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ipSentry Monitoring Software Features
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ipSentry is loaded with many features designed for monitoring and alerting of all aspects of your
network infrastructure, data, system performance, and environment.
While we can describe the feature set and provide general scenarios for the
feature usage, you
will ultimately define how that feature is utilized to provide you with the
desired results.
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System
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Operating System Requirements
ipSentry has been designed and tested to run on on the following
Microsoft Windows 32-bit and 64-bit platforms including.
Windows 10 - 11
Windows Server 2012 - 2022
Minimum System Requirements
2GB RAM Installed (or O/S Required minimum)
200MB Drive Space (above O/S Required minimum)
ipSentry utilizes 20 to 60 MB of RAM at run time for moderate
quantity of monitoring items (~200 to ~500).
Prerequisites
The installation and operation of ipSentry requires that the
following system components be installed on the system on which
ipSentry will be installed. The ipSentry installer will attempt to
download missing prerequisites from the appropriate web site if they
are unavailable.
Microsoft Data Access Components 2.6 SP2 or Higher
Microsoft Windows Installer 3.1
Microsoft JET 4.0
Microsoft MSXML 6
Local Administrator Elevated Credentials
In order to install and run ipSentry successfully, both the
installer and ipSentry application must be executed with elevated
local admin rights. ipSentry is an administrative application and
requires access to local administrative features.
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Monitoring Features |
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Package
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Network Latency and
Connectivity
With the basic ipSentry TCP/IP Network monitoring functionality, you
can monitor latency via ICMP/Ping and Connectivity to various TCP/IP
based servers and services using a Connect/Send/Expect dialogue.
While the basic Ping monitor is useful for preliminary connectivity
testing, many routers and firewalls are now disregarding ping
request packets. This leaves you with a requirement to connect
directly to the remote host to validate connectivity.
With this functionality, you can monitor Web pages, web servers,
standard TCP ports such as HTTP, FTP, POP3, SMTP, and even custom
TCP ports for connectivity as well as proper response.
For example, instead of just pinging your web server or simply
connecting to port 80, ipSentry will request the page specified and
check the response to ensure that the expected data is being
received within the timeframe specified.
ipSentry provides pre-configured Send / Expect settings for 16
different standard TCP ports.
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Disk Drive Available
Space
With he basic ipSentry Disk Drive Space monitoring feature, you can
be alerted when the space available on local and remote disk drives
reach your defined low-water mark.
Running low on disk space can cause enough problems - but when disk
space completely runs out - the problems can be catastrophic.
Use ipSentry to make sure that unknowingly running out of disk
space is a thing of the past.
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Windows System Service Monitoring
The ipSentry NT Service Monitoring functionality allows you monitor
the running state of critical system services and be alerted should
a service stop.
ipSentry can be configured to monitor a single service or sets of
services in order to trigger the appropriate action or notification.
Use the built-in Launch Application alerting functionality to issue
a start request as an attempt to start the service, or in a last
case situation, you can attempt a programmatic shutdown and restart
of the remote system using the included shutdown tool.
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Back Reference Monitoring
Unique to ipSentry Network Monitor is the Back Reference monitoring
functionality allowing you to trigger alerts, notifications, and
actions based on the current state of one or more existing entries.
(And yes, even on other Back Reference Monitors...)
This functionality alone adds and unprecedented amount of
flexibility for alert and notification functionality to the ipSentry
application allowing you to replicate alerting functionality,
trigger different alerts for multiple device failures, schedule
downtime and overrides on alert and notifications.
The flexibility provided here can be the answer to just about any
"If I want..." situation.
If I only want UserA alerted Wed/Thu/Fri between 1900 and 2300 but
UserB 24/7...
If I want to be alerted only if both networks are not responding...
If I want to be alerted when the CPU is at 100% and memory usage is
over 2gb...
If I don't want devices C,D,E in Group 2 monitored if Group1 device
A is down...
- the list goes on - again, as simple or as complex as you like.
Probably one of the easiest monitors to configure is by fare the
most powerful in terms of customizing ipSentry alerting and
notification to fit your specific needs.
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Add-In Functionality
ipSentry allows for the incorporation of Add-In components to
further extend the functionality of ipSentry to limitless
proportions.
