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Knowledge Center > ipMonitor 8.5 Administrator's Guide
Server Settings

The Server Settings page is used to set various operating parameters that affect the entire installation. Only Administrators and Users who have Read + Write permissions for Server Settings are able to access the Server Settings page.

Use the Server Settings page to:

  • Set the User inactivity session timeout period.
  • Force strong passwords installation-wide.
  • Control ipMonitor's Monitor load sequence.
  • Define an optional SMTP master / override server for email delivery.
  • Configure installation-wide defaults for Monitors and Alerts.

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Identification

Use the Identification section to specify a server name and email address for your installation.

ipMonitor Server Name
The ipMonitor Server Name uniquely identifies your ipMonitor installation. This instance designation will be displayed in both Historical and Email Reports, and can be included in Alerts by inserting the appropriate Token (%instancename%) when configuring the Alert.

ipMonitor Server Email Address
This is the default email address ipMonitor uses when it sends an email. When specified, this address becomes the Send Email From default value for new email Alerts, email Reports, IMAP4 - QA and POP3 - QA Monitors.

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User Sessions

Use the User Sessions section to set a session timeout delay and enforce strong passwords installation-wide.

User Inactivity Timeout
If a user is inactive for the specified number of minutes, ipMonitor will expire the session.

Force Strong Passwords
When this option is enabled, all users will be required to apply the following rules when creating new passwords:

  • One or more lowercase characters
  • One or more uppercase characters
  • One or more numeric characters
  • One or more non-alphanumeric characters
  • 6 or more characters in total

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On Process Start

Use the On Process Start section to set up email notifications to be sent when the Service loads, and at specified intervals thereafter.

Send an Email To
Supply an email address to instruct ipMonitor to send an email message to a recipient each time the Service starts. Click the And... button to add multiple email addresses.

Continue to Send an Email every "x" Hours
If enabled, an email message will be sent every "x" number of hours to notify each recipient listed in the Send an Email To field that the ipMonitor Service is up and running.

Record Entry in the Operating System Event Log
If enabled, an entry will be recorded in the host machine's Application Event Log each time the ipMonitor Service starts.

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On Process Stop

Use the On Process Stop section to determine what actions will be taken when the ipMonitor Service stops.

Send an Email To
Supply an email address to instruct ipMonitor to send an email message to a recipient each time the ipMonitor Service stops. Click the And... button to add multiple email addresses.

Record Entry in the Operating System Event Log
If enabled, an entry will be recorded to the host machine's Application Event Log each time the ipMonitor Service stops.

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Monitoring Engine

Use the Monitoring Engine section to determine the sequence of actions ipMonitor will perform when the Service starts.

Delay before loading the engine 'x' minutes
Once the ipMonitor Service has started, no testing will be performed for 'x' minutes. Assuming that ipMonitor is being used to monitor Services on its host machine, this ability provides a time period for those Services to load after boot-up before ipMonitor begins to monitor them.

While loading, limit the number of simultaneous tests
This setting controls the number of Monitors that will begin simultaneous testing after the ipMonitor Service loads. By controlling the number of Monitors that begin testing immediately, you may prevent a potential strain on system resources.

Load all Monitors marked as Group Dependency first
If enabled, all Dependency Monitors will be started before other Monitors are loaded to prevent possible 'false' failures. Potentially, a Member Monitor could report a failure because the Group's Dependency Monitors have not yet been loaded.

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Email Delivery

The Email Delivery section to define an optional SMTP relay server for email delivery. By default, ipMonitor performs MX record lookups and then attempts to send email messages directly to the recipient domain's SMTP server. However, your network policy may require that ipMonitor route its mail through a designated mail server.

Host Name to use with SMTP
The format of the machine name sent in the HELO command when connecting to a remote SMTP server. This may be required if the remote SMTP server only accepts connections when a FQDN is sent with the HELO command.

SMTP relay server
The SMTP relay server settings allow you to provide an IP address or Domain Name for the SMTP server that will be used to route all email.

IP Address / Domain Name
The location of the SMTP server that ipMonitor will use to route all email. Both IP Address and Domain Name are valid entries. For example:

  • mail.xyzcompany.com
  • 10.10.10.6

TCP Port
By default, the standard Port Number used for SMTP communication (Port 25) is already entered.

