ActiveXperts Network Monitor is a network and server monitoring tool that allows administrators to monitor the network for failures and irregularities automatically. It can monitor all aspects of your LAN- and WAN servers, workstations and IP devices.
For years, System Administrators, Network Operators and Helpdesk Employees have relied upon the power, flexibility and reliability of the ActiveXperts Network Monitor tool.
ActiveXperts' powerful Network Monitor Engine technology has been adopted by several software companies all over the world. ActiveXperts' Network Monitoring technologies is used by thousands of companies all over the world, making ActiveXperts the leading provider of Network Monitoring solutions.
The mission of the product is to maximize the reliability of your production servers and applications through the automatic detection and correction of problems and issues.
The product runs as a service on the Windows 2003/2000/XP/NT platform. ActiveXperts Network Monitor supports Windows, UNIX, Linux and Novell platforms.
When problems are detected, you're immediately notified by network message, e-mail or SMS message.
When a failure is detected, the network monitor tool will try to correct the problem.
Network Monitor Engine (a Windows service)
The Network Monitor Engine is the service that continuously monitors the servers in your LAN/WAN for availability.
The service is also responsible for notifying, triggering actions, recovery and logging.
The engine is multi-threaded, capable of monitoring many servers simultaneously.
It can monitor various platforms, including Windows, Novell, Linux and Unix.
It has many built-in monitor checks. Operators can write new checks in VBScript or RSH and add these to the configuration.
Theres no agent software required on the servers being monitored; the monitoring service uses protocols and application layers of the Operating System to do its job.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor includes many built-in monitor checks. You can add new monitor check routines yourself, using VBScript.
This is explained in the online Network Monitor VBScript Guidelines.
Network Monitor Manager
The Network Monitor Manager application is used to view the results and to make changes to the configuration.
This Manager application allows you to visually monitor the network from any desktop PC.
Use the Network Monitor Manager application to view results and to make changes to the configuration
The Manager application can be installed on any Windows 98, Windows NT or higher computer (workstation or server), and has different authority levels. You can restrict help desk employees to only view results, while you can allow network operators to make changes to the configuration.
Web Interface
The Web Interface is a collection of read-only XML based Views of the network.
They can be viewed by an Internet Browser by the use of XSL style sheets.
This only requires one port on the firewall (default: port 80) to allow monitoring the network from a remote location.
The Web Interface pages can be customized by editing the XSL style sheets.
It's easy to configure the XSL style sheets, for instance to change: sorting, colors, listed items, row- and column sizes, and more.
This is a unique feature of ActiveXperts Network Monitor, and very often used by the HelpDesk staff.
Use the Network Monitor Manager XML Views to view results from any location in the world
The XML data can also be used to link to an internal database, for archiving, reporting, and so on.
Monitors various operating systems, including Windows, Novell, UNIX and LINUX;
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Monitors web servers using HTTP and HTTPs protocols. Supports NTLM authentication, proxy servers and proxy authentication;
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Monitors mail servers. Supports SMTP/Pop3 servers, including Lotus Notes, MS Exchange and native SMTP/POP3 servers;
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Monitors IP protocols. ActiveXperts Network can monitor a wide range of IP protocols, including ICMP Ping, FTP, SNMP v1, SNMP v2c, LDAP, NTP and NNTP;
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Monitors various databases, including Oracle, MS SQL, MS Access, SyBase, Informix, Paradox and IBM DB2. It supports the ODBC, ADO and OLE-DB interfaces to monitor a wide range of databases;
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Monitors event logs; filter on event sources, event ID's, etc. Match patterns in event descriptions;
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Monitors disk availability and disk space. It can monitor the physical status of a disk array of an individual disk. It can monitor availability and/or used space on a physical or logical disk;
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Monitors services, processes, memory usage. It can monitor the status of a Windows service, check if a process is running on a remote machine, and check the amount of consumed memory of the individual process;
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Monitors users, groups, Active Directory and Novell NDIS. Support for ADSI and allows you to monitor Microsoft- and Novell Directory Services, including Microsoft Active Directory and Novell NDS;
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Monitors environment. Requires an Environmental Monitoring device from Sensatronics to monitor temperature, humidity and/or water leaks ('wetness');
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Custom Network Monitoring. You can add new checks by writing scripts. You can use VBScript (Windows) or RSH (UNIX) for it. VBScript checks can use WMI and ADSI;
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Enterprise class architecture. The product consists of a network monitoring service (the 'Engine') and a separate management interface (called 'Manager'). Administrators can monitor enterprise-wide networks from a single console where no agent software is required;
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Monitoring engine is self-tuning; the number of active threads adapt to the number of rules to be processed per minute.