All of the additional features included in the ipSentry package
bundle are in fact add-in components developed by RGE, Inc. with the
definition provided in the ipSentry Add-In SDK Documentation.
This is the feature that allows you to add other features on an
as-needed basis as well as develop your own add-in components for
proprietary or customized monitoring and alerting functionality.
It's impossible for one company to provide everything that every
other company may need, so we do the next best thing. Provide
you with a method of integrating your own features from your
development efforts.
The ipSentry Add-In SDK Documentation is freely downloadable in our
download area.
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ipSentry HTTP/s
Enhanced Web Monitoring
While the basic ipSentry package provides the ability to monitor web
servers and make sure that specified content is received, the HTTP/s
Enhanced Monitoring add-in allows you to substantially extend this
capability with SSL, Secured Logon (Basic Realm & NTLM), Form Data
Posting, Redirection, and other enhanced options in order to monitor
your web servers using more advanced functionality.
This add-in can evaluate page contents in order to trigger alerts
when the content of a page changes either by calculating a base CRC
value against the page content or by evaluating the last modified
date as sent by the server.
The form posting functionality is ideal for simulating a users
actions such as posting form data to the web server or logging into
a specific area of your system as well as following redirects.
The HTTP/s Enhanced Web Monitor can also be used as an alerting
option allowing you to post data to web servers such as web only
paging systems and other web based services that allow form data or
a simple URL to be sent. With the introduction of CAPTCHA showing up
on many providers web based paging, you will need to contact your
mobile service provider to identify a method for bypassing the
visual input requirements.
SSL Certificate Monitoring
Included in Version 5.5 and later, this add-in will also monitor SSL
certificate properties and alert you when the certificate will
expire in a user-defined number of days, if it has expired, if any
certificate attribute changes, or if there is an SSL certificate
validation error associated with the certificate on the https site.
This add-in is definitely for when you need a little (or a lot) more
horsepower in monitoring web servers than a simple GET request at
the server.
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ipSentry Event Log Monitoring
The ipSentry Event Log Monitor Add-In provides you with the ability
to monitor various event logs such as Application, Security, System,
DNS, Active Directory, and etcetera for specific event log entries
to which you want to be notified.
When the event information you have selected is detected, the alerts
configured in ipSentry can be triggered.
This add-in allows you to specify the event log, event source, event
type, and other event specific information to be applied to the
filter. The latest release allows you to select how many occurrences
of the event must be found within a specified amount of time in
order to trigger alerts..
Scan your local and remote event logs for entries too which you want
to be alerted day and night.
Event messages like account lockouts, login failures, application
errors, system errors, the list goes on. Only you know what events
keep popping up in your logs that are a precursor to a failure of
one sort or another. We go a step further than just looking for an
event.
With the Event Log Monitoring Add-in, you can be alerted to a single
event, a specific number of events within a time frame, include and
exclude events in the filter, be notified whether the events are or
are not found within a time frame. Once the events filter is matched
to trigger an alert, the details of the events can be included in
your message alerts to let you know what events.
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ipSentry Performance Counter Value
Monitoring
The ipSentry Performance Counter Monitoring add-in provides you with
the ability to evaluate performance counter data values against a
user defined threshold to detect values which exceed thresholds,
change abruptly, increase or decrease unexpectedly or by more than a
defined threshold.
Some uses of the add-in include testing Exchange mail queue sizes
for high watermark thresholds or abrupt increases in size of the
queue, drive space percentages, CPU utilization, and etc...
This add-in monitors local and remote computers performance data, so
you can centralize your alerting, charting, and graphing of values
onto the ipSentry machine.
Use of this add-in is generally utilized to test the following
aspects of performance data values.
- The host being monitoring is accepting connections.
- The counter values are accessible.
The values are then compared against your filters which may include whether or not:
- Value is Equal To a specific value
- Value is Greater than a specified value
- Value is Less than a specified value
- Value has Changed
- Value has Increased
- Value has Decreased
- Value is Within a specified range
- Value has Increased by more than a specified value.
- Value has Decreased by more than a specified value.
- Value has Changed by more than a specified value.
Each of the above can be compared for both positive or inverse matches.
If the returned value is out your specified threshold, the
configured alerts associated to this entry will be triggered.
The windows performance data is loaded with useful system
performance information.
Obviously, we could include just about every valuable counter we can
think of and market ipSentry has having hundreds upon hundreds of
monitoring types and features.
