ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Manual

ActiveXperts Software B.V. - www.activexperts.com - contact@activexperts.com
Information in this document is subject to change without notice. Companies, names, and data used in examples herein are fictitious unless otherwise noted. No part of this document may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, for any purpose, without the express written permission of ActiveXperts Software B.V. Products named herein may be trademarks of their respective manufacturers and are hereby recognized. Trademarked names are used editorially, to the benefit of the trademark owner, with no intent to infringe on the trademark.

1. Introducing Environmental Monitor

1.1. Product Overview

ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor is a environmental monitoring tool to allow administrators to monitor the network for failures and irregularities automatically. It can monitor a wide range of environmental sensor devices.

The product runs as a service on a Windows 2019/Windows 2016/Windows 2012(R2)/2008(R2)/10/8/7/ platform. There's a 64-bit edition and a 32-bit edition of the software.

When a treshold is exceeded, you're immediately notified via e-mail, SMS, Pager, SNMP trap or network message.

The two main programs of ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor are:

  • ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Engine - the Engine, running as a Windows background service;
  • ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Manager - a Windows forms application used to configure the software and view the results.

The ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Engine service is the Engine of the product; it runs in the background as a Windows Service, without a user interface. It continuously monitors your environmental devices. This Engine is also responsible for notifying, triggering actions, recovery and logging.

The ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Manager application is used to view the results and to make changes to the configuration. This Manager application allows you to visually monitor the network from any desktop PC.

The Manager application can be installed on any Windows 7 or higher workstation, or any Windows 2008 or higher server, and has different authority levels. You can for instance restrict your help desk staff to only see monitoring results, and allowing network operators to make changes to the configuration.

1.2. Product Features

Monitoring features
  • Monitoring environmental data, including temperature, humidity and wetness;
  • Monitoring based IP protocols, including ICMP, TCP/IP Ports, HTTP(s) and SNMP;
  • Checks are processed simultaneously by the multi-threaded monitoring engine;
  • Software is provided with powerful, pre-defined monitoring checks.
Alert Notification features
  • Send out alert notifications upon failure and/or upon recovery;
  • Native support for SMTP e-mail notifications; Multiple character sets are supported, including English, Arabic, Chinese and Japanese; Support for a fallback SMTP server in case the primary SMTP server is not working;
  • Pager Notifications; numeric Pager support through a modem connected to the local COM port; alpha-numeric Pager support by the use of SNPP providers;
  • SMS Notifications; requires either a GSM modem, a subscription with an HTTP compliant SMS provider, or a subscription with an SMPP compliant SMS provider (the latter requires Auron SMS Server running on a server in the network);
  • SNMP Trap Notifications; send trap notifications to an SNMP Management console; supports SNMP v1 traps and SNMP v2 or higher SNMP traps;
  • NetBIOS Network Notifications (also known as "network popup" messages);
  • Global and Custom Address Lists; for all notification types (E-mail, SMS, Network and Pager) a custom list can be defined, or the global Address Book can be selected;
  • Templates for all notification types, including environmental monitor system parameters inside these templates. Notification messages can be completely customized using these templates.
Alert Action features
  • Restart a service (or multiple services) upon failure;
  • Reboot a workstation or server upon failure;
  • Launch an executable or batch command job; use Environmental Monitor system parameters as arguments for the executable or batch-job;
  • Launch a PowerShell- or VBScript program; use Environmental Monitor system parameters as arguments for the script
Configuration
  • Configuration information is stored in an MS SQL Server Compact Database (.sdf) file. No installation of MS SQL is required;
  • Support for backup and restore of the configuration; Backup and restore are guided by a Wizard;
  • Default values for new monitoring checks are configurable, and can be applied to existing monitoring checks;
  • Access to the configuration is defined by Operator Roles. Allow full control for all users on all configuration aspects, or allow only predefined operators to access the configuration and associate permissions to those operators.
Maintenance schedules
  • Avoid sensors and servers to be considered as 'Failed' during maintenance hours. Notifications and actions will not occur during these schedules;
  • Maintenance periods can be configured globally or per check;
  • Maintenance periods can be scheduled as recurrent or only once;
  • Multiple maintenance schedules can be defined.
Dependencies
  • Avoid a flood of messages when - for instance - a router fails, by configuring dependencies;
  • Servers can depend on multiple servers; dependencies are transitive.
Reports
  • Report data can be stored in an MS SQL or MySQL database, to optimize performance;
  • Standard incident reports and availability reports are provided;
  • The 'ActiveXperts Report and Graphs Configuration Tool' guides the user to quickly setup new report definitions. Report Definition files can be used to either create a new report from the command line (scheduled, without user intervention) or from the graphical 'ActiveXperts Report Generator' program;
  • Reports can be scheduled using the Task Scheduler;
  • Reports can be e-mailed automatically, periodically;
  • Support for PDF, HTML, XML and CSV ('comma separated') formatted reports;
  • Particular checks, folders and results can be included/excluded from a report;
Graphs
  • Graph data can be stored in an MS SQL or MySQL database, to optimize performance;
  • Graphs can be generated instantly, for one or more checks;
  • Graphs can be generated for any timeframe;
  • Graphs can be saved to various image formats and PDF.
Logging
  • Environmental Monitor related information is written to the Application Log of the Event Viewer;
  • Monitoring information can be stored in Plain Text log files;
  • Monitoring information can be stored in the following databases: MS SQL Server, MySQL, or MS SQL Server Compact Database;
  • Monitoring information can be stored on a Syslog server;
  • Statistical data (report data, graph data) can be stored in the following databases: MS SQL Server, MySQL, or MS SQL Server Compact Database.
User Interface
  • Use the Manager application to make changes to the configuration and view the monitoring results;
  • The Manager application can be installed on any workstation in the network, allowing operators to monitor and configure Environmental Monitor from their desktop;
  • The Manager application has an Explorer-like user interface, with a Folder pane, a Monitoring Checks pane and a Log pane;
  • Access to the configuration is defined by Operator Roles. Allow full control for all users on all configuration aspects, or allow only predefined operators to access the configuration and associate permissions to those operators;
  • The Web Interface allows users to view the status of the network by using the Internet Browser. The Web Interface consists of a set of web pages, also called Web Views. Web Views are based on XML/XSL technology. The views are created dynamically by the Environmental Monitor service, and can be customized easily by modifying the corresponding XSL templates.
Web Access
  • ActiveXperts Web Access is a comprehensive web interface, designed for mobile devices, tablets and PC's;
  • It allows users you to see those parts of the Environmental Monitor configuration that they have access to;
  • ActiveXperts Web Access has a mobile first, responsive design and can be viewed by any browser, on any (touchscreen) mobile device, tablet or PC, running iOS, Android or Windows.

1.3. Built-in Checks

ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor ships with powerful set of monitoring checks.

ActiveXperts supports a wide range of environmental devices. This allows you to monitor any environmental sensor, including:

  • Temperature
  • Humidity
  • Wetness
  • Dew Point
  • Heat Index
  • Power
  • Resistance
  • Light
  • Motion
  • Smoke
  • Door
  • Vibration
  • Carbon Oxide
  • Caron Dioxide

IP-related checks:

  • HTTP/HTTPs check - checks the availability of a website by connecting to it and matching patterns on the site; includes support for proxy servers;
  • Ping/ICMP check - checks the availability of an IP device or computer;
  • Ping/TCP check - checks the availability of an IP device or computer by checking a TCP port;
  • SMTP Mail Server check - checks the availability of an SMTP mail server;
  • SNMP GET check - queries a computer or device using the SNMP ("Simple Network Management Protocol") protocol, and analyzes the result;
  • SNMP Trap Receive check - receives SNMP traps from various machines/devices, and analyzes the message;
  • TCP/IP check - checks if a connection can be established on a particular TCP port;

Database checks:

  • Database Query check - ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor uses OLE DB (also known as ADO) to check availability of any OLE DB complaint database, including Microsoft SQL, MySQL, SQLite, MS Access, Oracle, Paradox and more. You can enter a database query and check the result of the query to determine the result of the check.

Add new functionality to the product by writing your own VBScript or PowerShell routines. This way, you can monitor almost every piece of hardware, network protocol, software, and so on. Also, VBScript allows you to include techniques like WMI (Windows Management Interface) and ADSI (Active Directory Service Interfaces).

1.4. Warnings, Failures and Recovery

A Monitoring Check has a Status, which is the result of the check. These are the possible Status values:

  • OK
  • Warning
  • Failure
  • Maintenance
  • Failure by Depender
  • On Hold
  • Not Monitored
  • Uncertain
'OK' Status

The check meets all the conditions. The corresponding computer/device is working fine.

'Warning' Status

If a check doesn't meet the conditions as configured, the check does not fail immediately. Instead, it gets a 'Warning' status first. After a few 'Warnings' in a row (configurable), the status changes to 'Failure'.
Think of an ICMP check for server 'www.activexperts.com'. Sometimes, the ping will fail (for instance once a week), because a router on the Internet has a hick-up. No immediate action is required. Only after a few problems in a row, action is required. So, the check is in the 'Warning' status first, but after a few a problems in a row (configurable), it's considered as a 'Failure'.

'Failure' Status

A 'Failure' is the occurrence of one or more problems in a row. The first problem is a 'Warning'. The number of allowed Warnings (let's say x, the so called threshold) is configurable. After x Warnings in a row, the check fails. On 'Failure', alarm notifications are sent out and action scripts are triggered.
For instance, with an 'ICMP Ping' check that has the threshold set to 5, a failure notification will be sent after 5 consecutive failing pings.

'Maintenance' Status

If the result of a check is not successful during a Maintenance period, it won't be considered as a regular 'Warning' or 'Failure'. Instead, the status will be: 'Maintenance'. This indicates that the negative result is caused by maintenance on servers, devices or network. No notifications will be sent and no actions will be triggered.

'Failure by Depender' Status

If a check fails as a result of another failed server, and there is a dependency relation between these checks, it is not be reported as a normal failure. In this case, no notifications are sent and no actions are triggered. It is called a 'Failure by Depender'.
Imagine you have a server 'S1' on a remote location, and there's router 'R' connecting your LAN with the remote location, and you have ICMP checks for both 'S1' and 'R'. By making 'S1' dependent of 'R', a failure of 'R' will only result in notifications for 'R', not for 'S'. Dependencies can be configured from the Dependency command in the Tools menu.

'On Hold' Status

You can put a check 'On Hold'. This means, that the check will not be monitored as long as the check remains 'On Hold'.

'Not Monitored' Status

If a check cannot be processed by the engine, the status is set to 'Not Monitored'. Think of a monitoring check based on the SNMP check, but the Environmental Monitor Engine doesn't have the SNMP service installed. It cannot process the check and will set the result to 'Not Monitored'.

'Uncertain' Status

If the result of a check cannot be determined by the Engine, the status is set to 'Uncertain'. Think of a Disk Space monitoring check, monitoring free disk space on a file server. If the file server becomes totally unavailable, the Environmental Monitor Engine cannot determine the Disk Space. In this situation, the result is set to 'Uncertain'.

Note: You can change the way Environmental Monitor handles 'Uncertain' events. By default, all checks which results cannot be determined are set to 'Uncertain'. You can configure not to use the 'Uncertain' status, and set each undetermined result to either 'Success' or 'Failure'.

About Recovery

If a server changes from 'Failure' into 'Success' status, it is 'recovered'. 'Recovered' itself is not a status; however, on such status change, Notifications can be sent out and Actions can be triggered. This can be useful for Administrators and Operators, so they know that their Action was successful.

2. Installing Environmental Monitor

2.1. Software Components

The central monitoring service runs on a (dedicated) Windows Server (or Workstation) platform, 64-bit or 32-bit; it monitors computers/devices in your LAN, WAN or even outside your enterprise. No additional software is required on the monitored servers.

The graphical 'ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Manager' application is running on the operators desktop PC; it connects to the central monitoring service, and allows you to make changes to the configurations, and view the results.

ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Service

The 'ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Engine' is a Windows Service (AxEmSvc.exe), and is the actual monitoring program. It runs in the background without desktop interaction. It monitors the sensor/devices in your LAN/WAN for availability at specific time intervals. This service is multi-threading, allowing the service to monitor many sensor/devices simultaneously.

The service is responsible for notification, actions, recovery, logging, and so on.

Note: ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor doesn't require agent software on the servers you monitor; the service only uses protocols and application layers of the Operating System to do its job.

ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Manager

The 'ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Manager' application (AxsEmApp.exe) is used to view the status of your network and to make changes to the configuration. You can install the Manager application on any workstation/server in your LAN/WAN.

The Manager application can be installed on any Windows 7 or higher workstation, or any Windows 2008 or higher server.

ActiveXperts Report Generator

The 'ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Report Generator' is used to create new reports. There are two versions: a graphical version (AxRgGui.exe) to create reports using a wizard, and a command line version (AxRgCmd.exe) to create reports from the command line or from the Task Scheduler.

Reports are based on a Report Definition file (.rep), which describes the properties of a report (like: filters, sorting, layout, output file and more).

ActiveXperts Graph

The 'ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Graph' program (AxGraph.exe) is used to create statistical graphs.

ActiveXperts Reports and Graphs Configuration Tool

The ActiveXperts Reports and Graphs Configuration Tool (AxRgTpl.exe) is used to manage Reports and Graphs.

ActiveXperts Web Access

ActiveXperts Web Access is a comprehensive web interface, designed for mobile devices, tablets and PC's. It allows users you to see those parts of the Environmental Monitor configuration that they have access to.

ActiveXperts Web Access Configuration Tool

The ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Web Access Configuration Tool (AxWeb20Cfg.exe) is used to configure ActiveXperts Web Access.

Installation Files

The full ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor installation package is available from the ActiveXperts Download Site. There are two setup files: AxEnvironmentalSetup64.exe (for 64-bit operating systems) and AxEnvironmentalSetup32.exe (for 32-bit operating systems).

After you download the file from the Internet, you start the setup procedure on the server that you assigned as the monitoring server. This server doesn't have to be a dedicated server. The installation will install the monitoring service, the Manager application and several tools and utilities.

2.2. Install Environmental Monitor

Hardware requirements

The ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor service only runs on a Windows workstation or server platform, and must meet either of the following requirements:

  CPU Memory SP Disk Space
Windows Server 2019 1.4GHz (x64)
Multi-core
4GB - 20GB
Windows Server 2016 1.4GHz (x64)
Multi-core
4GB - 20GB
Windows Server 2012 R2 1.4GHz (x64)
Multi-core
4GB - 20GB
Windows Server 2012 1.4GHz (x64)
Multi-core
4GB - 20GB
Windows Server 2008 R2 1.4GHz (x64)
Multi-core
4GB - 20GB
Windows Server 2008 1.4GHz (x64) / 1GHz (x86)
Multi-core
4GB - 20GB
Windows 10 1GHz (x64/x86)
Multi-core
4GB (x64/x86) - 20GB
Windows 8 1GHz (x64/x86)
Multi-core
4GB (x64/x86) - 20GB
Windows 7 1GHz (x64/x86)
Multi-core
2GB (x64/x86) SP1/higher 20GB

It's recommended to use a server platform for the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Service, because server platforms support more simultaneous network connections Server platforms are optimized for application services.

Usually, the installation is done only once, on the server that is dedicated as the monitoring server. A wizard will take you through the installation.

Upgrading ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor from a previous version

Upgrade of ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor requires un-installation first, followed by a new installation of the software. All configuration files will be preserved during un-installation. However, it is recommended to export the configuration to a save place, before you uninstall the product.

Upgrade - Step-by-Step

Step 1 - Backup the Configuration (Recommended, not required)

In the Manager application, choose Backup Configuration from the File menu, and export the configuration to a save place.

Step 2 - Uninstall old version

Uninstall the old ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor version using from the Programs and Features applet from the Windows Control Panel
NOTE: The configuration data will be preserved after uninstall.

Step 3 - Run the Setup application

Launch the Setup application (AxEnvironmentalSetup64.exe for 64-bit operating systems, or AxEnvironmentalSetup32.exe for 32-bit operating systems). It will detect a previous installation of ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor. It will ask to press OK to uninstall the current installation of ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor. After pressing OK, the software will be uninstalled. The previous configuration files will be preserved.

Step 4 - Install ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor

Launch the Setup application (AxEnvironmentalSetup64.exe or AxEnvironmentalSetup32.exe) again. Follow the steps described below.

Step 5 - Restore a configuration

After the installation has completed, you can restore any Environmental Monitor configuration file, no matter what version of Environmental Monitor was used to create it.

Installing ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor

Before you start the installation, you must assign one of your Windows servers in your network as the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Server. This machine will host the Environmental Monitor Engine (service).

Download the installation file (AxEnvironmentalSetup64.exe or AxEnvironmentalSetup32.exe) from the Internet and run this program on the server that you assigned as the monitor server.

Installation - Step-by-Step

Step 1 - Welcome Message

This is where the installation begins.

Step 2 - Setup Type

Choose "Environmental Monitor Engine + Management Console" if you want to install the Environmental Monitor service. The first installation should always be this type of installation. After the first installation, you can run a "Management Console" installation on network workstations to allow users to view the monitoring results of Environmental Monitor, or to make changes to the configuration.

Step 3 - Licensing information

Here, you can enter you License code.

Step 4 - Choose Destination Folder

Choose a destination folder. Setup will copy the service, the Manager application, the Manager Setup files and other components to this location. Please make sure to have approximately 50 megabytes available.

Step 5 - Select Program Folder

Specify a name for the Program folder.

Step 6 - Service Account

The 'ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Service' (the Engine) must be configured to run under a Windows account. It is recommended to use the built-in Local System.
You may want to use an Administrator account, for instance if you want to use MS SQL Server for the Statistical Database with Windows Authentication enabled.
You can change the service account at any time after installation, so the Local System account is always a good option.

2.3. Install Management Console

About Installing the Management Console

You can use the Management Console (the 'ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Manager') on any workstation in your domain. Use this ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Manager application to:

  • Manage the configuration;
  • View the monitoring results;
  • Run Reports and Graphs.

The Manager application is already installed by default on the server where the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor service runs. So, there's no need to run ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Manager installation on the server.

