GFI Network Server Monitor
Automatically sends alerts and corrects network and server issues
Automated server and network monitoring
made easy!
GFI Network Server Monitor is a network monitor that enables administrators
to scan the network for failures or irregularities automatically.
With GFI Network Server Monitor, you can identify issues and fix
unexpected conditions before your users (or managers) report them
to you!
Maximize network and server uptime
GFI Network Server Monitor maximizes network availability by monitoring
all aspects of your Windows and Linux servers, workstations and
devices (routers, etc). When a failure is detected, GFI's network
monitor can alert you by email, pager or SMS, as well as taking
corrective action by, for example, rebooting the machine, restarting
the service or running a script.
Performs a real test, rather than deducing
status from events generated by the service!
GFI Network Server Monitor actually tests the status of a service,
rather than deducing a service status from generated events (as
other products do), which is the only real way to ensure server
uptime! GFI Network Server Monitor is easy to set up and use,
and is competitively priced.
Enterprise class architecture
GFI Network Server Monitor consists of a network monitoring service
and a separate management interface. No agent software needs to
be installed on the machines you wish to monitor. The Network
Monitor Engine is multi-threaded and can run 40 checks at a time.
This software architecture allows for high reliability and scalability
to monitor both large and small networks.
Includes checks for Exchange 2000/2003,
ISA server, IIS and others
Via the Quickstart wizard, you can quickly create a series of
checks which monitor all the important services on your network,
including Exchange Server, IIS and others. Critical Exchange services
and performance counters (Information Store, mailboxes, SMTP service,
etc) are monitored.
Monitors terminal servers by actually logging
in
GFI Network Server Monitor can check the status of a terminal
server by actually performing a complete login and checking if
the session is established correctly. This monitoring method is
superior to relying on the events that the terminal server generates
(as Microsoft MOM does).
Monitor your database servers (SQL/ODBC)
GFI Network Server Monitor can check the availability of all leading
database applications. Out of the box, it can monitor Microsoft
SQL Server via ADO. Other databases such as Access, FoxPro, Paradox,
Sybase, Informix, IBM DB2 and many more can be monitored via ODBC.
Monitor Linux servers
GFI Network Server Monitor includes extensive checks for monitoring
Linux servers. You can monitor CPU usage, printer availability,
file existence, process running, folder size, file size, users
and groups membership, disk partition check and disk space. In
addition, administrators can create any check by creating an SSH
script.
Performs administrative steps to ensure
that a service is running
GFI has developed specialized checks which mimic administrator
operations to verify that services offered by various applications
are running, for example, logon to a service, perform a task and
logoff the service – without the need for any administrative
intervention! The monitoring functions that make use of such methodologies
include: IMAP, POP3, SMTP Server and the email route check. Through
the active use of such services one can guarantee that all aspects
of these services are running and functioning.
Takes corrective action automatically
After an unexpected condition has occurred, GFI Network Server
Monitor can automatically correct the problem by restarting a
service (or multiple services) upon failure; rebooting a server
upon failure; or launching an executable, batch job or VBScript.
Built-in computer monitor functions
- CPU usage function – Ensure that a processor’s usage
does not go beyond a certain level
- Performance counter – Monitor any internal operating system
counter, including counters used by SQL Server and MSMQ
- Directory size function – Ensure that a particular directory
(for example, a user’s home directory) does not take up
more than x amount of drive space
- Disk drive function – Monitor the physical status of the
disk
- Disk space function – Check if sufficient disk space is
available
- File existence function – Monitor the existence of a particular
file, for example, results of scheduled batch jobs
- File size function – Monitor the size of particular files,
for example, critical log files.