The fact is, monitoring performance
data is just one feature of network monitoring whether you are
monitoring CPU, Memory, Disk Space, Exchange Services, SQL Services,
AD Processes, Network Services, etc... What objects, counters and
instances that you monitor is entirely up to you.
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ipSentry SNMP Device Monitoring and Trap
Alerting
The ipSentry SNMP Monitor and Alert add-in provides you with the
ability to monitor SNMP compliant devices for management objects for
specific value thresholds.
The SNMP add-in allows you to setup multiple filters to be checked
during a cycle - if any one of the values queried match the
specified alerting filters, the add-in will return an alert state to
ipSentry thus causing any scheduled alerts to be triggered.
The add-in component contains a built-in MIB browser, MIB compiler,
and SNMP MIB walker allowing you to import vendor specific MIB
definitions and perform hierarchical viewing of the devices many
values for selection within the given filters.
Use of this add-in is generally utilized to test various aspects of
values returned from the queried device and compare to a
user-defined threshold. However, the add-in provides additional
monitoring functionality as a byproduct of it's usage.
- Ensure that the Device is responding to SNMP queries
- Ensure that the object being queried is accessible.
The values returned are then compared against your filters which may include whether or not: - Value is Equal To a specific value.
- Value is Like a specific value (OCTET STRING)
- Value Contains a specified value (OCTET STRING)
- Value is less than a specified value
- Value has changed
- Value has increased
- Value has decreased
- Value is within a specified range
- Value has increased by more than a specified value.
- Value has decreased by more than a specified value.
- Value has changed by more than a specified value.
Each of the above can be compared for positive or inverse matches.
The SNMP Device and Trap alerting add-in is a dual function add-in
component with built-in MIB browser allowing you to walk the MIB on
an SNMP device with it's primary focus on the ability to query SNMP
compliant devices (V1, V2c, V3) for object values and evaluate them
against a user defined filter that ranges from octet matches and
contains, to value range thresholds, along with inverse and delta
based comparisons.
You can specify the object ID directly if you know it or you can
import the MIB definitions, locate the object in the SNMP tree, walk
the host and select the object for filtering and alerting.
Within this add-in comes the SNMP trap alerting functionality for
use in the ipSentry Add-In Alert area. The ipSentry base application
includes an alerting mechanism for add-in components which extends
the base functionality considerably. ipSentry can send traps to a
trap host as a notification regarding the state of the entry being
monitoring along with a descriptive on the reason for the alert
allowing you to incorporate monitoring results into your existing
SNMP management systems.
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ipSentry Database Connection and Query Monitoring
The ipSentry Database and Query monitoring add-in provides you with
the ability to ensure that your databases and database servers are
not only available, but can accept and response to query requests
This add-in utilizes your ODBC data sources in order to established
the connection with the database or database server and then
optionally issue SQL query against the database.
The results of the query can be evaluated for the number of rows
returned, the value of a variable assigned in the query, or can be
used simply to executed a stored procedure and test the query time.
Use of this add-in is generally utilized to test the following
aspects of your database server.
- Server or Database is accepting connections.
- Server or Database is accepting logon credentials.
- The time to connect is within the specified threshold.
- The server is accepting queries.
- The returned results are within specification.
- The time to complete the query is within specification.
The ODBC Database and Connection Monitoring Add-in connects to a
database over ODBC and optionally executes a query, and optionally
evaluates the results. Notice how many times we mention
'optionally'? There is a reason for that.
The add-in can be used to just test database connections on your
network, it can be used to submit an EXEC query that returns no
results, and/or it can be used to perform a query that will return
row data which can be counted by ipSentry or you can design an SQL
query to return a specified value that the add-in can evaluate.
For example, let's say you know there should be 10000 records in a
given database at all times, and of those we know that 2000 of them
will always contain a specific value in a specific column. We could
simply have the add-in perform a basic 'SELECT * from db where
column=value' query against the database and evaluate the count as
being required to be at least 2000. Now, that can be pretty resource
intensive, so we also provide the means to utilize just a SELECT
count() option and this information is available in our help
documents.
You can also query system table values, status values, all kinds of
cool things where a numeric value can be returned and compared to
denote failure or success.
