This page helps you to get familiar with the main features and basic usage of IPHost Network Monitor.

IPHost Network Monitor is a Windows software for network and server monitoring. You can use it on Windows 2000, XP or Vista and Windows Server 2000, 2003 or 2008, 64-bit systems are also supported.

With IPHost Network Monitor you can organize continuous monitoring of your company's critical servers, applications and network equipment.
Supported monitoring methods are: SNMP v1/v2/v3;
WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation);
Web sites and services monitoring - HTTP/HTTPS GET and POST requests including response validation, FTP;
database servers - Oracle, MySQL and MS SQL Server, others via ODBC;
mail servers - SMTP including actual sending of e-mail, POP3, IMAP;
file size, disc space, Windows service availability;
basic connectivity checks - PING, TCP connect, UDP datagram send/receive;
running a script or program, including Nagios plugins.

If monitor enters a problem state (performance or availability issue) you can set IPHost Network Monitor to alert you using one of the following alerting methods:
send e-mail,
send SMS (short message),
play sound (both in web interface and monitoring service),
execute a program (for automatic problem resolving),
show pop-up message,
send message to instant messenger (Jabber/ICQ/AOL IM).

Download and Installation

First of all you should install IPHost Network Monitor on your computer. The latest version of the software you can download from the Download page.

Installation process is plain and straightforward. You can select a folder where you want the software to be installed. Installer includes Firebird relational database server that is used to store monitoring data and configuration; and Apache web server that is used for access to reports, graphs and other results.

IPHost Network Monitor is comprised by the following components:

1. Monitoring Service is a core part of the software. It does the tasks of monitoring and alerting.
2. Client Application is a Windows application for setting up hosts and monitors on them, their dependencies and other parameters, alerting rules.
3. Web Interface for reporting.

Configuring a monitoring system

First start

After installation you should complete Welcome wizard where you are able to:

1. Define administrator e-mail along with the main and auxiliary SMTP servers that will be used to send e-mail alerts and regular reports.
2. Define Access Password that protects sensitive information stored in the monitoring database from unauthorized access. You can also set IPHost Network Monitor to use this password to protect Web Interface.
3. Define Windows user account that IPHost Network Monitor should use by default to monitor resources require authentication and to automatically discover such resources.

Next step is Network Discovery wizard. It helps you to create a basis of your monitoring configuration by automatic discovery of hosts and network services on them. With the wizard you can detect the following services: SNMP, Telnet, HTTP, FTP, SMTP, POP3, IMAP, other TCP/IP services.
On the first page you can either select the range of IP addresses (by default it is a mask of current subnet that is detected automatically) or provide a list of names or IPs of hosts that should be checked.
On the second page you select which types of network services should be detected during discovery and what ports should be checked (you can provide additional ports for each service). By default IPHost Network Monitor starts monitoring of discovered monitors just after monitor has detected and created. You can set IPHost Network Monitor to not start monitors automatically and leave them in 'Discovered' state for your review.
On the third page you can set IPHost Network Monitor to repeat network discovery according to schedule you set (every few hours or at some time on some week days).

Windows Client application overview

Now take a look at layout of IPHost Network Monitor Client application that is the control center of your monitoring system.

Tree Views

Left part of the screen is used to show several tree views that organize monitoring hosts and monitors. The main view named 'By Host' organizes monitors by hosts and host groups. You can create custom host groups so you can organize hosts say by location. To move a host from one group to another you should select the host and select a host group you want to move it from the 'Host Group' dropdown list that you can find in the 'Property Editor' located at the right top corner of the window.

Property Editor

'Property Editor' shows parameters of the item (monitor, host or group) selected in the one of tree views.

Property editor menu.

Properties divided into sections, for monitor they are:

1. General parameters, such as name and URL of the Summary Report, also here you can set regular reporting - you set which report (Summary, Trend, Problem) and for which period (Daily, Weekly, Monthly) you want to receive.