Built in Internet service functions
- HTTP function – Checks availability of HTTP and HTTPS sites;
passes credentials if required
- Website content checking – Checks website content by specifying
a text pattern
- FTP function – Checks availability of an FTP server/site
- ICMP ping function – Checks a remote host for availability
- IMAP server function – Checks that the IMAP service is functioning
by logging into the service and checking the count of the emails
contained in a specific folder on the IMAP server
- DNS server function – Checks DNS server by reading an 'A'
record and verifying the result
- SMTP server function – Checks mail server by establishing
a connection and handshaking to verify SMTP protocol is working
correctly
- POP3 server function – Checks POP3 servers by establishing
a connection and handshaking
- NNTP news server function – Checks connection and does a
handshake
- SNMP function – Monitors specific variables on remote machines
or devices via the SNMP GET message
TCP port function – Checks if a port is responding and checks
its response
- UDP function – Monitors UDP ports
- NTP timeserver function – Monitors status of timeservers
Email route function – Checks the health of email services
by actually sending test emails and verifying their delivery at
destination. This check is also useful for verifying performance
of your mailing systems.
- Daemon function – SSH-based check that verifies if particular
daemons are running on target Linux/Unix computer/s.
Alert notification via email, pager or SMS
When it detects a failure, GFI Network Server Monitor can send
alerts via SMS, pager, email or a network message. SMS (text)
messages are sent either through an SMS service provider (SMSC),
directly through a connected GSM phone/modem; it is also possible
to use the GFI FAXmaker email-to-SMS gateway service, Clickatell’s
web email-to-SMS online gateway service or any third party email-to-SMS
gateway. All notifications can be customized using variables.
Recipients can be configured globally for all rules.
Support for SQL Server/MS Access as a database
backend
GFI Network Server Monitor allows you to store monitoring data
to either an SQL Server or MS Access database backend. SQL Server
is more appropriate for users with higher monitoring level requirements
as well as those who need to centralize the monitoring results
of multiple GFI Network Server Monitor installations in one place
(such as backups, remote accessing as well as report generation
by third party tools such as Crystal Reports or MS Reporting Services).
View network status from anywhere in the
world
You can check rule status from any location using GFI Network
Server Monitor's remote web monitor. The remote web monitor includes
two types of web page views: One for a normal web browser and
one optimized for viewing from a mobile phone or handheld device
such as a Blackberry or a Palm. A small footprint web server is
included, although the feature can also be operated in conjunction
with IIS.
Monitor remote event logs
GFI Network Server Monitor can scan Windows event logs on local
or remote computers and look for specific event sources, categories,
event IDs and patterns in the description of the event. In addition,
it can look for multiple events occurring in a specific time interval,
for example, a McAfee or Norton virus alert posted in the last
30 minutes.
Monitor processes, services performance
and CPU usage
GFI Network Server Monitor enables you to check critical processes
and services on local and remote computers. You can also monitor
the CPU usage of a machine and any performance counter accessible
through perfmon.msc. This way, you can ensure that virtually any
application is running properly.
Custom network monitoring using VBScript and SSH
Although GFI Network Server Monitor includes an extensive set
of default monitoring functions, you can build your own custom
checks by writing a VBScript (Windows) or an SSH shell script
(Linux). From VBScript, you can use both WMI and ADSI. WMI is
an interface to a broad range of hardware/software/OS-related
properties of a computer, allowing you to perform almost any check.
Using ADSI, you can interface to Active Directory.
Monitor users, groups and other Active Directory information
Use GFI Network Server Monitor to monitor directory information.
For example, monitor group membership of the domain admins group.
You can also check user accounts (locked out, disabled, etc.),
computer accounts, groups, group membership, organizational units,
and so on.
Competitively priced
Network monitoring/management products are traditionally
rather expensive. By contrast, GFI Network Server Monitor costs
just US$1,125 to monitor up to 50 IPs and US$495 to monitor up
to 10 IPs.
Nested folder support
It is possible to organize folders in a nested folder format -
this provides support for more complex monitoring needs such as
that of consultants or enterprises with more granular server distribution.
Other features:
- Configure maintenance periods to avoid alerts being sent during
scheduled maintenance
- Advanced logging options to text file or event log
- Configure dependencies to avoid multiple alerts for error conditions
dependent on each other
- Monitor network printer status
- Reporting – includes reports that detail the availability
of your network resources; alternatively, use Crystal Reports
to access the database and create your own reports
- Monitoring checks wizard that easily configures new checks for
your present systems
- Accommodates employee shifts: GFI Network Server Monitor can notify
different people depending on the time at which the check triggered.
