advanced server monitoring manual - support home...

Advanced Server MonitoringSetup Guide

Advanced Server Monitoring

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.

of 66


Table of contents

Introduction............................................................................................................................................................... 3Important notes regarding SMS and email alerts...................................................................................................3

Setting up your Server............................................................................................................................................. 4Windows 2008........................................................................................................................................................ 4

Windows 2003........................................................................................................................................................ 9

Linux Operating Systems..................................................................................................................................... 14

Default Settings...................................................................................................................................................... 17Getting Started........................................................................................................................................................ 19

Logging into the advanced Server Monitoring Control Panel................................................................................19

Your Dashboard................................................................................................................................................... 19

Customising your dashboard................................................................................................................................ 19

Available Widgets................................................................................................................................................. 22

Navigating the Advanced Server Monitoring control panel................................................................................35Level 1 (Server Summary).................................................................................................................................... 36

Level 2 (Server Performance).............................................................................................................................. 37

Level 3 (Server Properties)................................................................................................................................... 46

Configuring your alerts.......................................................................................................................................... 47Changing your system alert thresholds................................................................................................................47

Port Monitoring..................................................................................................................................................... 49

Web content monitoring........................................................................................................................................ 51

Monitoring a MySQL database on a Linux Server................................................................................................54

Email and SMS alerts............................................................................................................................................. 58Changing the recipients of email or SMS alerts....................................................................................................58

Temporarily suspending email and SMS alerts....................................................................................................59

Cancelling SMS alerts.......................................................................................................................................... 60

Where to find additional help.................................................................................................................................... 61

of 66


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 email alertsBy 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 emails or SMS notifications being received,

we recommend you temporarily disable alerting through your control panel when you reboot or re-

build 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 email or SMS alerts again through your control panel.

of 66


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 2008This 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.

of 66


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.

of 66


Step 1.4

Step 1.5

Scroll down this list until you find SNMP Services. Expand this section, then

select SNMP Service. Once done click

Next.

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.

of 66


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 213.171.217.173 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.

of 66


3. Connecting with the SNMP service (Dedicated servers only)

Step 3.1

Step 3.2

Keeping the server manager open, expand the Windows

Firewall with advanced features section and select

Inbound rules.

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.

Once done, restart your firewall for

these changes to take effect.

of 66


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.

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 2003This 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

Step 1.2

Log into your server. In the start

menu, select Add or Remove Programs from the Control

Panel expanded menu.

The Add or Remove Programs

window will open. Click the

button marked Add/Remove Windows Components in the

left hand side of the window.

of 66


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.

of 66


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:

http://www.yourwebsiteandemail.com/advanced-monitoring/I386.zip

http://www.yourwebsiteandemail.com/advanced-monitoring/AMD64.zip

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.

of 66

http://www.yourwebsiteandemail.com/advanced-monitoring/AMD64.zip

http://www.yourwebsiteandemail.com/advanced-monitoring/I386.zip


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 213.171.217.173 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.

of 66


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.

of 66


Step 3.3

Step 3.4

Select Default Security Policy in the middle

viewing pane. Unselect SNMP, then click

Apply and OK to save your changes.

Finally, restart this service for the changes to

take effect. SNMP is now set up and

configured on your server.

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 SystemsThis 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

of 66


snmpd

Step 2 Configure snmp to start on server reboot.

chkconfig snmpd on

Configuring the SMNP monitoring service

Step 1 Edit the snmpd.config file (located at /etc/snmp/snmpd.conf) with the following:

1 rocommunity LiveServers 213.171.217.1732 ####3 # First, map the community name "public" into a "security

name"4 # sec.name source community5 com2sec em7User 213.171.217.173 LiveServers67 ####8 # Second, map the security name into a group name:9 # groupName securityModel securityName10 group em7Group v1 em7User11 group em7Group v2c em7User1213 ####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 .1 801718 ####19 # Next, grant the group read-only access to the systemview

view.20 # group context sec.model sec.level prefix read write

notif21 access em7Group "" any noauth exact all none

none2223 # Finally, Define the disc partitions so that unallocated

space is correctly displayed.24 disk /home

of 66


25 disk /var26 disk /tmp

Quick Tip: You can download a text file of the above at:

http://www.yourwebsiteandemail.com/advanced-monitoring/config-file-uk.txt

Step 2 Start the snmp service

/etc/init.d/snmpd start

Allowing the connection through your firewallBy 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:

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 monitoring2 /sbin/iptables -A INPUT -p udp --dport 161 -m state --state

NEW -j ACCEPT34 # Allow ICMP Traffic5 /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

of 66

http://www.yourwebsiteandemail.com/advanced-monitoring/config-file-uk.txt


Default SettingsAdvanced 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)


C Drive <500mb free space or when >90% usage occurs

Drives D and E <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)


/home <10000 free space or when >90% usage occurs

/tmp <100mb free space or when >90% usage occurs

/var <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.

of 66


Operating system Health


System availability <99% availability

System Latency >100ms(/1000)

Network Checks


Bandwidth Usage 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 monitoringYour 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.

of 66


Getting Started

Logging into the advanced Server Monitoring Control PanelYou can log into the Advanced server monitoring control panel at https://livemonitoring.net with

the username and password you chose when you were setting up live monitoring.

