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MonitorIT can monitor any application!

MonitorIT has the ability to monitor each functional component of any software such as processes, supporting services, config files, registry entries, application log events, and more. Some applications can be monitored out-of-the-box and for others the administrator can create custom rules.

MonitorIT provides a variety of monitoring features that provide detailed and comprehensive real-time application monitoring rules for Windows & Linux applications, including monitoring services, processes, resource utilization, and files & folders. In addition, monitoring Windows performance counters and event logs yields trend data for exceeding thresholds, and enables Administrators to report on application performance.

MonitorIT provides the following benefits when monitoring applications:

  • Leverage MIT Intelligent Agent to capture additional application level data
  • Troubleshoot and auto resolve the application issue by restarting the processes and services
  • Automatically sense changes to windows platforms or applications and collect all performance counter data for trending, setting thresholds and alerting
  • Automatically monitor and alert for application resource starvation to meet your SLAs
  • Flexible and extendable monitoring of any application that has a process or generates log files.

How We Monitor Applications

MonitorIT is a simple and flexible application monitoring solution.

When managing applications there are several key components that need to be monitored to ensure application availability and maintain the end-user experience.

Processes

Monitor the applications’ associated processes; every application has at least 1 process, and often multiple processes that need to be running and available. If a process fails, the application would become unavailable and cease to function.
  • What It Does: MonitorIT will monitor for process failures, and then also automatically repair the process to ensure application availability.
  • How It Works: Also, monitor the processes use of CPU and Memory, and be alerted when a process exceeds specified thresholds; often times, extreme CPU or Memory use is indicative of faulty application operation and performance. Moreover as application utilization grows, monitoring the process’ CPU & Memory utilization will help you assess when resource reallocation is necessary to support your growing environment.

Windows Services

Monitor the Windows application associated services to make sure they are running.
  • What It Does: If a service fails the application will become unavailable and cease to function, MonitorIT will monitor the service and if it fails, MonitorIT will automatically restart it to ensure application availability.
  • How It Works: Most applications will have one or more services that are require to be running for proper operation.

Files

Monitor an application’s associated log files, configuration files and any other files required for proper operation for a variety of possible conditions.
  • What It Does: FileWatch enables administrators to monitor files for indications of errors, changes in configuration, and changes in utilization.
  • How It Works: FileWatch can check to see if file has been created, or deleted, or changed; file has not changed within a specific time-fame; new text matching a specified substring has been written to the file; a file has exceeded a specified size, or the number of files in a folder have exceed a specific count.

Application Availability

Monitor pro-actively an application’s use of ports, and/or its web-enabled interface to make sure the application is responding in a timely manner.
  • What It Does: Often an application may be running on the server it is hosted upon, but not be available or able to be accessed over the network. MonitorIT can pro-actively check the port to make sure the application is listening and available over the network.
  • How It Works: Many Windows and Unix/Linux applications will be listening on specified ports for queries from users or other components of the application. Many applications will also support a web-based console interface that MonitorIT will pro-actively check with the ‘HTTP’ IP Service type.

EventLog

Monitor a Windows application use of the System or Application Event log, or its own Custom Event Log, for the various application specific events that detail operation and performance status, issues and problems. Most Windows applications will generate a variety of these events.
  • What It Does: MonitorIT can also help you manage these EventLogs by enabling you to report on application error frequency, and archive this information long term to support SLA and compliance requirements.
  • How It Works: EventLog events can be specified and alerted for based upon Log Type, Event ID, Source, Type, User/Group, and even search the Description field. In addition, MonitorIT has the facility to archive the logs in a compressed format and then later retrieved for long term storage.

Syslog

(Unix/Linux) – Monitor a Unix/Linux application’s use of the Syslog system for the various application specific events that detail operation and performance status, issues and problems.
  • What It Does: MonitorIT has the ability to parse the SysLog messages for specific strings of text you would otherwise manually look for, and then alert you when that message is created by the application.
  • How It Works: Syslog Message text strings indicate application errors, performance thresholds, inappropriate access attempts, or a simple check by the application to validate that it is running correctly. Many Unix/Linux applications will generate a variety of these Syslog messages.

Performance Counters

Monitor an application’s detailed performance counter metrics that it provides by leveraging the Windows Performance Monitor (PERFMON) and/or Windows Management Interface (WMI) which MonitorIT interfaces with.
  • What It Does: This provides very detailed performance and operation metrics that can be monitored for thresholds and trends over time. Windows Performance counters can be monitored to ensure SLAs and end user performance.
  • How It Works: These performance counters provide visibility into specific aspects of an application can indicate, for example, how a specific database is performing, mail delivery performance, or how average users hosted per terminal server.

