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From the Device Editor Main, select to Add or Modify an entry.

The ipSentry entry editor is the primary interface for configuring monitored entry details and options. 
The options available in the Settings / Details tab will vary depending on the type of entry you are configuring.

Configuration Entry Settings
All device entries contain the same basic components to be configured. The exception to this rule is the system {default} entry which has some limitations in it's referencing capabilities since it is the final point from which configuration data is obtained if not specifically defined for an entry.

The basic components of each entry are as follows

Identity, schedule & descriptive information.
 
Common Device Entry Settings

Type
Select from the 6 category types of monitoring entry you wish to create.
 

RGE currently provides 6 primary categories with many sub types within each entry category creating a well rounded arsenal of monitoring functionality. 
The categories and types of entries, with their sub-types are as follows:

Group / Template
This entry type does not perform any actions or monitoring tasks on it's own.   The Group/Template type is used for grouping of entry items as well as configuration of standardized templates, schedules, and alerting configurations.
[ Details ]

Network TCP/IP
This entry type allows for TCP/IP based connection and data send/receive capabilities. There are currently 16 pre-configured standard ports and the option to utilize custom port numbers for the host entry.  This is one of the most often used types of monitors within ipSentry.
[ Details ]

WEB PAGE
Telnet
SMTP
RADIUS * Deprecated - use the UDP/DNS/RADIUS Add-In
daytime
DNS-TCP * Deprecated - use the UDP/DNS/RADIUS Add-In
DNS-UDP * Deprecated - use the UDP/DNS/RADIUS Add-In
echo
finger
ftp
http
https * Deprecated - use the HTTP/s Web Monitor
ICMP-PING
nntp
POP
POP3
Custom Port

Service Monitor
This entry type will query local and remote system services to insure they are running.  You may specify one or more services to be monitored within a single entry.  However, you should be aware that if you are monitoring 5 services and one fails, the entry will be reported as failed.  While detail information will be available as to the service that caused the failure, all alerts will be performed as a single failure.
[ Details ]

Drive Space Monitor
This entry provides local and remote drive space monitoring to insure that drive space remains above the user-defined low-water mark.  In the event free space falls below your defined threshold, the defined alerts would be triggered.   For monitoring multiple volumes, you should utilize the Performance Monitoring Add-in to monitor logical drive space percentages available.
[ Details ]

Back-Reference Monitor
The back-reference monitor allows you create an entry whose result is based on the state of one or more other entries in the system.  You define the importance of each entry to be referenced (a weight) and define the maximum weight value that is acceptable.   Thus, you can effectively create an entry that triggers alerts if (x) number of items are in a failure state.
[ Details ]

Add-In Monitoring Component
ipSentry is licensed a-la-carte allowing you to minimized costs by only purchasing the features that you require for specific distributions. 
[ Details ]

Installed monitoring type add-ins are as follows:

Database Connection and Query Monitor [ Details ]
DNS/RADIUS/UDP Monitor [ Details ]
Event Log Monitor [ Details ]
File & Directory Monitor [ Details ]
File Content Monitor [ Details ]
HTTP/s Enhanced Web Monitor [ Details ]
IT Environmental Monitor [ Details ]
Mail Transaction Monitor [ Details ]
Modem Connection Monitor [ Details ]
MRTG Counter Value Monitor [ Details ]
Network Time Monitor [ Details ]
Performance Counter Monitor [ Details ]
POP3 Mail Queue Monitor [ Details ]
SNMP Object Monitor [ Details ]
SSL Certificate Monitor [ Details ]
TCP Scripting Add-In [ Details ]
Service State Controller [ Details ]

Normal state is [Failure]
If this entry is checked, then ipSentry will expect that the result is intended to be Critical.   This is intended where you require a CRITICAL state to be returned for the entry to be successful.   For example, let's say that you are scanning a file using the file content monitoring and want to be notified if it does not see the text "OK" in the file.  By default, the file content monitor returns CRITICAL when it finds the expected text.  In your case, you only want to be critical if it doesn't find that text.  This would be a good case for enabling this option.  Thus, configured alerts would only be triggered when the text was NOT found.  

