FAQs > MonitorPlus Service
  1. What is MonitorPlus service?
  2. Why is the Service useful?
  3. How does MonitorPlus work?
  4. What can be expected from the Service?
  5. What are the limitations of the Service?
  6. What can be monitored?
  7. What are the available service monitors for MonitorPlus?
  8. What is required of the Client for the MonitorPlus Service to work?
  9. Are there any risks to the Client’s production site?
  10. Which hardware vendors are supported?
  11. Does the MonitorPlus support Linux / Unix platforms? Is there any limitation?
  12. How do I subscribe to Monitor plus service?

 

  1. What is MonitorPlus service?
    The MonitorPlus is a value-add service that regularly checks the status of servers, services,
    URLs and devices in real-time and sends alerts or triggers alarms instantaneously on failure.
    This service focuses on the availability and performance of devices and provides a device-centric
    view.


  2. Why is the Service useful?
    • The basic MonitorPlus service that is bundled with the Managed Service provides detailed report on the availability of the monitored device.
    • For a minimal additional fee and as an optional Service:
      • It provides a detailed report on the response time, general health and performance of
        the monitored device.
      • It provides report when the maximum threshold that is set for the load on resources like
        “memory”, “disk”, etc. are exceeded or breached. Moreover, the trend or trending
        maybe analyzed.
      • It provides a complete report regarding the system related activities of the monitored
        device.
    • The availability and applicability of the additional services under MonitorPlus are subject to
      limitations that are ascertained on case-to-case basis. Some of these limitations are
      identified in the next sections.


  3. How does MonitorPlus work?
    • MonitorPlus service is an agent-less monitoring and management service that uses a wide variety of protocols and technologies: ICMP, SNMP, WMI, CLI (Telnet/ SSH) also includes a Syslog demon, SNMP Trap listener and Flow collectors for NetFlow, and sFlow.
    • Essentially, the Service does not create additional load or overhead on the device being monitored.


  4. What can be expected from the Service?
    • The Service provides timely alert & notification that will be useful towards the early detection of potential disruption of a “service” or non-availability of the server.
    • Hence such early detection may reduce the downtime window.
    • When the optional Services are enabled, these provide information that is useful for projecting immediate & future growth, actual load versus capacity and planning future capacity and growth path. It may also help understand trending and patterns.
    • It may also provide evidence when does peak time occur? And may help explain some of the
      user’s experience during these peak times.


  5. What are the limitations of the Service?
    • As a general rule, if the communication path between the MonitorPlus and the monitored device is broken, this may lead to a false-positive notification even though the monitored device (or its Services or URLs) are fully functional or alive.
      • Usually and in simplified scenarios, the MonitorPlus and the monitored device are in
        the physical LAN and in the same segment.
      • Other scenarios present more challenges when these are on different segments or subnets or when the device to be monitored is reachable via the cloud/internet.
      • A failure in the communication path may result in a false-positive notification.
    • If the Client made changes within the monitored device such as the local IP address, the disk drive designator without informing and coordinating with ASPGulf, then the corresponding setting on the MonitorPlus is not updated and will point to a previous “value” or “condition” and consequently MonitorPlus will fail.
    • If the SNMP is disabled from within the monitored device, MonitorPlus is unable to trap the SNMP and may lead to a false positive.
    • If the Exchange mailbox database is dismounted due to some operational or technical reasons, MonitorPlus fails to monitor the status (Exchange server).
    • If the SQL database goes offline, MonitorPlus fails to monitor it.
    • Some brands and/or legacy devices does not transmit the SNMP packets and hence cannot be monitored.
    • There are times when a firewall may experience excessive request time-outs and if the timeouts exceed the polling interval of the MonitorPlus, this may result in a false-positive notification.
    • Re-starts may lead to false positive notification.
    • Blocking of ICMP protocol for network device will cause the MonitorPlus to fail.
    • Enabling the Windows firewall without exceptions.

      Please note that as technology evolves and new processes are in place, a few of the above
      limitations may no longer apply. And for this reason, this FAQ document is revised from time to
      time to reflect the current practices and changes. Always refer to the current version of the
      document.


  6. What can be monitored?
    • Any device responding to ICMP and SNMP protocols.
    • Servers / Routers / Desktops / Switches / Firewalls / Services


  7. What are the available service monitors for MonitorPlus?
    • Port based Service Monitors
    • Windows Service Monitors
    • URL Monitors
    • CPU utilization/Memory Utilization/Disk Utilization


  8. What is required of the Client for the MonitorPlus Service to work?
    • ICMP protocol needs to be allowed from the MonitorPlus to the monitored network device.
    • For monitoring Windows Server, the Administrative level access must be provided.
    • For monitoring network devices enable the SNMP on the device (V1, V2, V3 supported).
    • For Linux and Unix flavors the root level access (CLI) must be provided.
    • List of Services to enroll, threshold value proposition, and list of interfaces which needs to be monitored on Network devices.


  9. Are there any risks to the Client’s production site?
    • ASPGulf is not aware of any incident wherein the monitored device – production site – was adversely affected or damaged as a result of the Service.
    • As previously stated MonitorPlus is “agentless” and is therefore non-intrusive since virtually nothing is installed on the device to be monitored.
    • ASPGulf may not provide guarantees for any anticipated risk or danger since the application used for MonitorPlus service is a third party software.


  10. Which hardware vendors are supported?
    • In general the following brands and/or devices are known to work with the MonitorPlus:
    • 3Com, Cisco, DELL, HP, D-Link, Extreme, Fortigate, Foundry, Juniper, Netgear, Netscreen, Nortel, Linux, Solaris, HP-UX, IBM-AIX, Microsoft Windows, APC, Liebert.


  11. Does the MonitorPlus support Linux / Unix platforms? Is there any limitation?
    • Yes, Linux and most of its flavors are supported.


  12. How do I subscribe to Monitor plus service?
    • The basic MonitorPlus service which monitors the availability is bundled with the Managed Services.
    • This is a value-add service that has no additional cost.
    • For a minimal incremental fee the other monitoring services under MonitorPlus can be provisioned, and you may discuss the functional requirements with your assigned Technical Account Manager and the commercial matters with your Sales Account Manager.