General Concepts

Product Hierarchy

The Monitoring Studio X hierarchy can be represented as follows:

Monitoring Studio X hierarchy

Hosts

Hosts provide information about the target server where the technology to be monitored is running (hostname, system type, credentials, SNMP information, host availability check information, etc.). Hosts are at the highest level of the hierarchy and contain none, one or several Templates.

Refer to the section Hosts and Templates to know how to define hosts.

Templates

Templates correspond to the technology you need to monitor (application, server, device, etc.). Arranged under the Host instance, they contain the list of Monitors and credentials required to assess the health and performance of the targeted technology or application. Templates can be attached to none, one or several hosts.

Refer to the section Hosts and Templates to know how to create templates and apply them to hosts.

Monitors

Monitor instances are arranged under the Template instance and correspond to the monitoring action(s) to be performed by Monitoring Studio X such as:

  • process monitoring
  • file parsing
  • HTTP request
  • database query
  • SNMP polling
  • folder listing
  • WBEM query
  • WMI query
  • Command line execution
  • etc.

Monitors are configured when creating Templates. They can refer to credentials, and user-defined, host-level, or template-level macros. They can be referred to as “monitored objects”.

Refer to Basic Monitors, Monitors with Content, Content Parsing Monitors and Dynamic Instances to learn more about the Monitors available and how to configure them.

Credentials Management

Credentials are declared at the Template level:

Declaring credentials at the Template level

and set at the Host level.

Setting credentials at the Host level

A default Username and Password can however be specified at the Template level. They will be used if no Username and Password are set at the Host level.

All credentials are stored in the PATROL configuration under the relevant Template and Host object in a comma-separated list.

  • The credentialsList for Templates will contain comma-delimited list of credentials in the following format:
    <credentials-label>;<default-username>;<default-password-or-passphrase>;<default-private-key-file>

  • When set, the credentialsList for Hosts will be prefixed by <template-configuration-id>: as follows: <template-configuration-id>:<credentials-label>;<username>;<password-or-passphrase>;<private-key-file>

Credentials can be removed only at the Template level.

Alert Messages and Alert Actions

Alert Messages

When a problem is detected by Monitoring Studio X, the following alert messaging options are available:

  • Annotation
  • PATROL Event
  • Command Line
  • PSL Script
  • Email
  • Write to a Log File
  • Send an SNMP Trap

Enabled in the Studio > Studio Settings page, their content can be customized at the Monitor level by using Macros.

Default messages are also configured for Monitors and parameters that do not have specific Alert Messages. They can be configured in the Default Message Content section of the Studio > Studio Settings page.

The list of alert messages to send is stored under the main configuration path in /SENTRY/X/messageTypeList

Refer to Alert Messages and Actions to know how to enable alert messages and customize their content.

Alert Actions

Alert Actions allow you to automatically refresh a Monitor of a same Template when a problem is detected. The Monitors to be refreshed are special diagnosis or troubleshooting Monitors configured to run manually (i.e. their polling interval is set to manual). This feature allows you to decide what to do when something goes wrong and get feedback about the actions taken. You can for example decide that a regular Monitor triggers a troubleshooting Monitor which triggers a repairing Monitor and so on.

The Monitors to be refreshed are configured at the Monitor level, for each range of each parameter.

Refer to Alert Messages and Actions to learn more about alert actions.

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