GroundWork Monitor 5.3 FAQ

Frequently Asked Questions

Here are some common questions we have received from people on this subect. We will keep adding to these so keep visiting this page for answers to frequently asked questions.

Q: Can I configure recurring downtime in GroundWork Monitor?

A: GroundWork Monitor does not directly support recurring downtime. A cron job can be used to configure downtime using commands on a recurring basis. http://www.nagios.org/faqs/viewfaq.php?faq_id=80

Q: Can GroundWork be configured to perform remediation, e.g. restart a service on a remote host?

A: Yes, using Nagios event handlers. See here: http://nagios.sourceforge.net/docs/3_0/eventhandlers.html

Q: When will the VMware Virtual Appliance version of 5.3 be available?

A: We're working on it and it should be available by the end of March, 2009.

Q: What's the difference between the virtual appliance and the installation package?

A: The virtual appliance contains the installation package installed on top of the CentOS linux distribution. The functionality is the same in both.

Q: Does the Professional version include checks for Windows and Oracle RAC?

A: GroundWork Monitor Professional and Enterprise subscriptions can use NRPE WMI to monitor Windows systems. This download is available from the GroundWork Connect support portal. Current subscribers can find the relevant content here: https://support.groundworkopensource.com/downloads/groundwork-tools/windows-monitoring/

An Oracle profile is also available to GroundWork users with a current subscription that covers the following monitoring metrics:

• Active processes
• Active sessions
• Blocking locks
• Cache
• Extents allocated/used/free
• Login check
• Table spaces
• User sessions
• TCP port check

Q: Does Professional upgrade my Nagios®* server or do i need a new machine?

A: GroundWork Monitor Community Edition can be upgraded in-place to GroundWork Monitor Professional or Enterprise. When upgrading from plain Nagios we recommend that you do a fresh install of GroundWork Monitor and import the existing Nagios configuration.

Q: The new installer already provide pre-requisites like MySQL or Java but what happens if they are already installed?

A: Existing MySQL and Java installations are left untouched. The installer will check to see if the ports it requires are available before installation.

Q: What about clustering? Are there any clustering functions in the software included?

A: GroundWork Monitor Community Edition can be installed on top of RedHat Cluster Suite. This can be made to work but is quite complex to setup. For GroundWork Monitor subscribers we recommend a GroundWork Standby Server - this is an active/passive standby configuration which has many of the benefits of clustering without the complexity.

Q: What about monitoring Windows Exchange servers? What can we use to monitor Exchange servers?

A: GroundWork Monitor Professional includes an Exchange profile that covers:

• Mailbox receive queue length
• Mailbox send queue length
• MTA work queue length
• Public receive queue length
• Public send queue length
• Services checked: AeLookup, Ism, MSExchangeES, MSExchangeIS, MsExchangeMGMT, MSExchangeMTA, MSExchangeSA, MSExchangeSRS, MSSearch, RemoteRegistry, SamSs.

Q: How do you configure performance graphs for third-party plugins which are not included in the product?

A: The performance configuration application allows creation of graphs for custom plugins. There is a quick tip here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uy91fxo8W_M

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