP 13 Application Specific Checks 13.1 LOTUS 14 Windows Based Checks 14.1 Manage Windows Accounts 14.2 PERFCOUNT 14.3 SERVICES 14.4 PROCESS 14.5 PROCESSMEM 14.6 PROCESSCPU 14.7 EVENTLOG 14.8 CPU 14.9 MEMORY 14.10 DRIVESPACE 14.11 ANTIVIRUS 15 Linux/Unix Based Checks 15.1 LINUXPROCESS 15.2 LINUXSNMP 15.3 Configure Linux/Unix Agent 16 Database Checks 16.1 ORACLE 16.2 ORACLESNMP 16.3 MYSQL 16.4 ODBC 16.5 ODBCSQL 16.6 ODBCSQLDURATION 17 Hardware Checks 17.1 CISCOWORKS 17.2 DELL Open Manage (SNMP) 18 File Checks 18.1 FILE 18.2 FILE CONTENT 18.3 FILE NEGATIVE CONTENT 18.4 FILE AGE 18.5 FILE SIZE 19 Environmental Checks 19.1 TEMPERATURE 19.2 HUMIDITY 19.3 SERIAL ENABLED SENSORS MANUAL 19.4 USB ENABLED SENSORS MANUAL 19.5 NETWORK ENABLED SENSORS MANUAL 20 Security Sensors Checks 20.1 SECURITY QUICK START GUIDE 20.2 Special version for ethernet on board enabled Security Sensors 21 External Checks 21.1 EXTERNAL 22 Advanced 22.1 Knowledge Base 22.2 ServersCheck.CONF File 22.3 Debugging through Log Files 22.4 Customizing Look and Feel ServersCheck 22.5 Glossary

Background

Welcome

ServersCheck is an agentless, browser-based tool for monitoring, reporting on, and alerting on system availability. It can perform these functions on the following system areas:

• TCP ports
• HTTP
• FTP
• DNS
• SMTP
• POP3

In addition, it can perform the following:

• Check ODBC-compliant databases
• Trap SNMP values
• Check content in URLs
• Verify the existence of URLs
• Check the availability of Lotus Notes databases

ServersCheck offers all of these for Unix, Linux, Windows, and other operating systems (OSs). On Windows platforms, it checks for disk space, NT services, processes, the CPU, and memory, scans the event log and can monitor any performance counter. On Linux, it monitors process availability. When an outage occurs, it can alert you via voice phone (text-to-speech), e-mail, pager, SMS, MSN, HTTP, or network message, and execute an application, start a service, or reboot a server. Additional features include customizable HTML reports and graphs.

This help content will detail every aspect of the ServersCheck software. Additional information also exists at the following resources:

• Online discussion forum
• Online Knowledge Base
• HelpDesk (for users with a support agreement)
• Glossary of terms and acronyms

Some topics are explained based on interactive tutorials. You will need to have Macromedia's Flash Player installed in order to view them. Click here to download the Flash Player.

Please note that depending on your ServersCheck version, some features may or may not be available to you.

Installation Requirements

ServersCheck is a Windows-based monitoring system. The Installation Requirements document outlines the required prerequisites for the ServersCheck Monitoring Software.

Release Notes

June 13, 2008: v7.11

The ServersCheck Monitoring Software monitors, reports and alerts on the availability and performance of networked devices and servers. When performing an upgrade to a major new version, then we strongly recommend to first test the new release in the evaluation mode with having the alerting disabled in order to validate your configuration in the new version while keeping the older version in production.

The ServersCheck Monitoring Software can be installed in one of the 38 following languages: English, Français, Deutsch, Nederlands, Español, Italiano, Português, Dansk, Norsk, Svenska, Suomi, Русский, Estonian, Latvia, Lietuva, Polski, Český, Slovenščina; Slovenčina, Magyar, Româna, Afrikaans, Ελληνικά, Türkçe, עברית, العربي, اردو, 中文 (Simplified and Traditional Chinese), 한국어, 日本語, Hindi, Malay, Bahasa Indonesia, Filipino, Vietnamese

For the latest release notes, click on following url: http://www.serverscheck.com/monitoring_software/release.asp

License Agreement

Refer to the License Agreement for details.

Installation Overview

ServersCheck has a component based architecture allowing for higher availability and reliability of the monitoring software. The Installation Overview page provides more information about what is being installed

ServersCheck Architecture

Architecture Diagram

Architecture Explained

The following items have been installed on your computer:

ServersCheck Databases:

• If you want ServersCheck to produce graphs then it needs to create databases (based upon the round robin system created by Tobias Oetiker with its RDDTool). The installer has created a special directory on your C: drive for these. The name of this directory is c:\serverscheck_databases. By deleting, moving or renaming this directory, ServersCheck will no longer be able to produce graphs based upon the checks it executes.