Name
Enter a unique device name for this entry. The recommended device name entry should be brief yet descriptive. This name will be used in the statistics reporting, graphing output (if enabled), as well as textual alerts and notification where configured with the %%mach.name%% keyword.

Description
Enter a meaningful description of the entry providing additional information about what and why the entry is being used and perhaps what is expected.

Schedule
 
IPSentry Monitored Entry Schedule Editor

The schedule option allows you to schedule the days of week and times of day that the selected entry will be active by entering time frames in the editor.  You can add, modify or remove time frames.  You can drag the time frames from one day to another, and you can set all days to the same time frame currently shown in the time frame list.

You may also simply configure the schedule to reference a schedule from another device thereby allowing multiple devices to share the same schedule.

Use From
When you enable this option, you can select another entry from which the schedule will be obtained.
Changes made to the referenced machine schedule will be propagated to all entries referencing that schedule.

In order to maintain some sense of clarity and reduce confusion, we strongly recommend using Group/Template entries to store commonly used schedules rather than arbitrarily selecting devices from which to derive the schedule.  This will eliminate confusion down the road and avoid mistaken changes to one schedule affecting all items referencing that schedule.

For example, if you have multiple entries that should only be active between 00:00 and 00:15, then you should create a Group/Template entry, set it's properties appropriately, and use that entry as the reference.  This will be much less confusing than if you reference an unrelated device simply because it has the schedule that works.  You will then be assured that the only way to change the schedule for these devices is by changing a well defined template entry.  There would be very little reason to 'accidentally' change the schedule.

Set All Days
Click this button to copy the currently displayed schedule to all days of the week.  This is helpful if every day should have the same schedule and avoid having to manually modify each day individually.   Also, if more than 3 days of the week will have the same schedule, it will be much more efficient to set all days and then simply change the remaining days to their appropriate schedule.

Add
Click to add a new time frame to the current day's schedule.

Modify
Click to modify the currently selected time frame.

Remove
Click to remove the currently selected time frame.

Copy From
Click to copy a schedule from a previously defined entry.  This will copy the schedule information from the selected entry but will not reference it.  Use this option when creating a new schedule that is close to another schedule and only minor changes need to be made.

Defaults
Click this to use the default schedule of 'always'.

Notes
IPSentry Monitored Device Notes Editor

The Notes editor allows you attached notations to the device for later reference.  This is a freeform text entry allowing you to add items such help information, detail descriptive, actions that have been taken during failures, corrective measures, support or technical  directives, contact information, and etc.

These notes can be added to email alerts through the %%mach.notes%% keyword thereby making this area ideal to recommended actions or historical reminder information during the alert and notification process.

 

Custom Attributes
IPSentry device custom attributes editor

The Custom Attributes editor allows you attached custom attributes to an entry for use in keyword insertion such as email message sending.  Command line launch parameters, script usage, and etc.

The attributes are identified by using the keywords %%ca.#%% where "#" = the attribute number.  

For example, if the email message text for this entry contained %%ca.2%%, that would be replaced with 000.
 

Entry Details
This information is very specific to the entry category currently being edited.  For information on the various entry details, please review the specific configuration topic for the category, entry type, or add-in component.

Polling, dependency, and active state settings.

IPSentry Device Entry Common
Various aspects outside of the schedule will determine when and if the entry is actually monitored.  This area provides access to these additional features and requirements.

Depends On
This field shows the item upon which this entry is dependent in order to run.  If the dependent item is in a Critical state, this entry (and by reference - it's children) will not be monitored.   This is useful in group scheduling functions as well as avoiding monitoring of items that you know will be un reachable.  For example, if you have 5 web servers on the other side of ROUTER A, you would set each of the servers dependent upon ROUTER A.  If ROUTER A is down, it may be futile to try and connect to the web servers since we already know the link has an issue.  Thus, ROUTER A would trigger it's alerts as the failing point, and the children would be skipped.

Synchronize Dependency Counters
In some cases, you may want the failure counters of child entries to reflect those of the parent.  As in the above scenario, you may want to show that the 5 web servers dependent on the router have also failed.  While the actual state of the web servers themselves is unknown, it is known that access to those servers is unavailable and perhaps this failure should count against them just as it does the router.  Selecting this option is only used for basic statistical purposes and is not reflected in graphing details.   Within the graphing details, if the item was not monitored, there will be no data for that time period.

