MonitorWare Knowledge Base

Yes, I would be interested in a copy of MonitorWare Console, as it may be what I’m trying to write!

I’m trying to actively use this on my network, so if you want help beta testing anything, please add me to your beta list, as I’m exclusively dedicated to getting this working for us over the next few weeks.

With regard to the schema, I’m trying to create an advanced event viewer, like the one within windows, but since all logs from my three servers are going into the database, with the additional option of filtering on servername.

Next on my list, is to see what my Cisco PIX throws out, and then do something with that info.

I’ve also noticed that the NT Service Monitor and the Diskspace monitor don’t actually create events in the event log, instead sending them directly to the syslog server / SETP server. If you have a description of how these messages are formatted, I can do something useful with them also.

I had an idea about the diskspace specifically:

If I schedule the diskspace monitor to send events every 5 mins or so, I can then see which servers are reporting, by making sure I have a diskspace message within the last 15mins. If not, I know there is a problem with the server or the communication mechanism.

Since I now have these diskspace messages, I can graph these over time (weekly or monthly) and simple calculation should tell me when I’ll run out of diskspace. Useful?

Anyway, any help will be appreciated – I’ve got a couple of good VB coders who like SQL here, so they’re working on it now…

Thanks

--Tosh

We have yesterday created an install set for what is to become the intial beta version. It so far has some minor glitches, most notably there is an ODBC DSN created for the sample database - but it does not point to the sample. So you need to correct this manually. Also, it is a full install including anything needed in a single set and thus it is roughly 50 MB...

We will most probably post the "final" beta release next week, but if you like, you can download it from

http://www.adiscon.org/download/mwcon.exe

in the mean time.

Please note that the database schema is *far* extended above anything that MonitorWare Agent has with it. And one final thing: MonitorWare Agent 1.2 is needed to fully utilize the power of the console, because it has some enhancements in the reporting format. Honestly, with syslog, the not-yet-public 2.0 MWAgent does even better (We can announce a "rolling beta" if there is demand for such. A "rolling beta" is the latest - as-is development build and potentially very instable ).

Rainer

so... just to be sure...

The MWConsole does work with the old database (which is what i'm using at the moment)?

I'm going to download it anyway, and have a look over the weekend, just as long as it doesn't try to change my existing database.

Tosh,

OK, some more comments...

Tosh Yusaf wrote:With regard to the schema, I’m trying to create an advanced event viewer, like the one within windows, but since all logs from my three servers are going into the database, with the additional option of filtering on servername.

This is done by MWConsole.

Tosh Yusaf wrote:Next on my list, is to see what my Cisco PIX throws out, and then do something with that info.

It looks like we should really post a "rolling beta" of MWAgent 2.0. It has capabilities to extract non-RFC3164 syslog tag values. PIX is NOT RFC3164 compliant and the smart parser has specifically been build for PIX (this is sitting here in my lab just for that reason ). We are also working to do sub-parsing of the most important PIX events so that we can deliver name/value pairs to the database.

This URL might also help to understand what we are trying to do in this area:

http://www.monitorware.com/en/workinprogress/needle-in-haystack.asp

Be careful, this is unfinished work. Feedback is highly appreciated.

Tosh Yusaf wrote:I had an idea about the diskspace specifically:

If I schedule the diskspace monitor to send events every 5 mins or so, I can then see which servers are reporting, by making sure I have a diskspace message within the last 15mins. If not, I know there is a problem with the server or the communication mechanism.

Just FYI: the heartbeat service inside MWAgent was specifically created for this

[quote="Tosh Yusaf"]Since I now have these diskspace messages, I can graph these over time (weekly or monthly) and simple calculation should tell me when I’ll run out of diskspace. Useful? [quote]

We think so.. This is on the feature list for version 1.1 of the MonitorWare Console.

More to follow,
Rainer[/b]

tosh wrote:so... just to be sure...

The MWConsole does work with the old database (which is what i'm using at the moment)?

Actually not... It has many more tables and some more attributes in SystemEvents. But it should be fairly easy to add those table to your db from the template. If you would like assistance, just let us know.

Rainer

I think i'm getting confused with the version numbering now... so can you tell me if this is correct?

Version 1.2 of the agent uses a different database format - so the server that is running the database logging should be running 1.2, with a new syslog database/systemevents table?

Or is it best to have all MWAgents upgraded to 1.2 at the same time?

And the database is going to change again for version 2.0?

I think I should explain exactly what I'm trying to do...

I've got three servers: A Compaq a Dell and a HP - they all run different server agents to monitor their health. But they all log errors to the event log, so if I consolidate the logs in a database table I can run reports against the database to find any warnings or errors being logged for these agents.

Now if you are changing the database format, I can't do it - so I need the database schemas if things are going to get complicated...

complicated?

ok

I'm going to do the following:

Install 1.2 agents everywhere, and re-create the database.

Download MWCon and see what it can do before I start coding anything in anger...

Let me know if I should stop doing what I'm doing..

Thanks

tosh wrote:ok

I'm going to do the following:

Install 1.2 agents everywhere, and re-create the database.

Download MWCon and see what it can do before I start coding anything in anger...

Let me know if I should stop doing what I'm doing..

Thanks

Don't stop - it's fine

Just for your information, see http://forum.adiscon.com/viewtopic.php?t=61.

Rainer