ActiveXperts Network Monitor 2024 Release Notes

Index

Introduction
Download
What's new in ActiveXperts Network Monitor 2024
Installation and Upgrade

Introduction

ActiveXperts Network Monitor 2024 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 2022/2019/2016/2012(R2)/2008(R2)/11/10/8/7 platforms.

Download

Click on the link below to download ActiveXperts Network Monitor 2024. 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 2024

ActiveXperts Network Monitor 2024 is the successor to version 2023. Here is an overview of the most important enhancements and fixes that also apply to v.2024.

Installation

• Software core modules (.exe, .dll) and Installer (.exe) are now digitally signed by using a new Sectigo EV Code Signing Certificate.
• FIXED: If the service was started during installation, and its startup took just a little longer than the timeout, the installation failed completely. This has been fixed.
• FIXED: Some cyber security software packages (including SentinelOne) complained about the file 'AdAdmScript.exe', a file used by ActiveXperts to configure IIS settings. The file has been renamed into 'AxBhrPs.exe'.

Configuration

• FIXED: If one did an import from an older version that did not yet support WinRM, the WinRM port was set to 0, resulting in a non-working WinRM configuration. This was manually adjustable, but it is now fixed: port 5985 is set by default in this situation.

Statistical Database

• The Statistical Database configuration program now has 'Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server' as the preferred driver for the Statistical Database. In previous version, ActiveXperts had 'SQL Server Native Client' (SNAC) as the preferred driver, but since Microsoft renounces SNAC and it prefers 'Microsoft OLE DB Driver for SQL Server', ActiveXperts prefers that too.
• The automatic cleanup of old records (older than 3 months) was not written to the log file. In case of any problems with this cleanup, it was difficult to trace the reason of the problem. The Delete query is now logged.
• The Browser based Graph module is now directly accessible from the Manager's Check Context Menu.
• The Forms based Graph module now allows Graphs of multiple Checks in one screen.
• FIXED: If you were using a Compact Edition based statistical database that didn't have the default name 'Stats.sdf', then an import of the configuration on another server would fail to import this statistical database ('Stats.sdf' was expected).

Logging

• Once you had migrated the Logging database from MS SQL Compact Edition to MS SQL Server, it was not possible to revert to MS SQL Compact Edition. This is now possible.

Alert Notifications

• E-mail OAuth2 token refresh process is now logged in both the Activity Log and the file-based trace log. In previous versions, it was not logged.
• FIXED: The E-mail OAuth2 refresh token - which is used to generate a new access token - was not refreshed in some exceptional cases. This is now fixed.
• FIXED: In some exceptional cases (operating system dependent), Chinese characters were pasted behind the alert notification text. This is now fixed.
• Email logging is now optimized, making it easier to address issues if one has trouble configuring email alert notifications.
• You can relay SMS alert notifications to Auron SMS Messaging Server without specifying a specific SMS channel. Auron SMS Messaging Server will choose the most appropriate SMS channel. In previous versions, a fixed SMS Channel had to be set.

AVTech

• ActiveXperts now supports all AVTech Room Alert S models, including 3S, 12S, 12SR and 32S.
• FIXED: A wrong ActiveXperts AVTech provider driver could make the kernel module (AxNmEngine.exe) crash.
• FIXED: In the Diagnostic Tool, the AVTech sample devices did not work because they assumed non-secure HTTP, whereas these devices were put into a secure environment in mid-2023 and HTTPs should be used. This has been fixed.

Reports

• Reports that were scheduled to be mailed were sometimes not delivered. This was the case if the sender address of the secondary SMTP server contained an invalid e-mail address while the primary SMTP server was used. This has been fixed.

Microsoft SharePoint Check

• You can now monitor Microsoft SharePoint v.2022. Previous versions supported 2019, 2016, 2013, 2010 and a few older ones.

Microsoft SQL Server Check

• You can now monitor Microsoft SQL Server v.2022. Previous versions supported 2019, 2017, 2016, 2014, 2012 and a few older ones.