Custom Script

Create custom monitors using Windows scripting such as VBS and WMI as well as custom EXE, COM, BAT, and PS files to monitor specific aspects of applications for any condition, status, operation, or problem the user wishes to and is able to leverage.
  • What It Does: Often administrators need to set up alerts based on very specific conditions germaine to their environment only. In addition custom application often have very specific monitoring points that require custom scripting in order be effectively monitored. MonitorIT’s advanced watch enables this ability while still providing the easy to use scheduling and alerting options from the other Watch Types.
  • How It Works: Simply specify a VB, WMI, bat script, or custom executable, then define how often you wish MonitorIT to execute the monitoring script, and how you wish to be alerted.

Applications We Monitor Out-of-the-Box

Below is a sample of applications supported out-of-the-box  using pre-configured monitoring rules included in MonitorIT. MonitorIT can monitor any application that has processes, services, generates log files or events by using a combination of our easy to configure monitoring rules.

Microsoft Exchange

MonitorIT can be deployed on Microsoft Exchange servers to monitor resources and services, manage mailbox quotas, plan capacity, reduce over provisioning, and enhance reliability. Microsoft Exchange log files can also be monitored for mail delivery, round trip response times, and other performance characteristics.

Microsoft SharePoint

MonitorIT enables customers who have deployed SharePoint Solutions to monitor for server utilization and performance trends to ensure SLAs are being met. In addition, SharePoint performance counters, processes, services, and events can be monitored to define alarm thresholds and gather additional performance data.

Microsoft Active Directory

Active Directory can be a vital component of an IT infrastructure, and its performance and reliability is critical to organizations that employ Active Directory based solutions. MonitorIT allows administrators to report on the availability of Active Directory components, collect performance data, and troubleshoot failures quickly.

MonitorIT’s remediation capabilities enable IT departments to quickly address AD service and process failures for improved response times and reduced end-user downtime. The EventLogWatch Display shows monitored Events dynamically, in real-time, with the capability to display the previous 24 hours of received events. Status and event information can be collected for auditing, performance, and SLA reports. In addition, Active Directory integration enables MonitorIT to leverage Active Directory Groups for more effective User activity auditing.

Microsoft SQL Server

MonitorIT’s SQL Server monitoring capability helps database administrators monitor the performance and availability of production databases. It is an agent and agentless monitoring solution that provides out-of-the-box performance metrics for ensuring the SQL Server runs efficiently.

Microsoft SQL server monitoring has the ability to connect to the database source & monitor various databases to ensure availability. After deploying an agent it is also possible to start analyzing database performance for transactional speeds, database I/O, and specific components of your data stack.

Blackberry Enterprise Server

MonitorIT’s Blackberry Enterprise Server monitoring provides visibility and remediation to the messaging server to ensure SLAs and availability requirements are met for end users. Out-of-the-box monitoring rules ensure a quick and easy setup.

IIS

MonitorIT provides in-depth availability and performance monitoring of IIS Servers by connecting to the IIS server, and checks for the availability and response time at regular intervals of time. In addition, preconfigured watches for IIS enable administrators to quickly begin monitoring their IIS servers for key metrics and conditions.

MonitorIT helps optimize IIS server performance and also provides comprehensive management reports. It ensures availability through automated event escalation via email, SMS, and helps taking corrective action by automating fix actions such as restarting underlying services.

Apache

MonitorIT enables administrators the ability to proactively monitor and manage their Apache web servers for optimal performance and reliability. Monitor log files for errors and status; monitor processes to insure key processes are running, and monitor overall server performance metrics of CPU, Disk, and Memory utilization.

Microsoft MySQL

MonitorIT enables monitoring of key MySQL processes and associated log files. And DB administrators can use MonitorIT to monitor overall server performance metrics to insure satisfactory database operation.

Symantec BackUp Exec

Monitoring the backup process is a key component of a DR plan and ensures that valid backup are always in place. MonitorIT’s automatic with Symantec BackUp enables an administrator to easily validate a backup job completion, ensure backup agents are performing correctly, monitor the server services and tasks, and then even resolve failure automatically to ensure that backups have performed.

Symantec EndPoint Protection

Monitor your Symantec EndPoint Protection Server and endpoints to ensure that your environment is fully protected. With MonitorIT’s out-of-the-box watches we can ensure that Definition files have been updates, that Symantec agents are running, and the server is performing and available.

