bMonitor Help

GETTING STARTED

Main View - Editing and Deleting Monitors

Introduction to bMonitor

bMonitor runs as an Android service to monitor the health of your servers. When bMonitor detects a server that is not responding it will send SMS alerts, or sound audible alarms, or both.

bMonitor is fully configurable and allows Ping monitoring, Port monitoring, Http status code monitoring, and Https status code monitoring for an unlimited number of monitors. However, due to the limitations of mobile devices, it is recommended to keep the number at 5 or less. If you need more than that, I recommend bMonitor for Windows. Get it here: http://bsoft.dataevol.com/software.

bMonitor consists of a service and a user interface, which operate independently of each other. When the service is started, bMonitor will continue to monitor servers until you stop the service, even after you exit the user interface.

After bMonitor is installed, you can set global preferences like having the service start automatically when the phone is rebooted, or you can select a custom sound to play when a server is not reponding. Please see the Application Preferences section of this help file for more details.

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Main Menu

When the menu button on the phone is pressed, the user is presented with 6 options.

Add Monitor - Pressing this option will populate the monitor list with a new monitor containing default information. The user then edits the monitor appropriately.

Start or Stop bMonitor - Pressing this option will either start or stop bMonitor depending on the state of bMonitor. In other words, if the state of bMonitor is started, this option will be "Stop bMonitor". If the state of bMonitor is stopped, this option will be "Start bMonitor".

SD Card I/O - Pressing this option will open a new screen that allows you to import/export the monitor list from/to the sd card. By default, bMonitor will export the configuration data to /sdcard/bSoft/bMonitor/bMonitor.xml, and it will import the configuration data from the same file. This cannot be changed. If you wish to view the configuration file, you can use a file manager that can be download for free from the market. Two very good file managers are "Astro" and "OI File Manager".

Preferences - Pressing this option will open the application preferences screen. See the "Application Preferences" sestion of this help file for more information.

Help - You are here, so you know what this option does ;)

Exit - Closes the bMonitor interface, but leaves the bMonitor service in its' current state.

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Application Preferences

bSoft recommends setting the application preferences first. You do this by pressing the menu button and then selecting "Preferences" from the options menu.

Monitor Interval - In SECONDS, tell the application how long to wait between checking your server(s). Please select this value carefully. Check too often and you will drain your battery REALLY FAST. Check too little and it kind of defeats the purpose of the application. bMonitor defaults to 600 seconds (10 Minutes).

Send Alert After n Failures - Tell the application how many failures are required before text messages are sent. This is important because on mobile devices a single check can fail because of very slow networks. Entering a 2 or 3 will eliminate ALMOST all false alerts. Use this setting in combination with the "Monitor Interval". Decide how long your servers can be down before you are alerted. For example, I have decided that my servers can be down for 30 minutes before I want an alert. I set my Monitor Interval to 600 seconds, and this value to 3. 600*3=1800 seconds=30 minutes. If you decide that your server can't be down for more than a few minutes, then you can use this application, but you will most likely need to keep it plugged in all the time. bSoft recommends bMonitor for Windows. Get it here: http://bsoft.dataevol.com/software.

Network Timeout - In SECONDS, tell the application how long to wait before it gives up on a server check. Choose carefully, too low and you will get false alerts. Too high and you will drain your battery. A setting of 15-20 seconds is a good place to start. bMonitor defaults to 20 seconds.

Alert Sound - Configure an audible alarm when a server is down. Valid entries are:

SYSTEM_DEFAULT - Play notification ringtone as confgured in the phone settings.
APPLICATION_AIRRAID - Play the application notification air raid siren ringtone.
APPLICATION_BUZZER - Play the application notification buzzer ringtone.

Logging - Choices are Disabled, Minimal, and Verbose. Verbose logs almost all activity and errors. Minimal logs some activity. By default the log file is written to /sdcard/bSoft/bMonitor/logs/mm_dd_yyyy_bMonitor_Log.txt. This cannot be changed. bMonitor defaults to Disabled. If you wish to view the log files, you can use a file manager that can be download for free from the market. Two very good ones are "Astro" or "OI File Manager".

On After Boot - Set this option if you want bMonitor to automatically start when the phone is rebooted. bMonitor defaults to Disabled.

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Configuring Monitors

Configure the type of server(s) you want to check. You do this by pressing the menu button and then selecting "Add Monitor" from the options menu. When you do this a new monitor with default information will appear in the monitor list. Touch-click the new monitor to edit the host information.

Monitor Name - This is simply a user friendly name that helps the user keep track of the monitors in the list. This is for display purposes only, and is not used in the monitor actvity.

Monitor Type - Choices are Ping, Port, Http, and Https. Once you select a monitor type the appropriate options for that type become available. A Ping monitor simply attempts to ping the host. A Port monitor will try to open a socket to the configured port on the specified host. An Http(s) monitor checks the status code returned from a web request for the configured URL. This is a very handy option if you want to check a web server and a database server at the same time. Simply point the URL to a dynamic web page that requests data from a database.

Host - A fully qualified domain name or IP address. This is the real world address bMonitor will use to either ping or do a port check. This cannot be a url. For instance, you cannot ping "http://yourserver.com", but you can ping "youserver.com".

Port Num - The port number used for a port, http, or https check.

URL - The web address for an http(s) monitor. Test the url in your browser. If it works there, it will work here.

Username - The username required for an http(s) request to a web server that does not allow anonymous access. bMonitor only supports basic authetication. If you are worried about clear text being sent over the internet, then make sure this is an https request.

Password - The password required for an http(s) request to a web server that does not allow anonymous access. bMonitor only supports basic authetication. If you are worried about clear text being sent over the internet, then make sure this is an https request.

Alert Recipients - The mobile number(s) to send text messages to when a server quits responding. Multiple numbers should be separated by a semi-colon, a colon, or a comma. You can also leave this blank and no SMS alerts will be sent.

Monitor Enabled - Select the check box to enable the monitor. If it is disabled, it will not be monitored.

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Starting and Stopping bMonitor

It is possible to start and stop bMonitor. This is done by pressing the menu button then selecting \'Start bMonitor\' or \'Stop bMonitor\'. The option available to the user is depends on the state of bMonitor. If bMonitor is running then \'Stop bMonitor\' is the available opiton. If bMonitor is not running then \'Start bMonitor\' is the available option.

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Main View

The main view of bMonitor lists the configured monitors. It lives independently of the service. You have two options available at this time. You can either short-click to edit the monitor, or long-click to get available options.

A short-click will open an edit screen for you to change the configurations of a particular monitor.

A long-click (Press and hold) will bring up a context menu with the following options: Edit, Delete, Disable, Send Test SMS, Check Now, and Cancel. The following explains each available option in the long-click menu.

Edit - Opens an edit screen to change the configuration of the selected monitor.

Delete - Deletes the monitor.

Disable - Keeps the monitor configuration data, but the server will not be monitored.

Send Test SMS - Will send a test text message to the mobile numbers configured for the monitor.

Check Now - Immediately checks the server configured in the selected monitor.

Cancel - Closes the options menu.

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