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Software is provided with powerful, pre-defined checks.
User Interface - Windows application and Web Interface
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The Manager application is used to make changes to the configuration and view results;
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The Manager application can be installed on any workstation in the network, enabling operators to monitor and configure from their desktop;
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The Manager application has an Explorer-like user interface, with a Folder pane, a Monitor Rules pane and an Activity pane;
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Assign Read-only permission to people who do not need full access to the configuration. In Read-only mode, users can only view the results, but are not able to change the configuration.
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ActiveXperts Network Monitor allows you to view the status of the network from anywhere in the world using the Web Interface. IT Administrators can use a normal browser for it, but can also use small handheld devices such as an HP iPad or a Palm PDA device.
The Web Interface is based on XML and XSL technology.
Notification features
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Send out notifications upon failure and upon recovery;
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Support for SMTP e-mail notifications without needing Outlook or IIS/CDONT;
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NetBIOS Network Notifications (the well-known "network popup" messages);
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SMS Notifications through an SMSC ("Short Message Service Center") provider; requires a normal Hayes compatible modem connected to the monitoring server;
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SMS Notifications through a GSM mobile phone; requires a GSM phone connected to the monitoring server through a serial cable, InfraRed or BlueTooth; the GSM phone must be capable of processing AT+C commands;
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SMS Notifications through a GSM modem (recommended); requires a GSM modem connected to the monitoring server through a serial or USB cable; ActiveXperts recommends WaveCom M1306B modems;
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SNMP trap notifications. Support for SNMP v1 and SNMP v2c traps;
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Distribution Groups and individual recipients; You can define multiple Distribution Groups and assign them to your rules, but you can also use individual recipients for a rule;
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Templates for all notification types, including Network Monitor system parameters inside these templates; Notification messages can be completely customized using these templates;
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Test buttons for each notification type, for troubleshooting purposes.
Action features
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Restart a service (or multiple services) upon failure;
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Reboot a server upon failure;
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Launch an executable or batch command job; Network Monitor system parameters can be passed;
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Launch a VBScript; Network Monitor system parameters can be passed;
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Sample actions included.
Configuration
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All configuration information is stored in one file, which makes it easy to backup, import and export;
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Import and Export are guided by a 'wizard';
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Default values for new Monitor Rules are configurable;
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Default values can be applied to existing Monitor Rules;
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Read-only mode for users that are not allowed to make changes to the configuration (for instance: help desk employees);
Maintenance schedules
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Avoid servers to be considered as 'failed' during maintenance schedules. Notifications will not be sent during maintenance;
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Maintenance schedules can be configured globally or per server;
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Maintenance schedules can be scheduled as recurrent or only once.
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You can define multiple schedules.
Dependencies
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Avoid a flood of messages when - for instance - a router fails, by configuring dependencies;
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Servers can depend one multiple servers; dependencies are transitive.
