Intermapper Quick Tour

Try the following with Intermapper to familiarize yourself with the interface and its capabilities. Learn how to create maps, make maps attractive, send alerts, make charts, and so on. See Intermapper User Guide for more information.

  1. Try out demo maps.

    When you install Intermapper for the first time, a set of demo maps is installed. From the Welcome page, click Try Out The Demo Maps and take a couple of minutes to try the steps listed in the help text. When you are finished, click Disable This Map. You can disable the demo map from the Enabled Maps pane of the Server Settings window.

  2. Build maps.

    There are several ways to build maps. You can use the Autodiscovery functionality, manually enter addresses, and import a file. Try the following:

    • Autodiscovery Intermapper can scan a network to find devices

      • Create a new map by clicking File > New map. Name the map (for example, Local Network) and click Next.
      • Check the Autodiscovery button in the window and click Next. The Autodiscover window is displayed.
      • Enter a starting point address (the default value is fine) and click OK. You can also specify a range of addresses to scan.
      • Autodiscovery begins. Let the query process or click Cancel in the top of the map to stop the scan.

    • Manual Entry allows you to add devices manually by typing or pasting a list of DNS names or IP addresses into the window.

      • Create a new map, name it North America, and click Next. Click Manual Entry > Next. The Add Device(s) window is displayed.
      • Type www.fortra.com and www.example.com. Click Add. Note that they appear as devices (rectangles) and turn green a few moments later. (Intermapper is already testing them.)
      • Add a background image to the map by dragging the NorthAmerica.jpg from the Hands-on Extras folder to the map window.
      • Click Window > Zoom window to resize the map to the image.
      • Drag the rectangles to the desired location on the background map.

    • Create top-level map allows you to create a top-level map that indicates the most serious condition of a sub-map. You can add icons to the Local Network and the Unalakleet sub-maps on the North America map.

      • Open the North America map and position it and the Map List so you can see both windows.
      • Drag the Unalakleet icon from the Map List to the North America map.
      • Drag the Local Network map icon to the North America map.
      • Double-click the Local Network icon on the top-level North America map to drill down. This opens the Local Network map.

  3. Make attractive maps. The following techniques are available for making the maps look more attractive or to convey more information:

    • Drag items around to match your network configuration. Lines between devices are displayed to show interconnections.
    • Add a background image to position devices as needed. Drag a PNG, JPEG, or GIF image into the map window to add it or click Edit > Map Settings.
    • Select different icons and shapes for devices to select new icons for the devices by clicking Format > Icon.
    • Change labels on devices The label is the text that appears in or next to the icon on the map. To edit a device label, click Format > Label or type Ctrl Cmd-L.
    • Arrange devices on the map Click Format > Arrange to display available options.
    • Align command The Format > Align (Ctl/Cmd-Shift-K) command aligns items vertically and/or horizontally.
    • Add a link between devices Select two devices and click Insert > Add link or type Ctrl Cmd-E.
    • Connect multiple devices to a point Select the devices and click the Attach to context menu. Lines are drawn and are applied to the next object that you click.

  4. Probes for Various Servers In addition to pinging them, Intermapper can monitor dozens of devices and display their special characteristics. Right-click or control-click, or click Monitor > Set Probe, to select the probe for one or multiple selected devices. You can also select one of the following:

    • Automatic This probe uses either Pings or SNMP queries to monitor the device. If the device speaks SNMP, Intermapper uses the SNMP Traffic probe to query the device. If not, Intermapper pings the device and report if it ever goes down.
    • SNMP Traffic The SNMP Traffic probe monitors traffic on routers, switches, and so on. It works with nearly all networks from different vendors.
    • Network Devices There are many probes for monitoring various other equipment, such as Cisco, Apple, APC and other UPS vendors, and other equipment.
    • Servers-Standard Standards-based servers, such as mail, web, LDAP, Radius, DNS, and so on.
    • Servers-Proprietary Vendor-specific probes for Apple, Barracuda, Big Brother, FileMaker, Lotus, and so on.
    • Miscellaneous Nagios, legacy probes, and probe bundles for wireless and other gear.

  5. Alerts and Notifications Intermapper can place a device into one of five states: OK, Critical, Warning, Alarm, or Down. Each time the device goes into a new state, Intermapper can trigger a notification or alert.

    • Create Notifiers Notifiers are like a robot that watches a device and performs some action to send an alert when it changes its state. Click Edit > Server Settings and scroll to the Notifier List at the bottom. Add an email notifier for yourself.
    • Examine various notification types Mail, pager (analog modem and SNPP), command line, trap, group, or syslog.
    • Look at schedule Alerts are only triggered during the selected schedule, otherwise they are ignored.
    • Attach a notifier to a device To attach a notifier, click Monitor > Device Notifiers and select the states that you want to trigger a notification for.

  6. Acknowledgment After alerts and notifications are sent, you probably want to set those problems aside so you can detect new ones. Acknowledging a device changes its icon blue (to indicate that it has been acknowledged). The device is still down, but its blue color shows that someone is looking into it. Acknowledging also helps you know who is working on the problem. Each time you acknowledge a device, you can enter an acknowledgment message in the Event log. This contains the login name of the person who acknowledged it.

    • Monitor > Acknowledge... (Ctrl/Cmd-') This does the following:
      1. Stops subsequent repeated notifications.
      2. Logs the message to the Event Log file, along with the name and IP address of the person who acknowledged it.
      3. The icon stops blinking and turns blue to indicate that it has been acknowledged and that someone is working on it.
    • Basic acknowledgment Only for duration of that state
    • Timed For the next n minutes, hours, or days
    • Indefinite Until canceled

  7. Dependencies Intermapper suppresses notifications if a device is unreachable because of another failure. Intermapper supports automatic dependencies and it follows the links from the vantage point through the map to the failed device. If there is an outage on that path, Intermapper will not send notifications for the dependent device.

    • Automatic Intermapper follows the links from the Vantage Point.
    • Set the Vantage Point - only one per map

  8. Charts View the history of selected variables.

    • Open a status window for a device.
    • Tear off window by dragging outside.
    • Click an underlined value to create new chart.
    • Drag another underlined link to add it to an existing chart.

  9. Edit > Server Settings The server settings shows the preferences for a server.

    • Per server Use the Edit > Server Settings.

  10. Intermapper Remote Access Allows you to do all of the above, but from anywhere on the Internet

    • Connects to multiple servers at remote locations
    • Works through firewall at client/remote site. You select the port.
    • SSL Encryption is the default. You can install your own SSL certificate.