We show you how to monitor servers in your network using GFI Network Server Monitor.

Operating System: Windows

Licence: Commercial with 10 or 30-day evaluation version

Application: Monitoring network and servers for failures

Home page: http://www.gfi.com/

GFI Network Server Monitor is a tool that enables network administrators to scan the network for software and hardware failures. It allows to detect issues and alert you before users report them.

Quick start: Let's imagine you are a network administrator and your network consist of a Win 2003 server and a SUSE server with a HTTP, SSH and a FTP service. You search for a tool that should inspect your services all the time and could inform you immediately if an error should happen. The GFI Network Server Monitor is such a kind of tool.

You start to set up some basic checks to your SUSE system. For this you have to create a new folder which will holding your rules and your settings for the inspection system. Select the Monitoring Checks Configuration option from the tool's explorer and do a right click to create a new folder. With the next right click on the folder you are able to change the properties of your monitor check. At first input the IP/hostname of the host (which you want to inspect) and change the Error Threshold option to one. Next select certificate authentication at the Logon credentials tab to provide a secure connection.

You should also define the Alert -> Settings under the Actions topic how you want to be informed if anything went wrong to your network. To let inform you by mail, disselect the hooks in front of the Send a SMS message to and Send a network message to option. Now its time to add some rules. Double click on the folder and right click to set up a new monitoring check. Select HTTP from the rule list and submit the servers IP/hostname at the next page. If you are interested in the availability of your site, select the Check for availability only option.

So you created your first rule. Additionally you want to know if the Apache process runs correctly. For this you create a new rule and select Generic Secure Shell (SSH) Check. As you can see, GFI Software has already created some scripts. Select the Apache check script and specify the server/IP. To check if your FTP server runs correctly, define a rule that a full login to your FTP server will be performed. Repeat the same steps as before, but at this time select FTP from the rule list and enable the Use FTP site authentication option. Don’t forget to specify how the Network server monitor should perform the login. Next set up some rules for your Windows Server 2003 machine. Create a new folder with the same options as at your SUSE system and change the IP/hostname/Logon credentials to your win server. Change into the win folder and create a new CPU Usage rule. Set the max. CPU usage to 100%. Beneath a standard error message you force the Network monitor to restart the Win 2003 server if it reaches a CPU usage of 100%. To do so you have to enable the Reboot the following computer option at Actions -> Reboot Computer / Restart Services settings topic. Last it is time to make check if all your rules work correct. For this select the Monitoring Checks Status from the tool explorer. It is good to know that the same informations are also available through a web browser. – http://yourserver.com/: 11695 – If the services start successfully a Succeeded Status in front of the rules is visible (otherwise you see a Failed Status). If the second status happens GFI Network Monitor Tool sends you an email or may reboot the system.

Other useful properties: You see there are almost no limits to what you can inspect or what your server should do if anything goes wrong. Additionally you should know that it is also possible to do DNS lookup, whois and traceroute requests. If a SNMP compatible machine is running in your network the tool also provides a SNMP Audit and SNMP Walk function. A nice thing too is that you can request which computers are currently running at your domain either it is possible to enumerate the processes of a given system.

Stefan Lochbihler

Figure 1. To show a list with our monitoring rules

Figure 2. To show the properties menu of our HTTP rule

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