KS-Soft

There are some hidden HostMonitor options that might be useful (not complete list)

Tests related options

SSH test
If you need to enable old key exchange algorithms, such as diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha1 you may add KeyExchangeAlgorithms line to the [SSH] section of hostmon.ini file (rma.ini file if RMA agent is used for the test) and restart HostMonitor (RMA agent). E.g.
[SSH]
KeyExchangeAlgorithms = curve25519-sha256,ecdh-sha2-nistp521,ecdh-sha2-nistp384,ecdh-sha2-nistp256,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha256,diffie-hellman-group16-sha512,diffie-hellman-group18-sha512,diffie-hellman-group14-sha256,diffie-hellman-group14-sha1,diffie-hellman-group1-sha1,diffie-hellman-group-exchange-sha1

SSH test
If you need to enable old HMAC algorithms, such as hmac-sha1 or hmac-md5, add HMACAlgorithms line to the [SSH] section of hostmon.ini file and restart HostMonitor. E.g.
[SSH]
HMACAlgorithms=hmac-sha2-256,hmac-sha2-512,hmac-sha1,hmac-md5

VMWare guest status test for VMWare ESXi
• HostMonitor also checks 'configstatus' parameter, e.g. HostMonitor can set Bad test status when duplicated MAC or IP address is detected.
You can disable this check by adding VMCheckConfigStatus=0 line to the [Misc] section of hostmon.ini file (HostMonitor restart is required)
• HostMonitor may display list of all guests with the "worst" (red, yellow, gray) status. To enable this option, you may add vmShowManyGuests=1 line to the [Misc] section of hostmon.ini file and restart HostMonitor
VM_guest_free_memory test for Microsoft Hyper-V
• HostMonitor can also use GuestAvailableMemory counter when available (on Windows Server 2022). In this case several counters are used for calculations because single GuestAvailableMemory counter does not tell the whole picture, it can show a lot of free memory while most of that "free" guest memory is actually paged to the disk by the hypervisor. However you can tell HostMonitor to only use GuestAvailableMemory counter (when available) by adding the hyperV_AlwaysCountMemoryPressure=0 line to the [Misc] section on hostmon.ini file (HostMonitor restart is required)

Shell Script test
Rare Windows bug could cause problems for Shell Script test method, as workaround we changed HostMonitor code. But if you need to use some very old script processors (like MS DOS program on Windows XP) then new version will not work for you unless you switch HostMonitor code to old mode: add ScriptsShortName=1 line into [Misc] section of hostmon.ini file and restart HostMonitor

URL and SOAP tests
You may tell HostMonitor to allow date expressions in "URL" and "Check contents" fields (the same kind of expressions you can use with file-related test methods, e.g. you may specify URL like http://www.webserv.com/script.php?date=%ddmmyyyy[-3d]%)
You may turn it on by inserting URL_AllowDateExpressions=1 line into [Misc] section of hostmon.ini file (you need to restart HostMonitor as well).
Without using this option tests will work as usually, process date variables like %dd%, %mm%, %yy% but does not allow expressions like %dd[-1d]%.

TLS related options for the following test methods:
• URL
• Certificate Expiration
• POP3, IMAP
• E-mail, Mail Relay
• LDAP
• FTPS
• HP iLO tests: Health, Temperature, Fans, Power, Disk status
• VMWare host related tests: Host status, CPU Usage, Free Memory, Datastore Space
• VMWare guest related tests: Guest status, CPU Usage, Free Memory, Free disk space
TLS modes
• Certificate Expiration test supports TLS 1.3 on Windows 7 and newer.
• Other tests require Windows 11 or Windows Server 2022 (just for TLS 1.3).
• By default only TLS 1.1, 1.2, 1.3 protocols are enabled (TLS 1.1 and 1.2 on older Windows systems)
• If you need to check some very old HP server (iLO2), you may enable TLS 1.0 using hostmon.ini option: add sslProto_HPiLO=10880 line into [Misc] section of hostmon.ini file and restart HostMonitor
• If you need to check some very old VMWare system (ESXi 5.0 or older), you may enable TLS 1.0 using hostmon.ini option: add sslProto_VMWare=10880 line into [Misc] section of hostmon.ini file and restart HostMonitor
• Similar options available for POP3, IMAP, LDAP, FTPS, Email, Mail Relay, URL tests
[Misc] section
sslProtocols option sets default TLS options for all methods, including URL;
then the following options may override TLS modes for specific test methods:
sslProto_POP3
sslProto_LDAP
sslProto_IMAP
sslProto_FTPS
sslProto_HPiLO
sslProto_VMWare
Possible values:
= 8192 - just TLS 1.3 enabled
= 10240 - TLS 1.2 and 1.3
= 10752 - TLS 1.1, 1.2, 1.3
= 10880 - TLS 1.0-1.3

Actions

Send E-mail action
You can set a specific port for POP3 connection when "POP before SMTP" authentication mode is used: just add 1 or 2 lines in hostmon.ini file, [SMTP] section. E.g. if you want to set TCP port 2095 for the primary mail server and port 110 for the backup mail server, add the following 2 lines to the [SMTP] section and restart HostMonitor
Pop3Port1=2095
Pop3Port2=110
Note: by default HostMonitor chooses the TCP port for POP3 connection based on TLS mode (None-110, Implicit-995, Explicit-995).

