All Monitor types available in ipMonitor have the following configuration options in common:

• Monitor Submenu
• Monitor Status
• Identification
• Timing
• Notification Control
• Recovery Parameters

These common options are discussed in this single location to avoid repeating the same information throughout each Monitor Type document.

The Test Parameters and Analysis of Test Results sections are detailed on a per-Monitor basis throughout the documentation available in the Monitor Types section.

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The Monitor Submenu located at the top of each Edit Monitor screen makes it easy to perform maintenance actions, configure a Downtime Simulator, view a Report, access the Relations page or pop up a new window to display the Monitor's configuration settings in XML format.

Cancel / Back
Return to the Monitors List.

Disable
Instruct ipMonitor to stop testing the target resource indefinitely. A confirmation prompt will be displayed before Monitors are disabled.

Delete
Permanently remove a Monitor from the ipMonitor system. A confirmation prompt will be displayed before Monitors are deleted.

Suspend
Temporarily pause testing. This ability is ideal for periods of unscheduled network or server maintenance. Enter an integer value to Suspend Monitors for "x" number of minutes or hours (decimals are not permitted).

Force Test
Reset the testing cycle for a Monitor. This option allows you to promptly reapply new configuration parameters.

Clone
Duplicate the current Monitor. Once a Monitor is cloned, simply change only the parameters you need (such as the Monitor Name or IP address) to put the new Monitor into service.

Cloned Monitors appear in the Monitors List. They are disabled by default and have the "[cloned]" label applied to the Monitor Name.

Downtime Simulator
Perform pre-rollout testing for a Monitor. The Downtime Simulator demonstrates the Alerting process for a Monitor by illustrating Alert coverage at a specific time of day, for any day of the week.

View Report
Access Quick Reports for an individual Monitor. Quick Reports are ideal for troubleshooting problems as they happen and for identifying short-term and long-term performance trends at a glance.

Relations
Display the Monitor's associations to other ipMonitor components (such as Groups, Profiles, Alerts, Maintenance Schedules, Configurable Reports, Report Publishers and Credentials).

Popup XML
Display the current Monitor's configuration settings in XML format within a new browser window. The Monitor's XML template can be saved as a .txt file.

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The Monitor Status section shows the current operational state of the Monitor. The data displayed is based on the Status settings configured in the NOC View section of the Real Time Status Reports.

Status
The result of the last test performed by the Monitor. Different Monitor types generate specific Test Results and Error Codes in accordance with the technical capabilities for the Monitor. Please refer to the specific Monitor section for a detailed explanation of the Test Results and Error Codes reported.

Availability
The percentage of time the Monitor has been available. This calculation is based on Coverage time.

Coverage
The total length of time ipMonitor has been monitoring the resource. Coverage specifically excludes any period while the Monitor is suspended, disabled, or in maintenance mode. This value is reset when ipMonitor is restarted.

State Change
The length of time since the Monitor changed operational states. This includes time elapsed since scheduled maintenance.

Note: You can choose which Monitor details to display by accessing the NOC View screen from the Real-Time Status Reports interface. Click the top bar of the NOC View screen to bring up the configuration menu, and select the desired data to display. Refresh the Edit Monitor page to view the newly selected status details.

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The Identification section defines the Monitor name, enables testing and instructs ipMonitor to store statistics.

Monitor Name
The Monitor Name is displayed in the Monitors List, the Monitor Status, and the Logs pages.

Names may not be greater than 64 characters.

Since ipMonitor does not use the name field to identify the Monitor internally, Monitor Names can be changed at any time without data loss.

Add to Group
Individual Monitors can be added directly to a Group during the Monitor creation stage. Simply select the name of the Group to which the Monitor will be added from the drop-down box.

Enabled
When a Monitor is enabled, it actively tests the specified resource using the settings entered in the Test Parameters section.

To enable a disabled Monitor, check the Enabled checkbox and then click the OK or Apply button located at the bottom of the page.

Alternatively, you can also click the Enable option located on the Edit Monitor submenu.

Store Monitor Statistics for Recent Activity and Historical Reports
If selected, ipMonitor will record test results which are then used to generate Recent Activity and Historical Reports.

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ipMonitor's flexible timing parameters provide the ability to intensify or lessen testing during each of a Monitor's four testing states; Up, Warn, Down and Lost.

For example, you might intensify testing when a Monitor enters a Warn state and reduce testing when a Monitor enters a Lost state.

Maximum Test Duration
The mechanism used to time out a Monitor test. If a response is not returned within the defined number of seconds, the test fails.

Delays Between Tests While: Up
The number of seconds between each Test while the Monitor is in an Up (or OK) state.

Delays Between Tests 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.

Delays Between Tests 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.

Delays Between Tests 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 have been processed). No further Alerts will be processed until the Monitor recovers.

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The Notification Control section determines how many test failures must occur before an Alert is sent, as well as the maximum number of Alerts that will be sent.

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.

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 or Lost 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.

Refer to the Alerting Process section for more information.

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ipMonitor can take corrective action to automatically restore a failed resource using the:

• External Process Recovery Alert
• Reboot Server Recovery Alert
• Restart Service Recovery Alert

Although Recovery Alerts are responsible for executing the corrective procedure, Recovery Parameters must be defined within the Monitor that triggers the Alert. Benefits gained from this system are:

• Maximum Recovery coverage is possible because a "one to one" relationship exists between each Monitor and the Resource it is testing.
• A single Recovery alert can service many individual Monitors because Recovery Parameters are passed to the Recovery Alert by the Monitor.

FQDN/NetBIOS/IP Address
Enter the Fully Qualified Domain Name, NetBIOS Name or IP Address of:

• The computer that will be rebooted by the Reboot Server Alert
• The computer hosting the Windows Service(s) that will be restarted

Click the Browse... button to:

1. Display a list of machines found on the network
2. Select a machine to populate this field

Note: The Reboot Server and Restart Service Alerts require this field.

Credential for Recovery
This parameter allows a specific Credential to be used when executing Recovery Alerts that require access to restricted resources such as Windows Services.

Click the Select... button to:

1. Pop up the Credentials dialog
2. Select an existing Credential from the appropriate category
3. Click the New Credential button to start the new Credential wizard

Note: The Reboot Server Alert, Restart Service Alert and External Process Alert require that you select a Credential. If a Credential has not been assigned, ipMonitor will use the Windows account assigned to the ipMonitor Service. In this scenario, results will depend on the level of access the ipMonitor Service account has to resources via the network.

Note: For detailed information regarding Credentials, refer to the section titled About Credentials.

Windows NT Services List
This parameter is used to define the List of Windows Services to restart.

Click the Select... button to:

1. Begin scanning the machine specified by the FQDN / NetBIOS / IP Address parameter
2. Select the Service(s) to restart from the list of Services on the machine

Note: If a Service has Dependencies, you must select ALL dependent Services.

Note: The Restart Service Alert requires this parameter.

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Monitors can be disabled during scheduled maintenance periods. This ability is controlled by ipMonitor's Maintenance Schedules.

When ipMonitor installations range into hundreds or thousands of Monitors, manually changing common configuration settings can be time consuming. The Mass Edit feature makes it easy to quickly apply large-scale changes to configuration fields across any number of Monitors using a rule-based system.

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