ActiveXperts Network Monitor 2019 Release Notes

Index

Introduction
Download
What's new in ActiveXperts Network Monitor 2019
Installation and Upgrade

Introduction

ActiveXperts Network Monitor 2019 is the latest version of the ActiveXperts Network Monitor product.
The mission of the product is to maximize the reliability of your production servers and applications through the automatic detection and correction of problems and issues.
The product runs as a service on Windows 2019/2016/2012(R2)/2008(R2)/11/10/8/7 platforms.

Download

Click on the link below to download ActiveXperts Network Monitor 2019. It offers a 64-bit installation (AxMonitorSetup64.exe) and a 32-bit installation (AxMonitorSetup32.exe).
Download here: www.activexperts.com/download

What's new in ActiveXperts Network Monitor 2019

Web Access

• ActiveXperts Network Monitor 2019 features a new responsive, mobile first web interface, named 'ActiveXperts Web Access'. It allows users you to see those parts of the Network Monitor configuration that they have access to. ActiveXperts Web Access focusses on Network Monitors on Folders. Each Folder in the Network Monitor configuration can be published, each one having its own credentials. Each 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.

ActiveXperts Network Monitor Service (Engine)

• Alternate Credentials: In Network Monitor v.2019, there's now a fallback mode for alternate credentials: if there's already a connection to a remote server, and alternate credentials do not work, then Network Monitor will fallback to the existing credentials. This avoids many 'Uncertain' results with description 'Multiple connections to a server or shared resource by the same user'.
• FIX: The ActiveXperts Network Monitor Service can now be restarted from the Manager without the 'Run As Administrator' option. ActiveXperts now uses the Operating System to ask to 'Run As Administrator' automatically.
• FIX: The engine failed to restart a service (as part of a Check's 'Action' properties) when a service displayname (e.g. 'Print Spooler') was used rather than its formal name ('spooler'). This has been fixed.

Manager

• The Manager provides a function to 'Find' checks in the configuration. The 'Find' function is available from the context menu. You can search on (sub) strings in the following fields: 'Displayname', 'Host' and 'Notes'.
• The 'Activity View' has been renamed to 'Real-Time Activity View', and has 5 differenet views: 'All Activity', 'System', 'Alerting/Actions', 'Monitoring (All)', 'Monitoring (Error/Failed)', 'Monitoring (Uncertain)'
• Number of entries in the 'Real-Time Activity View's is now configurable.
• The Real-Time Activity Views are now much faster; in previous versions, the log was read by the Manager, line-by-line; now, the full log is read into memory in one go, speeding up the performance of the Manager application.
• FIX: In the 'Global Credentials' tab ('Options' menu) , the deletion of an account sometimes failed, or another account was deleted instead of the selected one(s). This has been fixed.
• FIX: With configurations with over 7000 checks, Check results were sometimes displayed as 'Not Processed' which was not correct; they were processed, but due to a display buffer overflow, wrong information was displayed. This has been fixed.
• FIX: An Restore of a configuration with a large number of Distribution Groups (over a 100) made the Manager crash due to a buffer overflow. This has been fixed.

Adress Book

• ActiveXperts Network Monitor 2019 features a full featured Address Book, supporting Contacts and Contact Groups. Each Contact holds the name of an Administrator, and can have multiple E-mail addresses, SMS addresses, etc.
  You can only assign Contact(s) or Contact Groups(s) to a Check's Alerting properties. In previous versions, it was allowed to assign straight e-mail addresses or SMS mobile numbers to the Check's Alerting properties.

Configuration

• In ActiveXperts Network Monitor 2019, you can now export the configuration to a CSV file that you can load into Microsoft Excel. It displays all Check related information in verbose- and non-verbose format, and helps you to find inconsistencies in your configuration.
• FIX: You can now change the computername of your ActiveXperts Network Monitor server without changing the registry. In previous versions, you had to change the ProgDataServer registry entry. This registry entry has been eliminated.
• FIX: If the manager points to a remote installed Network Monitor instance, but the instance is (temporarily) not available, you now have the option to connect to another (local) instance. In previous versions, the Manager simply quit and there was no way to connect to another instance.

