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 | Category: News
entry Feb 12 2010, 12:13 PM
We have launch our new site today and this blog will be moving to a new address:

http://www.intellipool.se/feed

Check out the new site at:

http://www.intellipool.se

Have a great weekend!

 | Category: Lua
entry Feb 5 2010, 07:51 PM
Here is a compilation of articles on the subject learning Lua.

Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5

Part 5 is the final part and a complete Lua example script, monitoring Apache worker threads.

 | Category: News
entry Feb 5 2010, 02:12 PM
(Note: this article applies to INM version 4.0.5233 and later)

INM makes it easy to generate SLA reports on any level, wether it be a whole network
or a single object. A default 'Availability report' is included with the INM installation, so let's look at how we can tweak this report
to fit your needs.

The Availability report is a template, and as with any report template in INM it's possible to
apply it in any context. First, let's run this report on a single network.

1) select the network from the relevant view
2) select the 'View report' command and then the Availability report to generate it.



As we can see, INM reports individual Up and Downtime on each device in the network,
as well as reporting the averages for the entire network. By default, INM calculates
the average Up and Downtime for each individual entry but this can be changed to the sum if required.

Now let's modify the report template, to let INM break down the statistics even further and
report statistics on each individual monitor.

1) click on the Availability report in the Report templates view
2) click on the edit icon for the Downtime report item
3) select the "Report downtime for monitors" option
4) we're going to uncheck the 'Include monitors with no downtime in the report' option to only list the monitors that were
down during the period.

Let's re-run the report on the Fileserver object only this time.



In this case, it was a Disk time monitor that contributed to the downtime in the Fileserver object.

On some occasions you want to generate a SLA report that only takes data within a specific time interval into account.
INM can do this as well.

1) Open the properties for the Downtime report item again, and specify a time period in the
Time limit textboxes. Now the report will only include statistics that lies within this time interval for each day.

There is one more interesting option, and that is to only base the SLA report on specific monitor types.

1) Again, open the properties for the DOwntime report item.
2) In the advanced section, select monitor types from the 'Monitor limit' box and add those to be included.
Only statistical data based on the selected monitor types will be included in the final report.

Finishing up, you may want to setup a scheduled event to run the SLA report periodically.
Full details on how to setup a scheduled event can be found in the online manual, located here:
http://www.intellipool.se/4_0/doc/generate_a_report.htm

 | Category: INM updates
entry Jan 27 2010, 03:11 PM
________ Release notes build 5439 ________

* Improvement: 15 useful Lua scripts are now included in the installer
* Improvement: New default MIB that includes VMWare, NetApp and iScsi
* Improvement: Action lists info page shows which objects and monitors that is assigned to the list
* Improvement: The logon account info page now also includes the Mail QOS monitor in the list of monitors using the account.
* Improvement: It is now possible to use the %operator_current macro in the acknowledge message subject line.

Download link

 | Category: INM updates
entry Jan 20 2010, 04:01 PM
________ Release notes build 5426 ________

* New feature: Objects and monitors now have an easy way to setup simple maintenance schedules without having to create a dedicated schedule. This setting can be found in the object and monitor properties, in the advanced settings sections.
* New feature: Packet size can now be customized in the Ping monitor, as well as the possibility to enable the "do not fragment" option.
* Improvement: Option to report downtime by sum and/or average for report downtime reports. This setting is found in the report downtime item properties.
* Improvement: Option to alternate line colors slightly in list views. This setting is per operator, and can be found in the operator properties screen.

Download link

 | Category: News
entry Jan 15 2010, 01:34 PM
We are preparing a patch of INM v4 that is going to include a couple of new features. The most asked for of these two new features is the "Simple maintenance" function, a easy way to put both monitors and objects into maintenance by specifying the time period and week days in the property page. The second feature is an addition to the ping monitor, which makes it possible to adjust the payload size and set the DF flag (don't fragment). This makes it possible to monitor MTU size of a route.

Today is also the last day to vote and suggest features over at http://intellipool.ideascale.com, so if you havnt done that already, head over there and have your say.

Have a great weekend!

 | Category: News
entry Jan 13 2010, 04:18 PM
We are wrapping up our ideascale forum this week and will during the next week present the outcome of the popular vote. So if you have not yet cast your vote (or added your own ideas for the next version of INM), do it now.

http://intellipool.ideascale.com

 | Category: News
entry Jan 8 2010, 10:11 AM
We are working on the next version of INM and one new feature will be "Applications", an application is a collection of different monitors that represent a logical entity that is evaluated against a set of rules. But you do not have to wait to the next version to get similar functionality. Using data extraction and a clever Lua script one of our users have manged to implement a similar feature himself.

Here is the link:
http://www.intellipool.se/forum/index.php?showtopic=1636

 | Category: INM updates
entry Jan 6 2010, 09:10 AM
________ Release notes build 5387 ________

* New feature: A description field has been added to maintenance schedules. This can be used to specify the reason for the schedule. It is also possible to search for this field in the search function.
* Improvement: Report generation speed has been optimized.
* Improvement: Windows service control tool is now only visible for system administrators.
* Bug fix: Potential crash bug fixed when doing inspection on objects not responding in a timely fashion.
* Bug fix: Ping monitor should no longer be able to ping invalid IP numbers.
* Bug fix: Toplist widget now takes the unit setting into account.
* Bug fix: New version notification should now be shown correctly in the system information widget.