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ipSentry DNS/RADIUS/UDP Server Monitoring
The ipSentry DNS/RADIUS/UDP Monitoring add-in provides you with the
ability to monitor UDP based systems for proper response values and
response timing options.
This add-in includes a UDP Packet builder for both DNS Query and
RADIUS Authentication in order to help you build the required
packets for monitoring these services.
DNS / Domain Name Server Resolution Monitoring functionality allows
you to query a DNS server and perform a query for the A record of a
given domain name and evaluate the response to make sure it contains
the IP Address expected.
RADIUS Server Monitoring functionality allows you to send a properly
formatted Authentication request to a RADIUS server, specify the
response (ACK or NAK), and evaluate the response times to ensure
that the RADIUS server is responding and authenticating properly.
The UDP packets can be configured using escaped sequence to encode
binary data for UDP packet sending and response evaluation.
This add-in is primarily used for DNS Query monitoring and RADIUS
Server monitoring since the building of UDP packets is somewhat
complex and must contain the exact information required by the
receiving host.
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ipSentry Mail Transaction Monitoring
While ipSentry provides the ability to test your SMTP and POP
servers to ensure connectivity and communications, the Mail
Transaction Monitoring add-in goes many steps further.
This added feature will send periodic test messages through your
selected email relay server and then periodically check the
destination mailbox to ensure that the message has arrived.
If the message is not found within the specified amount of time,
configured alerts will be triggered.
This add-in is ideal to ensure that your message queues are not
blocked as well as ensuring that the inbound server is accepting
messages.
By actually sending and retrieving email messages, this add-in is
basically testing the following situations:
- Connection to mail relay host can be established.
- Mail server is accepting messages for delivery.
- Mail server is delivering email.
- Mailbox server is accepting email.
- Mailbox is accessible and responding.
- Mail can actually be retrieved from the mailbox.
- That the mail is actually being delivered in an acceptable amount of
time
(as configurable in the add-in)
Even when the services are reporting OK and the performance counters
show normal, and your network connections are all up and running,
for some reason - the mail just stops.
The Mail Transaction Monitor will let you know there is a problem
because it spends it's time doing nothing but sending mail and
waiting for it to get to the mailbox. You can configure this monitor
to be very patient or extremely impatient by setting the timeout
threshold as to what timeframe is acceptable for mail to be sent to
the specified relay via SMTP or MAPI (Exchange) and then received in
the destination mailbox via POP3 or MAPI.
Whether it is your mail queue or your service providers mail queue -
if there is an unacceptable delay in delivery, you will be the first
to know.
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ipSentry File and Directory Monitoring
The ipSentry File and Directory monitoring add-in provides ipSentry
with file and directory scanning and monitoring of various aspects
of file information such as:
- File existence
- File size
- File modification
- Folder size
- File Deletion and Addition
- Change within time frame
- Modified and Unmodified file count
- Modified and Unmodified file size
The add-in can monitor file and directory information on local
drives and network shares allowing you to monitor things like user
directory sizes, critical folders for file modifications, data
integrity issue due to file deletion, changes on active files to
detect process activity.
This add-in is ideal for monitoring storage queues, quota limits,
file updates, files that must be updated, etc...
Check to make sure log files are being updated at specific intervals and
time frames, verify that directories are
being cleaned out, queue folders are not growing out of control, and
that things are functioning in general with regards to the physical
file system.
In some cases, the only way to tell if
a process or application is actually doing its job (or has done its
job) is detect
changes in specific files or folders.
This little tool solves a lot
of problems that just can't be solved any other way.
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ipSentry File Content Scanning and
Monitoring
The ipSentry File Content Monitoring Add-In provides you with the
ability to monitor the contents of either an entire file or just the
new data written to the end of the file (the tail) for specific
data.
You can evaluate the contents using a basic ALL, ANY, or EXACT query
capability for one or more query items.
This add-in is ideal for monitoring various log files and detecting
certain activities and events. For example, if you have an
application that writes out various activity information along with
errors generated to a log file, you can configure this add-in to
scan all new data written to the file for and occurrence of the
error text. If found, then any configured alerts would be generated.
Many configurations that our customers are using include scanning
log files for "ERROR" or "Disconnect" type messages, access from
specific IP Addresses in web logs, backup completion codes and error
codes in backup logs and many other tasks where just a small word or
phrase in a log file can mean the difference between a huge problem
and no problem at all.