Your DashboardThe 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 dashboardBy 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.

of 66

https://livemonitoring.net/


Adding a new WidgetThe 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.

of 66


Your Widget will now be displayed on your dashboard.

Editing an existing WidgetTo 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.

of 66


You can also move any widget by clicking on the title bar and dragging it to your chosen

position.

of 66


Available WidgetsAdvanced 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.


.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.


of 66


Note: If you do not have any alerts, this widget will appear blank.

Content Verification


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


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

of 66


of 66


Dynamic Application Config

Type: Device

Description: Displays information rather than performance related data relating to software or

CPU on a specific server.



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.



Configurable Display Types: Pie, Column, Horizontal

Bar, Radar, Spreadsheet, Scoreboard

You can monitor the following Applications and Objects:

Application Object

FileSystem Available Space Available Space (MB)

CPU CPU

Memory Physical Memory Size

Physical Memory Used

of 66


Physical Memory Utilization

Swap Memory Size

Swap Memory Used

Swap Memory Utilization

Microsoft IIS: HTTP Statistics

404 as a percentage of gets

(IIS6 Only) 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.



Configurable Display Types: Line, Spreadsheet

You can monitor the following Applications and Objects...

Application Object

FileSystem Available Space Available Space (MB)

of 66


CPU CPU

Memory Physical Memory Size

Physical Memory Used

Physical Memory Utilization

Swap Memory Size

Swap Memory Used

Swap Memory Utilization

Microsoft IIS: HTTP Statistics

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



and hosting response.

Drill Down Navigation: Yes – To Device overview screen


of 66


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)


Event Organisation Summary

Type: Organisation

Description: Displays the status of events across an Organisation.



Configurable Display Types: Pie, Column, Horizontal Bar, Radar, Spreadsheet,

Scoreboard.

of 66


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)



Configurable Display Types: Pie, Column, Horizontal Bar, Radar, Spreadsheet,

Scoreboard.

Host Response Type: Administration




HTML Content Type: Content

Description: This allows you to add and execute your own HTML content (Not

JavaScript) to the dashboard.

of 66


Note: You will not be able to access

external content using this widget. Only

content from your servers will be

accessible.

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

of 66


Type: Interface

Description: Displays information about any interface discovered by Advanced

Monitoring



Configurable Display Types: Line, Spreadsheet

of 66


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.


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


Quick Tip: You can view your bookmarks page with the shortcut keys

CTRL+ALT+B

of 66


Network Leaderboard Type: Organisation

Description: Will display network

information for up to 20 servers within

your account.



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



and hosting response. Optimised for small screens.

Drill Down Navigation: Yes – To Device


of 66


Space Check Type: Administration

Description: Displays any alerts relating to space on your server.


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.






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.



Configurable Display Types: Pie, Column,

of 66


Horizontal Bar, Radar, Spreadsheet, Scoreboard.

System Availability Meter


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.



Configurable Display Types: Gauge

System Health


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


Note: This displays normalized data calculated hourly. So setting a

refresh rate on less than 60 Minutes will make no effect on the display.

Important: From time to time this widget may not display normalized data

consistently. We are working to resolve this issue, in the meantime, all

data collected will still be accessible on the device performance pages.

of 66


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.



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.






Test (System Admin Test Widget) Type: Administration




of 66


of 66


Test_eventslist_je Type: Administration




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

of 66

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


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

of 66


complete.

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 button within your dashboard.

This button is located within individual widgets.

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.

of 66


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

components. This page includes the following: of 66


Hovering your mouse over an Icon will display more information. The screen can be broken down as follows:

of 66

This icon represents your

server


of 66

IP addresses assigned to your

server

Open ports on your server

Network Interfaces

Software on your server.

System resources (CPU, Memory, etc)

This is your Server

Additional IP addresses


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)

The Logs page lists all the messages that Advanced Server Monitoring has collected from your of 66

Processors

These icons represent local area

connections.

Installed software.

System processes.

Services.


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

colour-coded 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.

of 66


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.

of 66


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.

Services (Server summary level) of 66


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 213.171.217.173.

Level 3 (Server Properties) of 66


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. o Internal: Entry was generated by your Advanced Server Monitoring

tool. o Trap: Entry was generated by an SNMP trap.

of 66


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

colour-coded 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 alertsThere 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 thresholdsAdvanced 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.

of 66


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 Rollovero Rollover %

of 66


o Out of order %

Port MonitoringYou 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 https://livemonitoring.net, 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 monitorFrom 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.

of 66



Once you updated your policy, click Save, then Close/Esc to close the window.