By default, installing ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Manager applications on remote computers is prevented for security reasons. To allow the installation of the Manager application on other computer, a share must be created. This share will be used by the remote Manager application to communicate with the Environmental Monitor Engine.

To define the Share, use the 'ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Manager' application and do the following:

  • Choose Options from the Tools menu, and select the Remote Manager tab;
  • A Wizard appears, which will guide you through the steps of creating the Share.

Once you have created the share, you're ready to install the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Manager on remote PC's.

Simply run the AxEnvironmentalSetup64.exe or AxEnvironmentalSetup32.exe setup program (same installation as used for the server installation) on the workstation, and choose 'Install Management Console only'. The Setup program will now prompt for a share. Enter the share (UNC format) of the central ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor directory.

To be able to run the Environmental Monitor Manager application on workstations, Users (operators) need Change (RWX) permissions on the files in the shared directory.

To allow/prevent users in the network from installing/running the Environmental Monitor Manager, simply use NTFS permissions or Share Permissions. The easiest is to use Share Permissions: simply add/remove RWX permissions to allow/prevent Users or Groups at Share level.

Installation Step-by-Step

Step 1 - Welcome Message

This is where the installation begins.

Step 2 - Setup Type

Choose 'Install Management Console only'. It will install the Environmental Monitor Manager, the Report Generator and utilities on the workstation PC.

Step 3 - Location of the central Environmental Monitor server

You're prompted for the location of the central Environmental Monitor Server share. Enter the share, as discussed in the previous topic.

Step 4 - Choose Destination Folder

Choose a destination folder. Setup will copy all program files to this location. Please be sure to have approximately 5MB available, depending on the type of installation.

Step 5 - Select Program Folder

Specify a name for the Program folder.

Note: If the central monitoring server runs a 64-bit edition of ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor, it is possible to install the 32-bit edition of the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor on the Management console and connect to the 64-bit server.

3. Configuring Environmental Monitor

3.1. Introduction

The ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor configuration consists of checks and global sttings, and is stored in an Microsoft SQL Server Compact Database named Config.sdf. In a default installation, it is located in folder:
C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\Configuration\

Use the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Manager application to make configuration changes, to view real-time monitoring information, and to analyze results. The Manager application can be launched from any 64-bit or 32-bit Windows platform, or from the machine where the service is running on.

You don't need to restart the 'ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Service' every time you make changes to the configuration. The service will detect configuration changes as they are made, and will reload the configuration.

The ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor configuration can be imported, exported and cleared at any time. By using the Backup command, the configuration can be backed up to a save location. By using Restore command, a configuration can be loaded and set as the current configuration. By using the Clear command, you can clear your current configuration and start from scratch. None of the above commands need a restart of the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Service.

Note: The Config.sdf configuration file is an MS SQL Server Compact database.
You can open this file using either Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio (ships with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and higher), or using Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 or higher.

3.2. Manager Application

To launch the 'ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Manager', click Start, point to the ActiveXperts Software folder, point to the Environmental Monitor folder and click on the Network Monitor Manager icon.

Views

The 'ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Manager' application window is divided into three views:

  • Folder View (left view) - Checks can be grouped in logical containers called Folders;
  • Checks View (right view) - list of checks that are organized in the selected folder. The checks in the subfolder(s) of the selected folder are also displayed;
  • Activity View (bottom view) - shows the activity of the 'ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Service'.
Permissions

You can assign permissions to users by the use of Operator Roles.

Status Information and Icons

In the server view, an icon precedes every server entry. Here's a list of all possible status values (with corresponding icons) and their meanings:

  • OK
  • Warning
  • Failure
  • Maintenance
  • Failure by Depender
  • On Hold
  • Not Monitored
  • Uncertain

For an explanation, see Warnings, Failures and Recovery.

3.3. Quick Configuration Wizard

The first time you start the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Manager application, the Quick Configuration Wizard pops up to collect some basic information, like: your SMTP e-mail server, your e-mail address, and so on. The Quick Configuration Wizard also adds some sample monitoring checks to your configuration.

3.4. Backup, Restore Configuration

Restore configuration settings

To import a previously saved configuration, use the Restore function. Note that the current configuration will be overwritten.

To import a configuration:

  • On the File menu, choose Restore Configuration;
  • Select the version of the import configuration file, and click Next;
  • In the File name box, enter a name of a previously exported configuration file;
  • Click Finish to finish the import.

Note: It is possible to Restore a configuration file that was created on another computer.

Backup configuration settings

It's a good practice to make a backup after major configuration changes. The 'Backup Configuration' function exports all of the configuration settings. This means: all global configuration settings (like mail server, default scan time, etc.) as well as all monitoring checks.

To backup a configuration:

  • On the File menu, choose Backup Configuration;
  • In the File name box, enter a name for the new configuration file;
  • Click Save.

Note: The Auto Backup feature automatically backups the configuration periodically. Auto Backup can be configured from the Auto Backup tab of the Options dialog.

New configuration

The New Configuration function clears the existing configuration and creates a new one. The 'ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Manager' will ask you to save the current configuration before you clear it.

To create a new configuration:

  • On the File menu, click New Configuration;
  • The program will ask if you want to export the current configuration;
  • After the optional export, it asks you if you're sure to create a new configuration. Press Yes.

3.5. Manage Folders

In ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor, all checks are organized in folders. Folders are used to organize/group checks.

Add new Folder

To add a new folder:

  • From the Monitor menu, choose New Folder;
  • In the Name field, type the name of the new folder.
Rename Folder

To rename a folder:

  • Select the Folder you want to rename;
  • Choose Properties from the Monitor menu;
  • Type a new name for the folder.
Delete Folder

To delete a folder:

  • Select the Folder you want to delete;
  • Choose Delete from the Monitor menu. When you delete a folder, all check routines and sub-folders in the folder tree will also be deleted.

3.6. Configuring Monitoring Checks

To add a new monitoring check, click New Monitoring Check on the toolbar. To configure an existing monitoring check, double click on the particular check entry in the Manager application, or right-click on the selected check and choose 'Properties'.

Most important configuration items of a Monitoring Check are:

  • Check What - the type of check that is performed on a specific environmental monitoring device, e.g. temperature, humidity or smoke;
  • Display Name - the name of the check to be displayed by the Manager application. The display name is also used in log files and reports to refer to this Monitoring Check. The display name can be any user friendly name.
  • Check every / Schedule this Check - specifies how frequent a check will be scanned. You can set it to scan it at a specific date and time, or to scan it frequently with a specific interval.
  • Check fails after x warnings in a row - specifies the number of consecutive problems that should occur before a check fails. This option only applies to a check that is not scheduled.

The configuration of checks is discussed in detail in Chapter: Managing Checks.

3.7. Options

Options are global properties, used by all Checks. You can configure these options from the Tools menu, by selecting the Options item.

Logging

See topic: Application Logging

Defaults

'Defaults' apply to new Monitoring Checks. Default values can be defined in the Options dialog:

  • On the Tools menu, click Options;
  • Select the Defaults tab.

The following default values can be configured per check-type:

  • Check every x seconds/minutes/hours/days - specifies how often a monitoring check routine will be scan for a new monitoring check; Initial default value: 30 seconds;
  • Check fails after x warnings in a row (warning threshold) - specifies the number of consecutive problems that should occur before a new monitoring check will fail.

Default values only apply to new checks; they do not affect existing monitoring checks. However, you can apply the default values to all monitoring checks by pressing the Copy/Paste Special from the Edit menu.

Maintenance

To avoid notifications and actions during maintenance hours, you can configure maintenance schedules. All failures that happen during these schedules won't be notified, and no actions will be triggered.

The maintenance schedules can be configured as Every Day of the Week, or as On This Date.

To configure maintenance schedules:

  • On the Tools menu, click Options and select the Maintenance tab; here, you see the list of configured schedules. You can define multiple schedules;
  • To add a new schedule, choose either Day of Week or This Date.
  • In case of 'This Date', provide start date and time, and provide the number of hours the computer and devices will be unavailable;
  • In case of 'Day of Week', provide the days of the week that the computers and devices will be unavailable; also provide a start time, and provide the number of hours the servers will be unavailable.
  • Press the Add button to add the new schedule to the Maintenance Schedules list.

By default, the maintenance schedules are inherited by all Monitoring Checks; however, you can configure maintenance schedules for each check individually in the 'Advanced' tab of the Monitoring Check properties. Let's say a company has maintenance on every Friday at 11:00 pm for nearly all servers (use the global maintenance schedules for that). But for one server (server 'A'), maintenance is scheduled on Saturday at 09:00 am. Configure individual maintenance schedules for server 'A'.

Auto Backup

The 'ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Service' can make a regular backup for you, to a save location. It is recommended to choose a destination folder for your backup that is part of your regular backup procedure.

All program data is located in the programs data folder. In a default installation, it is located in folder:
C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\

With Auto-Backup, you can specify which items to backup automatically to a safe location.

Configure the following items for your Backup Location and Schedule:

  • Destination Folder - Folder that will store your backup files.
  • Backup Every - Configure the days and time when the Backup should run.

Configure What to Backup

  • Configuration File - Backup the Config.sdf configuration file;
  • Log Files - Backup the Logs\Log.txt and/or Logs\Log.sdf application log file(s);
  • Statistical Database - Backup the Stats\Stats.sdf Statistical Database. The option is disabled in case you migrated your Statisitcal Database to MS SQL Server or MySQL server.
  • Scripts - Backup the (custom) scripts in the Scripts folder;
  • Report Definition Files - Backup the Report Definition Files and associates XSL stylesheets in the Report Definitions folder;
  • WebView - Backup the WebView files in the Web folder;
Operators and Roles

See topic: Operators and Roles.

Date and Time

Environmental Monitor does not use Windows' Date/Time settings for displaying information, because results can be viewed by non-Windows users (Web interface, reports, etc.). Therefore, you can set Date/Time settings; these settings are stored in the configuration database, and will be used by all Manager applications, Web Views, Reports, etc..

To configure Date/Time settings:

  • On the Tools menu, click Options and select the Date and Time tab;
  • Select your preferred Time format and Date format.

4. Managing Checks

4.1. Adding a New Check

To add a new Monitoring Check:

  • On the Monitor menu, click Create New Check;
  • In the Check What drop-down box, select the type of check. In the next chapter, Monitoring Checks are described in more detail;
  • In the Display Name box, edit a custom display name; this name will also be used in the log files and reports;
  • In the Check every field, specify how often a check should run. By default, a check will be monitored once every 30 seconds. This default can be changed from the Options dialog in the Tools Menu. To use a scheduled check instead of running it at specific intervals, use the 'Schedule this Check' option (see below) instead of the 'Check every' option;
  • In the Check fails after field, specify the number of consecutive problems that should occur before a check fails;
  • In the Schedule this Check fields, you can define at what times the check should run.

4.2. Copy/Paste a Check

To copy an existing Monitoring Check:

  • On the Edit menu, click Copy.

To paste a Monitoring Check:

  • On the Edit menu, click Paste.

You can copy/paste multiple checks at the same time. There's the option to change the hostname (or IP addresses) during the Paste operation, so you can apply a set of pre-defined checks to a new server, or even multiple servers.

NOTE: Copy/Paste is a powerful command in ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor. You can define checks for a new server in just a single operation, due to the ability to change the hostname (or IP address) during Paste. You can even Paste to a list of new hosts!

4.3. Copy/Paste Properties

To copy the properties of an existing Monitoring Check:

  • On the Edit menu, click Copy.

To paste properties:

  • Select one or more checks to paste the properties to (or even select a Folder);
  • On the Edit menu, click Paste Properties.

You can apply the following properties to other checks:

  • Check Frequency Settings;
  • Alert Notification Settings;
  • Alert Action Settings;
  • Advanced Settings.

4.4. Deleting a Check

To delete an existing Monitoring Check:

  • On the Monitor menu, click Delete;

Confirm that you really want to remove the Check from the configuration.

4.5. Editing a Check

The Monitoring Check dialog will pop up. This dialog contains 4 tabs:

  • Check Properties;
  • Alert Notifications - E-mail, SMS, Pager, SNMP Trap and Network/NetBIOS alert notifications;
  • Alert Actions - Run batch file, exe-file or VBScript programs; restart service(s) or reboot server;
  • Advanced Properties - Configure Notification Frequency (re-notifications), Action Frequency (re-run programs), Maintenance hours and Dependencies.
Check Properties

Select the Check Properties tab, and configure the following fields:

  • Check What - select the type of check, for instance: ICMP;
  • In the Display Name box, edit a custom display name; this name will also be used in the log files and reports;
  • In the Check every field, specify how often a check should run. By default, a check will be monitored once every 30 seconds. This default can be changed from the Options dialog in the Tools Menu. To use a scheduled check instead of running it at specific intervals, use the 'Schedule this Check' option (see below) instead of the 'Check every' option;
  • In the Check fails after field, specify the number of consecutive problems that should occur before a check fails;
  • In the Schedule this Check fields, you can define at what times the check should run.
Notifications Properties

Select the Alert Notifications tab, and configure the following fields:

  • E-mail: Alert Notification (Failure) - If the check fails, send an e-mail notification to the selected recipients. The recipients are either defined in the global Address Book, or configured for this particular check only;
  • E-mail: Recovery Notification (Success) - If the check changes from 'Failure' to 'Success', send an e-mail notification to the selected recipients;
  • SMS: Alert Notification (Failure) - If the check fails, send an SMS notification to the selected recipients;
  • SMS: Recovery Notification (Success) - If computer /device turns from offline to online, send an SMS notification to the selected recipients;
  • Pager: Alert Notification (Failure)s - If the check fails, send an SMS notification to the selected recipients;
  • Pager: Recovery Notification (Success) - If computer /device turns from offline to online, send an SMS notification to the selected recipients;
  • SNMP Trap: Alert Notification (Failure) - If the check fails, send an SNMP Trap notification to the selected recipients;
  • SNMP Trap: Recovery Notification (Success) - If computer /device turns from offline to online, send an SNMP Trap notification to an SNMP network management system;
  • Network: Alert Notification (Failure) - If the check fails, send a network notification to the selected recipients;
  • Network: Recovery Notification (Success) - If computer /device turns from offline to online, send a network notification to the selected recipients.

For all of the above items (except SNMP Traps), you can select recipient groups from the global Address Book.

If you want to use different recipients (or traps) for a particular Monitoring Check, press the '.' button next to the corresponding item.

Actions Properties

You can define an action for each particular check. Actions are triggered when a check fails, or when a check recovers from a failure. There are no global settings for Actions; all settings are made in the properties of the monitoring check.

There are 3 different types of actions:

  • Restart service
    After a failure, it's possible to restart a service. For instance, if you can't reach an IIS web server in your LAN, it may be a good idea to restart the W3SVC service. You can use either the short service name (for instance W3SVC) or the long service name (for instance: World Wide Web Publishing Service). To restart multiple services, enter all services separated by a semicolon (';'), for instance: alerter;browser;
  • Reboot computer
    In some situations, it may be useful to reboot a machine to try to recover from a failure;
  • Run Program You can configure to run a program after a failure has occurred. ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor supports three different types of programs:

    • Executable files;
    • Batch programs;
    • PowerShell programs;
    • VBScript programs.

You can pass parameters to these programs on the command line. You can also use Notification Variables as parameters, as described in Appx E. Notification Variables.

To configure Alert Actions, select the Alert Actions tab, and configure the following fields:

  • Run Program (.exe, .cmd, .bat) on Failure - If server/device goes offline, run the specified Win32 executable or batch file on the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor server;
  • Run Program (.exe, .cmd, .bat) on Recovery from Failure - If server/device turns from offline to online, run the specified Win32 executable or batch file on the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor server;
  • Run Program (.vbs) on Failure - If server/device goes offline, run the specified Visual Basic script on the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor server;
  • Run Program (.vbs) on Recovery from Failure - If server turns from offline to online, run the specified Visual Basic script on the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor server.
  • Run Program (.ps1) on Failure - If server/device goes offline, run the specified PowerShell script on the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor server;
  • Run Program (.ps1) on Recovery from Failure - If server turns from offline to online, run the specified PowerShell script on the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor server.
  • No reboot/restart after failure - No reboot or restart of a service when failure occurs;
  • After failure, reboot computer - Upon failure, reboot a particular server;
  • After failure, restart service(s) - Upon failure, restart a service on a particular server. You can restart multiple services by providing a list of services. A list of services should contain individual services, separated by the ';' character.
Advanced

Select the Advanced tab to configure the following items:

  • Maintenance Plan for this Check - Select your Maintenance Plan.
  • Graph - Enable or disable graphing for this check. By default, graphing is disabled for new checks to ensure maximum performance of the Statistical Database. When Graphing is enabled, you can specify how frequent the data should be written to the Statistical Database (default: once every 5 minutes);
  • Result of this Check - This option allows you to invert the result of a check, where Success will be turned into Failure and vica versa. This option also allows you to map Uncertain results into either Success or Failure;
  • Notification and Action Frequency - This only applies to Failed checks. By default, notifications are sent only once after failure. If you prefer repetitive notifications, select the Notify every radio button and enter the notification frequency. If you prefer repetitive actions, select the Trigger every radio button and enter the frequency;
  • Dependencies - Read-only view of the dependencies for this check;
  • Check ID - Each check has a unique ID. This ID is the key in the [Nodes] table of the configuration database (Config.sdf)

5. Built-in Checks

5.1. Environmental checks

Devices

ActiveXperts supports a wide range of environmental devices. The vast majority of the environmental devices support the SNMP protocol. This requires a manual or a MIB browser to find the relevant OID's. Using the OID's, you can create an SNMP check in ActiveXperts.

ActiveXperts has native suppport for the following vendors in particular: AVTech, Kentix, ServersCheck and Sensatronics. ActiveXperts offers demo environmental devices in the ActiveXperts extranet, to let trial users actually use the devices using the ActiveXperts software. These devices can be purchased directly from ActiveXperts, either with or without a software license.
For more information, click here. Devices can also purchased directly from the hardware vendor.