Logging

• ActiveXperts Network Monitor 2019 has improved logging facilities. This applies to Statistical Database logging, Application Logging and Real-Time Activity Logging.
• ActiveXperts now supports application logging to Microsoft SQL Servers with TLS enabled. In previous version, Microsoft SQL Server was already supported but only with TLS disabled.
• FIX:Some log entries were written twice to the application log file (or database). This has been fixed.

Real-Time Activity View

• The 'Activity View' has been renamed to 'Real-Time Activity View', and has 5 different views: 'All Activity', 'System', 'Alerting/Actions', 'Monitoring (All)', 'Monitoring (Error/Failed)', 'Monitoring (Uncertain)'
• Number of entries in the Real-Time Activity Views is now configurable.
• You can now use custom colors in the Real-Time Activity Views. Color preferences are configured per user.

Maintenance

• ActiveXperts Network Monitor 2019 now supports multiple global Maintenance Plans, selectable by each individual Check. This allows Administrators to define a custom Maintenance Plan for a group of Checks. In previous versions, a custom Maintenance Plan had to be configured manually for each Check.

Statistical Database

• ActiveXperts now supports statistical data logging to Microsoft SQL Servers with TLS enabled. In previous version, Microsoft SQL Server was already supported but only with TLS disabled.
• The Statistical Database Migration Wizard allows you to modify the Database Connection String before the actual migration to MS SQL Server or MySQL is performed. This allows you to apply specific or custom settings.
• You can choose to use a new, empty Statistical Database in the 'Restore Configuration' wizard.
• FIX: The Statistical Database did not support Windows 2019. The Activity Log in the Manager listen error(s) 'Update failed, error 0x80004005, Unspecified error: [Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver]COUNT field incorrect or syntax error'. This has been fixed.

Reports

• 'Detailed Reports' are now called 'Indicent Reports'. The name 'Incident Report' better describes the Report's purpose.
• With Instant Reports, you can now select a full Date Range. In previous versions, you could only select a number of days in the past.
• FIX: In the 'ActiveXperts Reports and Graphs Configuration Tool', there was no way to select a custom XSL stylesheet in the selection box to allow custom make-up. This has been fixed.
• FIX: The Incident Report doesn't show any transition from Success->Error->Success anymore. This is how it should be, because an 'Error' is just a hickup. A few 'Errors' in a row make a 'Failure'. Only in case of 'Failure' there's something wrong.
• FIX: In both Indicent Reports and Availability Reports, the Check ID was not displayed. Only the DisplayName and the Folder were displayed. This has been fixed.
• FIX: In previous versions, Reports based on a fixed date were not working properly. The start time and end time were set to the current time instead of 00:00 and 23:59. This has been fixed.

Alert Actions

• ActiveXperts Network Monitor 2019 now supports PowerShell (.ps1) actions. This means, it can react on failures by executing a PowerShell script. In previous versions, only executables (.exe), batch-jobs (.cmd, .bat) and VBScript programs (.vbs) were supported.

Alert Messages (Notifications)

• 'Notifications' are now called 'Alert Messages'.
• You cannot assign individual Alert addresses (e-mail address, SMS mobile number) to a Check's Alert properties anymore. Instead, you need to assign Address Book Contact Groups or Contacts. This simplifies Alert management.

E-mail Alert Messages

• Improved Office 365 integration.
• FIX: In previous versions of Network Monitor, a secundary SMTP server was tried even if it was disabled. This has been fixed.

SMS Alert Messages

• ActiveXperts Network Monitor was not able to use HTTP Channels of ActiveXperts SMS Messaging Server to send out SMS alerts over HTTP. This is now possible.