File Check

• The file size can now also be monitored in GB. In previous versions only KB and MB could be specified
• FIXED: If you selected the last option button in the File Check ('Check File Count'), a warning was displayed ('To monitor File Count, use the Folder Check'). However, after that you could not click any other option button anymore. This has been fixed.

SNMP Trap Checks

• The SNMP GET Check now supports regular expressions to match string-based SNMP OID's.

SNMP Trap Receive Checks

• The SNMP Trap Receive Check now supports regular expressions to match incoming string-based SNMP OID's.
• In the SNMP Trap Receive Check, you can now explicitly specify what happens when an OID is matched: Success or Failure. In previous versions, this was somewhat unclear.
• The SNMP Trap Receive Check gets a shorter default name after creation. In previous versions, the full path OID name was part of the default Display Name.
• The SNMP Trap Receiver no longer supports dedicated logging. Logging is done anyway in the regular logging, and does not offer any more value.

SSH, SCP and SFTP Checks

• Upgraded private key file format to PPK3, with improved passphrase hashing and no use of SHA-1.
• Support for RSA key algorithms using SHA-2 instead of SHA-1.
• Support for OpenSSH certificates, for user authentication keys and host keys.
• Support for AES-GCM.
• Extended support for Diffie-Hellman key exchange.
• The SSH and SFTP checks each use a DLL named AxSshLib64.v.w.x.y.z.dll and AxSftp64.v.w.x.y.z.dll, respectively. The DLLs were dynamically created in the Windows Temp Folder. However, dynamically creating DLLs is not liked by more security suites. Therefore, the DLLs are installed in the Program Folder upon installation.
• FIXED: SFTP and SCP Private Key login didn't work. This has been fixed.
• FIXED: The 'PPK Browse File' button did not work at all in the SSH Check Configuration Window. That has been fixed.
• FIXED: The demo scripts for SSH and SFTP had incorrect sample links, which caused the samples not to work. Those links have now been changed.

Powershell Checks

• FIXED: If you used a data folder other than the default data folder (C:\ProgramData), the Powershell scripts did not work. In fact, the files in the 'Include (ps1)' folder had an include of 'activexperts.ps1' that referred to the default location. This has been fixed.
• FIXED: If the Powershell interpreter command file was empty (Options->Advanced->Powershell), then every time on script execution you got a redundant warning in the 'Activity-System' log. This has been fixed.

SMTP Checks

• FIXED: In the Manager, the SMTP Check configuration dialog showed text for the custom SMTP Server option ('Use SMS/HTTP Provider'). This has been fixed.

Citrix XenApp Checks

• You can now monitor Citrix XenApp v.7 platforms. Previous versions only supported v.5 and v.6.

WMI based Windows checks

• FIXED: All Windows checks showed the connection results in reverse order in the 'Last Response' field. Users found this confusing and has been modified.

WMI Counter Check

• FIXED: WMI Counter Check The check did a string compare instead of a numeric compare, so for example 20 was greater than 100. This has been fixed.

Engine Module

• The Engine background application AxNmKrn.exe has been renamed to AnNmEngine.exe.

Manager Application

• There are now more columns you can sort on; you can now also sort on the following columns: Alert Notifications, Alert Email Recipients, Alert SMS Recipients, Alert WhatsApp Recipients.
• FIXED: The toolbar had swapped commands in the two rightmost buttons in some installations. This has been fixed.

Web Access

• A new version of Bootstrap (v.4.6.2) is used. In previous versions, Bootstrap 4.1.3 was used.
• The lengths of the various fields in both List View and Map View can now be set via the registry.
• Microsocft Internet Explorer is not supported anymore. Recommended borwsers are: Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla FireFox and more.
• FIXED: The displayname-short default length was too short. This was very annoying on most modern iPhones.
• FIXED: If a Filter was removed that was the preferred Filter, an error message was reported, not being able to load the page. This has been fixed by using the first available Filter.

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-2024.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;
• If you made any custom Powershell/VBScript/SSH scripts and use them in ActiveXperts, use the Windows Explorer to backup these scripts. Manually copy them back at the end of the Upgrade
• 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 or CONFIG.MDB);
• Optionally, install the 'ActiveXperts Network Monitor Manager' application on the PCs of the operators.