| GETTING STARTED |
| Introduction |
| Monitor Types |
| Configuring Monitors |
| Starting and Stopping bMonitor |
| Main View - Creating Monitors |
| Main View - Editing and Deleting Monitors |
| Introduction |
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bMonitor consists of 2 applications that communicate with each other through a .Net Remoting object on port 62472.
Future version may allow the port to be configurable, but for now it cannot be changed.
The remoting object rejects all requests that do not originate from localhost (127.0.0.1). So there is very little
risk of an exploit.
bMonitor.exe runs as a Windows service to monitor the health of servers you have configured. When bMonitor.exe detects a server that is not responding it will send alerts to addresses you have configured. The alerts can be emails or text messages. bMonitor.exe starts automatically whenever the resident machine starts. Which means bMonitor.exe is monitoring even if you are not logged in. All monitoring and alerts happen through the service. bMonitor_Mgmt.exe is the user interface to manage and configure bMonitor.exe. When bMonitor_Mgmt.exe is started an icon will appear in the system tray, and it will initiate communication with bMonitor.exe on port 62472. bMonitor_Mgmt.exe will request the status of the configured monitors from bMonitor.exe. If any monitors are not responding, the system tray icon will turn red and the appropriate monitor in the main view will turn red. If bMonitor.exe is not running the system tray icon will also turn red. bMonitor comes in 3 versions: Lite, Standard, and Enterprise. The Lite version will only allow 1 server to be configured, and will only ping a server once every 20 minutes. An alert will not be sent until 3 consecutive failures (1 hour). Standard is fully configurable and allows Ping monitoring, Port monitoring, and Http monitoring for up to 5 monitors. Also, it is possible to purchase additional licenses for more monitors and additional monitor types. Available monitor types include Database, Ftp, Ftps (Explicit), Ftps (Implicit), Http, Https, Imap, Ping, Pop, Port, and Smtp. Enterprise comes with all availble monitor types for up to 25 monitors. A license for Additional monitors can also be purchased. bMonitor has built in logging. All errors and events are written to a text file in the LogFiles foder located in the application folder. A new log file is started everyday and is named bMonitorLog_Mgmt_mm_dd_yyyy.txt for the interface and bMonitorLog_mm_dd_yyyy.txt for the service. |
| Monitor Types |
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Database - Will attempt to open an authenticated connection to a database.
Ftp - Will attempt to open an authenticated session to an ftp server. Ftps (Explicit) - Will attempt to open an authenticated, explicit ftp over ssl session to an ftp server. The FTP control port remains at the default (21 or whatever you have configured). Upon connection, the channel is converted to a secure channel automatically. All control messages and data transfers are encrypted. Ftps (Implicit) - This was deprecated in 2006. Consequently bMonitor will not support it. bMonitor simply converts this to an explicit ftp over ssl. Http - Will request the configured url and read the status code coming back. Anything but 200 is considered a failure. Https - Will request the configured url and read the status code coming back through an ssl session. Anything but 200 is considered a failure. Imap - Will attempt to open an authenticated session to an imap server. Ping - Will attempt to ping a server. Pop - Will attempt to open an authenticated session to a pop server. Port - Will attempt to open a connection to the configured port on a server.. Smtp - Will attempt to open an authenticated session to an smtp server. Web - Will request the configured web page and read the status code coming back. Anything but 200 is considered a failure. |
| Configuring Monitors | ||||||||||||||||
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Configure the server(s) you want to check. You do this by pressing selecting File-->New from the main menu
Monitor Name - The name of the server you will be monitoring. This cannot be blank. Monitor Type - Depending on your version and license, choices include Database, Ftp, Ftps (Explicit), Ftps (Implicit), Http, Https, Imap, Ping, Pop, Port, and Smtp. When a type is selected, options that are not appropriate for that type will become unavailable. Port Num - the port number to check for a Port monitor. IP or Hostname - A fully qualified domain name or IP address. URL - The url to check for ftp(s) and http(s) monitors. Uses strict URL formatting. If it doesn't work in your ftp client or browser, it won't work here. Strict Url formatting has the following form protocol://username:password@host:port/path The following are examples of acceptable use: Normal ftp: ftp://username:password@www.somedomain.com Ftps (Explicit) on standard port: ftp://username:password@www.somedomain.com Ftps (Explicit) on non-standard port: ftp://username:password@www.somedomain.com:portnum (Where portnum is the default standard ftp port, usually 21). Normal http: http://www.mywebserver.com/index.html An ssl web page on the standard https port: https://username:password@www.mywebserver.com/index.html An ssl web page on a non-standard https port: https://username:password@www.mywebserver.com:portnum/index.html Connection String - The connection string used to attempt a database check. Monitor Interval - In MINUTES, tell the application how long to wait between checking your server. Send Alert After n Failures - Tell the application how many failures are required before text messages are sent. This is important because of 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've decided that my servers can be down for 15 minutes before I want an alert. I set my Monitor Interval to to 5 minutes, and this value to 3. 5*3=30 minutes. Email Server Name - bMonitor requires an smtp (outgoing email) server. This setting can accept 1, 2, or 3 parameters separated by a colon in the following format: string:int:boolean string = IP address or hostname. int = SMTP server port number. boolean = Use SSL/TLS. true or false. Valid entries are: smtp.somedomain.com smtp.somedomain.com:25 smtp.gmail.com:465:true Email Username - The account user name on the smtp server you will be using. Email Password - The account password on the smtp server you will be using Email Addresses - The recipeints. Multiple addresses should be separated by a comma. You can send text messages to mobile phones too. The following is the address to use for some common carriers. Of course, you will change the mobile number accordingly. You can do a google search to find your carrier format.
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| Starting and Stopping bMonitor |
| It is possible to start and stop bMonitor. This is done by right clicking the bMonitor icon in system tray and selecting either Start or Stop. Hovering your mouse over the system tray icon will display the status of bMonitor. |
| Main View - Creating New Monitors |
| New monitors are created by selecting File-->New from the main menu. |
| Main View - Editing and Deleting Monitors |
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The main view of bMonitor lists the configured monitors. You have two options available at this time. You can
either left-click to view the monitor configurations, or right-click to get available options.
A left-click will the configurations of the particular monitor. A right-click will bring up a context menu with the following options: Edit, Check Now, Send Test SMS, Disable, Delete. The following explains each available option in the right-click menu. Edit - Opens an edit screen to change the configuration of the selected monitor. Check Now - Immediately checks the server configured in the selected monitor. Send Test SMS - Will send a test message to the addresses configured for the monitor. Disable - Keeps the monitor configuration data, but the server will not be monitored. Delete - Deletes the monitor. |