ServersCheck components:

• s-service.exe: this is the monitoring service which launches the other apps and kills them when the service stops.

• monitoring_manager.exe: manages all the jobs that the monitoring_rule(s) have to perform. It also checks for data integrity and load.

• monitoring_rule.exe: the monitoring_rule executes the task given by the monitoring_manager. When an error is detected it creates a signal to the s-alerts that an alert has to be generated and for graphs it notifies the s-graphs.

• monitoring_watcher.exe: this out-of-process component is a built-in fail-over. It monitors the activity of the monitoring_manager and monitoring_rule's. If a component fails, then it will be automatically restarted. This feature is available in the Business Edition only.

• s-server.exe: is the ServersCheck Configuration Server. This server is a self running web server that allows you to configure all the parameters of your ServersCheck configuration.

• s-graphs.exe: is the ServersCheck Graphing component. This component's role is to generate graphs based upon generated data (stored in the serverscheck-graphs.dat file). The source code of this component is available upon request (email to info@serverscheck.com)

• s-alerts.exe: manages all the alerts have to be generated. Every alert performed is written to a log file in the alerts directory.

• s-scan.exe: scans the network to discover devices. This feature is available in the Business Edition only.

Configuring ServersCheck's Services

The Configuring ServersCheck Services page provides details on correctly configuring ServersCheck services.

Configuring Service for Windows Checks

The Configuring Service for Windows Checks page provides details on correctly configuring services for Windows checks.

Starting ServersCheck

The Starting ServersCheck page provides details on starting the ServersCheck Monitoring software.

Configuring Web Server in HTTPS Mode

The Configuring Web Server in HTTPS Mode page provides details on configuring your Web server for SSL operation.

Securing Your ServersCheck Configuration

The Securing Your ServersCheck Configuration page provides details on securing your ServersCheck configuration.

Firewall Settings

The Firewall page details what ports are used by which check type. This helps you in configuring firewalls so that ServersCheck can monitor remote systems in an agentless way.

Initial Setup

Configuration Wizard

The Configuration Wizard page provides step-by-step instructions on running the Configuration Wizard.

Main Screen Explained

The Main Screen Explained page describes the main screen of the ServersCheck Monitoring software.

Creating a First Rule

Refer to the Creating a First Rule page for instructions on creating your first rule in ServersCheck Monitoring software.

Setup & Configuration

Define Rules

A rule is an item that needs to be monitored, reported, and alerted on. Rules can be linked to a device and a logical group. For example a server where we would perform a ping, drive space and memory check, would have three rules: PING, DRIVESPACE and MEMORY. You can add a rule by clicking on All Rules View and then Add New Monitoring Rule. Refer to the Define Rules page for more information.

Define Alerts

After having defined the monitoring rule and which check it should use, you can define the alerts for the rule. Refer to the Define Alerts page for more information.

Define Groups

Monitoring rules can be combined either by computer and device or by group. A group is logical entity for combining checks. For example a group could be DataCenter1, DataCenter2, etc. For more information on defining groups, refer to the Define Groups page.

Define Devices

Rules can be linked to a group (logical entity) or a device (server, router, etc.) as explained above.

ServersCheck enables you not only to link rules to devices but also to connect to a device with a single mouse click, provided that VNC is installed on the remote device. For more information on defining devices, refer to the Define Devices page.

Define Users

ServersCheck supports different log-ins where every user can have a different profile. Refer to the Define Users page for more information.

Define Teams

When having more than one person in charge of reacting on monitoring, you can use the Teams feature to alert multiple persons when an error occurs. For information on defining teams, refer to the Define Teams page.

Alert Configuration

Alert escalation & acknowledgement

ServersCheck has the capability to escalate an alert: this means that ServersCheck will automatically send the alert to a different team if the initial alert has not been acknowledged.

Escalated alerts can be sent to the team or to a different team.

In order to avoid an alert from being escalated, it needs to be acknowledged within a predefined time frame.

Refer to the Alert Escalation & Acknowlegement page for details on how to configure this option.

Email alerts (SMTP)

Alerts can be generated in several ways -- one of them is via email. ServersCheck has two ways of sending emails via SMTP: either through the built-in e-mail server or through an external SMTP relay server.

For the built-in mail server which is integrated into ServersCheck, you need to make sure that ServersCheck can access the DNS server. This is very important, because access to the DNS Server is needed to retrieve the mail server address of the alert recipient (MX record). When selecting the external email server option then ServersCheck will send an email using your SMTP server.

You can best configure email-based alerting by using the Configuration Wizard. To start the wizard, point your browser (when the Configuration Server is running) to following URL:

http://<IP>:1272/popup.html

Refer to the Email Alerts page for more information on configuring this option.

SMS alerts via ClickATell

Refer to the ClickATell Documentation for details on how to configure this option.