Download link

 | Category: News
entry Dec 22 2009, 04:13 PM
Support during the Holiday season will be closed the following days:

24/12 - Closed
25/12 - Closed
30/12 - Closed
31/12 - Closed

We wish all our customers a happy holiday season and a great 2010!

 | Category: News
entry Nov 20 2009, 03:05 PM
We are adding a new feature to INM v4 today, a Windows service manager tool. From inside the INM interface you can manage all services running on monitored Windows servers. The Windows service manger tool uses object properties such as default account and address, to connect and manage services.

The new function is available from under the Tools menu.

entry Nov 12 2009, 10:53 AM
Upon request I have put together a Lua script that can be used with the Lua script monitor to check if a HTTP server certificate is about to expire. The arguments for the script is port number, number of days before the expiry date the monitor should alarm, and if it should suppress connection failures.

You need to have INM v4 Build 5290 and later to use this script.

Enjoy !

CODE
function OnEnumerate(sFieldToEnum)
    Enum = LuaScriptEnumResult()

    if sFieldToEnum == "Ignore connection problems" then
        Enum:Add("Yes")
        Enum:Add("No")
    end

    return Enum
end

function OnConfigure()

    Config = LuaScriptConfigurator()
    Config:SetAuthor("Robert Aronsson, Intellipool AB")
    Config:SetDescription("The script check if a certificate is about to expire within the configured number of days.")
    Config:SetMinBuildVersion(5290)
    Config:SetScriptVersion(1,0)

    Config:AddArgument("Port number","Port number to connect on",LuaScriptConfigurator.CHECK_NOT_EMPTY)
    Config:AddArgument("Number of days","Check if certificate expres within this period",LuaScriptConfigurator.CHECK_NOT_EMPTY)
    Config:AddArgument("Ignore connection problems","Do you want the script to report connection problems as well ?",LuaScriptConfigurator.ENUM_AVAIL + LuaScriptConfigurator.CHECK_NOT_EMPTY)

    Config:SetEntryPoint("main")

    return Config
end

-- This is the entry point
function main()

    local iPort = GetArgument(0)
    local iNumDays = GetArgument(1)
    local bReportConnectionProblem = false;
    if GetArgument(2) == "Yes" then
        bReportConnectionProblem = true
    end

    -- Timeperiod that the certificate should be valid within
    local iOffsetTime = (60 * 60 * 24) * iNumDays

    -- Default values for test eval
    local bTestOk = true;
    local sText = "Certificate ok";

    -- Open socket
    Socket = TLuaSocketSecure()
    if Socket:Open(iPort) ~= 0 then

        CurrentTime = TLuaDateTime();

        -- The time was retrived during the connect
        Time = Socket:GetCertificateExpiryDate();

        print("Certificate expires ("..Time:GetDate() .." " .. Time:GetTime()..")");
        
        -- Check time
        iExpiryTime = Time:Get() - iOffsetTime;
        if Time:Get() < CurrentTime:Get() then
            bTestOk = false;
            sText = "Certificate have already expired ("..Time:GetDate() .." " .. Time:GetTime()..")";
        else
            if iExpiryTime < CurrentTime:Get() then
                bTestOk = false;
                sText = "Certificate is about to expire in less than "..iNumDays.." days"
            end
        end
    else
        -- Failed to open the socket, server down ?
        if bReportConnectionProblem == true then
            bTestOk = false;
        end
        sText = "Cannot connect to host.";
    end

    -- Report status and exit
    SetExitStatus(sText,bTestOk);
end

 | Category: News
entry Nov 11 2009, 12:04 PM
The new quick search in INM 4 is a handy way of quickly locating information in INM's database.



With the quick search you can find everything from networks, objects, operators, reports, scheduled events and more.

By entering a name everything related to that name will be listed in the search result. In our first example the name of a thermometer device has been entered, and apart from the device itself both a customized report containing data from that device and a related scheduled event is listed.

In this second example we look at how to find all scheduled events that will be executed on a specific date. Just enter any date in YYYY-MM-DD format and all events executing on that date will be listed in the search.



Simply clicking on the result in the list will link you to the relevant screen.

 | Category: News
entry Oct 30 2009, 07:59 AM
Process Instance Count, a Lua script that uses WMI to determine the number of running instances of a process.

Copy/paste the content below to a text file and save it to you \scripts directory (remember the .lua suffix on the file).