Suspend Monitoring
Click this option to suspend (or resume) the current entry.  You will be presented with the standard query of acceptance.  If you are suspending the device, you will be presented with the suspend duration option dialogue.
 

Suspend Item
IPSentry Suspend Entry Dialogue
When selecting to suspend an item, you will be presented with the suspend duration dialogue allowing you to specify the duration for which this item should be suspended.   You can enter the time in DAYS:HOURS:MINUTES using the original dialogue, or click the "Select" button in order to select a date/time on which the item should resume monitoring.

If you leave the duration field blank or set to 0:0:0, the entry will be suspended until manually resumed.
Suspend Select

IPSentry Suspend Item Selection Dialogue
If you click the Select button on the Suspend Item dialogue, you will be prompted for the date/time on which the item should be resumed.  Specify the date/time on which this item should be resumed.

Normal Poll Frequency
This value represents the number of ipSentry cycles that must occur before the item is polled.  The value is useful for monitoring items that may not need to be checked with as often as other items.  For instance, connectivity to a network device such as a web server may need to be checked every 15 seconds where as checking drive space or scanning for an event log may only need to be performed every 5 minutes.  In this case, you can set your sentry cycle interval to 15 seconds and set the poll frequency on your drive space monitor entry to 20.

Critical Poll Frequency
This value represents the number of ipSentry cycles that must occur before the item is polled when it is in a CRITICAL state.  This is useful for entries that have a high poll frequency under normal situations, but may have a tendency to auto-correct within just a couple of cycles thereby becoming stable.  Setting this value to a lower value than the normal poll frequency allows for notification or recovery actions to be performed more quickly.

Copy From
Click this button to copy the configuration settings from another entry.  You will be presented with a list of entries from which you can select to copy the general configuration settings.
IPSentry Copy Device Settings From

Order Alerts
Click this button to set the preferred order of alert/notification.  In some cases, you may want your email notifications sent before the pager notifications or vice-versa.

At this point you simply highlight the alert and move them up or down in the order you wish for them to be triggered.

IPSentry Device Entry - Define order of alerts

Test
Click this button to test the configuration as it would run during a normal cycle.  Note that this will not trigger alerts - rather, it will simply tell you the result of the configuration settings.

Alerting and Notification Actions

IPSentry device entry common alerting mechanism.
Each device provides access to a set of common and specialized alerting and notification options.

Audible
Plays a sound file or beeps the PC speaker of the ipSentry machine for an audible notification.
[ Details ]

Pager/Cell
Sends a text or numeric message to pagers, cells, beepers, or other SMS device.
[ Details ]

Mail
Sends an email notification.
[ Details ]

Launch Application
Allows for the launching of customized batch, VBScript, or other external command line utility.
[ Details ]

X10 Power
Sends an On, Off, On/Off, Off/On signal to an X10 power control unit for use with lighting, sirens, or other power control purpose.
[ Details ]

Add-Ins
The alerting add-ins allow for the use of alert type add-in components to perform specific functions.  An example of an alerting add-in is the Service State Controller add-in which can be used to Start, Stop, Restart windows services on local and remote systems.
[ Details ]

Syslog
Sends a Syslog message to your Syslog server
[ Details ]

Statistical output configuration

IPSentry monitored device statistics

Detail Statistics Logging
Enable, Disable, or use the setting from a referenced entry to enable detail graphing statistics for use with the ipSentry graphing tool.  By default, if graph stats logging is enabled, all entries will look their state and action time.   When this option is enabled, additional values which are specific to the entry will be logged as well.  See the individual types and configuration details for information on what data is logged for what types of monitors. [ Details ]

HTML Output Option
The default selection is that which is specified in the system options for auto-output statistics.  This area allows you to specify alternative reporting output locations for different devices in order to place different devices within different reports.  If you set this option to Disabled, this device will not be output to the auto-output report area. [ Details ]

COMMON TO ALL MONITOR TYPE ENTRIES

Type
Select from the 6 category types of monitoring entry you wish to edit.