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ipSentry Inbound Mail
Queue Monitoring
The ipSentry POP Mail Queue Monitoring add-in provides you with the
ability to monitor a mailbox for the existence of messages
containing specified text and/or to be alerted if email has remained
in the mailbox for a specified maximum amount of time.
This add-in is ideal for being alerted to important incoming
messages that may require external notification alerts upon arrival
as well as checking mailboxes that should be cleared out at specific
intervals. This add-in can verify how long a message has been
in the mailbox and alert you if the time has exceeded your specified
wait time.
For example, you may provide a high-priority code to an end user for
use in emergency email requests. You can then configure this add-in
to locate any new messages that might contain this specific code.
When a new message arrives, you can configure this entry to perform
a paging alert to send a notification to support personnel cell
phones for immediate response.
This is a very specialized add-in component used to monitor a POP
mailbox and check the mail waiting time and optionally search
messages for specific content, then trigger alerts when the specific
message has arrived or messages have been in the mailbox for (x)
amount of time. The add-in is very handy for identifying priority
customer emails, expected contact messages, and other situations
where a very specific bit of information in a mail message is worth
triggering the alert. While it is not for everybody - we do know
that when it required, it is the only thing that does the trick and
it's worth every penny.
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ipSentry Modem Connection Monitoring
Whether you have modem banks or a dialup security status modem, you
want to make sure that when a request to negotiation a modem
handshake is made, that it succeeds.
The ipSentry Modem Connection add-in is a specialized feature
intended for systems requiring dial in modem connections.
This add-in allows you to perform basic dial + handshake modem based
tests to ensure that you can establish a modem based connection to
the remote modem.
With the basic modem scripting option, you can add simple
send/receive functionality after an established connection for more
specialized situations where modem based dialogue may be required
such as user login functionality.
This functionality is ideal for testing dialup terminal servers and
provides with confidence that:
- Your customers are not receiving BUSY signals.
- Your customers are not receiving RNA's (Ring No Answer)
- Your terminal servers are requesting login credentials.
- Your authentication system is functioning properly.
- Your Security / Emergency system outbound phone line is available.**
**Today, many security monitoring systems use POTS (or PSTN) lines to send
communicate alert condition regarding
fire and theft alerts. What if the lines are down
and the system can't make the call? Enter an inexpensive modem,
sitting in auto-answer mode on the same line. For about $400
invested in a Modem, ipSentry, this add-in, and a small UPS to keep
the modem powered up for an hour during a power outage, you might
just save yourself thousands, millions, or even save a life by
making sure the telephone line is always up for the emergency and
security systems to dial the outbound alert when a security problem
is detected. Dial out on one line, inbound on your security line,
and if no connection can be established - there's a problem and you
will know about it.
*Always check with your security and emergency systems service
provider for their advice and recommendations to determine if this
type of activity is compatible with your existing configuration
before adding any devices to your emergency outbound lines.
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ipSentry Network Time Monitor and Synchronize
The ipSentry Network Time Add-In provides you with the ability to
ensure that the system on which ipSentry is running maintains a
valid date and time when compared with the servers such as the US
Naval Observatory utilizing either TIME or NTP protocols.
The add-in can be used as a monitoring-only add-in that will trigger
alerts when the clock on the local system is out of sync with the
time server by the specified number of seconds (recommended) as well
as synchronize the local time to the remote time servers time.
The add-in can also be used as an alert style add-in to synchronize
the time after alerts have been generated, or the time can be
automatically synchronized during the monitoring cycle.
This add-in comes with a customizable database of time servers for
regional selection of NTP and TIME servers.
The ipSentry Network Time monitor will compare the local ipSentry
machine time against the defined NTP or TIME server and alert you
when the clocks are out of synch. This is very important in a
network infrastructure where all of your workstations are setting
their time off of another server on the network.
When the ipSentry time monitor triggers an alert, there is a problem
with your network time which needs immediate attention. While the
add-in does provide the option to synchronize the time based on a
failure or at the same time it detects the discrepancy, the design
of the add-in is to make you aware that there is a problem.
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ipSentry MRTG Counter Data Value Monitoring
The ipSentry MRTG Counter Value Monitoring Add-In provides you with
the ability to evaluate and be alerted to the reported values
contained in your MRTG html reports.