The following environmental monitoring devices have built-in checks in ActiveXperts, and are available as a demo unit on the ActiveXperts extranet:

Checks

ActiveXperts Environmnetal Monitor supports a wide variety of sensors attached to your environmental monitoring device, including:

  • Temperature
  • Humidity
  • Wetness
  • Dew Point
  • Heat Index
  • Power
  • Resistance
  • Light
  • Motion
  • Smoke
  • Door
  • Vibration
  • Carbon Oxide
  • Caron Dioxide

An Environmental check requires the following parameters:

  • Device Model - The type of device that has the internal sensor or external sensors attached;
  • Hostname/IP - The host name or IP address of the network interface of the monitoring device;
  • Sensor - The particular sensor ('probe'). This can be an internal sensor, or an external sensor attached to the device;
  • Unit - Select the preferred unit: Fahrenheit, Celsius, Kelvin or Rankine;
  • Minimum - Minimum allowed value;
  • Maximum - Maximum allowed value;

5.2. IP-based Checks

HTTP/HTTPs check

ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor can check the availability of HTTP and HTTPs sites, on default ports (i.e.: 80 and 443) or on alternate ports. If the HTTP(s) server is not directly accessible, you can configure ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor to go through a Proxy server to access the particular HTTP(s) server, even passing credentials for that Proxy server (to be able to make use of the Proxy). Additionally, you can pass credentials (username and password) to access the actual HTTP(s) site if required. ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor supports web site content checking; contents of web sites can be searched for text patterns (including tags).

An HTTP/HTTPs check requires the following parameters:

  • URL - The location of the website in URL format (i.e. http://server[:port]/path/... format);
  • Require Server verification - A flag to indicate: HTTP or HTTPs;
  • Check for availability only / Page must contain pattern / Page must not contain pattern - In case of 'Check for Availability only', only the availability of the site is checked. In case of 'Page must (not) contain string', the content of the URL is checked for specific contents;
  • Time-out after - Time-out in seconds. If the time-out expires, the result is 'Error';
  • Use website authentication - A flag to indicate whether authentication is required for the web site or not. If authentication is required, 'Website Account' and 'Website Password' must be provided;
  • Website Account - A valid account on the web site;
  • Website Password - A valid password for the account on the web site;
  • Use a Proxy server - A flag indicating whether the web site should be accessed through a Proxy server or not;
  • Proxy - If the 'Use a Proxy server' field is set, this field indicates the actual Proxy server. A hostname, NetBIOS name or IP address is required here;
  • Proxy authentication - If the 'Use a Proxy server' flag is set, and the proxy server indicated by the 'Proxy' field requires authentication, enable this check box;
  • Proxy Account - A valid account on the Proxy server;
  • Proxy Password - A valid password for the account on the Proxy server.
Ping/ICMP check

Ping/ICMP checks a remote host for availability using the ICMP protocol. Local hosts should normally respond to ping requests within milliseconds. However, on a very congested network it may take up to 3 seconds or longer to receive an echo packet from the remote host. If the time-out is set too low under these conditions, it will appear that the remote host is not reachable (which is almost the truth). ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor checks servers for availability by sending ICMP Echo commands and wait for the responds. An ICMP time-out failure doesn't necessarily mean that the remote host is actually functioning beyond its ability to echo packets.

An Ping/ICMP check requires the following parameters:

  • Host - The host name or IP address of the computer/device you want to ping;
  • Time-out after - Maximum number of milliseconds it should take before a response is received;
  • Number of retries - The number of retries to send when a ping fails;
  • Time to Live - Maximum Time to Live (TTL) value;
  • Buffer Size (bytes) - Send buffer size.
Ping/TCP check

Ping/TCP checks a remote host to make sure it is listening to a specific TCP port. It can send multiple TCP connect requests and calculates the average connect time. You can set Connect Time limit. If exceeded, the check will fail.

An Ping/TCP check requires the following parameters:

  • Host - The DNS host name or IP address of the computer/device you want to ping;
  • TCP Port - The TCP port it should connect to;
  • Maximum average Connect Time - Maximum average connect time (msecs) allowed;
  • Number of Connect Requests - The number of times it will connect to the remote host. If one connect fails, the check will fail. The average connect time will be calculated based on the number of connects;
  • Interval (between Requests) - Number of seconds between two connect attempts.
SMTP Mail Server check

ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor can check SMTP mail servers by establishing a connection on the remote TCP port (usually port 25) and do a handshake. By handshaking, ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor can verify that the remote server's SMTP protocol is working well.

An SMTP Mail Server check requires the following parameters:

  • Host - Hostname or IP address of the server to be monitored;
  • Port - TCP port number of the SMTP protocol. Default: 25;
  • Secure Mail Server checkbox - If your SMTP server is a secure server, click this checkbox; this will prompt you for a username and password;
  • Authentication checkbox - If your SMTP server requires authentication, click this checkbox and provide a logon and password;
  • Send command when connected - As soon as connection is established, send a command. By default, no command string will be sent;
  • Response must include string - when connected, optionally send a command. Then wait for the response. The default response for SMTP servers includes: '250';
SNMP GET check

SNMP means: Simple Network Management Protocol. The SNMP GET message allows the Environmental Monitor Engine to request information about a specific variable on a remote computer or device. The agent, upon receiving a GET message, will issue a GET-RESPONSE message to the Environmental Monitor Engine with either the information requested or an error indication as to why the request cannot be processed.

An SNMP GET check requires the following parameters:

  • Host - Hostname or IP address of the computer/device to monitor;
  • Port - UDP port used for SNMP on the target machine/device. Default port is 161;
  • Community - The SNMP community string; Default: 'public';
  • Protocol - Indicates how the SNMP client should communicate with the remote SNMP agent. If you choose 'Automatic', the SNMP agents on both sites will negotiate and use the preferred protocol. Choose 'SNMPv1' to force the agents to use SNMP version 1; choose 'SNMP v2c' to force the agents to use SNMP version 2c; choose 'SNMP v3' to use secure SNMP;
  • OID (Numeric/Symbolic) - The Object ID; the OID is a long numeric tag or a symbolic (friendly) name, used to distinguish each variable uniquely in the MIB and in SNMP messages. If you use the numeric tag format, the OID can be prefixed by a '.'. This is optional. For example: .1.3.6.1.2.1.1.5.0 or 1.3.6.1.2.1.1.5.0. Friendly names are names like: system.sysName.0, or interfaces.ifTable.ifEntry.ifOperStatus.1.
  • Select a symbolic OID from a MIB file. - Use this button to select an alpha-numeric OID from a MIB file. You can use virtually any 3rd-party MIB file;
  • OID Data Type - The OID Data type. The following type are valid data types: Bit Stream, Counter, Integer, IP address, Object Identifier, Opaque String, String, Time Ticks and Unsigned Integer;
  • OID Data must be - Choose the condition: Equal To, Not Equal To, Less Than, Less or Equal To, Greater Than, Greater or Equal To. This condition is used to compare the actual SNMP value against the 'IOD Data Value';
  • OID Data Value - OID value that will be compared against the actual OID value, using the 'OID Data must be' operand;
  • AND / OR - To extend the condition, use AND or OR operator. On selecting AND or OR, you must specify an additional condition (Equal To, etc.) and OID Data Value.
SNMP Trap Receive check

The SNMP Trap Receive check listens for real-time network traps for processing. The SNMP Trap Receiver must be enabled at a global level. To enable the SNMP Trap Receiver:

  • On the Tools menu, choose Options;
  • Select the Advanced Tab and click on the Configure SNMP Trap Receiver button;
  • Enable the Trap Receiver by enabling the Enable SNMP Trap Receiver checkbox.

An SNMP Trap Receive check works different than other checks in Environmental Monitor: the SNMP Trap Receive check is event-driven. The check is not executed at timed intervals, but is triggered on a newly received trap. As a result, you cannot specify a time interval for SNMP Trap Receive checks.

An SNMP Trap Receive check requires the following parameters:

  • Receive from Host - Hostname or IP address of the computer/device to monitor. To specify any host, use '*';
  • Receive OID - The Object ID to receive. This can be a numeric OID or a symbolic OID. Type '*' to check for any OID;
  • Select a symbolic OID from a MIB file. - Use this button to select an alpha-numeric OID from a MIB file. You can use virtually any 3rd-party MIB file;
  • Receive OID Data Type - The expected OID Data type. The following type are valid data types: Bit Stream, Counter, Integer, IP address, Object Identifier, Opaque String, String, Time Ticks and Unsigned Integer;
  • Match OID Value - To check the OID data for specific value(s), enable this check box and configure the conditions in the same way as for the 'SNMP GET' check.

5.3. Database checks

Database Query

ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor uses OLE DB (also known as ADO) to check availability of databases. OLE DB (sometimes written as OLEDB or OLE-DB) is an API for accessing different types of data stores in a uniform manner, including: MS SQL, MS Access, Oracle, MySQL and more.

The Database Query check requires the following parameters:

  • OLE DB (ADO) Connection String - The OLE DB connection string, for instance: DRIVER=Microsoft Access Driver(*.mdb);DBQ=\\SERVER03\Public\Northwind.mdb You can use a password in this connections string. To hide the password, you can use the <%PASSWORD%> placeholder. When using this placeholder, ActiveXperts will automatically substitute this placeholder with the 'Password' field described below;
  • Password - This is the password string (shown as asterisks) that will substitute the <%PASSWORD%> field described above;
  • Database Query - The database query. The result of the check is determined by the result of this query;
  • Match Field - The field that will be matched to determine the result of the check;
  • Value must be... - Operator and value to compare;
  • Compare as - data type.

You can use an AND/OR operator to create an advanced condition.

6. Alert Notifications

6.1. Introduction

Alert Notifications are sent:

  • When a Check fails - After a configurable number of warnings (warning threshold) in a row, the check fails. By default, only one alert notification (e.g. one e-mail and one SMS) is sent after a failure; if you want to be notified regularly after a failure, it can be configured by pressing the Advanced button in the Monitoring Check Properties tab;
  • When a Check recovers from the 'Failure' status - ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor has the ability to repair, for instance by running a custom script. It can be useful to send an alert to notify that the previous problem has been solved.

Notification Settings are software settings that are global for all monitoring checks. You can configure these from the Tools menu, by selecting the Notification Settings item.

For all notification types - except pager notifications and SNMP traps - you can use an Address Book. In the Address Book, you can organize notification recipients in groups. Groups can be used in any check. But you can still define a custom list of recipients for individual checks.

The following alert notification types are supported by ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor:

  • E-mail notifications;
  • SMS Text notifications;
  • Numeric Pager notifications;
  • Alpha-numeric Pager notifications;
  • SNMP Trap notifications;
  • Network notifications.
Default Alert Notification settings for new Monitoring Checks

Default Alert Notification settings apply to new Monitoring Checks. These values can be defined in the Notifications Settings dialog:

  • On the Tools menu, click Notification Settings;
  • Select the Default Alerts tab.

The following Alert Nootification defaults can be configured:

  • E-mail notification when check fails - this value indicates whether an e-mail notification should be sent when a check fails;
  • Email notification when check recovers from failure - this value indicates whether an e-mail notification should be sent when a check is successful after a failure;
  • SMS notification when check fails - this value indicates whether an SMS notification should be sent when a check fails;
  • SMS notification when check recovers from failure - this value indicates whether an SMS notification should be sent when a check is successful after a failure;
  • Pager notification when check fails - this value indicates whether a Pager notification should be sent when a check fails;
  • Pager notification when check recovers from failure - this value indicates whether a Pager notification should be sent when a check is successful after a failure;
  • SNMP Trap notification when check fails - this value indicates whether an SNMP Trap notification should be sent when a check fails;
  • SNMP Trap notification when check recovers from failure - this value indicates whether an SNMP Trap notification should be sent when a check is successful after a failure;
  • Network notification when check fails - this value indicates whether a network notification should be sent when a check fails;
  • Network notification when check recovers from failure - this value indicates whether a network notification should be sent when a check is successful after a failure;
  • Notification Frequency Defaults - specifies how often a notification (e-mail, SMS and so on) should be sent after a failure. By default, a notification is sent only once after failure; however, you can configure to notify every x minutes after failure;

6.2. Address Book

The Address Book contains all Contacts and Contact Groups used to send out Alert Notifications when there's an incident.

A Contact has properties like 'First Name', 'Last Name', 'E-mail Address' and 'SMS Mobile Number'.
You can group one or more Contacts in one or more Contact Groups.

At a Check level, you can assign Contact Groups and/or Contacts to the Alert Notification properties of the Check. The Contact Addresses will be used to send out the Notifications.

The Address Book is also used with Reports, where Reports are scheduled and sent as e-mail attachments to those who want to receive the Reports.

NOTE: It is recommended to assign Contact Groups rather than individual Contacts to the Check's Alert Notification properties. With a Contact Groups, you don't need to change the Check's properties when there's a new User.. You just need to modify the Contact Group membership list one time.

6.3. E-mail Alert Notifications

To use SMTP e-mail notifications, the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor service must have access to a (secure) SMTP server to send out e-mails. It can be any SMTP (secure) compliant mail server.

ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor supports the SSL/TLS secure protocol, as well as STARTTLS, is compliant with SMTP servers that require SMTP authentication, like Microsoft Exchange. SMTP AUTH is the protocol that is used to verify that you are one of the users of the SMTP server. ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor is RFC 821 and RFC 822 SMTP AUTH compliant. It also supports multiple character sets, including English (ISO-8859-1), Chinese (big5) and Japanese (ISO-2202-JP).

E-mail Notification Global Settings

To configure global e-mail Alert Notification Settings use the 'ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Manager':

  • On the Tools menu, click Notification Setup and select the E-mail tab;
  • Enable the Enable E-mail Alert Notifications checkbox to enable e-mail notifications;
  • The SMTP Server can be an IP address (like 10.0.0.1), a host name (like mail.mydomain.com) or a NetBIOS name (like EXCHANGE01); this is the server that will send out the actual notification messages to the recipients;
  • If your SMTP server is a secure server, select the Security Protocol;
  • If your SMTP server requires authentication, click the Authentication checkbox and provide a logon and password;
  • Provide Sender E-mail Address (required) and Sender's Display Name (optional). The recipient will see this name/address as the sender, and all replies will be delivered to this mail account;
  • Use the E-mail Address Book to organize e-mail recipients in groups. The Address Book can be used for all checks. The E-mail Address Book makes configuration easier, because you don't have to configure a separate list of recipients for each monitoring check; however, it is still possible to configure a separate list of recipient for any check;
  • Click on Format Message to edit the e-mail template and to enable/disable RTF (HTML) formatting. In this dialog, you can also set the preferred character set: English (ISO-8859-1), Chinese (big5) or Japanese (ISO-2202-JP). Enable RTF (HTML) formatting to support HTML tags. If you switch on RTF formatting, you must use the <br> tag (or an alternative tag) to insert new lines.
  • Click on Secondary Server to specify a fallback server. The secondary server is only used if the primary SMTP mail server is down while attempting to send out an SMTP notification.

To test the E-mail Notification Settings, use the Test SMTP Server button. It will send a request the Environmental Monitor Engine to send an E-mail message using the given settings.

Message Templates are discussed in topic Message Templates.

Note: Be aware of e-mail clients that do not have Rich Text enabled for security reasons.

E-mail Notification Check Settings

For each check, you can make the following configuration settings:

  • Notify when check fails - when the check is set to 'Failure', a message is being sent. Default: On;
  • Notify when a check recovers from a failed status - when the check turns from 'Failure' to 'Success', a message is being sent. Default: Off;
  • For both 'Success' and 'Failure' status changes, you use the Address Book recipient groups, or use a custom recipient list.
  • For both 'Success' and 'Failure' status changes, you use the Address Book recipient groups, or use a custom recipient list.

6.4. SMS Alert Notifications

ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor supports alpha-numeric SMS messaging in three ways:

  • Using GSM Modem (or GSM phone), connected to the Environmental Monitor server by serial cable or IP connection;
  • Using SMSC HTTP protocol. Requires a subscription with an SMSC provider providing the HTTP(s) protocol for sending;
  • Using SMSC SMPP service provider. This requires Auron SMS Server on one of your network computers (or on the same machine as ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor).
SMS Notification Settings Global Settings

To configure global SMS Alert Notification settings:

  • On the Tools menu, click Notification Setup and select the SMS tab;
  • Enable the Enable SMS Alert Notifications checkbox to enable SMS notifications;
  • Choose Use GSM Modem. to send SMS notifications via a GSM modem, or choose Use Auron SMS Server to forward SMS notification requests to Auron SMS Server;
  • Click on the Format Message button to edit the SMS template. Message Templates are discussed in Chapter 3.15: "Message Templates".
SMS Notification Global GSM Modem Settings

In the GSM Modem setup dialog, you must select the Windows telephony device (recommended) or a physical COM port (directly) that is used to connect to the physical GSM modem. As soon as you select the device from the list, the Environmental Monitor Manager tries to detect the device connected to the Environmental Monitor server. If a GSM modem cannot be detected, a log file is provided for troubleshooting purposes.

Use the Advanced Settings button to configure advanced communication settings.

SMS Notification Global SMS Server Settings

Auron SMS Server is an SMS messaging framework to enable sending, receiving and processing of SMS messages. You can relay SMS notifications from any application (including Environmental Monitor) to the SMS Server.

With Auron SMS Server, you can benefit from the product's SMPP support. SMPP is the fastest and most reliable way of sending bulk SMS messages.

To relay Environmental Monitor SMS notifications to Auron SMS Server, you must install the Auron SMS Server Client Tools on the server that has the Environmental Monitor service running. Once installed, you can select an SMPP channel.

SMS Recipient Number

The SMS recipient number must be in International Number Format: the SMS number, prefixed by the international dialing number and the '+' character. The use of the '+' character is required. For example: +4412345678

SMS Notifications Check Settings

For each check, you can make the following configuration settings:

  • Notify when check fails - when the check is set to 'Failure', a message is being sent. Default: On;
  • Notify when a check recovers from a failed status - when the check turns from 'Failure' to 'Success', a message is being sent. Default: Off;
  • For both 'Success' and 'Failure' status changes, you use the Address Book recipient groups, or use a custom recipient list.