   

2. Dependency and polling interval, dependency means that the monitor will be stopped if the monitor you select is down, by default monitor depends on PING monitor on the same host, polling interval is the interval between checks, and by default it is equal to 30 seconds for Basic connectivity monitors (PING, TCP, UDP) and 60 seconds for others.

   

3. Monitor definition, here you can specify what and how should be checked. Definition greatly depends on monitor type. For HTTP you can specify URL, port, request method, POST data, accepted response codes, response content validation (match/does not match string), name and password for authentication (Basic, Digest and Windows Integrated (NTLM)), proxy server type and URL.

   

4. Alerting, here you can set what IPHost Network Monitor should do when the monitor enter or leave problem state. Currently you can use the following alerts: sending an e-mail, sending SMS, show pop-up window, Net Send, starting a program, sending Jabber message, sending ICQ message, sending AOL message, playing sound. Alerts along with state changes that trigger alerts and schedule when alerts are enabled are combined into Alerting rules. By default monitor inherits Alerting rule from its Monitor Type. You can also set monitor to inherit Alerting rule from host or set individual Alerting rule for the monitor.

   

5. Availability monitoring. Here you can define when a monitored resource should be considered down. By default monitor enter Down state if connection is timed out for more than 5 seconds for Basic connectivity monitors (PING, TCP, UDP) and 10 seconds for all other monitors. There is another state - Extended Down state that signalize you that monitor is in Down state more than 5 minutes for Basic connectivity monitors (PING, TCP, UDP) and 20 minutes for all other monitors. By default monitor inherits these settings from its Monitor type so you can easily change them for all HTTP or PING monitors at once. Certainly you can also set individual values for each monitor.

   

6. Performance monitoring. You can define two levels of bad performance: Performance Warning and Performance Problems. For the most of monitors you can set low and upper limits for both states, for monitors that check response time (PING, HTTP, etc.) you can set upper level only. For example you can set two limits if you monitor air temperature, probably you want to turn off air condition if the temperature is less than 10C and turn it on if the temperature is more than 25C.

   

For hosts: maintenance, poll using IP address or DNS name.

Report View

Another view can be found tabbed with the Property Editor - this is Report View. This view shows a summary report for a monitor, host or group selected in one of Tree Views. Default reporting period is the last 24 hours till the current moment, you can change the reporting period in Settings dialog, Reporting tab. Summary report for a monitor includes:

1. Graph with performance data (values averaged by 10 minutes periods are represented), graph background color represents monitor states during reporting period.
2. Table with performance and availability summary data that shows:
   1. State changes pseudo graph,
   2. Percentage of uptime and downtime,
   3. Minimum, maximum, average and current values returned by monitor during the reporting period compared with the results obtained during the period preceding the reporting period along with the difference showing trend in monitored results,
3. States log,
4. States summary (hours and percentage).

For groups of monitors (hosts, host groups, monitor types) Summary report doesn't show graph, states log and states summary, it represents:

1. Summary data - total number of polls during reporting period for all monitors as well as number of polls for different states and percentage,
2. Table with performance and availability summary data for each monitor in the selected group for the reporting period that shows:
   1. State changes pseudo graph,
   2. Percentage of uptime and downtime,
   3. Minimum, maximum, average and current values

IPHost Network Monitor also has Web interface that provides you with access to additional reports and data. About Web interface

Log View

At the right bottom corner of the screen Log View is located.

Here you can see system messages (they are showed regardless of node selected in one of Tree Views) and state changes along with the error messages or reason of state changes and alerts that are performed as a monitoring system reaction to the state change. State changes and related messages are showed with background of color corresponding to the state that monitor has enter. You can select which messages (system or state changes) you want to see, for which period (default is 24 hours till now, maximum is 72 hours) and the order of log messages: descending (newer messages first) or ascending (older messages first).

IPHost Network Monitor 2.1 build 3819 of March 4, 2010. File size: 27.5MB