SNMP Trap Alert Messages

• FIX: SNMP Trap Alert Messages were not received by 3rd party SNMP Manager if the body size was longer than 255 characters. This has been fixed; messages longer than 255 characters are now truncated.

Certificate Expiration check

• Network Monitor is now capable of checking the expiration date of any 3rd party (non)commercial Certificates.

FTPS check

• Network Monitor now supports the FTPS protocol. You can now define an FTPS check. SFTP and FTP were already supported.

Disk Space check

• Network Monitor now supports Windows-based NAS storage devices. In previous versions, the Disk Space check was based on Microsoft WMI, which is not supported on external Windows-based NAS storage devices. This has been enhanced in Network Monitor v.2019.

SNMP Trap Receiver check

• The SNMP Trap Receiver check has been redesigned; you can now match against predefined values. The SNMP Trap Receiver filters on OID and discards unexpected ones. In previous versions, all OID's were accepted. This makes the ActiveXperts SNMP Trap Receiver much more useful.

PowerShell check

• The Engine can now process a maximum of 16 PowerShell checks simultaneously. In previous version, this was limited to a maximum of 4.

VMware check

• FIX: VMware checks failed if the password contained one of the following characters: '<', '>', '&', ''' or '"'. This has been fixed.

Citrix Xen check

• FIX: Citrix Xen checks failed if the password contained one of the following characters: '<', '>', '&', ''' or '"'. This has been fixed.

Event Log check

• FIX: Matching the Description of an event failed in the scenario where the local monitoring Windows server did not have the Event Log resource DLL of the remote monitored Windows server. This has been fixed.

Printer check

• A Printer 'Browse' function is added to the Manager, allowing users to query printers on a remote server, rather than typing in the literal name of the printer.
• In previous versions of network Monitor, you could only check for offline/online status of a printer. You can now check on Printer Status values (including 'Idle', 'Stopped Printing', 'Offline') and Error Status values (including 'Low Paper', 'No Paper', 'Low Toner', 'No Toner', 'Door Open', 'Jammed', 'Service Requested', 'Output Bin Full').

Antivirus and Internet Security Suite updates 2019

• ActiveXperts Network Monitor 2019 now supports the following Antivirus- and Internet Security Suites (new): Avira, Web Root, ZoneAlarm
• ActiveXperts Network Monitor 2019 updated its definitions to support the latest 2019 Antivirus- and Internet Security Suites, including avast!, AVG, BitDefender, BullGuard, ESET, F-Secure, G Data, Kaspersky, K7, McAfee, Panda, Trend Micro, VIPRE and ZoneAlarm

Compatible with Windows Server 2019

• ActiveXperts Network Monitor 2019 meets Microsoft standards for compatibility and recommended practices with the Windows Server 2019 operating system.

Installation and Upgrade

Installation

To learn more about installing the product for the first time, please read our manual. You can download the manual at www.activexperts.com/files/network-monitor/manual-2019.htm

Upgrade

Upgrading from a previous version should be done in the following way:

• Make a backup of the current configuration - although not really necessary, it's a good practice to do so. Use the Manager's Export command to make the backup;
• Make a backup of all custom VBScript scripts - if any. Use the Windows Explorer to make the backup;
• Uninstall all 'ActiveXperts Network Monitor Manager' application on the PCs that have the Manager application installed. Use the 'Add/Remove Programs' applet in the Control Panel to start the Uninstall;
• Uninstall the 'ActiveXperts Network Monitor' software on the monitoring server. Use the 'Add/Remove Programs' applet in the Control Panel to start the Uninstall;
• Reboot the monitoring server;
• Install the 'ActiveXperts Network Monitor' software on the monitoring server;
• Launch the Manager application, and choose 'Restore Configuration' from the 'File menu'. Select the version of the previous configuration file, and then select the configuration file (named CONFIG.SDF, CONFIG.MDB or CONFIG.AMF);
• Optionally, install the 'ActiveXperts Network Monitor Manager' application on the PCs of the operators.