Reports
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Standard incident reports and summary reports included;
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Support for simple HTML and CSV ('comma separated') reports;
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Support for enhanced XML and XSL based reports;
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Servers can be included/excluded from a report;
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Report generation is guided by a 'Wizard';
Logging
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Network Monitor related information is written to the Application Log of the Event Viewer;
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Logging can be written to ASCII files, an MS Access database, MS SQL server or any OLE-DB/ADO compliant database. Product is shipped with an Access database file that works out-of-the-box;
The Network Monitor Server must be running on a Windows server platform (or a Windows workstation platform that supports services), and must meet either of the following requirements:
Windows 2003
Windows 2000
Windows Vista
Windows XP
Windows NT4
CPU
x86 550MHz or higher
x86 133MHz or higher
x86 800MHz or higher
x86 233MHz or higher
486DX 33MHz or higher
Memory
256MB or more
128MB or more
512MB or more
128MB or more
96MB or more
Service Pack
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SP1 or higher
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SP5 or higher
Free diskspace
50MB
50MB
50MB
50MB
50MB
The Network Monitor Manager can be used on any Win98SE or higher operating system. There are no special requirements for running the application.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor checks different kinds of Directory Services. One of them is the Active Directory Service.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor checks different kinds of Directory Services, like Active Directory, NTDS (NT4 based SAM account database), and Novell NDS Directory Service to query users, groups, and so on.
You can configure ActiveXperts Network Monitor to check user accounts (locked out, disabled, etc.), computer Accounts, Groups,
Group membership, Organizational Units, and so on.
For more information about ADSI checks, click here.
The Anti-Virus check allows monitoring various popular Anti-Virus packages on workstations and servers.
The following Anti-Virus software packages are supported:
McAfee VirusScan Enterprise;
Norton AntiVirus 2005;
NOD32;
Kaspersky AntiVirus Server;
Kaspersky AntiVirus Workstation;
Norman AntiVirus 5
The Anti-Virus checks are implemented as VBScript functions (ANTIVIRUS.VBS).
You can make modifications to the script, to enhance your Anti-Virus checks.
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For more information about Anti-Virus check, click here.
Disk space is your server's most expensive subsystem, so it's a good practice to monitor - for instance - user's Home Directories.
For more information about the Directory Size check, click here.
Monitor physical disk drives on servers running the Windows operating system.
If a malfunctioning disk drive is detected on the computer, an alert is being generated.
For more information about the Disk Drive check, click here.
The amount of free disk space is checked periodically, and if it drops too low you're immediately notified.
It can also notify if used space gets too high.
For more information about the Disk Space check, click here.
Checks if a DNS server is working well by reading a particular 'A' record on the DNS server and verifying the result.
For more information about the DNS check, click here.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor can read Windows Event logs on local- or remote computers.
It can look for specific Event Sources, Categories, Event ID's and so on.
It can look for a pattern in the Description of the Event.
It can do advanced filtering in Event Logs; it can look for multiple events in the Event Log,
and notify the system administrator if one of the Events occurred in a specific time interval.
For instance, as a network administrator, you want an alert if there's a McAfee or Norton
virus message in the Application Event Log, but only if the event is posted in the last 30 minutes.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor uses VBScript and WMI for this.
It enables you to fully customize Event Log filtering, speeding up performance by checking for more than one event in each
cycle.
For more information about the Event Log check, click here.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor can monitor file existence and file size.
This is particularly useful in situation where results of scheduled batch jobs needs to be checked.
In many organizations, batch jobs run at night and produce logging information;
ActiveXperts Network Monitor can check this logging information and analyze it.
It can check the existence, or search for patterns.
For more information about the File check, click here.
FTP is usually run over TCP using the default port of 21.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor can check the availability of FTP sites.
If the FTP server is not directly accessible,
you can configure ActiveXperts Network Monitor to go through a proxy to access the particular FTP server,
even passing credentials for that proxy server (to be able to make use of the proxy). Additionally, you can pass credentials (username and
password) to access the actual FTP site if the FTP server requires it.
For more information about the FTP check, click here.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor can check the availability of HTTP and HTTPs sites, on default ports (i.e.: 80 and 443).
If the HTTP(s) server is not directly accessible, you can configure ActiveXperts Network Monitor to go through a proxy
to access the particular HTTP(s) server, even passing credentials for that proxy server
(to be able to make use of the proxy).
Additionally, you can pass credentials (username and password) to access the actual HTTP(s) site if required.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor supports web site content checking; contents of web sites can be searched for text
patterns (including meta tags).