Note: To log all modem operations, you must enter a valid file name in the following registry entry:
HKLM\Software\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\Server\Trace\NotifySms

6.5. Pager Alert Notifications

ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor supports numeric DTMF Paging (using a Hayes compatible modem) and alpha-numeric paging (using an SNPP provider).

The modem must be connected to the server where the 'ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Service' (Engine) is running. When there's a failure, ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor will use the modem to dial-out to the Pager recipients.

Pager Notification Global Settings

To configure global Pager Alert Notification settings:

  • On the Tools menu, click Notification Setup and select the Pager tab;
  • Enable the Enable Pager Alert Notifications checkbox to enable pager notifications;
  • Choose Use alpha-numeric paging to send alpha-numeric pager messages using an SNPP provider, or choose Use numeric DTMF paging to send numeric DTMF pager messages using a standard Hayes compatible modem.
Pager Notification Global Settings - alpha-numeric SNPP paging

In the Pager/SNPP setting dialog:

  • Enter the Host (host name or IP address) of your SNPP paging provider. Enter the IP port used to connect to your SNPP provider (default: 444);
  • If your SNPP provider requires a password, enable the Password required option and provide a valid password.
  • In the Time-out field, enter the time-out (in millisecond) used to connect to the SNPP provider.
Pager Notification Global Settings - numeric DTMF paging

In the Pager/DTMF setting dialog:

  • Select a Modem from the list. The list is inherited from the list of Telephone Devices of the operating system (configured in the Control Panel on the system where the Environmental Monitor Engine is installed). If there is no modem driver installed for your device, you can also select a direct com port. Use the Test Pager Settings button to test the configuration;

Note: A Pager recipient can only consist of the following characters:
T0,1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,+,-,*,#@,a,b,c,d,A,B,C,D,w,WT

Pager Notification Check Settings

For each check, you can make the following configuration settings:

  • Notify when check fails - when the check is set to Failure, a message is being sent. Default: On;
  • Notify when a check recovers from a failed status - when the check turns from 'Failure' to 'Success', a message is being sent. Default: Off;
  • For both Success and Failure status changes, you use the Address Book recipient groups, or use a custom recipient list.

Note: To log all Pager operations, you can enter a valid file name in the following registry entry:
HKLM\Software\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\NotifyPager

6.6. SNMP Trap Alert Notifications

ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor supports SNMPv1, SNMPv2c and SNMPv3 Trap notifications.

SNMP Trap Notification Global Settings

To configure global SNMP Trap notification settings:

  • On the Tools menu, click Notification Setup and select the SNMP Traps tab;
  • You can now configure a list of SNMP Traps. Usually, you will need just one trap to send out to a network management station, but you can define multiple traps. Press the Add Trap button to add a trap to the list; press the Edit Trap button to edit the parameters of a specific trap, and press the Remove Trap button to remove a trap from the list.
  • When you use the Add Trap button or the Edit Trap button, you can configure the parameters of a single trap. These parameters are described below.
SNMP Trap Parameters

A trap consists of the following parameters:

  • Agent - the host name or IP address of the (remote) SNMP network management station;
  • Port - the port used for sending SNMP traps; default: 162;
  • Community - the community of SNMP devices. Default: public;
  • Protocol Version - Select either SNMPv1, SNMPv2c or SNMPv3. Default: SNMP v2c;
  • SNMPv3 authentication - enter SNMPv3 login parameters to be used with SNMPv3 traps;
  • OID - the Object Identifier; Environmental Monitor accepts numeric and alpha-numeric OID's, for instance: system.sysName.0, or 1.3.6.1.2.1.1.5.0;
  • OID Data Type - this field indicates the type of data that is sent to the (remote) network management station. Environmental Monitor supports the following data types: strings, integers, IP addresses, time ticks, counter types, OID's and some other, less frequently used types;
  • OID Value - the actual value that is sent over the network. You can include notification variables, like <%DISPLAYNAME%> , <%TIME%>, or <%HOST%>. For a complete list of notification variables, see also Appx E. Notification Variables;
  • Generic Trap - this optional field is only used with SNMP v1.
SNMP Trap Notifications Check Settings

For each monitoring check, you can configure the following settings:

  • Notify when check fails - when the check fails, a message is being sent. Default: On;
  • Notify when check recovers from a failed status - when the check reverts to 'success', a message is being sent. Default: Off;
  • For both Online and Offline status changes, you can choose to use Global SNMP Trap List as defined in the Global SNMP Trap Notification Settings, or use a Custom SNMP Trap List.

6.7. Network Alert Notifications

Network Notifications are the well-known 'Net Send' (or 'NetPopup') messages over the network. Only machines that support NetBIOS can send/receive these messages. NetBIOS messages can be sent to users and/or computers.

Network Notification Global Settings

To configure global Network Alert Notification settings:

  • On the Tools menu, click Notification Setup and select the Network Popup tab;
  • Enable the Enable Network Popup Notifications checkbox to enable network notifications;
  • Use the Network Popup Address Book to organize NETBIOS recipients in groups. The Address Book can be used for all checks. The Address Book makes configuration easier, because you don't have to configure a separate list of recipients for each monitoring check; however, it is still possible to configure a separate list of recipient for any check;
  • Click on Format Message to edit the network message template. Message Templates are discussed in Chapter 3.15: "Message Templates".

To test the Network Notification Settings, use the Send Test Message button. It will send a request the Environmental Monitor Engine to send an network popup message using the given settings.

Network Notifications Check Settings

For each check, you can make the following configuration settings:

  • Notify when check fails - when the check is set to Failure, a message is being sent. Default: On;
  • Notify when a check recovers from a failed status - when the check turns from 'Failure' to 'Success', a message is being sent. Default: Off;

6.8. Message Templates

A notification message can be customized. Use the Format Message button in the appropriate global notification tab of the Notification Setup dialog from the Tools menu. Each notification type has its own message template.

Inside a message template, you can use system variables. These variables are substituted each time the message is sent out. System variables must be enclosed between <% and %> strings, for example: <% DATE %>. See also Appx E. Notification Variables for a complete list of Notification Variables.

Message Template Example

Example of a message template:

Message from ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor, <% DATE %> <%TIME %>:
Item:    <% DISPLAYNAME %>
Result:  <% RESULT %>
Explanation:<% EXPLANATION %> 

Note: Using newlines in SMS Message Templates is NOT recommended. Many GSM phones don't know how to handle newlines and will display bad characters.

6.9. Dependencies

Dependencies allow you to create a hierarchy of checks that depend on each other. This hierarchy is not related to the Folder structure of your Environmental Monitor configuration. Dependencies prevent you and your network administrators from being overwhelmed with notifications when a central router or server goes down. Without a dependency configuration, the failure of a central server or device would cause a failure of other servers, and as a result many notifications would be sent out. There are at least two items involved when configuring dependencies:

  • Dependee - the computer/device that plays a central role. A failure of this 'Dependee' device or server would cause failures of other servers and devices (so called 'Dependers');
  • Depender(s) - servers, devices or folders that depend on the 'Dependee'.

A dependee cannot be a folder, only a check. You can make other checks and/or folders dependent on the Dependee. It is recommended to use Folders rather than Checks as a Depender, because it is dynamic.

For more information about Dependencies, visit the Online Dependency Guidelines on the ActiveXperts web site. It contains a good sample and some best practice hints.

7. Web Access

7.1. Introduction

ActiveXperts Web Access is a comprehensive web interface, designed for mobile devices, tablets and PC's. It allows users you to see those parts of the Environmental Monitor configuration that they have access to.

ActiveXperts Web Access requires the Web Server (IIS) server role to be installed on the Windows Operating System running ActiveXperts.

ActiveXperts Web Access has a mobile first, responsive design and can be viewed by any browser, on any (touchscreen) mobile device, tablet or PC, running iOS, Anndroid or Windows.

Each ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Folder can be published in ActiveXperts Web Access, each one having its own credentials. A Folder can have one or more so called 'Filters', so users can filter on different aspects, for instance displaying only Failure results, or displaying only VMware and Citrix checks, or combined. You can even draw Graphs on your (mobile) device, to see the history of a Check.

ActiveXperts Web Access uses jQuery on the (mobile) device to fetch the information live from the ActiveXperts database.

For each check displayed in ActiveXperts Web Access, there's a small icon that you can press to plot a Graph. This requires Classic ASP to be installed.

Up to ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor v.2017, Web Access had a not responsive design without underlying jQuery technology. XML pages were generated every 30 secs (by default), and were made-up by XSL templates. The drawback was a less responsive web interface, but it had a large flexibily in terms of customization. This flexibility is still popular amongst the customers. For that reason, the XML/XSL based interface is still available but disabled by default. To read more on the v.2017 XML/XSL web interface, click here.

7.2. Web Server (IIS)

To use ActiveXperts Web Access, Microsoft 'Web Server (IIS)' role must be installed on the server hosting ActiveXperts. Using the ActiveXperts Web Access Configuration tool is the best and easiest way to install/configure Web Server (IIS). It makes sure all necessary components are installed. If the 'Web Server (IIS)' role is already installed but some features are missing, the 'ActiveXperts Web Access Configuration' will (re)install/(re)configure the features:

  • Start the ActiveXperts Web Access Configuration Tool from the Manager;
  • Select the Publish to IIS tab;
  • Press the Install/Configure Web Server (IIS) now... button. It will launch a Powershell script to install/configure 'Web Server (IIS)'.
    It is no problem to run the Powershell script multiple times; it will only take action if it is required.

But you can also use the Windows 'Server Manager' to install/configure the 'Web Server (IIS)' role.
NOTE: If you use Server Manager instead to install/configure 'Web Server (IIS)', make sure you install the 'Application Development' feature and select 'classic' ASP. Classic ASP is required to run Graphs in a web browser.

After the 'Web Server (IIS)' role is installed, configured and running, you need to host the ActiveXperts Web Access web site on IIS:

  1. Automatically, using the ActiveXperts Web Access Configuration tool;
  2. Manually, using Windows' Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
Publish Web Site using ActiveXperts Web Access Configuration Tool

ActiveXperts Web Access needs a web site in Microsoft Web Server (IIS). The easiest is to use the 'ActiveXperts Web Access Configuration' tool.

To create a new site using the 'ActiveXperts Web Access Configuration' tool:

  • Start the ActiveXperts Web Access Configuration Tool from the Manager;
  • Select the Publish to IIS tab;
  • Press the Publish to IIS... button;
  • Fill in the required fields and press the Publish button.
Publish Web Site using IIS Manager

To create a new site using the microsoft 'Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager' tool:

  1. Launch the Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager from the Windows Administrative Tools group;
  2. In the left column you will see the machine name, expand local machine and right click on Sites then open Add new Web Sites;
  3. Fill all the necessary details which is as below:
    - Site Name; Name of Site, e.g. ActiveXperts Web Access
    - Physical path; Default: C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\WebRoot\
    - Type; Type of Web site. Default: https
    - IP Address; IP Address of the site.
    - Port; Port number on which site will run.
    - Host name; Domain name of site.

7.3. Web Access Sample

The following sample shows the basics of ActiveXperts Web Access:

ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor is used by company Northwind Traders Ltd. to monitor all internal servers and devices. The domain is named 'northwind.intra' and is divided into two sub-domains:
- Domain: 'usa.northwindtraders.intra'
- Domain: 'emea.northwindtraders.intra'

There's the following Folder structure configured in Environmental Monitor:

Entire Network
  |-- usa.northwindtraders.intra (folder-id #1)
        |-- system administration (folder-id #1000)
        |-- production (folder-id #1001)
        |-- webservers (folder-id #1002)
        |-- vmware (folder-id #1003)
  |-- emea.northwindtraders.intra
        |-- sales (folder-id #2001))
        |-- support (folder-id #2002))

The first step is, to publish ActiveXperts Web Access through Microsoft Information Services (IIS).
The root of the Folder to be published is C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\WebRoot\ (default).

Use the ActiveXperts Web Access Configuration program to publish the above. In this sample, it is published as:
https://webaccess.northwindtraders.intra:8080

A port is opened on the firewall with NAT translation, to make Web Access available from the ublic Internet through the following URL:
https://webaccess.northwindtraders.com

In this configuration, we define the following Views:

View: ALL

  • Displays: all servers of northwindtraders.intra (so both 'usa' and 'emea')
  • Accessible through: https://webaccess.northwindtraders.com/1/
  • Selectable Filters: All Results - Failed Only - ICMP Only

View: System Administration

  • Displays: all servers in folder 'system administration'
  • Accessible through: https://webaccess.northwindtraders.com/1000/
  • Selectable Filters: All Results - Failed Only - Active Directory, DNS, DHCP only - Disk Space only
  • View: Production

  • Displays: all servers in folder 'production'
  • Accessible through: https://webaccess.northwindtraders.com/1001/
  • Selectable Filters: All Results - Failed Only - MS SharePoint and MS Dynamics Only
  • View: Support

  • Displays: all servers in folder 'support'
  • Accessible through: https://webaccess.northwindtraders.com/1002/
  • Selectable Filters: All Results - Failed Only - Helpdesk system only
  • Index page

  • Displays: an index of all of the above views
  • Accessible through: https://webaccess.northwindtraders.com/
  • Permissions

    In this samples, there are the following Active Directory groups:

    • northwindtraders.intra\Administrators
    • northwindtraders.intra\Production
    • northwindtraders.intra\Support

    Members from the 'Production' should not have access to monitoring results other than https://webaccess.northwindtraders.com/1001/. To achieve this, the following permssions are defined for C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\WebRoot\1001\:

    • northwindtraders.intra\Administrators: Full Control
    • northwindtraders.intra\Production: Read+Execute

    Members from the 'Support' should not have access to monitoring results other than https://webaccess.northwindtraders.com/1002/. To achieve this, the following permssions are defined for C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\WebRoot\1002\:

    • northwindtraders.intra\Administrators: Full Control
    • northwindtraders.intra\Support: Read+Execute

    7.4. Web Access Data Files

    ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor stores its monitoring results in XML files, which are accessed by the (mobile) web clients. For each filter in a web view, an XML data file is written. In the sample configuration of the previous section, the data files (with default filters) would be like this:

    Entire Network
          \WebRoot\1\all.xml
          \WebRoot\1\failed.xml
          \WebRoot\1000\all.xml
          \WebRoot\1000\failed.xml
          \WebRoot\1001\all.xml
          \WebRoot\1001\failed.xml
          etc.

    If you define a new filter, for instance filter'ICMP' on Folder #1001, the XML data files in folder #1001 would look like this:

    Entire Network
          \WebRoot\1001\all.xml
          \WebRoot\1001\failed.xml
          \WebRoot\1001\icmp.xml
          etc.

    An XML data file looks like this:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <monitor>
      <webview-name>Entire Network View</webview-name>
      <webview-description>All Checks</webview-description>
      <refreshtime>04/09/2020 08:14:53 AM</refreshtime>
      <check>
        <id>10001</id>
        <displayname>www.monitortools.com - Ping (ICMP)</displayname>
        <host>www.monitortools.com</host>
        <folder>\</folder>
        ...
      </check>  
      <check>
        <id>10001</id>  
        ...
      </check> 
    </monitor>
    

    The web clients access the XML data files using qQuery and Ajax to show the results in the web browser.

    7.5. Web Views

    A Web View is an ActiveXperts Web Access Page with the following properties:

    • It represents one Folder in the Environmental Monitor configuration;
    • It is accessible through the following URL: http://web-access-root/folder-id/, for instance: http://axnetworkmonitor/1/
    • It has one or more so called Filters. By default, filters All Results and Failed Results are defined, but you can have many Filters, to filter Results and/or Check Types;
    • A Web View has permission properties, defined by the NTFS Folder permissions;
    • A Web View is optionally listed in the root: http://web-access-root/, for instance: http://axnetworkmonitor/
    • A Web View is visible by any mobile (touch) device or PC.
    Create a New View

    To Create a new View:

    • Start the ActiveXperts Web Access Configuration Tool from the Manager.
      To do so, Open Web Access from the Tools menu and select Web Access Configuration....
    • Press the Add View button. All web sites on the selected IIS server will be listed;
    • Select a Folder from the Folder Selection box;
    • The Default Filters will be applied. You can define additional Filters by clicking the Add View button.
    Configure a View

    To Configure a new View:

    • Start the ActiveXperts Web Access Configuration Tool from the Manager;
    • Select the View and press the Configure View button.

    7.6. Web View Access Control

    Controlling access to your ActiveXperts Web Views is crucial for hosting ActiveXperts Web Access. With Windows and the security features in IIS, you can effectively control how users access your Web Views, granting/denying access to particular Views.

    For example, enabling Anonymous access for all pages of ActiveXperts Web Access will allow any users to see what's happening on the Network. In most cases this is not acceptable.

    How Access Control Works

    You can control user access to your Web server content by properly configuring your Windows file system and Web server security features. When a user attempts to access your Web server, the server carries out several access control processes to identify the user and determine the allowed level of access.

    The following is an outline of the process:

    • The client requests a Web View on the IIS server;
    • The IIS server, if configured to require it, will request authentication information from the client.
    • The browser may either prompt the user for a user name and password, or offer this information automatically;
    • IIS checks if the user has a valid Windows user account. If the user does not, then the request fails, and the user gets a "403 Access Forbidden" message;
    • IIS checks if the user has Web permissions for the requested Web View. If the user does not, then the request fails, and the user gets a "403 Access Forbidden" message.
    How to configure Access Control

    Internet Information Services relies on NTFS permissions for securing individual files and directories from unauthorized access. You can use NTFS permissions to precisely define which users can access your content and how those users are allowed to manipulate that content.

    ActiveXperts recommends the following NTFS permissions on the root of the Web Access folder and all sub folders. This is by default: C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\WebRoot\).