CODE
-- Version: 4.0
-- Date: 2009-10-29
-- Description:  Counts the number of instances of a process that are running
-- Arguments: process name, minimum count, maximum count
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


-- This function is called by INM to retrieve a script configuration

function OnConfigure()

    -- The variable returned must be called "Config" so INM can find it.
    Config = LuaScriptConfigurator()

    -- Author.
    Config:SetAuthor("Kevin Prestage")

    -- Description.
    Config:SetDescription("Counts the number of instances of a process that are running")

    -- Minimum build version of INM, set to zero for if no specific build version is required.
    Config:SetMinBuildVersion(4.0)

    -- Script version (major/minor)
    Config:SetScriptVersion(1,0)

    -- A parameter configuration, add them in the order the script is extracting them.
    Config:AddArgument("Process Name","Enter the process name as it appears in task manager",LuaScriptConfigurator.CHECK_NOT_EMPTY)
    Config:AddArgument("Minimum Instance(s)","Monitor will go into alarm if the number of instance running falls below this number.",LuaScriptConfigurator.CHECK_NOT_EMPTY)
    Config:AddArgument("Minimum Instance(s)","Monitor will go into alarm if the number of instance running rises above this number.",LuaScriptConfigurator.CHECK_NOT_EMPTY)

    -- Set the entry point, this is the function called by INM
    Config:SetEntryPoint("main")

    -- Done with configuration, return the object
    return Config
end

-- This is the entry point

function main()

    processname = GetArgument(0)
    min = tonumber(GetArgument(1))
    max = tonumber(GetArgument(2))
    ok = true
      result = ""
    count = 0
    SetExitStatus("OK",true)


    --Query WMI for a list of all processes running on the machine.
    Query = TLuaWMIQuery();
    b  = Query:Execute("Select * from Win32_Process where Name = \"" .. processname .. "\"");

    --if the query failed, set the result.
      if (b == false) then
         result = "An error occurred querying WMI.  " .. Query:GetErrorDescription();
      else

        while (Query:NextInstance()) do
            count = count + 1
        end


        if (count < min) then
            result = "The number of running instances is " .. count .. " which is less than " .. min
            ok = false
        elseif (count > max) then
            result = "The number of running instances is " .. count .. " which is more than " .. max
            ok = false
        else
            result = "The number of running instances is " .. count .. " which is between " .. min .. " and " .. max
            ok = true
        end
    end
    SetExitStatus(result,ok);
end

 | Category: News
entry Oct 21 2009, 08:04 AM
Object template for Cisco ASA range of devices have been posted in the template forum.

Here is the link:
Cisco ASA

 | Category: News
entry Oct 1 2009, 08:52 AM
We have posted an object template for monitoring Blackberry server (BES) in our template forum. Everyone running INM v4 can download and import this template.

Here is the link to the template
http://www.intellipool.se/forum/index.php?showtopic=1595

 | Category: News
entry Sep 30 2009, 12:08 PM
Visit our feedback site and submit ideas for new features, improvement of existing features and give us general feedback.

http://intellipool.ideascale.com/

 | Category: Tips
entry Sep 22 2009, 01:45 PM
Dashboards can be setup to automatically rotate in full screen mode using the auto login feature.

The following example shows an URL that will rotate between 3 different dashboards, with ID 1, 7 and 12. Each dashboard will be shown for 15 seconds before showing the next dashboard. The full screen parameter tells INM to remove header and menus.

CODE
http://inmhost:port/autologin.xsi?user=username&page=6&rotation=1,7,12&interval=15&fullscreen=1


Parameters needing substitution:

inmhost = host name or ip of your INM host
port = port number your INM host listens to
username = name of operator (with auto login access right enabled)

The id of the dashboard can be found in the URL when the dashboard is displayed in the interface:

http://sandbox.intellipool.com:8080/dashboard.view.xsi?id=9 <---- ID of "System Status" dashboard on our demo installation

 | Category: Tips
entry Sep 22 2009, 12:59 PM
Starting with Intellipool Network Monitor v4 its possible to import and export object templates. Its an easy way to exchange object templates with other users.

Exporting a object template

In the object template information page, click the export command and save the XML file uploaded from INM to your browser.



Importing a object template

In the object template list, click the import command and upload the XML file using the import dialog.



Sharing a object template and making other users happy!

There is no automatic function for sharing an object template yet. Instead we have created a special sub-forum on the forum for you to post your object templates in.

Here is an example of an object template posted on the forum.
http://www.intellipool.se/forum/index.php?showtopic=1564

The object template forum
http://www.intellipool.se/forum/index.php?showforum=11

 | Category: News
entry Sep 11 2009, 01:22 PM
This week a number of interesting scripts have been released for VMWare ESXi, these scripts can be used as a customized monitor type in Intellipool Network Monitor, just copy them to your scripts folder and create a new Lua Script Monitor and select the script.

WBEM ESXi raid array monitoring
WBEM ESXi power supply monitoring
WBEM ESXi fan monitoring

These scripts requires the latest version of INM v4 since the uses the newly implemented TLuaXMLReader class.

You can download the latest version of INM here:
Download area

During next week a couple of new interesting performance improvements will be released, cutting startup times drastically.

Have a great weekend!

9 Pages V   1 2 3 > »   
About Intellipool
Intellipool is a privately held software developer based in Sundsvall, Sweden. This blog is here to post news and tips regarding our product Intellipool Network Monitor.

Intellipool Network Monitor is a system for agentless server monitoring, alerting and reporting of a large selection of operating systems and SNMP capable devices.





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