HTTP Request action
You may change maximum allowed length of HTTP header - add line like HttpActMaxHeaderLen=1024 into [Misc] section of hostmon.ini file and restart HostMonitor

GUI related options

Test comments
You may change titles for comment lines displayed by "Comment" dialog (it can be called from Test Properties dialog). You may add line like AlternativeCommentTitles=address;phone;admin_name;admin_e-mail into [Misc] section of hostmon.ini file and restart HostMonitor. Then Comments dialog will display "address" instead of %CommentLine1%, "phone" instead of %CommentLine2%, "admin name" instead of %CommentLine3% and so on.

Acknowledgement
Normally HostMonitor resets operators comments when test status changes from "bad" to "good". However you may change this behavior. If you insert KeepAckCommentNDays=3 line into [Logging] section of hostmon.ini file and restart HostMonitor, it will keep comments that are up to 3 days old (yof course ou may use different number, e.g. keep comments for 5 or 15 days)

Quick Log
QuickLogSize option allows you to specify size of Quick Log used by HostMonitor, RCC and Web Service. If you want to change default value (50), you should add QuickLogSize=<size> line into [Misc] section of hostmon.ini file (<size> is a number between 50 and 400, e.g. QuickLogSize=100).

Quick Log
If you add QuickLogAfterInactive=0 line into [Misc] section of hostmon.ini file and restart HostMonitor, it will not add record into QuickLog when test status changes like Ok->OutOfSchedule->Ok or Bad->OutOfSchedule->Bad

Shell Script Manager
You may set fonts used for script, comment and history pages. You may add the following lines into [Environ] section of hostmon.ini file and restart HostMonitor (for example use Consolas and Lucida Console fonts)
ScriptFontName=Consolas
ScriptFontSize=9
sCommentFontName=Lucida Console
sCommentFontSize=9

Weak password checks
When you setup passwords related to HostMonitor ↔ RCC ↔ RMA, RMA ↔ RMA Manager communications software checks your password using several algorithms, you cannot change algorithms however you may adjust some parameters using [PswdCheck] section of hostmon.ini file. This section may look like
[PswdCheck]
MinLen=8
NormLen=12
LongLen=16
StrongRccPswd=1
--
comments:
MinLen=8
- sets minimum password length 8, you cannot set this parameter below 6
NormLen=12
- strings below 12 characters length (8..12) may be considered as strong password when digits, letters, capital letters and/or special characters used; strings with 12 or more chars may pass the checks with less strict requirements (e.g. just digits and Latin letters)
LongLen=16
- passwords with 16 or more characters may be considered strong even if simple charset is used (e.g. just decimal digits). However additional checks still applies and 18-digits string like "123456789123456789" will not be considered as strong password
StrongRccPswd=1
- tells software do not accept weak passwords when RCC operator changes its own password (1-default value). If you set StrongRccPswd=0 then RCC will check password and warn the operator however any password will be accepted after confirmation
--
Also, there is optional parameter in rma_mgr.ini file (used by RMA Manager)
[PswdCheck]
StrongPswd=1
Default value 1 - means RMA Manager will not accept weak passwords when operator will try to change password for existing/running agent using "Agent configuration" option. If you set StrongPswd=0 then RMA Manager will check passwords and show warning when weak password detected however any password will be accepted after confirmation.

Telnet Service
When you use the telnet service, HostMonitor truncates exessively long folder and file names before sending the data to the client, TelnetMaxNameLen option allows you to set a length limit. You may add TelnetMaxNameLen=<length> line into [RCI] section of hostmon.ini file and restart HostMonitor. E.g.
[RCI]
TelnetMaxNameLen=80

Logging

Log processing time
If you set Private logs for 10,000 test items and tell HostMonitor to set new log files on daily basis, then you will have 300,000 log files just in one month; 3,650,000 log files per year. Then Log Processing module could slow down HostMonitor during some operations, especially when HostMonitor needs to start external programs many times in a row (in order to modify a lot of these log files).
HostMonitor uses low priority thread usually started after midnight to process log files. You may set specific time for log processing using DailyTime parameter in [Logging_PrivProcessing] section of HostMon.INI file (e.g. DailyTime=0222 tells to start log processing at 2:22 AM).
Note: the following options (when set) can trigger log processing commands during daytime:
- if common log is switching
- if private logs is bigger than N KB
usually this is not a problem, these commands will process just 1 log file, not 300,000 files

Quick Log
QuickLogSize option allows you to specify size of Quick Log used by HostMonitor, RCC and Web Service. If you want to change default value (50), you should add QuickLogSize=<size> line into [Misc] section of hostmon.ini file (<size> is a number between 50 and 400, e.g. QuickLogSize=100).

Quick Log
Another hidden options allow you to set logging pools size (pool for common log and pool for all private logs) You may add one or two lines in [Logging] section of hostmon.ini file and restart HostMonitor. E.g.
CommonPoolSize=40960
PrivatePoolSize=10240
Note: the minimum size of each pool: 4096