If you utilize MRTG, you know that the values are critical. These
values are contained in the header of the HTML reports.
ipSentry can extract and evaluate these for comparison against
high/low thresholds allowing you to be alerted when your defined
router throughput values are exceeded.
MRTG (Multi Router Traffic Grapher) is a killer utility for graphing
traffic on your routers and this add-in compliments this system by
checking the data values contained in the MRTG html reports and
alerting you when traffic data exceeds your thresholds.
If you have used MRTG, you know what traffic data is available and
why this add-in is so useful. More information available on MRTG is
available at there site at
http://www.mrtg.com/
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ipSentry Scripted TCP/IP Custom Network Monitoring
The ipSentry Scripted TCP/IP Network Monitoring enhances the basic
TCP Network monitoring functionality by providing a scripted
approach to send and receive requirements over an established TCP/IP
connection.
In using the basic TCP Network monitoring functionality provided in
the base ipSentry application, you are provided with the ability to
connect, send some data and/or expect a specific amount of data. In
contrast, when you utilize the Scripted TCP/IP Network Monitor (and
alert) add-in, you can extend this to complete an entire session and
test all aspects of an RFC compliant or proprietary TCP system.
For example, the basic monitor will connect to an SMTP server and
test to see if the appropriate SMTP response is received. With this
add-in however, you can actually script out the entire sequence of
events that are required to send an email message through the
server.
The add-in is also very useful for proprietary TCP implementations
which may require non-standards based inputs and outputs,
proprietary TCP devices, and any other area where a simple Send and
Receive dialogue of TCP is required.
This component can be used as both a monitoring entry as well as an
alerting action which means that TCP accessible devices which accept
telnet or raw TCP connections to perform certain actions can be
access and scripted as an alerting action.
Once again, this is for the power-user adding a lot more power than
the basic TCP/IP network monitoring functionality in the ipSentry
base application. This add-in expands on the simple Send/Receive
functionality required to monitor most TCP connections by allowing a
full session dialogue. With this add-in, you can script logins to
POP3 servers, send test or heartbeat SMTP messages, login to FTP
servers, or virtually any other clear-text top based dialogue over a
raw TCP connection. We have included sample scripts to get you
started for such items as POP3 login, SMTP test just up to the point
of sending, and an FTP login and directory change.
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Alert and Notification Features |
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Cell Phone Notification via SMS
With text messaging availability on Cells being carried by the vast
majority in the IT field, this is the most stable alert mechanism in
use during a catastrophic systems failure that we offer.
Through the use of a straight POTS line connected to an inexpensive
modem and everything powered through a UPS - you can lose your
power, lose your generators, fry your network, but that good ol'
POTS line tends to remain active long enough to get out the critical
notification.
ipSentry uses the standards based TAP protocol for modem
transmission by default. However, due to the diversity of messaging
terminal requirements, we have provided various customizable scripts
to match many different services and devices, including the use of
devices such as USB attached GSM device for sending SMS direct
over-the-air.
BTW> Yes - we do support Numeric only beepers...
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PDA and Smart Phone Notification via SMS or SMTP
Similar to standard Cell phone notification via SMS, you can
incorporate both SMTP and SMS/TAP notifications into the pager
configuration providing the best of both worlds.
If the email can't get through, the SMS dialup should be the
fallback.
Again within the scope of paging - ipSentry uses the standards based
TAP protocol for modem transmission by default. However, due to the
diversity of messaging terminal requirements, we have provided
various customizable scripts to match many different services and
devices, including the use of devices such as USB attached GSM
device for sending SMS direct over-the-air.
BTW> Yes - we do support Numeric only beepers...
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Email Notifications via SMTP/MAPI
ipSentry gives you the ability to send notifications via email using
SMTP or MAPI (Exchange/Outlook) to one or multiple recipients,
either directly through MX lookup, through a configured MAPI
profile, or to a specified SMTP relay.
With the ability to specify multiple SMTP relay hosts, ipSentry will
attempt delivery of the message to each server specified should the
other server fail.
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Audible Alerting
ipSentry can trigger a notification by either a .wav file to be
played or the PC speaker to be beeped for the duration you specify
in the alert configuration.