    • SYSTEM: Full Control
    • AXSERVER\Administrators: Full Control
    • AXSERVER\Users: Read
    • AXSERVER\Guests: No Access

    To prevents users from preventing access to specific Folder except one group, set the following permissions on that Folder:

    • SYSTEM: Full Control
    • AXSERVER\Administrators: Full Control
    • AXSERVER\GROUP: Read

    For instance yo prevents users from preventing access to Folder 1005 except group Support, set the following permissions on folder C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\WebRoot\1005\:

    • SYSTEM: Full Control
    • AXSERVER\Administrators: Full Control
    • AXSERVER\Support: Read

    7.7. Web View Refresh Rate

    Client Browser Refresh Interval

    Client devices refresh their Views in order to update data provided by the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Engine service. For each View, you can configure the Client Browser Refresh Interval (seconds). The default is set to 10 seconds.

    If there are many check in a Folder, or if Check intervals are configured execute only once an hour or so, a user may prefer to have the frequency less frequent. Imagine a user is monitoring a Folder with only Temperature checks; updating once every 2 minutes would suffice.

    Server Refresh Interval

    The ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Engine service provides data for Client devices. This is done once every 10 seconds by default. This value can be changed. Having a lower freqeuncy rate will offload the Engine's CPU and Disk activity.

    A confugration with only Ping checks may need a more frequent interval rate (e.g. once every 5 seconds) because usually, Ping checks run at a frequent rate producing different Ping reply times.

    On the other hand, confugration with only Temperature checks may need a less frequent interval rate (e.g. once every 5 minutes) .

    7.8. Customization Web Access

    Introduction

    The web interface displays information about the status of your network servers and devices. You can tailor the visual design of these pages to make them fit into the look and feel of your internet or intranet site. Customization requires basic HTML and CSS knowledge.

    The design of the web interface is controlled via HTML files and CSS files. The majority of the HTML and CSS code is implemented in the following files:

    • WebRoot\index.html - the Web Access index page
    • WebRoot\libs\activexperts\style.css - almost all styling code
    • WebRoot\<FOLDER_ID>\list.html - List View markup file
    • WebRoot\<FOLDER_ID>\map.html - Map View markup file

    Please beware of the following:

    • WebRoot\index.html is rewritten every few seconds or minutes (configurable), because it lists the Web Views. New Web Views can be created, others can be deleted, so the list is dynamic
    • WebRoot\<FOLDER_ID>\List.html and WebRoot\<FOLDER_ID>\map.html have duplicates in ALL Web View Folders.

    After you have finished customization, the modified code must be copied to the _installer folder: C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\WebRoot\_installer\
    The 'Installer Folder' is further explained in the next topic. At the end of the section, there is a step-by-step customization guide.

    Installer Folder

    ActiveXperts Web Access uses an 'Installer Folder'. After you've finished implementing and testing your modifications, you must copy the modified files to the 'Installer Folder':
    C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\WebRoot\_installer\
    After that, you must delete all Files and Folders in C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\WebRoot\ folder EXCEPT the _installer folder. The Engine will then regenerate all fildes and folders.
    This is explained later on in this section in the 'step-by-step' guide.

    If you have made a mistake in the _installer, and you want revert to the original one, all you need to do is deleting the following folder:
    C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\WebRoot\
    The Engine will then copy its original WebRoot folder from the C:\Program Files\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\Sys\Tpl\ folder.

    The following folders in the _installed folder are relevant for customization:

    • folder - this folder contains the List-view list.html file and Heatmap map.html file used in all Web Views (except for Graphs);
    • folder.graphs - this folder contains the Active Server Pages (.asp) files required by the Engine to prepare the Graphs;
    • index - this Folder contains the 3 possible index files used in the root of Web Access:
      * index-webviewsdisabled.html - index page when Web Access is disabled
      * index-webviewsvcnotrunning.html - index page when Web Access is enabled but the ActiveXperts service is not running
      * index-webviewsenabled.html - index page when Web Access is enabled and running. There's a special placeholder named $LISTSECTION that wil be replaced by the actual index information.
    • libs - this Folder contains a collection of Javascript and CSS files. Most important for customization is the libs\activexperts\css\style.css file, which contains styling definitions for all pages;
    • libs.xsl - this Folder contains all mark-up files to support the v2017 (XSL/XML) compatible web views..
    Modifying Web Access Step-by-Step

    Use the following steps to customize ActiveXperts Web Access:

    Step 1: Modify MAP.HTML and LIST.HTML

    • Select a random Web View folder, for instance the Web View with Folder ID '1': C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\WebRoot\1\
      and make a copy, for instance to:
      C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\WebRoot\dev\
      Now, edit the list.html and map.html files in the copied folder using your favorite HTML editor:
      You can test using your browser, by using a URL like this:
      https://hostname/dev/list.html
      https://hostname/dev/map.html
      After completion, copy the modified files to the following folder:
      C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\WebRoot\_installer\folder\

    Step 2: Modify the CSS file

    All styles are implemented in the following file:
    C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\WebRoot\libs\activexperts\css\style.css
    Make changes to this file and test from your browser. After completion, copy the file to the following folder:
    C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\WebRoot\_installer\activexperts\css\

    Step 3: Modify the INDEX files

    There are three different index files:
    index-webviewsdisabled.html, index-webviewsvcnotrunning.html and index-webviewsenabled.html
    All three are described in the 'Installer Folder' topic in this section.

    You can find these three files in folder:
    C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\WebRoot\_installer\
    Only one of these files is copy to the root of Web Access by the engine and is accessible by the browser using URL:
    https://hostname/index.html

    Modify and test all three directly in the _installer folder.

    Step 4: Let the Engine recreate all Files and Folders from the 'Installer Folder'

    Now that you completed all customizations, let the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Engine service regenerate all Files and Folders from the _installer folder. This is a simple but very important step:

    Delete all Files and Folders in C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\WebRoot\
    EXCEPT the _installer folder.

    In a few seconds, all Files and Folders will be regenerated by the Engine service.

    7.9. Web Access v2017 (XSL-XML)

    As mentioned in the previous section, the client web browser uses jQuery and Ajax to access the XML monitoring data and display it in a nice way on the (mobile) device. This is not way it used to be in ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor v.2017 and older. Those version used an XSL layer on the XSL data files to make-up the web pages. The XSL stylesheet was included in the first line of the XML data. Almost all browsers available today are able to display XML data files formatted by an XSL template.

    This technique is still popular amongst the ActiveXperts customers, as it offer huge flexibilty on customizing the web interface, and therefore it is still offered by current ActiveXperts versions. By default, the XSL formatting is disabled, but can enabled easily:

    • Launch the ActiveXperts Web Access Configuration tool;
    • Select the Web View;
    • Enable the XSL/XML based custom web view (v2017 compatible) option.

    Once enabled, you can associate an XSL stylesheet with each Web View configured. That XSL line is inserted in each XML data file that is published, like this:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
    <?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" href="/libs-xsl/ChecksByResult.xsl"?>
    <monitor>
      <webview-name>Entire Network View</webview-name>
      <webview-description>All Checks</webview-description>
      <refreshtime>04/09/2020 08:14:53 AM</refreshtime>
      <check>
        <id>10001</id>
        <displayname>www.monitortools.com - Ping (ICMP)</displayname>
        <host>www.monitortools.com</host>
        <folder>\</folder>
        ...
      </check>  
      <check>
        ...
      </check> 
    </monitor>
    
    Customizing

    To customize the v.2017 XSL/XSL layout, you should make changes to files in the following folder:
    C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\WebRoot\_installer\libs-xsl\

    IMPORTANT: After customization, you MUST delete all files and folders in C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\WebRoot\ EXCEPT the _installer\ folder. That way, all files and folders (customizations) will be rewritten in the C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\WebRoot\ folder.

    If you have made a mistake in the _installer, and you want revert to the original one, all you need to do is deleting the complete folder:
    C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\WebRoot\
    The Engine will then copy its original WebRoot folder from the C:\Program Files\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\Sys\ folder.

    To customize the XSL/XML web interface, you need to modify the *.xsl files and/or the axnetmonstyle.css files. With a little knowledge of XSL and CSS, it is very straightforward.
    The following XSL elements are used frequently:

    • <xsl:value-of>
    • <xsl:sort>
    • <xsl:value-of>
    • <xsl:value-of>

    8. Reports

    8.1. Introduction

    With the ActiveXperts Report Generator, users can create virtually any report. Reports can either be created using a Wizard, or can be generated by a Windows 'Task Scheduler' task without user interaction, which will generate them automatically, periodically (e.g. daily, weekly, monthly). If a report is run from a schedule, the actual report(s) can be sent automatically to a list of e-mail recipients.

    Report Data is stored in a database called the Statistical Database. This database also stores the Graph Data
    To read more about the Statistical Database, see topic Logging Statistical Data

    ActiveXperts Reports features the following:

    • Availability Reports. These reports contain reports aggregate fields, such as total up-time, total down-time etc. Aggregate fields are shown as absolute values (e.g. days, hours, minutes) as well as relative (percentage) values;
    • Incident Reports. These reports show all status changes, including reason for the status change and amount of time it remained in that particular status;
    • Filters - Filters ensure that your reports only return the data you require. The filters available are date/time, checks, folders and results;
    • Create reports interactive through a Windows Wizard (AxRgGui.exe);
    • Create reports from the Windows Task Scheduler using the Report Generator Command-Line Tool (AxRgCmd.exe);
    • Send Reports an an e-mail attachment;
    • Define custom Report Templates;
    • Supported Report formats:PDF, XML, HTML and CSV;

    8.2. Create a Report

    Step 1: Launch the Report Generator Wizard

    You can launch the ActiveXperts Report Generator from the Manager.
    To do so, Open Reports and Graphs from the Tools menu and select Create New Report.

    Step 2: Select a Report Definition File

    Select a Report Definition (.rep) file. A definition file includes all properties of the new report, including type of report, formartting, timeframe, filters and more.

    Step 3: Finish

    Press Finish to create the report. The report is saved in the Reports folder; in a default installation, it is located in folder:
    C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\Stats\
    A Log file is created in the Logs folder; in a default installation, it is located in folder:
    C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\Logs\

    Additionally, you can send the report to the e-mail recipients; the check box is only enabled if the Report Definition file contains e-mail recipients.

    8.3. Create a Report (scheduled)

    ActiveXperts Reports allows you to send out reports automatically to a specified list of e-mail recipients. This can be useful for scheduled reports, for instance for reports that run automatically every week or every month.

    Step 1 - Configure a Report Definition file with e-mail recipients

    To send a report to e-mail recipients from a scheduled job, you must configure the e-mail recipients in the Report Definition (.rep) file.

    ActiveXperts Reports uses the same global e-mail settings as the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Manager and the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Service, like: SMTP server, fallback SMTP server (if any), SMTP login credentials (if any), E-mail Address Book, etc. To change global e-mail settings, you must use the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Manager.

    To configure e-mail recipients for a Report Definition (.rep) file:

    • Start the ActiveXperts Report Configuration Tool from the Manager.
      To do so, Open Reports and Graphs from the Tools menu and select Reports and Graphs Configuration....
    • Select the Reports tab;
    • Select a Report Definition File from the list, and press the Edit Selected button;
    • Select the E-mail properties sheet;
    • Select the E-mail report checkbox. You can now edit the e-mail subject and e-mail body, and select the e-mail recipients.

    NOTE: It is recommended to use E-mail Distribution Groups (from the E-mail Address Book) rather than individual recipients. With a Distribution Group, you don't need to change the Report Definition file to add/remove a recipient. You just need to modify the Distribution Group's recipient list. Besides that, a Distribution Group can be used by multiple Report Definition files.

    Step 2 - Create a test report from the command line (AxRgCmd.exe)

    Before you schedule a report using the Task Scheduler, it is recommended to test the report using the command line tool AxRgCmd.exe. This command line tool produces the same result as the graphical report tool (AxRgGui.exe) described in Chapter 7.2, but does not require any user intervention so it can be run from the Task Scheduler.

    To create a new report from the command line:

    • Start a new Command Prompt. You can start the prompt by pointing to Run in the Start menu, and type: CMD.EXE You can also start a new prompt pointing to Accessories from the All Programs menu, and then select Command Prompt.
    • Change the current directory; set it to the environmental monitor installation directory. For instance:
      CD "C:\Program Files\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\"
    • Start the command line program to create a new report. It requires one parameter: the Report Definition File to be used to create the new report. For instance:
      AxRgCmd.exe /f detail-today-pdf.rep
    • The command line utility will create the report file. The output filename is specified in the Report Definition File. The results of the operations are logged in the following file:
      \Logs\ReportGenerator.log
    Step 3 - Schedule a Report using the Task Scheduler

    Report creation can be automated by scheduling the creation of a report using the Windows Task Scheduler. Scheduling is often used to create monthly reports and send the report to a specified list of e-mail recipients.

    With the Task Scheduler, you can only run the command-line version of the Report Creation Tool (AXRGCMD.EXE). The graphical version (AxRgGui.exe) requires user input and is not designed to run from the Task Scheduler.

    'Step 3' already described how to use the AxRgCmd.exe tool command line tool. This tool can be used to create a report from the command line using a Report Definition (.rep) file, without user intervention, like this:

    @echo off
    CD "C:\Program Files\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\Program"
    AXRGCMD.EXE /f "detail-today-pdf.rep"

    Or (similar)

    @echo off
    CD "C:\Program Files\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\Program"
    "C:\Program Files\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\Program\AXRGCMD.EXE" /f "incident-today-pdf.rep"

    For scheduled tasks, it is recommended to make use of a batch file to encapsulate parameters. For instance, see:
    C:\Program Files\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\Report Definitions\BatchJobs\Incident-Day.cmd

    8.4. Report Definition Files (*.rep)

    The properties of a report is described in a Report Definition file (.rep) file. This definition file describes the properties of a report, including:

    • Report Type; this can be either a Incident Report or an Availability Report. A 'Incident Report' shows all status changes and time the checks had a particular status; an 'Availability Report' provides overall availability information of the checks;
    • Report output file. Use placeholders to use dynamic report file names;
    • Time Frame. Date range, like: today, this month, last 4 weeks, etc.
    • Output format. Supported output formats are: PDF, HTML, XML, XML/XSL and CSV;
    • Filters. Filter on Checks, Folders, Check Types, and Results;
    • E-mail recipients. Recipient who should receive the report via e-mail.

    You can manage Report Definition file (.rep) files, use the ActiveXperts Report Configuration Tool. You can start this application from the 'ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Manager':

    • On the Tools menu, click Reports and Graphs and click on the the Reports and Graphs Configuration Tool;
    • Select the Reports tab.
    ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor provides a set of pre-defined Report Definition files that can be used to create new reports:

    • Availability-month.rep
    • Availability-previousmonth.rep
    • Availability-today-html.rep
    • Availability-today.rep
    • Availability-yesterday.rep
    • Incident-month.rep
    • Incident-previousmonth.rep
    • Incident-today-html.rep
    • Incident-today.rep
    • Incident-yesterday.rep

    8.5. Customizing Reports

    To create/modify a Report Definition File, start the ActiveXperts Reports and Graphs Configuration Tool and do the following:

    • Select the Reports tab;
    • To create a new Report Definition File, click on the Create New button;
    • To modify an existing Report Definition File, select a Report Definition File from the list box and press the Edit Selected button;
    • When your create or edit a report, a wizard starts. It will prompt you for all necessary info.
    Availability Reports vs. Incident Reports

    On of the configurable items in a Report Definition File is the type of report. There are two types:

    • Availability Report;
    • Incident Report.

    An Availability Report provides overall availability information of your servers/checks during the nominated date range. You can see uptimes and downtimes, in days, hours, minutes and seconds, and also as percentages. An 'Availability Report' is used for instance to compare real availability statistics against the SLA requirements.

    A Incident Report provides a detailed list of all status changes during the nominated date range. For each check, you can see exactly when and why it failed, and for how long.

    Output filename

    On of the configurable items in a Report Definition File is the report output filename.

    You can choose for:

    • Fixed filename - a fixed filename, without placeholders;
    • Dynamic filename - a variable filename. It has year/month/day placeholder, so its name depends on the date when the report is created.

    On of the configurable items in a Report Definition File is the report output filename. If you use scheduled day/week/month/quarter/year reports, it is recommended to use dynamic filenames. Otherwise, new report files will automatically overwrite older ones, because the report output files have identical names.

    With dynamic files, the name of the report file depends on the date it is created. You can use the following placeholders:

    • DD - day notation with leading zero
    • D - day notation without leading zero
    • MM - month notation with leading zero
    • M - month notation without leading zero
    • YYYY - year notation
    • YYY - year notation (3 digits only)
    • YY - year notation (2 digits only)
    • Y - year notation (1 digit only)
    Filename:    IncidentReport%MMDDYY%.xml
    Date of creation:  20180422
    Result:      IncidentReport042218.xml
    
    Filename:    IncidentReport%YYYYMMDD%.xml
    Date of creation:  20180422
    Result:      IncidentReport20180422.xml
    
    Report Output format

    One of the configurable items in a Report Definition File is the report output format. ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor supports four different output formats:

    • PDF;
    • HTML;
    • XML;
    • CSV.
    Timeframe

    On of the configurable items in a Report Definition File is the Start Date and the Start Date of a report. You can select the absolute Start Date and End Date, but it is recommended to use a relative Start Date and End Date. For example

    • This Day;
    • Previous Week;
    • Previous 5 Months;
    Filters

    You can define filters in your Report Definition File to show only a subset of all checks in your reports. You can define the following filters:

    • Checks - include all check in your report, or only a subset of all checks;
    • Check Types - include all kinds of checks, or only a subset. You can for instance create a report that only contains ICMP and HTTP checks;
    • Result - include only checks that have a specified result. For instance you can create a report of all checks with result: failed.
    E-mail

    The 'ActiveXperts Report Generator' allows you to send out reports automatically to a nominated list of e-mail recipiuents. This is particularly useful for automated reports, where reports are created daily/weekly/monthly, automatically. Recipients are automatically notified of a new report. They just need to click on the URL that is inside the e-mail message.

    The 'ActiveXperts Report Generator' makes use of the SMTP settings and E-mail address book of the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor configuration. So, it uses the same primary- and secundary SMTP server as used by the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor service. You can use the same e-mail distribution groups as used for e-mail alerts.