SMTP Login Credential
When configuring an optional SMTP relay server, a Credential can be used to transmit account and password information when authentication is required. ipMonitor supports three forms of authentication with mail servers:

  • NTLM Authentication (Formerly "Windows NT LAN Manager")
  • Clear Text Authentication (Clear Text)
  • Digest Authentication

To assign a Credential:

  • Click the Select button to pop up the Credentials for SMTP Login dialog.
  • Select an existing Credential from the Mail category.
  • To create a new Credential, click the New Credential button to start the Wizard.

DNS server (only MX records)
The DNS server (only MX records) section is only used to specify the DNS Server ipMonitor will use to look up MX records for email delivery. If no value is entered, ipMonitor will use the DNS Server configured for the host machine.

IP Address
Enter the location of the DNS server ipMonitor will use for email delivery purposes.

An example of a valid IP Address is 10.10.10.2

UDP Port
The Port Number that the target DNS Server responds on. By default, the standard Port Number used for DNS UDP communication (Port 53) is already entered. This is a hardcoded value and cannot be changed.

Note: In the event that the SMTP relay server is unavailable, ipMonitor will attempt to send email directly to the mail server hosting the domain for the destination email address.

The example below illustrates the steps taken by ipMonitor when attempting to send an email in the event that it is unable to connect to the SMTP Server specified in the SMTP relay server field:

  1. If a DNS Server has been specified in the DNS server (only MX records) section, ipMonitor will connect to this DNS server to retrieve MX record information for the recipient domain. If a value has not been specified, ipMonitor will use the DNS Server(s) configured for the local host machine.
  2. ipMonitor will attempt to connect to the server specified in the preferred MX record, on port 25.
  3. If the connection is successful, ipMonitor will send the email. If it is unsuccessful, ipMonitor will try the next MX record listed (if one exists), until the entire list of MX records has been exhausted. If ipMonitor is unable to communicate with any of the servers identified by the MX records, the email will not be sent.

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Client HTTP Settings

Use the Client HTTP Settings section to define a HTTP User-Agent for web sites that perform User-Agent detection and if needed, a Proxy Server through which ipMonitor will connect to other resources on your network.

HTTP User-Agent
The User-Agent sent to the remote server by ipMonitor when performing any HTTP-based monitoring. This may be required with web sites that perform User-Agent detection to generate page content.

HTTP Version
The HTTP protocol version sent to the remote server by ipMonitor when performing any HTTP-based monitoring.

HTTP Proxy
Proxy support makes it easy to monitor resources located outside the firewall through your organization's HTTP Proxy Server.

ipMonitor's HTTP Proxy support includes:

  1. Connecting to network services via a SSL-enabled HTTP Proxy Server.
  2. The ability to provide account and password information when connecting to the Proxy Server using Digest Authentication, NTLM Authentication (Windows NT LAN Manager) or Basic Authentication (Clear Text).

Via Protocol

  • Select the HTTP protocol to route unencrypted HTTP traffic to a proxy server.
  • Select the HTTPS protocol to route encrypted HTTP traffic to a proxy server.

IP Address / Domain Name
Enter the location of the Proxy Server. Both IP Address and Domain Name are valid entries. For example:

  • autoproxy.xyzcompany.com
  • 10.10.10.6

TCP Port
Enter the Port Number of the Proxy Server.

HTTPS Proxy
Enter the URL and port number of the SSL-enabled HTTP Proxy Server ipMonitor will use to connect to other resources on your network. Both IP Address and Domain Name are valid entries. For example:

  • sslproxy.xyzcompany.com
  • 10.10.10.6

HTTP/S Proxy Login Credential
ipMonitor supports using a Credential to pass account and password information when connecting to the Proxy Server, using one of the following authentication methods:

  • Digest Authentication
  • NTLM Authentication (Windows NT LAN Manager)
  • Basic Authentication (Clear Text)

To select a Credential:

  • Click the Select... button to pop up the Credentials for HTTP/S Proxy dialog.
  • Select an existing Credential from the HTTP category.
  • To create a new Credential, click the New Credential button to start the Wizard.