We know by first hand experience that many times, this is the first
alert we receive when in close proximity to the system on which
ipSentry is running. It might take a few seconds for our cell
to receive the SMS message, but we often times respond to the
beeping before the message alert on the cell sounds off.
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Launch External Application, Utility or Script
With ipSentry, you can automate command line tasks required to
correct some issues, send network broadcasts, kill processes, start
reset scripts, and more.
For example, there may be a situation that only a service restart or
a computer restart can correct. It's a waste of time to drive in,
power down, power up, and go home. Instead, you can have ipSentry
launch an external NET START or NET STOP command, or launch our
supplied IShutDn which can initiate a shutdown (see the next
feature) and restart of a remote system.
If the alerts continue, then it might be time to come in, in
many cases, you will receive a "Recovery" alert letting you know
that all systems are 'GO'.
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Included IShutDn - Remote Computer Restart/Shutdown
There are times when only a restart of the remote system will
correct a known problem and ipSentry provides the answer.
Within the ipSentry distribution is our IShutDn command line utility
to Shutdown or Restart a remote system.
Use this in conjunction with the Launch External Application
alerting to initiate the restart.
Another situation where the Shutdown aspect can save you a great
many head-aches is when monitoring environmental conditions.
It is far better to shutdown the systems when temperatures are too
high than risk hardware failure. Simply configure the Launch
application alert to trigger the IShutDn when the temperature
readings are too high and associate the alert with the IT
Environmental Monitoring functionality.
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Syslog Notification
Allows you to send a Syslog message to a Syslog server containing
textual information. You can also configure the message type
(Facility / Priority) for proper action by other utilities that
monitor the Syslog.
There just isn't much to be said about a Syslog alert - very simple,
very straight forward. If you want notifications sent to a
Syslog server, ipSentry can do it.
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X10 Remote Power Control
X10 Remote Power Command allows ipSentry to communicate with X10's
AC power modules in order to control external power to specified
modules. This features comes in handy if you want to drive alert
lights, sirens, or even power down or power cycle network devices or
peripherals base on the result of a monitored For more
information on the X10 control units, see
http://www.x10.com
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ipSentry Service State Controller
The ipSentry Service State Control add-in is an alerting add-in
component which allows you to control services on local and remote
computers. This add-in component is used to Start, Stop, and Restart
services as a pro-active recovery measure based on the result of a
monitored entry.
For example, you can configure ipSentry to monitor a service such as
W3SVC if you are so inclined. If this service is detected in a state
other than Running when monitoring using the basic NT Service
Monitoring functionality of ipSentry, you can configure the Service
State Controller as an alert action and attempt to Start the service
automatically thereby avoiding human interaction.
This add-in can be used in conjunction with any monitoring entry -
not just service monitoring. For example, you may have a custom
network application that is tested by a simple TCP connection. If
the connection cannot be established, you may need to restart
various services on the remote system even if the service show that
they are running. This add-in can be used in such a case by
specifying either Restart options on a set of system services.
Also important is the fact that you can configure a set of services
to be started in a specific order thus allowing you to start or
restart dependency services as may be required.
The Service State controller add-in is designed to be used as an
alerting mechanism for starting, stopping, or restarting windows
system services on local and remote systems.
There are many failure scenarios that require nothing more than a
restart of a system service to correct the issue and this add-in
fits that bill. We actually use it extensively in our production
environment to make sure that our backup services are all running. A
common and well known problem with some backup systems is that when
the service fails - you don't get a backup and you don't find out
about it until the backup software notifies you of some ambiguous
error caused the backup to fail. We use the ipSentry service monitor
to check the service state and if they don't report as running, we
use this add-in to stop them in order and start them in order for a
clean service startup.
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Send SNMP Trap Alert
Within the SNMP Monitoring and Trap Alert add-in is the SNMP trap
alerting functionality for use in the ipSentry Add-In Alert area.
The ipSentry base application includes an alerting mechanism for
add-in components which extends the base functionality considerably.
Use of this add-in allows ipSentry to send SNMP traps to a trap host
as part of the notification sequence regarding the state of the
entry being monitoring along with a descriptive on the reason for
the alert allowing you to incorporate monitoring results into your
existing SNMP management systems.
The MIB definition for the ipSentry taps is located in the SNMP
Add-In folder with the ipSentry Distribution and is also defined
here.