    8.6. Formatting Reports

    The PDF and HTML reports are based on an XSL stylesheet to format the report. With the PDF/HTML report, the stylesheet is used to create the report. Once the report has been created, you cannot change the format of the generated report. With XML based reports, a link to the XSL stylesheet is included in the XML report. This means that report data and formatting are stored in two separate files, so you can change the format of the XML report at any time.

    XML Report Data

    Appx D. Report Definition XML Tags describes the Report Data of the XML files.

    XSL

    The 'ActiveXperts Report Generator' allows you to send out reports automatically to a nominated list

    By default, all PDF/HTML 'detail' reports are based on the following XSL stylesheet:
    IncidentReport.xsl

    All PDF/HTML 'availability' reports are based on the following XSL stylesheet:
    AvailabilityReport.xsl

    To change the format of a report, you can either modify the XSL file, or create a new custom XSL file and link the reports to the new XSL file.

    To create a new XSL file:

    • Start the Windows Explorer;
    • Point to the \Report Definitions\StyleSheets\ directory;
    • Make a copy of an existing XSL sheet.

    To link a report to a new custom XSL file:

    • Start the ActiveXperts Reports and Graphs Configuration Tool;
    • Select the Reports tab, select the Report Definition File and press the Edit button;
    • In the Report Output tab, select a new XSL file. XSL files are located in the \Report Definitions\StyleSheets\ folder.

    To modify an XSL file:

    • Start the Windows Explorer;
    • Point to the \Report Definitions\StyleSheets\ directory;
    • Select an XSL file and choose Edit from the context menu.

    To change the format of an HTML or XML report requires basic knowledge of XSL. A good tutorial to XSL can be found here: www.w3schools.com.

    Basic XSL statements

    Use the <xsl:for-each> tag to iterate over a set of checks.

    <xsl:for-each select="monitor/check">
        ...
        <br><xsl:value-of select="result"/><br>
    </xsl:for-each>
    
    The XSL <xsl:for-each> element can be used to select every XML element of a specified node set. 
    The <xsl:value-of> element can be used to select the value of an XML element and add it to the 
    output stream of the transformation.
    

    Use the <xsl:sort> tag to sort a record set.

    <xsl:for-each select="monitor/check">
    <xsl:sort select="result"/>
    <xsl:sort select="displayname"/>
        ...
    <xsl:for-each>
    
    To sort output it at the same time, simply add the <xsl:sort> sort element inside the for-each 
    element in your XSL file. Use multiple <xsl:sort> elements to sort on multiple columns.
    

    Use the <xsl:if> tag to use a condition.

    <xsl:if test="result > 2">
      ...
    </xsl:if>
    
    To put a conditional if test against the content of the file, simply add an <xsl:if> element 
    to your XSL document. The value of the required test attribute contains the expression to 
    be evaluated.
    

    Appx D. Report Definition XML Tags describes the XML tags that can be used in the report definition stylesheets (.xsl).

    9. Graphs

    9.1. Introduction

    With the ActiveXperts Graphs tool, users can create graphs for any Check. You can have multiple Graphs in one screen for multiple Checks, with the restriction that the Checks must be of the same check type (e.g., all ICMP).
    Graphs are created from the Manager using the Check's context menu. Simply right-click on a check, and the Graphs option will appear.

    Graph Data is stored in a database called the Statistical Database. This database also stores the Report Data
    To read more about the Statistical Database, see topic Logging Statistical Data

    ActiveXperts Graphs features the following:

    • Show Graphs of single or multiple Checks in one Window. Checks must be of same check type.
    • Define any Time Frame. You can create Graphs of any start date and end date in history;
    • Zoom feature, to zoom in and out;
    • Save the Graph(s) in various formats including PDF, PNG and JPG;

    9.2. Creating a Graph

    Step 1: Use the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Manager

    Launch the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Manager.

    Step 2: Select one or multiple Checks

    Select a single Check, or select multiple Checks of the same check type.

    Step 3: Launch the Graph tool from the context menu

    Right-click on the selected Check(s), and choose Show Graph....

    10. Operators and Roles

    10.1. Introduction

    Access to the configuration of ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor is controlled by Operator Roles. Allow full control to any user on all configuration aspects, or allow only predefined operators to access the configuration and associate permissions to those operators.

    The Microsoft SQL Compact Database Config.sdf file holds ALL the configuration data. In a default installation, it is located in folder:
    C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\Configuration\
    Permissions that Operators have on aspects of the configuration are also stored in this file.

    10.2. Administrator permissions to all

    By default, all users with a valid Windows login on the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor server have 'Full Administrator' permissions. This means that they can make any changes to the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor configuration. However, if you want to limit permissions to users, you can assign an Operator Role to each individual.

    10.3. Operator Roles

    If you don't want 'Full Administrator' permissions to all users of Environmental Monitor, you need to select the Active Directory users that you want to grant access to the Environmental Monitor configuration. To each user, an Operator Role must be assigned.

    A Windows user account can be assigned one of the following Operator Roles:

    • Full Administrator - Manage Operators; Full Access to all Global Settings and all Checks
    • Advanced Operator - Full Access to all Global Settings and all Checks
    • Operator - Read-Only access to all Global Settings; Full access to all Checks
    • Read-Only Operator - Read-Only access to all Global Settings; Read-Only to all Checks
    • No Access - No access to the configuration.

    10.4. Configure Operator Roles

    As mentioned, all users with a valid Windows login on the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor server have 'Full Administrator' permissions by default. To have different Operator Rules for operators, you must first enable this option:

    • From the Tools menu, choose Options;
    • Select the Operator and Roles tab;
    • Select the option Only allow predefined Operators to manage ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor.

    You can associate 'Operator Roles' to one or more Windows accounts. Do do so:

    • Click on the Select from Domain;
    • In the Domain field, enter your domain and press the List Users button;
    • Select one or more Domain users, and select an Operator Role; then press the Select button Role.

    NOTE: You can also enter a valid hostname in the Domain field, in case you want to select local user accounts.

    11. Dependencies

    11.1. About Dependencies

    Dependencies allow you to create a hierarchy of Checks that depend on each other. This hierarchy is independent of the Folder structure of your Environmental Monitor configuration.

    Dependencies prevent you and your network administrators from being overwhelmed with alert notifications when a central router or server goes down. Without a dependency configuration, the failure of a central server or device would cause a failure of other servers, and as a result many alert notifications would be sent out.

    A dependency will not stop the monitoring of a Check or a set of Checks as soon as a specific Check is in Failure status; it will continue monitoring, but it will show a different status: Dependency Failure, with a orange icon. In Reports and Graphs, the status will also be 'Dependency Failure'.

    There are at least two items involved when configuring dependencies:

    1. Dependee - the server or device that plays a central role. A failure of this 'dependee' device or server would cause failures of other servers and devices (so called 'dependers');
    2. Depender(s) - servers, devices or folders that depend on the 'dependee'.

    There's more information on Dependencies on the ActiveXperts Web Site: activexperts.com/support/network-monitor/online/dependencies. There's a sample included to illustrate how dependencies should be used.

    12. Maintenance

    12.1. Introduction

    Usually there are planned periods of time during which systems undergo maintenance activities that can cause service disruption. During such periods, you don't want Alert Notifications to be generated and Alert Actions to be executed. In addition, you wouldn't like such periods to be taken into account when calculating the Availability report information of your system.

    To avoid such situations, ActiveXperts enables you to define maintenance windows. ActiveXperts enables you to define Maintenance Plans, each one having one or more time schedules. These Maintenance Plans can be assigned to Checks. All Maintenance Plans are managed globally.

    12.2. Configure Maintenance Plans

    In ActiveXperts, there's a default Maintenance Plan that is assigned to a Check when it is created. If you do not have any maintenance activity in your network, you can can have zero schedules assigned to this maintenance plan. Otherwise, configre one or more schedules.

    If you have servers, or groups of servers that need a different maintenance window that the default Maintenance Plan, you can create new Maintenance Plans that you can assign to Checks.

    Configure your Maintenance Plans in the Maintenance tab of the Options menu.

    Create a new Maintenance Plan

    To create a new Maintenance Plan, choose Create New maintenance Plan from the Configure Maintenance Plan tab drop-down box.

    Rename / Delete a Maintenance Plan

    To delete a new Maintenance Plan, select the Maintenance Plan that you want to rename/delete and choose Rename/Delete Maintenance Plan from the Configure Maintenance Plan tab drop-down box.

    Configure a Maintenance Plan

    To configure a new Maintenance Plan, select the Maintenance Plan from the Configure Maintenance Plan tab drop-down box. You can then Add, Remove and Configure zero or more Maintenance Schedules for a Maintenance Plan.

    Maintenance Schedule

    A Maintenance Plan consists of zero or more Maintenance Schedules. No schedules means that there's no maintenance activity defined. A Maintenance schedule can be recurring (once every monday, tuesday, etc), or can be set as one particular date. Furthermore, a maintenance schedule has a time and a fixed number of hours the system will undergo maintenance.

    13. Data Logging

    13.1. Introduction

    ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor has three different types of Logging:

    1. Statistical Data Logging - Used for statistical purposes, to allow the ActiveXperts statistical tools to produce Reports and Graphs;
    2. Application Logging - To see a history of all operations of the Engine;
    3. Real-Time Activity Logging - To view real-time Activity of the Engine in the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Manager

    This Chapter explains these three Logging topics.

    13.2. Statistical Data Logging

    ActiveXperts Reports and ActiveXperts Graphs make use a database called the Statistical Database. By default, this is an MS SQL Compact Database file named Stats.sdf. In a default installation, it is located in folder:
    C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\Stats\

    The Engine stores data in this database frequent. This data is used by the both Report and Graph programs to produce the reports and graphs by the use of advanced queries on the Statistical Database.
    There are two tables involved in this Statistical Database:

    • ReportData - used for creating Reports
    • GraphData- used for creating Graphs

    The Engine inserts an entry in the ReportData table for each status change of a check. Every 5 minutes, the entry is updated to store the last monitored date/time stamp. As soon as there's a status change, a new entry is written.
    If you want, you can change this value through the registry. See FAQ item #Q7780030.

    The Engine inserts an entry in the Graph table for each status change of a check, and once every 5 minutes by default. If you want the Engine to write more frequent to have a more accurate Graph, use the ActiveXperts Reports and Graphs Configuration Tool:

    • From the Manager application, choose Tools and select the Reports and Graphs Configuration Tool;
    • Select the Graphs tab, and change the value in field Once every x minutes.
    Statistical Data Migration

    It is strongly recommended to migrate the MS SQL Server Compact Database Stats.sdf database to either MS SQL Server or MySQL server, to boost the performance of the creation of reports and graphs.
    MS SQL Server Compact Database is an embedded database; MS SQL Server and MySQL are server-side relational databases. Server-side relational databases are installed as an independent service and run outside of the scope of the ActiveXperts application. That is why they can perform much better because of the intrinsic support for multi-core and multi-CPU architectures, using OS features like pre-caching.

    Migration is easy and seemless; use the ActiveXperts Reports and Graphs Configuration Tool:

    • From the Manager application, choose Tools and select the Reports and Graphs Configuration Tool;
    • Select the Statistical Database tab, and press the Migrate button.
    • A Wizard will guide you through the steps of migrating all Statistical Data to either MS SQL or MySQL. All datastructures will we created, including tables, indices and relationships.

    13.3. Application Logging

    All operations of the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Service (the 'Engine) are logged, to allow administrators to see what happened exactly in the past. The following activities are logged:

    • Monitoring activities
    • Other activities, like Alerts ( e.g. e-mail alerts, SMS alerts), Actions (e.g. a computer restart, a service restart, a custom script execution) and important system information.
    Log to a Plain Text File

    The Log information is stored by default in a text file named Log.txt. In a default installation, it is located in folder:
    C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\Logs\

    The Log.txt file has a configurable maximum size limit. After the limit has exceeded, the Log.txt file is copied to Log00001.txt and a new Log.txt is used. After the log is full, it will be copied to Log00002.txt, etc.

    To change the Log.txt file size limit, use ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Manager and do the following:

    • Select Options from the Tools menu. The first tab you see is named Logging;
    • Press the Advanced Log to Text Settings button and change the maximum file size.
    Log to a Database

    Logging to a Plain Text file is the most used option. However, if you prefer to have data logged in a database, you have three choises: MS SQL Compact Database, MS SQL Server database, or a MySQL database.

    To change logging from Plain Text to a database, use the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Manager and do the following:

    • Select Options from the Tools menu. The first tab you see is named Logging;
    • Select the option Log to a Database. It will have the proper connection string to Log.sdf database that ships with the software.
    Application Data Migration

    Once using the MS SQL Server Compact Database Log.sdf, you can migrate it to either MS SQL Server or MySQL if you prefer. However, it will not boost performance like it does with the Statistical Database, because there are no complex queries involved.

    Migration is easy and seemless:

    • From the Manager application, choose Tools and select Options;
    • Select the Statistical Database tab, and press the Migrate button
    • A Wizard will guide you through the steps of migrating all Statistical Data to either MS SQL or MySQL. All datastructures will we created, including tables, indices and relationships.

    13.4. Real-Time activity Logging

    The ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Manager has a Real-Time Activity View on the bottom of the screen. This shows the most recent activities of the Engine. The Real-Time Activity View has of the following tabs:

    • Activity/System - this shows system information, like database operations, license key information, and more;
    • Alerts/Actions - this shows Alerts (e.g. e-mail, SMS) and Actions (e.g. restart of a computer, restart of a server, execution of a custom script)
    • Monitoring (All) - this shows all monitoring activities
    • Monitoring (Warning/Failed) - this shows all monitoring activities with result: Warning or Failure
    • Monitoring (Uncertain) - this shows all monitoring activities with result: Uncertain

    The Real-Time Activity View doesn't use any of the log files described earlier; it has its own internal temporary log files. In a default installation, it is located in:
    C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\Logs\Ipc\Activity

    The above folder location is in fixed location, and cannot be changed. The log files are cleaned periodically, to boost performance.
    You can change the number of entries that you want to see in the view. To do so:

    • From the Manager application, right-click in the Real-Time activity view of the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Manager and change the number of entries.

    14. Configuration API

    14.1. Introduction

    The configuration API enables administrators to read and modify configuration settings programmatically. Use the API to script or automate tasks that need to be performed frequently or in large batches, such as creating new checks, modifying checks, or requesting the engine to immediate monitor a server.

    Execute commands to let the Engine perform specific tasks, like:

    • Reload the configuration because of a modification
    • Put a Check 'On Hold'
    • Immediate monitor a Check
    • Immediate monitor all Checks in a Folder
    • Immediate schedule Database Maintenance, to delete orphan nodes or to delete Nodes from the Configuration Tree that do not exist

    The API is implemented as an ActiveX object, and can be used by a wide variety of programming- and scripting languages. Samples are included in PowerShell and VBScript.

    14.2. Powershell

    The Powershell samples are located in the following Folder:
    C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\Configuration API\Powershell\

    To run a Powershell Script:

    • Open a new Command Prompt
    • Change Directory (CD) to the Folder where the script resides, e.g.
      C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\Configuration API\Powershell\Checks and Folders\
    • Execute the script using the Powershell interpreter command

    For example:

    CD "C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\Configuration API\Powershell\Checks and Folders\"
    Powershell .\ShowCheck.ps1 10050

    14.3. VBScript

    The VBScript samples are located in the following Folder:
    C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\Configuration API\VBScript\

    To run a VBScript Script:

    • Open a new Command Prompt
    • Change Directory (CD) to the Folder where the script resides, e.g.
      C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\Configuration API\VBScript\Checks and Folders\
    • Execute the script using the CSCRIPT interpreter command

    For example:

    CD "C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\Configuration API\Powershell\Checks and Folders\"
    CSCRIPT ShowCheck.vbs 10050

    14.4. EMConfig Class

    The ActiveXperts.EMConfig is the main class of the Configuration API. It has all properties and methods to add, delete and modify checks. You can also modify the global configuration settings using this object.

    In Powershell, the class is instantiated in the following way:

    $objEMConfig = new-object -comobject ActiveXperts.EMConfig

    In VBScript, the class is instantiated like this:

    Dim objEMConfig
    Set objEMConfig  = CreateObject( "ActiveXperts.EMConfig" )

    A selection of the most important Properties and methods are described below.

    14.5. EMConfig Properties

    Properties
    Property Type In/Out Description
    Version String Out Version number of the ActiveXperts Configuration API
    Build String Out Build information of the ActiveXperts Configuration API
    Module String Read Module DLL implementing the ActiveXperts Configuration API
    ConfigDatabase String ReadWrite Path of the Config.sdf Configuration Database
    LastError Number Out Result of the last called method
    Version property

    Type:

    String

    Description:

    Version information of the ActiveXperts Configuration API. This property is read-only; you cannot assign a value to it.

    Sample (VBScript):

    Set objEMConfig  = CreateObject( "ActiveXperts.EMConfig" ) 
    WScript.Echo  "Version: " & objEMConfig.Version
    Build property

    Type:

    String

    Description:

    Build information of the ActiveXperts Configuration API. This property is read-only; you cannot assign a value to it.

    Sample (VBScript):

    Set objEMConfig  = CreateObject( "ActiveXperts.EMConfig" ) 
    WScript.Echo  "Version: " & objEMConfig.Version
    Module property

    Type:

    String

    Description:

    Return the module name of the ActiveXperts Configuration API.

    Sample (VBScript):

    Set objEMConfig  = CreateObject( "ActiveXperts.EMConfig" ) 
    WScript.Echo  "Module: " & objEMConfig.Module
    ConfigDatabase property

    Type:

    String

    Description:

    Full path of the Configuration Database. Default path:
    C:\ProgramData\ActiveXperts\Environmental Monitor\Configuration\Config.sdf

    Sample (VBScript):

    Set objEMConfig  = CreateObject( "ActiveXperts.EMConfig" ) 
    WScript.Echo "Configuration Database File: " & vbCrLf & objEMConfig.ConfigDatabase
    LastError property

    Type:

    Number

    Description:

    The result of a last called method. Use it to check the result of your last method call. A zero indicates: success. Any non-zero value means an error.
    The GetErrorDescription method provides the error description of an error code.
    For a complete list of error codes, check out the following page: www.activexperts.com/support/errorcodes/.