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MonitorIT for Application Monitoring

The flexibility of MonitorIT allows customers to leverage a single solution throughout their IT infrastructure to ensure application availability, identify performance bottlenecks and implement remediation actions.

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MonitorIT’s Intelligent Agent

All agents are NOT created equal,agent based solutions are difficult to deploy and configure, and agentless tools provide limited metrics. MonitorIT’s Intelligent agent deploys within minutes, utilizes minimal resources, and monitors the physical and virtual environments.

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MonitorIT for VDI (Monitoring Citrix XenApp and XenDesktop)

MonitorIT has built-in support for VDI technologies such as XenApp/Desktop. In this brief video, we’ll discuss the common challenges we hear and how you can leverage MonitorIT to manage your VDI deployment.

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FAQs

Product Functionality

What applications can you monitor out-of-the-box? Is there a list anywhere in the product?

MonitorIT can monitor all applications, including 3rd party and custom applications by monitoring Processes, Performance Counters SYSLOG, Files, Application Availability, EventLog, Custom Scripts, and Windows Services.

For 3rd party apps, MonitorIT ships with pre-configured monitoring rules which allows you to quickly and easily begin monitoring within minutes. A sample list of applications includes Microsoft Exchange, MYSQL, IIS, Sharepoint, Symantec Backup Exec, Active Directory, and more. A complete list can be found in the product, or by clicking Monitoring Rules Exchange.

In addition, you can create custom monitoring rules to monitor custom or homegrown applications. Some of the key components we can monitor against to ensure application availability include processes, Windows Services, Eventlogs, Performance Counters, and more.

Do I have to use the MonitorIT pre-configured rules?

No. MonitorIT’s pre-configured monitoring rules are there for ease of use and flexibility. However, you can choose to create your own monitoring rules by leveraging the built-in configuration wizards.

What kind of information can I expect to get when monitoring applications?

With MonitorIT, you can set thresholds and deploy monitoring rules to receive alerts on the health, status, and availability of applications.

Can I set alerts?

Yes. Alerts can be sent via email, text message, SNMP trap, or Syslog message. You can specify thresholds and monitoring rules which initiate the alerting process within MonitorIT. Once an event takes place or a threshold is met, an alert is triggered.

How difficult is it to build custom monitoring rules?

Not difficult at all. In fact, we have an easy to use wizard that will take you through the steps to set up your own monitoring rules.

How do you monitor applications?

We monitor applications by deploying a series of monitoring rules to watch for specific services, processes, events, performance counters, etc. Once an event takes place or a threshold is met, an alert is sent notifying us that the application is running into issues or we’ve reached a certain threshold.

What about custom or home grown applications? Can we monitor them?

Yes. Any application consisting of processes or services can be monitored. If we do not already have pre-configured monitoring rules for a specific application, you can simply follow the step by step wizard built into the product to create custom monitoring rules. This will also enable you to set thresholds and alert based on those thresholds.

Key Features and Why They Are Important

Quick to Install & Configure

New installation & configurations wizards include:
  • Auto discovery of systems
  • Auto deployment of basic monitoring rules
  • One click agent install with no reboot necessary
  • Preconfigured MIT packs
  • Out-of-the-box reports

Flexible & Easy to Use

MonitorIT’s flexibility and ease of use is driven by:
  • Agent based and Agentless capability
  • Muti-tenant grouping and viewing
  • Custom reports
  • Custom monitoring rules
  • Ability to monitor physical and virtual environments

Enterprise Functionality

MonitorIT can be used cross-organizationally because of its:
  • Deep operating system and application visibility
  • Automated remediation
  • High scalability
  • Consolidated enterprise dashboards
  • Central console for entire infrastructure
  • Remote management
  • Ticketing system integration

Intelligent Agent

Provides data on would expect from an agent without the overhead
  • Push to deploy within minutes
  • No reboot necessary
  • Small footprint – 1MB in size
  • Low resource impact –0.1% CPU / <16MB of Memory
  • Automated remediation
  • Deep diagnostic data on applications
Intelligent Agent Video The Master Agent Video

Comprehensive Virtual Infrastructure Monitoring

MonitorIT gives customers a very comprehensive look into virtual environments. Our approach consists of 4 main components:
  • Hypervisor Integration for metrics on Host, VM Inventory, and Storage
  • Intelligent Agents for application level metrics on VM’s
  • Management Console Plug-in to XenCenter & vCenter for easy access to information
  • Physical Infrastructure monitoring for visibility into the supporting infrastructure such as physical servers, databases, network devices, or datacenter components.
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