RGE currently provides 6 primary categories with many sub types within each entry category creating a well rounded arsenal of monitoring functionality. 
The categories and types of entries, with their sub-types are as follows:

Group / Template
This entry type does not perform any actions or monitoring tasks on it's own.   The Group/Template type is used for grouping of entry items as well as configuration of standardized templates, schedules, and alerting configurations.
[ Details ]

Network TCP/IP
This entry type allows for TCP/IP based connection and data send/receive capabilities. There are currently 16 pre-configured standard ports and the option to utilize custom port numbers for the host entry.  This is one of the most often used types of monitors within ipSentry.
[ Details ]

WEB PAGE
Telnet
SMTP
RADIUS * Deprecated - use the UDP/DNS/RADIUS Add-In
daytime
DNS-TCP * Deprecated - use the UDP/DNS/RADIUS Add-In
DNS-UDP * Deprecated - use the UDP/DNS/RADIUS Add-In
echo
finger
ftp
http
https * Deprecated - use the HTTP/s Web Monitor
ICMP-PING
nntp
POP
POP3
Custom Port

Service Monitor
This entry type will query local and remote system services to insure they are running.  You may specify one or more services to be monitored within a single entry.  However, you should be aware that if you are monitoring 5 services and one fails, the entry will be reported as failed.  While detail information will be available as to the service that caused the failure, all alerts will be performed as a single failure.
[ Details ]

Drive Space Monitor
This entry provides local and remote drive space monitoring to insure that drive space remains above the user-defined low-water mark.  In the event free space falls below your defined threshold, the defined alerts would be triggered.   For monitoring multiple volumes, you should utilize the Performance Monitoring Add-in to monitor logical drive space percentages available.
[ Details ]

Back-Reference Monitor
The back-reference allows you create an entry whose result is based on the state of one or more other entries in the system.  You define the importance of each entry to be referenced (a weight) and define the maximum weight value that is acceptable.   Thus, you can effectively create an entry that triggers alerts if (x) number of items are in a failure state.
[ Details ]

Command Monitor
The command monitor allows you have ipSentry launch an external command, process, or application and optionally evaluate the run time, exit code, or both.  This allows you create your own external scripts and commands to be launched by ipSentry.
[ Details ]

Add-In Monitoring Component
The Monitoring style add-ins currently being shipped with the ipSentry Installer are as follows
[ Details ]:

Database Connection and Query Monitor
Monitor databases and data sources for connectivity and query result capabilities.

DNS/RADIUS/UDP Monitor
Monitor DNS, RADIUS, and other UDP based servers.

Event Log Monitor
Monitor local and remote event logs for event messages of interest.

File & Directory Monitor
Monitor files, folders, sizes, counts, etc..

File Content Monitor
Evaluate file contents and trigger alerts when data is found.

HTTP/s Enhanced Web Monitor
Provides enhanced web server monitoring capabilities.

IT Environmental Monitor
Monitor Sensatronics environmental monitoring equipment.

Mail Transaction Monitor
Monitor mail delivery from relay host to mailbox for slow or non-delivery issues.

Modem Connection Monitor
Monitor ability to connect to remote dialup systems via modem.

MRTG Counter Value Monitor
Monitor MRTG HTML counter data values for critical levels.

Network Time Monitor
Monitor and Synchronize local time with network time servers.

Performance Counter Monitor
Monitor local and remote windows performance data counters for critical levels.

POP3 Mail Queue Monitor
Monitor POP3 mailboxes for message wait times and message content.

Scripted TCP/IP Network Monitor
Advanced network monitoring using scripted SEND/RECV Scripting

SNMP Object Monitor
Monitor SNMP compliant devices and systems for critical values, changes, etc.

SSL Certificate Monitor
Monitor SSL Certificates for changes, expirations, and validity to be alerted to critical issues regarding your ssl certificate usage.

 

Normal state is [Failure]
If this entry is checked, then ipSentry will expect that the result is intended to be Critical.   This is intended where you require a CRITICAL state to be returned for the entry to be successful.   For example, let's say that you are scanning a file using the file content monitoring and want to be notified if it does not see the text "OK" in the file.  By default, the file content monitor returns CRITICAL when it finds the expected text.  In your case, you only want to be critical if it doesn't find that text.  This would be a good case for enabling this option.  Thus, configured alerts would only be triggered when the text was NOT found.  