SMS alerts via GSM modem

Alerts can be generated in several ways. One of them is through SMS or cell phone text messages. Refer to the SMS Alerts via GSM Modem page for more information.

If you are using a Falcom SAMBA 75 GSM modem, then you can download following Quick Install manual that will guide through the complete installation process: http://files.serverscheck.net/manuals/ServersCheck_Falcom_Quick_Install_Guide.pdf

MSN alerts

MSN alerts have been in use since release 4.2.0 of ServersCheck. When this option is used, ServersCheck connects with a valid MSN account and sends the message to another MSN account. Refer to the MSN Alerts page for more information.

Voice Phone Alerts

Voice Phone alerts have been reintroduced in release 7.11 of the ServersCheck Monitoring. When this option is used, ServersCheck calls you on your land line or mobile phone. When the phone call is answered, ServersCheck tells you the specific alert that occurred using Text To Speech conversion. The calling can be made either through a voice modem or through SkypeOut (Beta).

- For using a voice modem to place phone calls: Configure Voice Modem

- For using Skype to make outbound calls on alert: Configure Skype

RemoteBooting

The RemoteBooting tool is a separate software made by ServersCheck. This tool enables you to remotely reboot a system or restart/stop a service. For more information on this freeware, please visit the following URL:

http://www.serverscheck.com/remotebooting

Refer to the RemoteBooting page for more information.

Signal Tower Alerting

The Signal Tower hardware enables to have visual alerting depending on the status of the monitors being performed. The lights can switch from Red, Amber to Green. It can also perform an audible alert at 85dbs (measured at 1m distance).

Refer to the SignalTower Documentation for details on how to configure this option.

Reporting - Trend Analysis

Default Graphs

ServersCheck creates several graphs by default specific to the status of the system. Refer to the Default Graphs page for more information.

Create & Schedule new Graphs

ServersCheck enables you to not only create custom graphs, but also schedule them to be refreshed at whatever rate you wish. Refer to the Create & Schedule new Graphs page for more information.

HTML Reporting Template

Serverscheck can produce real-time reports on the status of each rule. These HTML reports are based on report templates provided with ServersCheck. For more information on HTML reporting templates, refer to the HTML Reporting Template page.

Reporting - Publish for Read Only Users

ServersCheck can produce several reports that are designed for users only needing to view the status of the checks without being able to modify any setting. For more information on creating read only reports, refer to the Reporting - Publish for Read Only Users page.

Reporting - All.html

ServersCheck generates a report that details the overall status of ServersCheck. For more information on this report, refer to the The All Status Report page.

RRDTool - Database and graphing engine

ServersCheck uses the RRDTool as its underlying database and graphing engine. For more information, refer to the RRDTool page.

Business Edition Features

Monitoring Watcher

By default the ServersCheck performs basic fail-over capabilities for all versions: restart the monitoring_manager or monitoring_rule threads, if they die. For more information, refer to the Monitoring Watcher page.

Fail-Over

For information on the Fail-Over option, refer to the Fail-Over page.

ODBC Logging

The ODBC logging feature stores all outages and/or status changes into an ODBC compliant database. For more information, refer to the ODBC Logging page.

Visual Network Map

Refer to the Visual Network Map page for more information.

Sending Out SNMP Traps

Refer to the Sending Out SNMP Traps page for more information.

Main Checks Overview

General Settings for Checks

Refer to the General Settings for Checks page for more information on general check settings.

Common Errors Returned by Checks

Refer to the Knowledgebase page for more information.

Network Related Checks

TCP

For information on TCP checks, refer to the TCP page.

PING

For information on ping checks, refer to the PING page.

PINGAVG

For information on PINGAVE checks, refer to the PINGAVG page.

TRACERT

For information on TRACERT checks, refer to the TRACERT page.

DNS

For information on DNS checks, refer to the DNS page.

NTP (Network Time Protocol)

For information on the Network Time Protocol or NTP check, refer to the NTP page.

Internet Related Checks

URL

For information on URL checks, refer to the URL page.

URL Image

For information on URL image checks, refer to the URL Image page.

URL Exists

For information on URL exist checks, refer to the URL Exists page.

HTTP Status

For information on HTTP status checks, refer to the HTTP Status page.

HTTP Header

For information on HTTP header checks, refer to the HTTP Header page.

FTP

For information on FTP checks, refer to the FTP page.

FTP FILE EXISTS

For information on the FTP File Exists check, refer to the FTP FILE EXISTS page.

FTP FILE FOUND

For information on the FTP File Found check, refer to the FTP FILE FOUND page.

NNTP (Network News Transfer Protocol)

For information on the Network News Transfer Protocol or NNTP check, refer to the NNTP page.

Network Traffic Related Checks

TRAFFIC

For information on Traffic checks, refer to the TRAFFIC page.

