Best practise for handling "RMA not connected" issues?

[mrw]

Hi,
I use active RMA to monitor certain networks in which there are a number of windows-servers and network devices.
Normally I set it up so all tests on a server or device is dependant on the master test PING on that specific server.
But the PING test itself does not have a master test currently.

This normally works well.
But in those occasions there is a problem with the actual RMA I get the alert "RMA not connected" from all of these devices.
I would like to get this message only once, and from the actual server the RMA is installed on.
How could I fix this in the smartest way? Should I set all PING tests to be dependant on the PING test on the RMA-server, or would that result in the same issue?
Is there any other better way to handle "RMA not connected" so I don´t get overflooded by alerts?

Regards,
//Andreas..

[KS-Soft]

All tests for some server are dependent on Ping test for this server and single RMA agent checks many servers?
Sure, you should setup one more Master test that will check connection to the agent.
https://www.ks-soft.net/hostmon.eng/rma ... eckrmatest

Then assign this test item as Master for all Ping tests performed by RMA.
MasterRMAPing
- Ping for ServerA
--- all other tests for ServerA
- Ping for ServerB
--- all other tests for ServerB
...

Is there any other better way to handle "RMA not connected" so I don´t get overflooded by alerts?

Add just one more test, modify other Ping tests and you will get just 1 alert per RMA agent.

Regards
Alex

[mrw]

Aha, so if I understand correct, I should change the Ping test ipaddress on the RMA server to "rma itself"?
And then on all the other servers/devices in that network I set the above Ping test as master for all the other Ping tests?

//Andreas..

[KS-Soft]

Aha, so if I understand correct, I should change the Ping test ipaddress on the RMA server to "rma itself"?

Not necessarily but useful in some cases as described in the manual.
In other cases you may use "regular" ping localhost performed by the agent.

And then on all the other servers/devices in that network I set the above Ping test as master for all the other Ping tests?

Correct

Regards
Alex

[mrw]

Will this "master" ping test on the RMA work with "Use "Normal" status if (%FailureIteration% > 0) and (%FailureIteration% < 3)" which I have on almost all my tests?
And is there are downside to using "rma itself" on the RMA servers ping test? In the manual it states that you will receive the alert immediately which I consider an upside, as long as it works with my FailureIteration setup above.

[KS-Soft]

Will this "master" ping test on the RMA work with "Use "Normal" status if (%FailureIteration% > 0) and (%FailureIteration% < 3)" which I have on almost all my tests?

Test will work and set Normal status when everything is broken and RMA does not respond. So you want to setup Master test that should react on problem and suspend other tests AND at the same time you want to make this test a little bit useless?
In other words HostMonitor will detect the problem, but instead of "proper" reaction you want to set "Normal" status so all dependent tests will continue to run, return Unknown status and trigger actions?

Regards
Alex

[mrw]

Well, my reason for using FailureIteration is so that 3 failures of the test in a row should trigger an alert. Otherwise I will get many false alerts since its quite common to get a fail on a ping test now and then. And my alerts trigger an email and SMS to several people and I want to minimize the alerts if they are unnecessary.
These pings test run once every minute which to me means I get an alert if a server doesn´t respond after 2 minutes.
And I thought that these "RMA not connected" alert should apply to the same principle of 3 failures in a row which takes 2 minutes. I don´t need to have an alert for only 1 pingtest fail.

Do you think I have set this up incorrectly? Perhaps I need to rethink this?

Regards,
//Andreas..

[KS-Soft]

And I thought that these "RMA not connected" alert should apply to the same principle of 3 failures in a row which takes 2 minutes. I don´t need to have an alert for only 1 pingtest fail.

No, it should not work the same way. Master test should detect the problem and stop other tests and alerts.
Do you want to get e-mail (or some other) alert after 3rd consecutive failure? No problem, use action settings for this
https://www.ks-soft.net/hostmon.eng/mfr ... properties

May be you can keep such settings for other tests but not for the masters. You just making master tests useless.

Regards
Alex

[mrw]

Ok, I think I understand now. My FailureIteration setup won´t detect the test as bad until 3 fails in a row. And during the time between the first fail and the last my other tests might fail and sent alerts?

So if I skip the FailureIteration setup and alter the Action profiles to "Start when 3 consecutive "Bad" than this would work more as I want?

[KS-Soft]

Correct. You should change settings at least for master tests.
And may be change settings for other tests as well. Right now you have wrong statistics.

Yes, ICMP traffic has lower priority and some routers may drop packets on high load. If you want to make Ping tests more reliable, you may increase timeout and number or packets.
Or use TCP test instead or may be find device that leads to the problem and replace it

btw: "Ping rmaitself" is not a ping, "bad" result means TCP connection cannot be established.

Regards
Alex

[KS-Soft]

So if I skip the FailureIteration setup and alter the Action profiles to "Start when 3 consecutive "Bad" than this would work more as I want?

Also look at another option - Action depends on "bad" one
This optional parameter is available for "Good" actions only. You can set "Good" action dependable on a "Bad" action. Why do you need it? For example you defined "Bad" action to send an e-mail notification to the network administrator when test fails 3 times consecutively (start when 3 consecutive "Bad" results occur), also you defined «Good» action to send a notification when the test status changes to "Good". What will happen if test fails 1 or 2 times and after this it restores "Good" status? HostMonitor will not send a notification about failure (because test did not fail 3 times) but the program will send notification about restoring "Good" status. To avoid unnecessary "Good" action execution you can mark "Action depends on "bad" one" option and select "Bad" action. In this case HostMonitor will start "Good" action only if corresponding "Bad" action was executed.

Regards
Alex