Probe Reference

You can select the probe you want to use to query the device.

Using the Probe Selection Window

From the Probe Selection window, you can do the following:

  • Click the plus sign (+) from the left pane to expand a probe group.
  • Click the minus sign (-) from the left pane to collapse a probe group.
  • Click a probe from the left pane to select the probe. Information about the probe and controls for setting any available parameters are displayed in the right frame.
  • Click Default to set the probe back to default setting for that probe type.

About Probes

Intermapper includes a large number of built-in probes.

  • Basic Probes - covers the majority of your needs for probing devices.
  • SNMP Probes- performs a wide variety of queries on SNMP devices.
  • Network Devices - queries network devices, such as routers, switches and UPS units.
  • PowerShell Probes - obtains information from Microsoft Windows machines using PowerShell scripts.
  • Servers-Standard - queries various devices using one of many Standard protocols.
  • Servers-Proprietary - queries various devices using one of many Proprietary protocols.
  • Miscellaneous Probes - used for a variety of uses. You can find the Demo, Non-Polling, and TCP Check probes. You can also find the Legacy probes (included to support older maps) and the template for developing Nagios and Command-line probes.
  • Wireless Probes - obtains vendor-specific information from a number of wireless devices.
  • WMI Probes - If Intermapper is installed on a Microsoft Windows machine, use these probes to get detailed information from Microsoft Windows systems through the Microsoft Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) interface.

Packet-Based Probes

Probes such as Ping/Echo, SNMP Traffic, NNTP, and RADIUS send UDP packets to the device being tested and await a correctly formatted response.

For more information on packet-based probes, see About Packet-based Probes and Network Device Probes.

Probe Timeout Period

You can configure the probe timeout period by selecting Set Timeout from the Set Probe Info submenu. If no response is received within the specified timeout period, Intermapper tries again by sending another request packet. This process is repeated until either a response is received or the number of requests sent exceeds the Number of Lost Packets threshold set for the map (the default is 3).

Response Packet Integrity

All packet-based probes check the integrity of the response they receive and some can set the status of the device (Alarm, Warning, and OK) based on the severity of a problem.

TCP-Based Probes

Probes such as HTTP, SMTP, LDAP, and others test the ability of a server to accept a TCP connection on a specific listening port and to respond to a scripted interchange.

For more information on TCP-based probes see Server Probes - Standard .

TCP-Based Interchanges

  1. Intermapper first attempts to connect to the specified port at the device's address.

  2. If this connection attempt fails, Intermapper shows the device in the DOWN state.

    If Intermapper successfully connects to the listening port, Intermapper sends protocol-specific commands through the TCP connection to test the server's responses and compare them to expected values.

  3. Intermapper changes the status of the device (for example, ALARM, WARNING, OKAY, or DOWN) if an error condition is detected or if the probe is interrupted for any reason.
  4. If Intermapper does not receive a proper response within 60 seconds, or if the TCP connection is lost while waiting for a response, the probe sets status of the device to the proper condition.

Miscellaneous Probes

Intermapper includes the following miscellaneous probes. They are described in detail in Miscellaneous Probes.

  • Demo probe - creates demonstration maps, which simulate a network and its activity.
  • Legacy probes - probes that are superceded by other probes. These are included to support older maps.
  • Nagios - selects plugins from the Nagios monitoring system. Intermapper can use these plugins to test devices. For more details, see the Nagios Plugins page in the Developer Guide.
  • Non-polling probe - turns probing off for the specified probe.
  • Prototype SNMP probe - creates custom SNMP probes.
  • TCP Check probe - monitors the number of TCP connections to an SNMP-enabled device and to send an alarm when a specified number of connections is exceeded.

Troubleshooting PowerShell Probes

If you are having trouble getting PowerShell probes to work, you can look in the Debug Log information.

Each time a PowerShell probe is selected or its parameters change, a connectivity test is run. If the test is successful, the probe runs at the next polling interval. For the connectivity test and for each time a PowerShell probe runs, the following entries are created:

  • One entry shows the input string sent to stdin.
  • A second entry shows the variables returned by the probe, enclosed in \{...} and followed by the string assigned to stdout.