BANDWIDTH

For information on Bandwidth checks, refer to the BANDWIDTH page.

Mail Related Checks

POP3

For more information on POP3 checks, refer to the POP3 page.

SMTP

For more information on SMTP checks, refer to the SMTP page.

SMTP -> POP3

For information on SMTP to POP3 email chain checks, refer to the SMTP to POP3 page.

SNMP Related Checks

SNMP

For more information on SNMP checks, refer to the SNMP page. For additional information on SNMP, refer to the Background Information on SNMP page.

SNMPSTRING

For more information on SNMPSTRING checks, refer to the SNMPSTRING page.

SNMPTRAP

For more information on the SNMPTRAP feature, refer to the SNMPTRAP page.

Application Specific Checks

LOTUS

For information on checks specific to the LOTUS application, refer to the LOTUS page.

Windows Based Checks

Manage Windows Accounts

For information on managing Windows-based accounts, refer to the Manage Windows Accounts page.

PERFCOUNT

For information on PERFCOUNT, refer to the PERFCOUNT page.

SERVICES

For information on SERVICES, refer to the SERVICES page.

PROCESS

For information on PROCESS, refer to the PROCESS page.

PROCESSMEM

For information on PROCESSMEM, refer to the PROCESSMEM page.

PROCESSCPU

For information on PROCESSCPU, refer to the PROCESSCPU page.

EVENTLOG

For information on EVENTLOG, refer to the EVENTLOG page.

CPU

For information on CPU, refer to the CPU page.

MEMORY

For information on MEMORY, refer to the MEMORY page.

DRIVESPACE

For information on DRIVESPACE, refer to the DRIVESPACE page.

ANTIVIRUS

For information on ANTIVIRUS, refer to the ANTIVIRUS page.

Linux/Unix Based Checks

LINUXPROCESS

For information on LINUXPROCESS, refer to the LINUXPROCESS page.

LINUXSNMP

For information on LINUXSNMP, refer to the LINUXSNMP page.

Configure Linux/Unix Agent

For information on configuring the Linux/UNIX agent, refer to the Configure Linux/UNIX Agent page.

Database Checks

ORACLE

For more information on ORACLE, refer to the ORACLE page.

ORACLESNMP

For more information on ORACLESNMP, refer to the ORACLESNMP page.

MYSQL

For more information on MYSQL, refer to the MYSQL page.

ODBC

For more information on ODBC, refer to the ODBC page.

ODBCSQL

For more information on ODBCSQL, refer to the ODBCSQL page.

ODBCSQLDURATION

For more information on ODBCSQLDURATION, refer to the ODBCSQLDURATION page.

Hardware Checks

CISCOWORKS

Refer to the CISCOWORKS topic for information.

DELL Open Manage (SNMP)

Refer to the DELL Open Manage topic for information.

File Checks

FILE

For information on file checks, refer to the FILE topic.

FILE CONTENT

For information on file content checks, refer to the FILE CONTENT topic.

FILE NEGATIVE CONTENT

For information on file negative checks, refer to the FILE NEGATIVE CONTENT topic.

FILE AGE

For information on file age checks, refer to the FILE AGE topic.

FILE SIZE

For information on file size checks, refer to the FILE SIZE topic.

Environmental Checks

TEMPERATURE

For information on temperature checks, refer to the TEMPERATURE topic.

HUMIDITY

For information on humidity checks, refer to the HUMIDITY topic.

SERIAL ENABLED SENSORS MANUAL

Refer to the following manual: http://help.serverscheck.net/monitoring_software/7/ServersCheck_Serial_Sensor.pdf

USB ENABLED SENSORS MANUAL

Refer to the following manual: http://help.serverscheck.net/monitoring_software/7/ServersCheck_USB_Sensor.pdf

NETWORK ENABLED SENSORS MANUAL

Download the Network Enabled Sensors manual here: http://help.serverscheck.net/monitoring_software/7/ServersCheck_Tibbo_Device_Server.pdf

Security Sensors Checks

SECURITY QUICK START GUIDE

Refer to the following manual: http://help.serverscheck.net/monitoring_software/7/ServersCheck_Security_Sensors.pdf

Special version for ethernet on board enabled Security Sensors

Refer to the following manual: http://help.serverscheck.net/monitoring_software/7/ServersCheck_Security_Sensors_Ethernet.pdf

External Checks

EXTERNAL

For information on external checks, refer to the EXTERNAL topic.

Advanced

Knowledge Base

You can access the Knowledgebase from here.

ServersCheck.CONF File

Refer to the ServersCheck.CONF File topic for information.

Debugging through Log Files

Refer to the Debugging through Log Files topic for information.

Customizing Look and Feel ServersCheck

Refer to the Customizing Look and Feel ServersCheck topic for information.

Glossary

Refer to the Glossary.