Future big tasks

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KS-Soft
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Future big tasks

Post by KS-Soft »

do you think it is possible to publish the improvements (at least the BIG ones) planned in near future? This could be very helpful for us (customers).
Well, we do not plan any significant changes in version 6 (version 6.80 is coming). We will improve some test methods (SNMP Get, Traffic Monitor) and take a break before version 7.

Big tasks for version 7
- RMA that will be able to connect to HostMonitor, request test list, perform tests and send result to HM. Probably it will be able to keep some short log and execute some actions in case connection to HM cannot be established. Most likelly this will be another application (not RMA), it does not have the name yet.
- Templates
- New Log Analyzer
- Probably IPv6 support
Plus we have tons of smaller tasks

Regards
Alex
evilmonkey
Posts: 6
Joined: Tue Jul 03, 2007 8:08 pm

Details on the HostMonitor watches HostMonitor

Post by evilmonkey »

Probably a little late in the game. Some of the things we have difficulty with are:
Low level alerts. We check the available disk space on our servers once a day, even if the monitor fires we often ignore it. A summation of monitors would be nice, e.g. Hola! This is the HostMonitor today x tests have failed.

Physically separated networks. Even if we map dependencies on our networks e.g. we've a location in TX and NY to make a single test happen correctly we need to create a number of tests to ensure that the routing and VPN tunneling is up that we use then to omit latency run from a agent in each zone and then try to ensure that the monitoring itself doesn't break. This obviously isn't HostMonitor's fault but it would be nice to see a nifty solution. Right now we run all tests from an agent at each of our physical locations (with a backup). Problem being we run into a catch22 in that if say the network drops between the two physical locations we've no way of continuing monitoring at each site.

Better dynamic options. VM is the name of the game with servers and this is being introduced at our organization. We're looking at using a set of scripts to automate server creation using VMWare, another tool puppet (https://reductivelabs.com/cgi-bin/puppet.cgi/wiki) that automates server configuration and a profile to add alerting or perhaps just alert within that tool.
mos-eisley
Posts: 76
Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2007 5:51 am
Location: Klarup (AAlborg), Demark

Re: Details on the HostMonitor watches HostMonitor

Post by mos-eisley »

evilmonkey wrote:Probably a little late in the game. Some of the things we have difficulty with are:
Low level alerts. We check the available disk space on our servers once a day, even if the monitor fires we often ignore it. A summation of monitors would be nice, e.g. Hola! This is the HostMonitor today x tests have failed.

Physically separated networks. Even if we map dependencies on our networks e.g. we've a location in TX and NY to make a single test happen correctly we need to create a number of tests to ensure that the routing and VPN tunneling is up that we use then to omit latency run from a agent in each zone and then try to ensure that the monitoring itself doesn't break. This obviously isn't HostMonitor's fault but it would be nice to see a nifty solution. Right now we run all tests from an agent at each of our physical locations (with a backup). Problem being we run into a catch22 in that if say the network drops between the two physical locations we've no way of continuing monitoring at each site.

Better dynamic options. VM is the name of the game with servers and this is being introduced at our organization. We're looking at using a set of scripts to automate server creation using VMWare, another tool puppet (https://reductivelabs.com/cgi-bin/puppet.cgi/wiki) that automates server configuration and a profile to add alerting or perhaps just alert within that tool.
The first can pretty easily be solved by logging to an ODBC Source and have a script running through the created db rows daily and the mailing the result (og a website).

The new (not) RMA functions I can wait for, as I have +4 physical locations monitored by one HM server, and I would like data to be collected ( = tests executed) even though the network connection is broken :D
Robert_in_MTL
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Joined: Tue Jun 20, 2006 1:20 pm
Location: Montreal, Quebec

Post by Robert_in_MTL »

evilmonkey wrote:We check the available disk space on our servers once a day, even if the monitor fires we often ignore it. A summation of monitors would be nice, e.g. Hola! This is the HostMonitor today x tests have failed.
I am using this already, here is the recipe:

1- In the options dialog/reports, create e report with only Bad Items (new and acknowledged) with all methods. (Let's assume we save it here: D:\Host Monitor\Private\Daily_Report.htm) and set reports to be generated on a regular basis (Generate reports every...), I set it to 30 minutes.
Header:

Code: Select all

<html><head>
 <meta name="GENERATOR" content="KS-Soft HostMonitor">
 <META http-equiv="Content-Style-Type" content="text/css">
 <title>[your Company name] Global Report</title>
</head>
<body bgcolor="White" text="Black" >
<p align="left"><u><strong><big><big>[your Company name] Global Report - Daily Report</big></big><br>
</strong></u><font face="Arial">Generated on %Date% at %Time%</font></p>
Test list with currently "Bad" status
<hr>
<form>
<table border=0>
Folder Title:

Code: Select all

 <tr><td valign=top nowrap bgcolor="#000080"><b><font color="#FFFFFF"> %Folder%</font></b></td><td>&nbsp;</td><td>
Test Items: Bad (both)

Code: Select all

Test name:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;%TestName%<br>Test type:&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;[%TestMethod%]<br>
<span class=Bad>Status: %Status% | Recurrences: %Recurrences% | Reply: %Reply% | Duration: %CurrentStatusDuration%&nbsp;</span>
<br>
Folder Summary:

Code: Select all

<table border=0>
 <tr><td> Reported  Tests in [%Folder%]&nbsp;</td><td>%FolderCurrent_TotalTests%</td></tr>
 <tr><td> Tests with "Bad" status</td><td>%FolderCurrent_BadTests%</td></tr>
</table>
<hr>
Gap between folders: (nothing)

Footer:

Code: Select all

</table>
<hr>
<table border=0>
 <tr><td> Tests with "Bad" status</td><td>%BadTests%</td></tr>
</table>
<p>Repport generated by [your Company name]</b><br>
Contact [Your Name]  for more info.<br>
<a href="mailto:[Your mail address]">[Your mail address]</a><br>
</p>
</body>
</html>
2- Create an action profile that will:
- a- Generate reports for the folder you want to check daily
- b- Send a mail to an admin group you have in your Active Directory with a mail profile: Email body:HTML which will be this:

Code: Select all

<br>
<<IncludeFile=D:\Host Monitor\Private\Daily_Report.htm>>
3- In options/scheduler, create a daily event everyday at the time you want the report be mailed (lets say 6 AM), that will fire your Action profile

If you follow these steps, you will receive a daily list of "bad tests"

That's what you want right?

Have a nice day.
KS-Soft
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Joined: Wed Apr 03, 2002 6:00 pm
Location: USA
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Post by KS-Soft »

The new (not) RMA functions I can wait for, as I have +4 physical locations monitored by one HM server, and I would like data to be collected ( = tests executed) even though the network connection is broken
RMA 4.0 will be able to establish connection with HostMonitor (RMA -> HostMonitor), however it will not be able to perform tests without connection at all.
Low level alerts. We check the available disk space on our servers once a day, even if the monitor fires we often ignore it. A summation of monitors would be nice, e.g. Hola! This is the HostMonitor today x tests have failed.
Robert is right, it can be easily configured using current version of HostMonitor.
If you need just short notice (not a report), you may use e-mail template with HostMonitor status related macro variables
www.ks-soft.net/hostmon.eng/mframe.htm# ... #statmacro
Problem being we run into a catch22 in that if say the network drops between the two physical locations we've no way of continuing monitoring at each site.
Sure. The only way to monitor "disconnected" network, install monitoring tool inside that network. May be HostMonitor version 8 will be able to communicate between instances when connection is possible and work independently when connection lost.

Regards
Alex
mos-eisley
Posts: 76
Joined: Wed Mar 21, 2007 5:51 am
Location: Klarup (AAlborg), Demark

Post by mos-eisley »

KS-Soft wrote:
The new (not) RMA functions I can wait for, as I have +4 physical locations monitored by one HM server, and I would like data to be collected ( = tests executed) even though the network connection is broken
RMA 4.0 will be able to establish connection with HostMonitor (RMA -> HostMonitor), however it will not be able to perform tests without connection at all.

Regards
Alex
Well, I am sorry to hear that, my point is that if I loose a network connection and no tests are executed on the "lost" side, tracking of what went wrong and the implications ( like in responsetimes ) are not picked up. Will SNMP traps still be recieved ( and queued ) by windows RMA's on the "lost" side? Ofthen these traps can tell what went wrong.
KS-Soft
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Post by KS-Soft »

Will SNMP traps still be recieved ( and queued ) by windows RMA's on the "lost" side?
RMA will be able to receive trap messages and it will try to connect to HostMonitor.
If connection cannot be established, what we can do? Record logs, start SMS/pager alerts, reboot servers, somehow calculate statistics and so on? This means you need entire HostMonitor because I do not see much difference between such "Super RMA" and HostMonitor.

Regards
Alex
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plambrecht
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Post by plambrecht »

KS-Soft wrote:RMA 4.0 will be able to establish connection with HostMonitor (RMA -> HostMonitor), however it will not be able to perform tests without connection at all.

Regards
Alex
Alex,

Great to hear this !
I'm waiting almost 2 years to provide monitoring to all our clients, and not only to those with a fixed IP...
I just got funds to get our project in a second stage, and that feature is really needed !
If you need a beta tester, I'm your man

Pieter
KS-Soft
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Post by KS-Soft »

I think Beta version will be available to everyone in 3 weeks

Regards
Alex
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