Note: The settings configured in the Client HTTP Settings section are applied globally throughout ipMonitor.

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Optional Defaults

The Optional Defaults section is used to toggle the Statistics Storage option for newly created Monitors and set default values for Monitors and Alerts.

Statistics Storage: Store Monitor Statistics for Recent Activity and Historical Reports
Enabling Statistics Storage will cause the check box for storing statistical data to be checked for all new Monitors.

For ipMonitor to generate Recent Activity and Historical Reports:

  1. Statistics Storage must be enabled in the Monitor configuration
  2. Monitors or Groups must be added to, or currently be configured in the Historic Reports Generator, which is accessible from the Automation / Report Generators menu option.

Note: Reports can be viewed and navigated from the Reports Center interface.

SNMP Community
This community name will be entered by default into the SNMP QA, SNMP Trap and SNMP Monitors, and into the SNMP Trap Alert.

SNMP Community strings act like passwords for SNMP information. When ipMonitor issues a SNMP Get command to the agent at this IP address, it sends out the SNMP Community string. If the agent is using the same Read Only string, it then processes the request and returns results for analysis.

SNMP default communities are:

  • Private (Read / Write)
  • Public (Read Only)

Note: The community entered here can be overridden within the individual Monitor or Alert configuration interface.

To enable SNMP Traps:

  1. Launch the ipMonitor Configuration Program from the ipMonitor program group.
  2. Select the Communications: Web Server Ports option.
  3. Within the SNMP Trap Listener section, specify a listening IP Address and Port (UDP) for all QA Trap Monitors and ensure the Enabled checkbox is checked.

Maximum Test Duration
This option provides a mechanism to time out a test. If a response is not returned within the set number of seconds, the test is considered to have failed.

Test Delay While Up
The number of seconds between each test while the Monitor is in an Up (or OK) state.

Test Delay While Warn
The number of seconds between each test while the Monitor is in a Warn state (a problem has been detected). Alerts are not processed during the Warn state.

Test Delay While Down
The number of seconds between each test while the Monitor is in a Down state (a failure has been confirmed). Alerts are processed during the Down state.

Test Delay While Lost
The number of seconds between each test while the Monitor is in a Lost state (the resource continues to be down and the maximum number of Alerts has been processed). No further Alerts will be processed until the Monitor recovers.

Accumulated Failures per Alert
Each time a Monitor test fails during a Warn state, the sequential failure count is incremented and checked against the Accumulated Failures per Alert that must occur before Alerting can take place.

Note: A successful test at any point resets the accumulated failure count to zero.

Maximum Alerts to Send
The number of Alerts to process during a Down state before changing the Monitor state to Lost.

A successful test by the Monitor at any point while in the Down state will cause the Alert sequence to be reset. It is good practice to enable Send Recovery Notifications within Alerts to notify you in the event the Monitor recovers.

For more information, please refer to the section titled Alerting Process.

Note: Entering values into the Timing Control and Notification Control fields will override the default settings within ipMonitor. If you wish to restore the ipMonitor default settings, clear the Timing Control and Notification Control fields, and then click the Apply button. The next time you add a new Monitor, the original default values will be applied.

Temperature Unit
Select whether to view system-wide temperature data in either Fahrenheit or Celsius format.

Note: By default, temperature is displayed using the Fahrenheit scale in ipMonitor. Changing this setting to Celsius format will affect new Temperature Monitors created. This setting does not affect existing Monitors.

Transfer Rate / Bandwidth Unit
Select whether to view the Transfer Rate retrieved by the Monitor as KB/s (1024 bytes per second) or kb/s (1000 bits per second).

Note: By default, the Transfer Rate for a Bandwidth Monitor is displayed in KB/s (1024 bytes per second). Changing this setting to kb/s (1000 bits per second) will affect new Bandwidth Monitors created. This setting does not affect existing Monitors.

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Additional Resources

For information on other features and concepts related to those discussed in this article, refer to the following ipMonitor resources:

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Last Updated: March 30, 2007 | What did you think of this topic?

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