    Sample (VBScript):

    Set objEMConfig  = CreateObject( "ActiveXperts.EMConfig" )
    objEMConfig.Open
    WScript.Echo "Open Configuration Database, result: " & objEMConfig.LastError

    14.6. EMConfig Methods

    Functions
    Function Description
    Open Open the Configuration Database
    Close Closes the Configuration Database
    LoadTreeConfig LoadTreeConfig
    SaveTreeConfig SaveTreeConfig
    CountNodes CountNodes
    LoadNode LoadNode
    SaveNode SaveNode
    FindFirstNode Find first node using a Filter
    FindNextNode Find next node using a Filter
    CopyNode Copy an existing Node into a Folder
    ForceMonitorCheckNow Instructs Engine to immediate monitor a Check.
    ForceMonitorFolderNow Instructs Engine to immediate monitor all Checks in a specific Folder.
    ForceConfigDbReload Instructs the Engine and Manager to reload the Configuration.
    ForceStatsDbSync Instructs the Engine to synchronize the Statistical Database with the Configuration Database.
    ForceStatsDbMaintenance Instructs the Engine to execute its statistical database maintenance job.
    GetErrorDescription Get the description of the given error
    Open function

    Description:

    Opens the Configuration Database, pointed to by the ConfigDatabase property.

    Parameters:

    • None

    Return value:

    None. Check the LastError property for the result of the method.

    Sample (VBScript):

    Set objEMConfig  = CreateObject( "ActiveXperts.EMConfig" )
    objEMConfig.Open
    WScript.Echo "Open Configuration Database, result: " & objEMConfig.LastError & _
                 " (" &  objEMConfig.GetErrorDescription( objEMConfig.LastError ) & ")"
    Close function

    Description:

    Closes the Configuration Database, opened by the ConfigDatabase property.

    Parameters:

    • None

    Return value:

    None.

    Sample (VBScript):

    Set objEMConfig  = CreateObject( "ActiveXperts.EMConfig" )
    objEMConfig.Open
    If( objEMConfig.LastError = 0 ) Then
      objEMConfig.Close
    End If
    LoadTreeConfig function

    Description:

    This method returns a string that holds the Tree Configuration. A sample tree configuration:

    1=nodea0,nodea1,nodea2,nodea3
    nodea1=nodeb1,nodeb2

    If a node has an l-value, it is a Folder. In the above sample, '1' and 'nodea1' are Folders; 'nodea0', 'nodea2',' nodea3', 'nodeb1' and 'nodeb2' are Checks.
    The root folder ID is always 1.

    Parameters:

    • None

    Return value:

    A string representation of the tree configuration.

    Sample (VBScript):

    Set objEMConfig  = CreateObject( "ActiveXperts.EMConfig" )
    objEMConfig.Open
    If( objEMConfig.LastError = 0 ) Then
      WScript.Echo objEMConfig.LoadTreeConfig
      objEMConfig.Close
    End If
    SaveTreeConfig function

    Description:

    Saves a tree configuration.

    Parameters:

    • String representing the new tree configuration

    Return value:

    None

    Sample (VBScript):

    Set objEMConfig  = CreateObject( "ActiveXperts.EMConfig" )
    objEMConfig.Open
    If( objEMConfig.LastError = 0 ) Then
      objEMConfig.SaveTreeConfig( "1=0" )  ' Saved an emptry tree with just the Root node (ID=1)
      objEMConfig.Close
    End If
    CountNodes function

    Description:

    Count the number of Nodes in the Configuration Database. Use a filter to specify whih types to count.

    Parameters:

    • Filter (String) - A Filter to specify which Nodes to count.

    Return value:

    The number of Nodes.
    Check the LastError property for the result of the method. If the function fails, 0 is returned.

    Sample (VBScript):

    Set objEMConfig  = CreateObject( "ActiveXperts.EMConfig" )
    Set objEMConstants = CreateObject( "ActiveXperts.EMConstants" )
    objEMConfig.Open
    If( objEMConfig.LastError = 0 ) Then
      strFilter = "Type=" & objEMConstants.CHECKTYPE_PINGICMP
      WScript.Echo objEMConfig.CountNodes( strFilter )   ' Print the number of ICMP Checks
      strFilter = "Type=" & objEMConstants.CHECKTYPE_FOLDER
      WScript.Echo objEMConfig.CountNodes( strFilter )   ' Print the number of Folders
      objEMConfig.Close
    End If
    LoadNode function

    Description:

    Loads a EMNode object, indicated by the ID.

    Parameters:

    • ID of the Node

    Return value:

    An EMNode object. Check the LastError property for the result of the method. If the function fails, a NULL object is returned.

    Sample (VBScript):

    Set objEMConfig  = CreateObject( "ActiveXperts.EMConfig" )
    objEMConfig.Open
    If( objEMConfig.LastError = 0 ) Then
      Set objEMNode = objEMConfig.LoadNode( 1 )   ' Load the Root Folder
      If( objEMConfig.LastError = 0 ) Then  
        WScript.Echo "Root Folder is named: " & objEMNode.DisplayName
      End If
      objEMConfig.Close
    End If
    SaveNode function

    Description:

    SaveNode a EMNode object, indicated by the ID.

    Parameters:

    Return value:

    None. Check the LastError property for the result of the method.

    Sample (VBScript):

    Set objEMConfig  = CreateObject( "ActiveXperts.EMConfig" )
    objEMConfig.Open
    If( objEMConfig.LastError = 0 ) Then
      Set objEMNode = objEMConfig.LoadNode( 10034 )   ' Load Check #10034
      objEMNode.DisplayName = "New Name for my Check"
      objEMConfig.SaveNode( objEMNode )   ' Save the Check
      objEMConfig.Close
    End If
    FindFirstNode function

    Description:

    Find the first Node using a Filter. Combine with FindNextNode to iterate over all Nodes.

    Parameters:

    • Filter (String) - A Filter to specify which Nodes to query.

    Return value:

    An EMNode object. Check the LastError property for the result of the method. If the function fails, a NULL object is returned.

    Sample (VBScript):

    Set objEMConfig  = CreateObject( "ActiveXperts.EMConfig" )
    Set objEMConstants = CreateObject( "ActiveXperts.EMConstants" )
    objEMConfig.Open
    If( objEMConfig.LastError = 0 ) Then
      ' Iterate over all ICMP Nodes
      strFilter = "Type=" & objEMConstants.CHECKTYPE_PINGICMP
      Set objEMNode = objEMConfig.FindFirstNode( strFilter ) 
      While( objEMConfig.LastError = 0 )
        WScript.Echo "Check #" & objEMNode.ID & ": " & objEMNode.DisplayName
        Set objEMNode = objEMConfig.FindNextNode()   
      Wend
      objEMConfig.Close
    End If
    FindNextNode function

    Description:

    Find the next Node using a Filter. Combine with FindFirstNode to iterate over all Nodes.

    Parameters:

    • None

    Return value:

    An EMNode object. Check the LastError property for the result of the method. If the function fails, a NULL object is returned.

    Sample (VBScript):

    Set objEMConfig  = CreateObject( "ActiveXperts.EMConfig" )
    Set objEMConstants = CreateObject( "ActiveXperts.EMConstants" )
    objEMConfig.Open
    If( objEMConfig.LastError = 0 ) Then
      ' Iterate over all ICMP Nodes
      strFilter = "Type=" & objEMConstants.CHECKTYPE_PINGICMP
      Set objEMNode = objEMConfig.FindFirstNode( strFilter ) 
      While( objEMConfig.LastError = 0 )
        WScript.Echo "Check #" & objEMNode.ID & ": " & objEMNode.DisplayName
        Set objEMNode = objEMConfig.FindNextNode()   
      Wend
      objEMConfig.Close
    End If
    CopyNode function

    Description:

    Copy an existing Node into a specified Folder. Use this method to create a new Check, by first copying it, then modify it and finally save it using SaveNode.

    Parameters:

    • Source Check ID (Number) - the ID of the Check to copy to the destination Folder
    • Destination Folder ID (Number) - the ID of the Folder to copy to the source Check to

    Return value:

    A new EMNode object. Check the LastError property for the result of the method. If the function fails, a NULL object is returned.

    Sample (VBScript):

    Set objEMConfig  = CreateObject( "ActiveXperts.EMConfig" )
    Set objEMConstants = CreateObject( "ActiveXperts.EMConstants" )
    objEMConfig.Open
    If( objEMConfig.LastError = 0 ) Then
      ' Iterate over all ICMP Nodes
      strFilter = "Type=" & objEMConstants.CHECKTYPE_PINGICMP
      Set objEMNode = objEMConfig.FindFirstNode( strFilter ) 
      While( objEMConfig.LastError = 0 )
        WScript.Echo "Check #" & objEMNode.ID & ": " & objEMNode.DisplayName
        Set objEMNode = objEMConfig.FindNextNode()   
      Wend
      objEMConfig.Close
    End If
    ForceMonitorCheckNow function

    Description:

    Instructs the Engine to immediate monitor a Check, regardless of configured Scan Frequency. The Engine will monitor the check as soon as possible.

    Parameters:

    • ID (Number) - the Check ID of the Check to be monitored

    Return value:

    None. Check the LastError property for the result of the method.

    Sample (VBScript):

    Set objEMConfig  = CreateObject( "ActiveXperts.EMConfig" )
    objEMConfig.ForceMonitorCheckNow( 10015 )  ' Monitor Check #10015 as soon as possible
    WScript.Echo "ForceMonitorCheckNow, result: " & objEMConfig.LastError & _
                 " (" &  objEMConfig.GetErrorDescription( objEMConfig.LastError ) & ")"
    ForceMonitorFolderNow function

    Description:

    Instructs the Engine to immediate monitor all Checks in a specific Folder and all of its SubFolders, regardless of configured Scan Frequency. The Engine will monitor the checks as soon as possible.

    Parameters:

    • ID (Number) - the Folder ID of the Folder to be monitored

    Return value:

    None. Check the LastError property for the result of the method.

    Sample (VBScript):

    Set objEMConfig  = CreateObject( "ActiveXperts.EMConfig" )
    objEMConfig.ForceMonitorFolderNow( 10923)  ' Monitor all Checks in Folder #10923
    WScript.Echo "ForceMonitorFolderNow, result: " & objEMConfig.LastError & _
                 " (" &  objEMConfig.GetErrorDescription( objEMConfig.LastError ) & ")"
    ForceConfigDbReload function

    Description:

    Instructs the Engine, local Manager and remote Managers to reload the Configuration after a change to the configuration. If you make changes to the configuration through the Configuration API, the Engine and Manager(s) will not reload the configuration until you instruct them to do so through this 'ForceConfigDbReload' command.
    You do not need to call Open prior to this command.

    Parameters:

    • None

    Return value:

    None. Check the LastError property for the result of the method.

    Sample (VBScript):

    Set objEMConfig  = CreateObject( "ActiveXperts.EMConfig" )
    objEMConfig.ForceConfigDbReload
    WScript.Echo "ForceConfigDbReload, result: " & objEMConfig.LastError & _
                 " (" &  objEMConfig.GetErrorDescription( objEMConfig.LastError ) & ")"
    ForceStatsDbSync function

    Description:

    ForceStatsDbSync instructs the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Engine service to sync the Statistical Database with the Configuration Database, which means that all Nodes records of the Configuration Database are copied to the Statistical Database. This is necessary because Report and Graph queries use JOIN operations that require both tables to be up to date.
    You do not need to call Open prior to this command.

    Parameters:

    • None

    Return value:

    None. Check the LastError property for the result of the method.

    Sample (VBScript):

    Set objEMConfig  = CreateObject( "ActiveXperts.EMConfig" )
    objEMConfig.ForceStatsDbSync
    WScript.Echo "ForceStatsDbSync, result: " & objEMConfig.LastError & _
                 " (" &  objEMConfig.GetErrorDescription( objEMConfig.LastError ) & ")"
    ForceStatsDbMaintenance function

    Description:

    ForceStatsDbMaintenance instructs the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Engine service to execute its statistical database maintenance job, to cleanup records. Records with check id's that do not exist in the configration (anymore), or records older than x months, configurable) will be cleaned.
    You do not need to call Open prior to this command.

    Parameters:

    • None

    Return value:

    None. Check the LastError property for the result of the method.

    Sample (VBScript):

    Set objEMConfig  = CreateObject( "ActiveXperts.EMConfig" )
    objEMConfig.ForceStatsDbMaintenance
    WScript.Echo "ForceStatsDbMaintenance, result: " & objEMConfig.LastError & _
                 " (" &  objEMConfig.GetErrorDescription( objEMConfig.LastError ) & ")"
    GetErrorDescription function

    Description:

    GetErrorDescription provides the error description of a given error code.

    Parameters:

    • Error code.

    Return value:

    The error description that is associated with the given error code.

    Example:

    Set objEMConfig  = CreateObject( "ActiveXperts.EMConfig" )
    objEMConfig.Open
    WScript.Echo "Open Configuration Database, result: " & objEMConfig.LastError  _
                 " (" &  objEMConfig.GetErrorDescription( objEMConfig.LastError ) & ")"

    14.7. EMNode Class

    The ActiveXperts.EMNode class is the class representation of a Check or Folder. It only has properties. Some are common, some are specific for the type of Check.

    Nodes are stored in the "Nodes" table of the Configration Database.

    In Powershell, the class is instantiated in the following way:

    $objEMNode = new-object -comobject ActiveXperts.EMNode

    In VBScript, the class is instantiated like this:

    Dim objEMNode
    Set objEMNode  = CreateObject( "ActiveXperts.EMNode" )

    A selection of the most important Properties are described below. The class has only one method named "Clear", to reset all properties of a node.

    14.8. EMNode Properties

    Below is a listing of the most relevant properties of an EMNode object.

    Properties
    Property Type In/Out Description
    ID Number Out ID of the Check or Folder
    DisplayName String In/Out DisplayName of the Check or Folder
    OnHold Boolean In/Out Check is On Hold
    Type Number In/Out Type of the Check or Folder
    ScanInterval Number In/Out Scan Interval of the Check, in seconds
    CheckServer String In/Out Host or IP address
    ID property

    Type:

    Number

    Description:

    The unique record ID in the "Nodes" table of the Configuration Database.

    DisplayName property

    Type:

    String

    Description:

    The DisplayName of the Check or Folder.

    OnHold property

    Type:

    Number

    Description:

    To pause a Check, set this value to True. Otherwise, set it to False.

    Type property

    Type:

    Number

    Description:

    The Type of Check or Folder. For a list of Type-values, click here.

    ScanInterval property

    Type:

    Number

    Description:

    The Scan Interval of the Check, in seconds.

    CheckServer property

    Type:

    String

    Description:

    The Host or IP address of the server/device to check.

    14.9. EMNode Methods

    Functions
    Function Description
    Clear Clear all properties of the EMNode object
    Clear function

    Description:

    Clear all proeprties of the EMNode object. String are set to empty, Numbers are set to 0, Booleans are set to False.

    Parameters:

    • None

    Return value:

    None.

    14.10. EMConstants Class

    The ActiveXperts.EMConstants is the class containing all contant values used in the API. It only has properties.

    In Powershell, the class is instantiated in the following way:

    $objEMConstants = new-object -comobject ActiveXperts.EMConstants

    In VBScript, the class is instantiated like this:

    Dim objEMConstants
    Set objEMConstants  = CreateObject( "ActiveXperts.EMConstants" )

    A selection of the most important Properties are described below.

    14.11. EMConstants Properties

    Below is a listing of the most relevant properties of an EMConstants class.

    CheckType constants
    Name Value Description
    CHECKTYPE_UNDEFINED 0 Undefined
    CHECKTYPE_FOLDER 1 Folder
    CHECKTYPE_PINGICMP 10 Ping (ICMP)
    CHECKTYPE_PINGTCP 12 Ping (TCP)
    CHECKTYPE_TCP 30 TCP/IP
    CHECKTYPE_SMTP 32 SMTP Mailserver
    CHECKTYPE_HTTP 33 HTTP/HTTPs
    CHECKTYPE_SNMPGET 37 SNMP GET
    CHECKTYPE_SNMPTRAPRCV 42 SNMP Trap Receive
    CHECKTYPE_ADOSQL 111 Database Query (Generic)
    CHECKTYPE_ENVIRONALL 500 Environmental (Any)
    CHECKTYPE_ENVIRONTEMPERATURE 510 Temperature
    CHECKTYPE_ENVIRONHUMIDITY 520 Humidity
    CHECKTYPE_ENVIRONDEWPOINT 530 Dew Point
    CHECKTYPE_ENVIRONHEATINDEX 540 Heat Index
    CHECKTYPE_ENVIRONPOWER 550 Power
    CHECKTYPE_ENVIRONVOLTAGE 560 Voltage
    CHECKTYPE_ENVIRONSWITCH 570 Switch
    CHECKTYPE_ENVIRONPOWERSTATE 580 PowerState
    CHECKTYPE_ENVIRONLIGHT 590 Light
    CHECKTYPE_ENVIRONMOTION 600 Motion
    CHECKTYPE_ENVIRONSMOKE 610 Smoke
    CHECKTYPE_ENVIRONDOOR 620 Door
    CHECKTYPE_ENVIRONRESISTANCE 630 Resistance
    CHECKTYPE_ENVIRONWETNESS 640 Wetness
    CHECKTYPE_ENVIRONVIBRATION 650 Vibration
    CHECKTYPE_ENVIRONCARBONOXIDE 660 CarbonOxide
    CHECKTYPE_ENVIRONCARBONDIOXIDE 670 CarbonDioxide
    CHECKTYPE_ENVIRONAIRFLOW 680 Airflow
    CHECKTYPE_ENVIRONAIRQUALITY 690 AirQuality
    CHECKTYPE_ENVIRONSOUND 700 Sound
    Result constants
    Name Value Description
    RESULT_NOTPROCESSED 0 Not processed
    RESULT_SUCCESS 1 Success
    RESULT_WARNING 2 Warning
    RESULT_FAILURE 3 Failure
    RESULT_MAINTENANCE 4 Maintenance
    RESULT_ONHOLD 5 On Hold
    RESULT_DEPENDER_WARNING 6 Warning by Depender
    RESULT_DEPENDER_FAILURE 7 Failure by Depender
    RESULT_UNCERTAIN 8 Uncertain

    15. Troubleshooting

    15.1. Introduction

    Visit our website at www.activexperts.com/support/environmental-monitor/ for a complete FAQ list. You can also send an email to our support staff: support@activexperts.com.