For more information about the HTTP check, click here.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor requires an IT Environmental Monitor device from Sensatronics to monitor relative humidity.
For more information about the Humidity check, click here.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor is also capable of monitoring temperature and water leaks.
For a complete overview of all environmental monitoring capabilities in ActiveXperts Network Monitor, click here.
ICMP Ping checks a remote host for availability.
Local hosts should normally respond to pings within milliseconds.
However, on a very congested network it may take up to 3 seconds or longer to receive an echo packet from the remote host.
If the timeout is set too low under these conditions, it will appear that the remote host is not reachable (which is almost the truth).
ActiveXperts Network Monitor checks servers for availability by sending ICMP Echo commands and wait for the responds.
Reachability doesn't necessarily mean that the remote host is actually functioning beyond its ability to echo packets.
For more information about the ICMP check, click here.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor can check IMAP compliant mailservers by establishing a connection on the remote IMAP port
(usually port 143) and do a handshake. By handshaking, ActiveXperts Network Monitor can verify that the remote server's
IMAP protocol is working well.
For more information about the IMAP check, click here.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor can check LDAP compliant servers by establishing a connection on the remote LDAP port
(usually port 389)
For more information about the LDAP check, click here.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor can check the memory usage of the Operating System. It monitors the total physical memory usage.
For more information about the Memory check, click here.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor monitors the status of critical Exchange services, and monitors the most
important performance counters.
Amongst these performance counters are: performance counters of the Information Store, performance counters of mailboxes,
performance counters of public folders, and performance counters of the SMTP service.
If it drops too low you're immediately notified.
If you want, you can extend the Exchange check by checking more services and monitoring more performance counters.
For more information about the Exchange check, click here.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor monitors the status of the MS ISA Server services. It can monitor a caching-only ISA server, a firewall-only ISA server, or an integrated (caching+firewall) ISA server.
For more information about the ISA Server check, click here.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor uses ADO to check availability of Microsoft SQL databases.
ADO can also be used to connect and retrieve data from spreadsheet files like Excel and text or other plain format data files.
For more information about the MS SQL /ADO check, click here.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor monitors the status Terminal Server (part of Windows 2003/2000) server by checking the number of active/inactive sessions.
For more information about the ISA Server check, click here.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor can check NNTP news servers by establishing a connection on the remote
TCP port (usually port 119) and do a handshake. By handshaking, ActiveXperts Network Monitor can verify that the remote
server's NNTP protocol is working well.
For more information about the NNTP check, click here.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor checks different kind of Directory Services. One of them is the Novell NDS.
You can configure ActiveXperts Network Monitor to check User Accounts (lockout, disabled, etc.), Computer Accounts, Groups, Group Membership, Organizational Units, and so on.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor checks different kind of Directory Services. One of them is the NTDS, also known as the NT4 SAM Database.
You can configure ActiveXperts Network Monitor to check User Accounts (lockout, disabled, etc.), Computer Accounts, Groups, Group Membership, and so on.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor uses NTP to check availability of internal and external time sources.
For more information about the NTP check, click here.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor uses ODBC to check availability of databases.
Most major database systems support ODBC, such as:
Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel;
Oracle;
FoxPro;
Paradox;
SyBase;
Informix;
OpenIngres;
InterBase;
Progress;
IBM LANDP, DB2 and AS/400;
NOTE: ActiveXperts Network Monitor also provides Oracle checks based on SQLNet, like TNSPing and logon/logoff through SQLNet.
You must enter appropriate information from the ODBC Control Panel on the server where ActiveXperts Network Monitor is running on.
There are some options that can only be set from the ODBC Control Panel.
For more information about the ODBC check, click here.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor uses SQL*Net to monitor Oracle servers for availability.
SQL*Net is a software layer that is required to communicate between Oracle clients and servers. It provides both client-server and
server-server communications across any network.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor has two SQL*Net based checks for Oracle:
- TNSPing check;
- Logon/logoff to a database using username and password for that database.
