Working with Monitors

Within Network Server Suite Central Configuration Manager, monitors are used to apply rules against different operating aspects of the network.

These rules keep a constant check on the essential routines and processes that your business uses and relies on during and outside of working hours. If any issues are found, according to the criteria specified in the rule, an alert is raised and various actions can be taken to notify the appropriate personnel of a potential problem.

Monitors are available for Windows, AIX and Linux operating systems. A Business Software Monitor is also available to monitor applications running on a website.*

*An additional license purchase is required to access this option.

In the Systems panel of Central Configuration Manager, monitors are shown beneath each system to which a valid license has been applied.

To view the available monitors for each system, ensure that the Systems view is selected and then expand the Group Name, System Name and Server Managerfolders.

Once at least one rule has been created within a monitor, the description of the monitor in the Systems panel of the Central Configuration Manager is shown in bold text.

Monitor Summary Details Panel

From the Server Manager view of the available monitors, all monitors use the same panel layout which contains the summary detail of the applied Settings, Rules and Template Rules. With the exception of the Event Log Monitors, all fields and options within these sections are identical.

Click on any monitor from within the left-hand navigation panel to display the associated summary details.

Monitor Settings section

The fields contained within this section allow you to specify global settings for this monitor.

WARNING: Settings applied in these fields override any settings specified at rule level.
Interval/Time Period

These settings specify how frequently the monitor runs. Unless held, all rules within this monitor are checked at this interval. The time period can be defined in seconds, minutes, hours or days.

This option is only available for the following monitors:

  • Application Event Log: Default setting of 30 seconds
  • Security Event Log: Default setting of 30 seconds
  • System Event Log: Default setting of 30 seconds
  • Directory Service Event Log: Default setting of 30 seconds
  • DNS Server Event Log: Default setting of 30 seconds
  • File Replication Event Log: Default setting of 30 seconds
  • CPU, Disk & Memory: Default setting of 1 minute
  • WMI: Default setting of 1 minute
  • Service: Default setting of 1 minute

All other monitors set the check interval at Rule level and so this field is unavailable.

Hold Monitor

If checked (indicated by a tick mark), the monitor, and any of the rules contained within, does not run, until the monitor is released.

To hold a monitor

Either:

  1. Click in the Hold Monitor check box in this panel.
or
  1. Right-click on the monitor from within the system list and select Hold Monitor from the pop-up menu.
To release a Held monitor

Either:

  1. Click in the Hold Monitor check box to remove the tick mark.
or
  1. Right-click on the monitor in the system list and select Release Monitor from the pop-up menu.

Startup options (For Event Log Monitors only) section

When Windows restarts, Network Server Suite either ignores or processes any events since shutdown, depending on the selection made in these options.

Ignore events since monitor was last stopped

Any events logged since shutdown are ignored by the Event Log Monitors.

Process events since monitor was last stopped

Any event logged since shutdown are processed by the Event Log Monitors.

Rules section

Displays the Status and Description of any rules set up for the selected monitor. You can add, edit, delete and hold and release rules from within this panel.

Held

A green tick mark is displayed in the held column to indicate that the rule is held.

Description

The Rule Description is taken from the individual rule criteria. If a rule has more than one criteria defined, the Description changes to ‘(Multiple Criteria Defined)’.

Template Rules section

Displays the summary details of any template rules currently applied to this monitor.