    16. Purchase and Product Activation

    16.1. License Scheme

    For ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor licensing options and pricing, please check online: ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Licensing.

    16.2. Purchase

    To purchase, please visit: activexperts.com/sales

    You can also contact us via email: sales@activexperts.com.

    16.3. Product Activation

    After you purchase the product, you will receive one or more product license keys. These must be entered by using the ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor Manager application.

    To enter the license key, go to the Help menu, and choose 'License Information'. Press the 'Enter Key' button and enter your license key.

    Appx A. License Agreement

      PLEASE READ THIS SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT CAREFULLY BEFORE 
      DOWNLOADING OR USING THE SOFTWARE.  BY CLICKING ON THE 
      "ACCEPT" BUTTON, OPENING THE PACKAGE, DOWNLOADING THE PRODUCT, 
      OR USING THE EQUIPMENT THAT CONTAINS THIS PRODUCT, YOU ARE 
      CONSENTING TO BE BOUND BY THIS AGREEMENT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE 
      TO ALL OF THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT, CLICK THE "DO NOT 
      ACCEPT" BUTTON AND THE INSTALLATION PROCESS WILL NOT CONTINUE, 
      RETURN THE PRODUCT TO THE PLACE OF PURCHASE FOR A FULL REFUND, 
      OR DO NOT DOWNLOAD THE PRODUCT.
      
      GENERAL
      In this Software License Agreement:
      (i) "ActiveXperts" means ActiveXperts Software B.V.
      (ii) "Customer" means the individual(s), organization or business entity 
      buying a license of the Software from ActiveXperts or its Distributors 
      or its Resellers.
      (iii) "Software" means computer programs (and their storage medium) 
      supplied by ActiveXperts and known collectively as "Mobile Messaging Toolkit" 
      in which ActiveXperts has property rights and any user manuals, 
      operating instructions, brochures and all other documentation relating 
      to the said computer programs (the expression "Software" to include all 
      or any part or any combination of Software).
      
      1. LICENSE GRANT
      ActiveXperts grants Customer the following rights provided that you 
      comply with all terms and conditions of this License Agreement:
      
      (a) Installation and use. Customer may install, use, access, display and 
      run one copy of the Software on a single computer, such as a 
      workstation, terminal or other device ("Workstation Computer"). A 
      "License Pack" allows you to install, use, access, display and run 
      additional copies of the Software up to the number of "Licensed Copies" 
      specified above.
      
      (b) Reservation of Rights. ActiveXperts reserves all rights not 
      expressly granted to you in this License Agreement.
      
      2. UPGRADES AND SUPPLEMENTS
      To use a product identified as an upgrade, you must first be licensed 
      for the Software as eligible for the upgrade. After upgrading, Customer 
      may no longer use the product that formed the basis for Customer's 
      upgrade eligibility.
      
      This License Agreement applies to updates or supplements to the original 
      Software provided by ActiveXperts, unless we provide other terms along 
      with the update or supplement.
      
      3. LIMITATION ON REVERSE ENGINEERING,DECOMPILATION, AND DISASSEMBLY
      Customer may not reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the 
      Software, except and only to the extent that it is expressly permitted 
      by applicable law notwithstanding this limitation.
      
      4. TERMINATION
      Without prejudice to any other rights, ActiveXperts may cancel this 
      License Agreement if Customer does not abide by the terms and conditions 
      of this License Agreement, in which case you must destroy all copies of 
      the Software and all of its component parts.
      
      5. NOT FOR RESALE SOFTWARE
      Software identified as "Not for Resale" or "NFR," may not be resold, 
      transferred or used for any purpose other than demonstration, test or 
      evaluation.
      
      6. LIMITED WARRANTY
      ActiveXperts warrants that for a period of ninety (90) days from the 
      date of shipment from ActiveXperts: (i) the media on which the Software 
      is furnished will be free of defects in materials and workmanship under 
      normal use; and (ii) the Software substantially conforms to its 
      published specifications. Except for the foregoing, the Software is 
      provided AS IS. This limited warranty extends only to Customer as the 
      original licensee. Customer's exclusive remedy and the entire liability 
      of ActiveXperts and its suppliers under this limited warranty will be, 
      at ActiveXperts or its service center's option, repair, replacement, or 
      refund of the Software if reported (or, upon request, returned) to the 
      party supplying the Software to Customer. In no event does ActiveXperts 
      warrant that the Software is error free or that Customer will be able to 
      operate the Software without problems or interruptions.
      This warranty does not apply if the software (a) has been altered, 
      except by ActiveXperts, (b) has not been installed, operated, repaired, 
      or maintained in accordance with instructions supplied by ActiveXperts, 
      (c) has been subjected to abnormal physical or electrical stress, 
      misuse, negligence, or accident, or (d) is used in ultrahazardous 
      activities.
      
      
      7. LIMITATION OF LIABILITY AND REMEDIES.
      Notwithstanding any damages that you might incur for any reason 
      whatsoever (including, without limitation, all damages referenced above 
      and all direct or general damages), the entire liability of ActiveXperts 
      and any of its suppliers under any provision of this License Agreement 
      and your exclusive remedy for all of the foregoing (except for any 
      remedy of repair or replacement elected by ActiveXperts with respect to 
      any breach of the Limited Warranty) shall be limited to the greater of 
      the amount actually paid by you for the Software or U.S.$5.00. The 
      foregoing limitations, exclusions and disclaimers (including Sections 4, 
      5 and 6 above) shall apply to the maximum extent permitted by applicable 
      law, even if any remedy fails its essential purpose.
      
      8. ENTIRE AGREEMENT
      
      This License Agreement (including any addendum or amendment to this 
      License Agreements which is included with the Software) are the entire 
      agreement between you and ActiveXperts relating to the Software and the 
      support services (if any) and they supersede all prior or 
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      terms of this License Agreement, the terms of this License Agreement 
      shall control.
      
      This Agreement shall be construed in accordance with the laws of The 
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      dispute relating to these conditions. If any part of these conditions 
      shall be or become invalid or unenforceable in any way and to any extent 
      by any existing or future rule of law, order, statute or regulation 
      applicable thereto, then the same shall to the extent of such invalidity 
      or enforceability be deemed to have been deleted from the conditions 
      which shall remain in full force and effect as regards all other 
      provisions.
      
      9. Copyright
      The Software is protected by copyright and other intellectual property 
      laws and treaties. ActiveXperts or its suppliers own the title, 
      copyright, and other intellectual property rights in the Software. The 
      Software is licensed, not sold.

    Appx B. ID's

    Check Type ID's and Result ID's can be used in several places in ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor:

    • In Notification Message Templates - include the check type ID or Result ID in a notification (e-mail, SMS, ...) to have more detailed information of a notification
    • In Report Definitions - include/exclude specific check types and/or results in particular reports
    • In Web Interface Definitions - include/exclude specific check types and/or results in particular web views

    A Check Type ID can hold one of the following values:

    • 10 - ICMP
    • 11 - TraceRoute
    • 20 - Disk Space
    • 21 - Disk Space (Win32 NAS)
    • 30 - TCP/IP
    • 31 - POP3
    • 32 - SMTP
    • 33 - HTTP(s)
    • 34 - FTP
    • 35 - RSH
    • 36 - DNS
    • 37 - SNMP Get
    • 38 - NNTP
    • 39 - IMAP
    • 40 - NTP
    • 41 - Temperature
    • 42 - SNMP Trap Receive
    • 43 - SSH
    • 44 - Citrix ICA
    • 45 - DHCP
    • 50 - Service
    • 60 - File
    • 61 - Registry
    • 62 - Windows Update
    • 63 - Windows Certificates
    • 64 - IIS Application Pool
    • 70 - Anti-Virus/Anti-Spam
    • 71 - MS Active Directory
    • 72 - MS Hyper-V Server
    • 73 - MS Exchange Server
    • 74 - MS IIS Server
    • 75 - MS ISA Server
    • 76 - MS SharePoint Server
    • 77 - MS SQL Server
    • 78 - Windows Defender
    • 79 - MS BizTalk
    • 80 - MS Index Server
    • 81 - Citrix XenApp
    • 82 - MS Forefront TMG
    • 83 - MS Dynamics NAV
    • 84 - MS Dynamics AX
    • 85 - MS Dynamics CRM
    • 86 - MS Dynamics GP/SL
    • 90 - Event Log
    • 100 - VBScript
    • 110 - ODBC
    • 111 - ADO/SQL
    • 112 - Oracle
    • 120 - MS TSE
    • 130 - CPU
    • 140 - Directory
    • 150 - Disk
    • 160 - Floppy
    • 170 - Memory
    • 180 - Printer
    • 190 - Process
    • 200 - Humidity
    • 201 - Power
    • 202 - Light
    • 203 - Motion
    • 204 - Smoke
    • 205 - Door
    • 206 - Resistance
    • 207 - SwitchNC
    • 208 - SwitchNO
    • 210 - Wetness
    • 220 - Scheduled Task (NT)
    • 221 - Scheduled Task
    • 230 - WinLogon
    • 240 - SMTP to POP3
    • 250 - MSMQ
    • 260 - Serial Device
    • 270 - TFTP
    • 271 - SpeedTest
    • 280 - Remote Command
    • 290 - PowerShell
    • 300 - RADIUS
    • 310 - SFTP
    • 320 - WMI Counters
    • 321 - Performance Counters
    • 330 - Removable Drives
    • 340 - SMPP
    • 350 - Vmware
    • 360 - XenServer
    • 370 - KVM
    • 371 - Nimboxx VERDE
    • 0 - Undefined
    • 1 - a Folder (not a check)

    The Check Type values can be retrieved from the Config.sdf configuration database, and also from the statistical database (either Stats.sdf, an MS SQL Server database or MySQL database).
    Microsoft SQL Server Compact (.sdf) databases can be loaded into Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio 2008 (ships with Microsoft SQL Server) or higher, or Microsoft Visual Strudio 2010 or higher.
    To see all values, perform the following query on the CheckTypes table:

        SELECT * FROM CheckTypes ORDER BY ID;

    A Result ID can hold one of the following values:

    • 0 - Not monitored
    • 1 - Success
    • 2 - Warning
    • 3 - Failure
    • 4 - Maintenance
    • 5 - On Hold
    • 6 - Warning by Depender
    • 7 - Failure by Depender
    • 8 - Uncertain

    The Result values can be retrieved from the Config.sdf configuration database, and also from the statistical database (either Stats.sdf, an MS SQL Server database or MySQL database).
    To see all values, perform the following query on the 'Results' table:

        SELECT * FROM Results ORDER BY ID;

    Appx C. Web Access XML Tags

    The following Web Access XML tags are defined and used by Client Browsers:

    • id - ID of the Check. Each checks has a unique ID. Check ID's start at 10000
    • host - Hostname or IP address of the device/computer being monitored
    • displayname - Friendly name of the check
    • comments - Additional custom information for this check
    • folder - Path of the folder where the check is located
    • type-id - Type of check. . See Appx B. ID's
    • type - Type of check (friendly name)
    • result-id - Monitoring result of the check. See Appx B. ID's
    • result - Monitoring result of the check (friendly name)
    • data - Resulting value (number) of the check. Can be the reply time in milliseconds (ICMP check), number of MB (Memory check), etc.
    • explanation - Additional information about the result of the check. It usually explains the reason for failing or the reason for success
    • processing - Indicates whether the check is being monitored right now.
    • update-secs - Time (in seconds after 1/1/1970) that the check was last processed.
    • update - Time (formatted string) that the check was last processed.

    Appx D. Report Definition XML Tags

    The following Report Definition XML tags are defined by ActiveXperts Environmental Monitor. These tags can be embedded inside XSL formatting files to create custom report pages.

    The following XML tags are defined for Incident Reports:

    • monitor/from-secs - Start date and time of the report, in seconds elapsed after 1/1/1970
    • monitor/to-secs - End date and time of the report, in seconds elapsed after 1/1/1970
    • monitor/from-date - Start date of the report, as a friendly string
    • monitor/to-date - End date of the report, as a friendly string
    • monitor/description - Description of the report
    • monitor/check/id - ID of a check
    • monitor/check/host - Host of a check
    • monitor/check/displayname - DisplayName of a check
    • monitor/check/checktype-id - Type of check (number). See Appx B. ID's
    • monitor/check/checktype - Type of check (friendly string)
    • monitor/check/folder - Folder where a check resides
    • monitor/check/event/from-secs - Start date and time of the event, in seconds elapsed after 1/1/1970
    • monitor/check/event/from-date - Start date of the event, as a friendly string
    • monitor/check/event/from-time - Start time of the event, as a friendly string
    • monitor/check/event/to-secs - End date and time of the event, in seconds elapsed after 1/1/1970
    • monitor/check/event/to-date - End date of the event, as a friendly string
    • monitor/check/event/to-time - End time of the event, as a friendly string
    • monitor/check/event/result-id - Result of the event (number). . See Appx B. ID's
    • monitor/check/event/result - Result of the event (friendly string)
    • monitor/check/event/duration-secs - Duration of the event (seconds)
    • monitor/check/event/duration - Duration of the event (friendly string)
    • monitor/check/event/duration-pct - Duration of the event (percentage of total report timeframe)
    • monitor/check/event/reason - Detailed infomration about the result of the check


    The following XML tags are defined for Availability Reports:

    • monitor/from-secs - Start date and time of the report, in seconds elapsed after 1/1/1970
    • monitor/to-secs - End date and time of the report, in seconds elapsed after 1/1/1970
    • monitor/from-date - Start date of the report, as a friendly string
    • monitor/to-date - End date of the report, as a friendly string
    • monitor/description - Description of the report
    • monitor/check/id - ID of a check
    • monitor/check/host - Host of a check
    • monitor/check/displayname - DisplayName of a check
    • monitor/check/checktype-id - Type of check (number). See Appx B. ID's
    • monitor/check/checktype - Type of check (friendly string)
    • monitor/check/folder - Folder where a check resides
    • monitor/check/uncertain-secs - Amount of time that the check was in an 'Uncertain' status, in seconds
    • monitor/check/uncertain-hrsmin - Amount of time that the check was in an 'Uncertain' status, displayed as 'ddd hh:mm:ss'
    • monitor/check/uncertain-pct - Amount of time that the check was in an 'Uncertain' status, as percentage of the total time reported
    • monitor/check/uncertain-secs - Amount of time that the check was in an 'Uncertain' status, in seconds
    • monitor/check/uncertain-hrsmin - Amount of time that the check was in an 'Uncertain' status, displayed as 'ddd hh:mm:ss'
    • monitor/check/uncertain-pct - Amount of time that the check was in an 'Uncertain' status, as percentage of the total time reported
    • monitor/check/success-secs - Amount of time that the check was in a 'Success' status, in seconds
    • monitor/check/success-hrsmin - Amount of time that the check was in a 'Success' status, displayed as 'ddd hh:mm:ss'
    • monitor/check/success-pct - Amount of time that the check was in a 'Success' status, as percentage of the total time reported
    • monitor/check/failure-secs - Amount of time that the check was in a 'Failure' status, in seconds
    • monitor/check/failure-hrsmin - Amount of time that the check was in a 'Failure' status, displayed as 'ddd hh:mm:ss'
    • monitor/check/failure-pct - Amount of time that the check was in a 'Failure' status, as percentage of the total time reported
    • monitor/check/maintenance-secs - Amount of time that the check was in a 'Maintenance' status, in seconds
    • monitor/check/maintenance-hrsmin - Amount of time that the check was in a 'Maintenance' status, displayed as 'ddd hh:mm:ss'
    • monitor/check/maintenance-pct - Amount of time that the check was in a 'Maintenance' status, as percentage of the total time reported
    • monitor/check/onhold-secs - Amount of time that the check was in an 'On Hold' status, in seconds
    • monitor/check/onhold-hrsmin - Amount of time that the check was in an 'On Hold' status, displayed as 'ddd hh:mm:ss'
    • monitor/check/onhold-pct - Amount of time that the check was in an 'On Hold' status, as percentage of the total time reported
    • monitor/check/depfailure-secs - Amount of time that the check was in a 'Dependency Failure' status, in seconds
    • monitor/check/depfailure-hrsmin - Amount of time that the check was in a 'Dependency Failure' status, displayed as 'ddd hh:mm:ss'
    • monitor/check/depfailure-pct - Amount of time that the check was in a 'Dependency Failure' status, as percentage of the total time reported
    • monitor/check/notprocessed-secs - Amount of time that the check was in a 'Not Processed' status, in seconds
    • monitor/check/notprocessed-hrsmin - Amount of time that the check was in a 'Not Processed' status, displayed as 'ddd hh:mm:ss'
    • monitor/check/notprocessed-pct - Amount of time that the check was in a 'Not Processed' status, as percentage of the total time reported

    Appx E. Notification Variables

    The following system variables can be embedded in Notifications (SMS, e-mail, etc.) and Actions (VBScript, PowerShell, etc.):

    • engine - Engine (host or IP address of the Environmental Monitor server) that processed this check
    • id - ID of the Check. Each checks has a unique ID. Check ID's start at 10000
    • host - Hostname or IP address of the device/computer being monitored
    • displayname - Friendly name of the check
    • notes - Additional custom information for this check
    • type-id - Type of check. See Appx B. ID's
    • type - Type of check (friendly name)
    • result-id - Monitoring result of the check. See Appx B. ID's
    • result - Monitoring result of the check (friendly name)
    • data - Resulting value (number) of the check. Can be the reply time in milliseconds (ICMP check), number of MB (Memory check), etc.
    • explanation - Additional information about the result of the check. It usually explains the reason for failing or the reason for success
    • date - Date this check was processed
    • time - Time this check was processed