For more information about the Oracle check, click here.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor can check POP3 mail servers by establishing a connection on the remote
TCP port (usually port 110) and do a handshake. By handshaking, ActiveXperts Network Monitor can verify that the remote
server's POP3 protocol is working well.
For more information about the POP3 check, click here.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor checks printers for availability by checking its status. Windows knows a wide range of
printer status values, like: 'Running', 'In Test', 'Power Off', 'Offline', 'Power Save', and so on.
If the Printer Status is not equal to Running or Power Save, then the printer is considered as malfunctioning.
For more information about the Printer check, click here.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor enables you to check processes on local- and remote computers; If a process is active, a computer is considered
available. If a process is not active, it is not available.
The software can also monitor memory usage of a process.
If memory usage of a process exceeds the limit, Network Monitor will generate an error.
For more information about the Process check, click here.
With the Scheduled Task check, people can check if a scheduled task has completed successfully or not.
For more information about the Scheduled Task check, click here.
Service monitoring involves a probe that returns the status of a service.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor monitors services on local- and remote computers by checking if the status equals
"Running". If so, the server is running fine, otherwise it's not.
For more information about the Service check, click here.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor can check SMTP mailservers by establishing a connection on the remote TCP port
(usually port 25) and do a handshake. By handshaking, ActiveXperts Network Monitor can verify that the remote server's
SMTP protocol is working well.
For more information about the SMTP check, click here.
SNMP means: Simple Network Management Protocol.
The SNMP GET message allows the Network Monitor Engine to request information about a specific variable on a remote computer or device.
For more information about the SNMP check, click here.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor can check local- or remote servers by challenging a specific port.
It makes a connection to it, and performs a challenge/respond (by sending a sequence of bytes to it,
wait for the respond and analyzing the received information).
For more information about the TCP check, click here.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor requires an IT Environmental Monitor device from Sensatronics to monitor temperature.
By using their server room temperature monitor in your data center design, you are taking a proactive approach in datacenter management.
A managed environment can reduce IT server, storage and network outages by 50% or more.
For more information about the Temperature check, click here.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor is also capable of monitoring humidity and water leaks.
For a complete overview of all environmental monitoring capabilities in ActiveXperts Network Monitor, click here.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor can monitor UNIX and LINUX servers to see if RSH scripts produce certain stdout or stderr output.
RSH is a client process that opens connections to rsh daemons, sends
a command to be executed on the remote server and retrieves its output, both stdout
and stderr. The connection is made on standard port 514 (tcp port for the shell/cmd
protocol). ActiveXperts Network Monitor analyzes the output and notifies in case of unexpected output.
For more information about the RSH check, click here.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor monitors groups and group membership.
In case of unexpected members in certain groups (for instance: unexpected Domain Admins members),
it'll notify the network administrators.
Important feature of ActiveXperts Network Monitor is the ability to extend the set of built-in checks by writing your own monitor check rountine.
ActiveXperts has chosen VBScript as its scripting language standard because of its simple syntax, its wide acceptance and its support for ActiveX technologies.
By default, ActiveXperts Network Monitor can process up to 8 VBScript scripts simultaneously (multithreaded).
Uses the powerful Visual Basic Scripting Engine provided by the Operating System.
By making use of ActiveX controls, WMI and ADSI, you can write virtually any check yourself.
For more information about the custom VBScript routines, click here.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor requires an IT Environmental Monitor device from Sensatronics to monitor water leaks ('wetness').
For more information about the Wetness check, click here.
ActiveXperts Network Monitor is also capable of monitoring temperature and humidity.
For a complete overview of all environmental monitoring capabilities in ActiveXperts Network Monitor, click here.
Microsoft has included WMI (Windows Management Interface) in their Windows 2000 and higher Operating Systems; WMI was already
available for Windows ME and Windows NT4.
WMI is an interface to a broad range of hardware/software/OS related properties of a computer.
You can include WMI objects inside your VBScript. In this way, virtually any check can be performed by ActiveXperts Network Monitor.
