How to monitor RMA Agent?

[dakirk]

My default is 2 agents (for redundancy) on each site.
They are setup as primary and backup for each other.
My problem is to detect when one of them dies.
Is there a solution for this?
Of course I can monitor the service and port, but this will not be accurate probes.
Are there any way to actually send request to the agent and get a correct status (like the Test method “HM Monitor”)?

[KS-Soft]

Quote from the manual
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How to check status of the agent

When you use single agent to perform various tests, you may want to setup Master test to check agent status. In such case HostMonitor may send single alert informing you about disconnected agent and hold dependant test items (so you will receive single alert instead of hundred warnings for all tests performed by this agent).
What test can you use as Master test?

- Passive RMA: It's pretty easy to check Passive RMA status. You may use TCP test to check is RMA receives connections on specified TCP port or use Ping test performed by the agent to check localhost (127.0.0.1). Such Ping test will always return "Host is alive" status when successfully authenticated connection to the agent can be established.

- Active RMA: Things a little more tricky when you need to check Active RMA status. Yes, you may setup the same "Ping localhost" test to check agent status. However this may lead to some delay in reaction as HostMonitor will not perform test if agent was connected but lost connection just a moment ago. HostMonitor may wait up to several minutes for new connection before changing test status to "Unknown". Dependant test items will be delayed as well so such delay is not a big problem, you will not receive a lot of alerts. However if for some reason you need to receive alert immediately, there is solution: setup Ping test using Active RMA and type rma itself string instead of localhost or target host name. In such case HostMonitor will display agent status immediately. HostMonitor will not use backup agent (if any) when specified agent is not connected; also HostMonitor will not wait for agent re-connection.
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[dakirk]

First of all: Thank you very much for responding.
I use passive agent structure, and have two agents on each site.

Option "ping localhost":
I can not use this option because “the other” agent will perform test when one of the agents dies. As long as one agent is alive, the test will always be OK..

Option “test tcp port” of RMA agent:
This works fine as long as hostmonitor agent is “the owner” of the tcp port. I have experienced that other services have “taken” the port, and are using it to other services. The port will respond as OK , but it is not HMA responding.

The optimal solution would be to send a request to the agent, and test the reply to the service. This would secure that its actually the HMA responding. Anyone?

Regards
Dag Arne

[KS-Soft]