Adding a new port monitorTo 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 monitorIt 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.

of 66


Web content monitoringYou 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 https://livemonitoring.net, 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 monitorFrom 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.

of 66



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 (&).

of 66


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.

of 66


Adding a new web content monitorTo 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 monitorIt 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 ServerYou 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

of 66


'YourMySQLUserNameHere'@'localhost'|+--------------------------------------------------------------------+1 row in set (0.00 sec)

Step 2 As Root, Add the following script to the server:

1 #!/usr/bin/env python2 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


http://www.yourwebsiteandemail.com/advanced-monitoring/crom-mysql.txt

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

of 66

http://www.yourwebsiteandemail.com/advanced-monitoring/crom-mysql.txt


Step 5 As Root, Modify the snmpd.conf file (/etc/snmp/snmpd.conf) to add the following lines at

the bottom

1 # MySQL Statistics2 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.1 Bytes_sent /bin/cat

/home/stats/mysql/Bytes_sent3 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.2 Bytes_received /bin/cat

/home/stats/mysql/Bytes_received4 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.3 Com_delete /bin/cat

/home/stats/mysql/Com_delete5 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.4 Com_insert /bin/cat

/home/stats/mysql/Com_insert6 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.5 Com_select /bin/cat

/home/stats/mysql/Com_select7 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.6 Com_update /bin/cat

/home/stats/mysql/Com_update8 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.7 Questions /bin/cat

/home/stats/mysql/Questions9 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.8 Handler_read_first /bin/cat

/home/stats/mysql/Handler_read_first10 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.9 Handler_read_key

/bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/Handler_read_key11 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.10 Handler_read_next /bin/cat

/home/stats/mysql/Handler_read_next12 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.11 Handler_read_prev /bin/cat

/home/stats/mysql/Handler_read_prev13 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.12 Handler_read_rnd

/bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/Handler_read_rnd14 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.13 Handler_read_rnd_next

/bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/Handler_read_rnd_next15 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.14 Slow_queries /bin/cat

/home/stats/mysql/Slow_queries16 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.15 Key_blocks_not_flushed

/bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/Key_blocks_not_flushed17 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.16 Key_blocks_unused /bin/cat

/home/stats/mysql/Key_blocks_unused18 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.17 Key_blocks_used

/bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/Key_blocks_used19 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.18 Key_read_requests /bin/cat

/home/stats/mysql/Key_read_requests20 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.19 Key_reads /bin/cat

of 66


/home/stats/mysql/Key_reads21 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.20 Key_write_requests

/bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/Key_write_requests22 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.21 Key_writes /bin/cat

/home/stats/mysql/Key_writes23 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.22 Select_full_join

/bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/Select_full_join24 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.23 Select_range_check

/bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/Select_range_check25 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.24 Table_locks_waited

/bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/Table_locks_waited26 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.25 Threads_created

/bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/Threads_created27 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.26 Connections /bin/cat

/home/stats/mysql/Connections28 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.27 Sort_merge_passes /bin/cat

/home/stats/mysql/Sort_merge_passes29 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.28 Sort_range /bin/cat

/home/stats/mysql/Sort_range30 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.29 Sort_rows /bin/cat

/home/stats/mysql/Sort_rows31 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.30 Sort_scan /bin/cat

/home/stats/mysql/Sort_scan32 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.31 Qcache_free_blocks

/bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/Qcache_free_blocks33 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.32 Qcache_free_memory

/bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/Qcache_free_memory34 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.33 Qcache_hits /bin/cat

/home/stats/mysql/Qcache_hits35 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.34 Qcache_inserts /bin/cat

/home/stats/mysql/Qcache_inserts36 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.35 Qcache_lowmem_prunes

/bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/Qcache_lowmem_prunes37 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.36 Qcache_not_cached /bin/cat

/home/stats/mysql/Qcache_not_cached38 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.37 Qcache_queries_in_cache

/bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/Qcache_queries_in_cache39 exec .1.3.6.1.4.1.2021.19567.3.38 Qcache_total_blocks

/bin/cat /home/stats/mysql/Qcache_total_blocks

of 66



http://www.yourwebsiteandemail.com/advanced-monitoring/config-mysql.txt

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.

Email and SMS alertsThere 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 email to up to five different email addresses. Or for the

alerting software to send you an SMS text message if anything occurs on your server.

Email 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 email or SMS alertsWhile 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 email and SMS alerts to notify you if anything occurs on

your server.

of 66

http://www.yourwebsiteandemail.com/advanced-monitoring/config-mysql.txt


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 email and SMS recipients. Edit any details you want, then click Save to

save your changes.

Temporarily suspending email and SMS alertsThere are certain circumstances where you may not wish to receive email 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.

Step 2 A list of available

servers will appear.

Click Manage next to

of 66


the server you would like to set up notifications on.

Disabling email alerts: Scroll down to the Email 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 alertsIf 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.

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.

of 66


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 helpOur 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.

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.

of 66

advanced server monitoring manual - support home...

Documents