A lot of WMI samples can be found on www.activexperts.com/activmonitor/windowsmanagement.
Microsoft has also included ADSI in their Windows 2000 and higher Operating Systems.
ADSI (Active Directory Service Interface) enables User, Computer, OU, and group related checking rules.
ADSI is also compliant with NT4 and Novell Operating Systems.
The XML/XSL based Web Interface is preferred over the ActiveXperts Network Monitor Manager application when:
User requires read-only access to ActiveXperts Network Monitor;
User monitors remotely through a firewall; XML Views only requires access on one port (for instance, port 80);
User monitors multiple networks, with different Network Monitor configurations;
User needs access to ActiveXperts Network Monitor from any place in the organization; for instance, the HelpDesk staff can access Network Monitor from any workstations in the organization;
User is using a thin-client box, like a Windows CE based Wyse Terminal.
XML stands for Extensible Markup Language. It's a markup language much like HTML. The big difference is, that XML was designed to describe data; HTML was designed to display data.
XML tags are not predefined. ActiveXperts Network Monitor defines its own tags for their XML Views.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) started to develop XSL because there was a need for an XML based Style sheet Language.
XSL can transform XML into HTML, filter and sort XML data, define parts of an XML document, format XML data based on the data value, and more. This is exactly how XML Views work in ActiveXperts Network Monitor.
It is important to understand that XML is not a replacement for HTML; XML is a cross-platform, software and hardware independent tool for transmitting information.
The tags used to mark up HTML documents and the structure of HTML documents are predefined. The author of HTML documents can only use tags that are defined in the HTML standard (like <p>, <h1>, etc.). XML allows ActiveXperts Network Monitor to define his own tags and his own document structure; the tags are described in the section 'XML Tags in XML Views' in this section.
NOTE: You need Internet Explorer 6 or higher to view XML Views. XSL in Internet Explorer 5 is NOT compatible with the official W3C XSL Recommendation. When Internet Explorer 5.0 was released in March 1999, the XSLT standard was still a W3C Working Draft. Since the final W3C XSL Recommendation is different from the Working Draft, the support for XSL in IE 5 is not 100% compatible with the official XSLT Recommendation. This restriction applies to both IE 5.0 and IE 5.5.
XML based reports
The built-in Reports can be customized only when using the XML-based Report format, with an XSL Stylesheet linked to it.
All customizations are made to the XSL Stylesheet, like:
Including/excluding rules from the report;
Different sorting in the report;
Including/excluding columns from the report;
Changing HTML tags, like titles, tables, colors, sizes, etc;
By default, two XSL Report Stylesheets are delivered with the product:
AvailabilityDetails.xsl - default XSL Stylesheet for XML based 'Detailed Availability Report';
AvailabilitySummary.xsl - default XSL Stylesheet for XML based 'Availability Summary Report'.
The XML document structure of Custom XML Reports looks like this:
The freeware version allows an unlimited number of HTTP/HTTPS and ICMP/Ping checks to be configured.
The HTTP check can be used to check availability of HTTP and HTTPS sites and check whether the correct web content is being served up. The ICMP/ping check monitors whether a particular server is still responding.
Licensing is based on the number of computers/devices you are monitoring.
As long as you are monitoring computers/devices in the same organization,
you need a 5 Server License, 15 Server License or Enterprise License.
Use a 5 Server License to monitor up to 5 different servers (or workstations/devices) in your organization.
You are allowed to monitor different aspects of these 5 servers.
You need a 15 Server License to monitor up to 15 different servers in your organization.
To monitor more than 15 servers in your organization, you need an Enterprise License.
To monitor servers (or workstations/devices) in other organizations, you need either a Universal License or multiple Server Licenses.
A Universal License for 5 Organizations allows you to monitor an unlimited number of servers (or workstations/devices) in 5 different organizations.
A Universal License for 10 Organizations allows you to monitor an unlimited number of servers in 10 different organizations.
An Universal License (Unlimited) allows you to monitor an unlimited number of servers in an unlimited number of organizations.
Click here for detailed information about the License Schemes.