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HTTP/s Enhanced Web Alerting
Within the HTTP/s Enhanced Web Monitoring Add-In is contained the
ability to perform the same functions as an alerting and
notification method.
By utilizing this add-in, ipSentry can actually post information to
a web site to trigger a remote action or script by sending a simple
GET request to a web site, or to log data to your web site by
posting keyword based values over the web.
This add-in can be used to post alert notification fields to cell/SMS
provider's "Send Message" sites as yet another option for alert
notifications. Check with your service provider for details on
sending messages via web interface without requiring CAPTCHA
information design to ensure manual input.
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ipSentry Scripted TCP/IP Custom Network Alerting Action
This component can be used as both a monitoring entry as well as an
alerting action which means that TCP accessible devices which accept
telnet or raw TCP connections to perform certain actions can be
access and scripted as an alerting action.
The ipSentry Scripted TCP/IP Network Monitoring enhances the basic
TCP Network monitoring functionality by providing a scripted
approach to send and receive requirements over an established TCP/IP
connection.
An example of this type of use might be communicating via telnet
session to a local device such as a router to perform a soft reset
via system command after login by simply defining the host to which
you will connect, port number, and then the scripted dialogue of
Send/Wait commands.
Once again, this is for the power-user adding a lot more power than
the basic TCP/IP network monitoring functionality in the ipSentry
base application. This add-in expands on the simple Send/Receive
functionality required to monitor most TCP connections by allowing a
full session dialogue. With this add-in, you can script logins to
POP3 servers, send test or heartbeat SMTP messages, login to FTP
servers, or virtually any other clear-text top based dialogue over a
raw TCP connection. We have included sample scripts to get you
started for such items as POP3 login, SMTP test just up to the point
of sending, and an FTP login and directory change.
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Reporting and Statistics Features |
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Automated Status / Up Time Statistics
Output
Configure ipSentry to output status and up time statistics reports
automatically.
ipSentry allows the output of selected device information to
different report groups for remote viewing of current device status
information and up-time statistics for the monitored devices.
Send the data to network locations accessible by your web servers
and secure the reports using your internal network security
policies. No need to setup, configure, and maintain multiple
security groups in yet another location.
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Customized Graphing Tool
The ipSentry Graphing Tool allows you to generate graphs of
accumulated detail statistics and output in HTML format.
The tool allows you to select specific entries and specific data
sets, define sample rates and statistic period for the reports as
well as set the graph complexity from simple (fast print) to
executive (gradient) type graphs.
Send the data to network locations accessible by your web servers
and secure the reports using your internal network security
policies. No need to setup, configure, and maintain multiple
security groups in yet another location.
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Store statistical data to backend SQL
database
By default, ipSentry stores the statistical detail data to an Access
database (.mdb) on the local hard-drive. By utilizing the
ipSentry SQL Upsize tool, you can configure ipSentry to output the
statistical data to an SQL server allowing the use of external
reporting tools and a longer storage history due to size limitations
built into MS Access databases.
While the Access database is sufficient for most installations,
storing statistical data for long periods of time at short frequency
intervals may cause accumulation of data beyond the approximately 30
million data sample limit of the Access database (where it exceed
the size limitation imposed by Microsoft).
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DASH Remote Workstation Client
The ipSentry DASH Remote Workstation Client can be installed on
various workstations to provide real-time access to one or more
ipSentry installations status information.
The DASH Remote Workstation Client can provide audible and visual
feedback at the workstation regarding changes in device state
(Critical to Normal, Normal to Critical, Unable to access, etc..)
You can also suspend and resume entries as well as apply notations
to the monitored devices for others to view and which will be
available in the HTML Automated output statistics detail for the
device.
This is an ideal feature for local and remote support persons that
want to know the status of monitored entries 'right now'.
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Support and Maintenance |
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Support and Maintenance
RGE, Inc. backs ipSentry with free email and forum support as well
as free minor version updates for the life of the major version.
Customers who purchase version 5.0 are freely updating to the most
current 5.x version.
While the purpose of minor version updates is normally to correct
problems or incompatibilities, the vast majority of our updates also
include minor product enhancements and additional features as our customer
input is always considered.
When a major version is released, we will design an upgrade path and
discount plan for currently licensed users.
In a nutshell - when you purchase a license, you get support and you
get maintenance and you get upgrade discounts when we release a
Major version update.
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