Name
Enter a unique device name for this entry.  The recommended device name entry should be brief yet descriptive. This name will be used in the statistics reporting, graphing output (if enabled), as well as textual alerts and notification where configured with the %%mach.name%% keyword.

Description
Enter a meaningful description of the entry providing additional information about what and why the entry is being used and perhaps what is expected.

Schedule
Click this button to modify the entry availability schedule.

Notes
Click this button to modify the entry notations.

Attributes
Click this button to modify the entry custom attributes.

Depends On
This field shows the item upon which this entry is dependent in order to run.  If the dependent item is in a Critical state, this entry (and by reference - it's children) will not be monitored.   This is useful in group scheduling functions as well as avoiding monitoring of items that you know will be un reachable.  For example, if you have 5 web servers on the other side of ROUTER A, you would set each of the servers dependent upon ROUTER A.  If ROUTER A is down, it may be futile to try and connect to the web servers since we already know the link has an issue.  Thus, ROUTER A would trigger it's alerts as the failing point, and the children would be skipped.

Required State
Use to define the require state of the parent entry before this entry will be processed. run (Normal or Critical). 
The default parent required state is normal such that when a parent is in critical state, it's children will not be evaluated. 

Synchronize Dependency Counters
In some cases, you may want the failure counters of child entries to reflect those of the parent.  As in the above scenario, you may want to show that the 5 web servers dependent on the router have also failed.  While the actual state of the web servers themselves is unknown, it is known that access to those servers is unavailable and perhaps this failure should count against them just as it does the router.  Selecting this option is only used for basic statistical purposes and is not reflected in graphing details.   Within the graphing details, if the item was not monitored, there will be no data for that time period.

Suspend / Resume Monitoring
Click this option to suspend (or resume) the current entry.  When suspending a device, you will be presented the option of the duration for which the device should be suspended.  You can enter the duration in DAYS:HOURS:MINUTES to suspend for a specific duration at which point monitoring of the selected entry will resume.   If you leave the duration field blank or set to 0:0:0, the entry will be suspended indefinitely.

When suspending indefinitely, you must Resume the entry manually.

 IPSentry Suspend Item Dialogue

If you click the Select button at this point, you will be given the option to enter a specific date and time on which the entry should resume.
Shedule Time Window

Normal Poll Frequency
This value represents the number of ipSentry cycles that must occur before the item is polled.  The value is useful for monitoring items that may not need to be checked with as often as other items.  For instance, connectivity to a network device such as a web server may need to be checked every 15 seconds where as checking drive space or scanning for an event log may only need to be performed every 5 minutes.  In this case, you can set your sentry cycle interval to 15 seconds and set the poll frequency on your drive space monitor entry to 20.

Critical Poll Frequency
This value represents the number of ipSentry cycles that must occur before the item is polled when it is in a CRITICAL state.  This is useful for entries that have a high poll frequency under normal situations, but may have a tendency to auto-correct within just a couple of cycles thereby becoming stable.  Setting this value to a lower value than the normal poll frequency allows for notification or recovery actions to be performed more quickly.

Copy From
Click this button to copy the configuration settings from another entry.  You will be presented with a list of existing devices from which you can copy the complete configuration.
 
IPSentry Copy device configuration from.

Copy To
Click this button to copy configuration specific settings from this entry to multiple entries.  You will be presented with the Copy To dialogue in order to select the configuration properties to copy and a list of entries to which to copy the selected settings. 

Order Alerts
Click this button to set the preferred order of alert/notification.  In some cases, you may want your email notifications sent before the pager notifications or vice-versa.

Simple highlight the alerting method and click the up/down buttons to reorganize the alerting sequence.
 
Order Alerts for Entry

Test
Click this button to test the configuration as it would run during a normal cycle.  Note that this will not trigger alerts - rather, it will simply tell you the result of the configuration settings.

The result of the test will be displayed in the testing results dialogue.
 
IPSentry device test results dialogue



     If you require additional assistance, please visit our on-line support forum at http://forum.ipsentry.com.
 
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  ipSentry® is a registered trademark of RGE, Inc.
Web Site: https://ipsentry.com
Support Email: support@ipsentry.com