DNS Monitoring

Overview

Domain Name System (DNS) is a hierarchical and decentralized naming system that translates human-readable domain names to machine-readable IP addresses and vice-versa, using which computers identify each other on the network. It serves as the Internet's phone book by maintaining the domain name hierarchy and managing the mapping between domain names and their respective IP addresses.

Since DNS servers play a predominant role in helping users to connect to a website, keeping your company's DNS infrastructure stable is the first thing you must do. Any issues in the functioning of your DNS servers can can result in downtime and performance interruptions affecting your overall end user experience. Thus, having a robust DNS monitoring software becomes essential to troubleshoot issues and optimize performance.

DNS server monitoring tools like Applications Manager's DNS monitoring serves the purpose by constantly examining the performance and availability of your DNS servers in real-time. It provides in-depth DNS server monitoring by keeping track of various key performance metrics such as response time, record type, search value along with their availability status, and immediately notifies you in the event of downtime or performance bottlenecks.

In this help document, you will learn how to get started with DNS server monitoring with the help of Applications Manager's DNS monitoring tool.

Creating a new DNS server monitor

Using the REST API to add a new DNS monitor:Click here

To create a new DNS server monitor, follow the steps given below:

1. Click on New Monitor link. Choose DNS Monitor under Services category.
2. Enter the DisplayName of the host in which the monitor is running.
3. Enter the Target Address.
4. Enter the Lookup Address.
5. Enter Timeout value in seconds.
6. Select the Record Type from the pull down menu.
7. Select the Search Field from the drop-down box.
8. Enter Search Value.
9. Enter the polling interval for monitoring the DNS server.
10. If you are adding a new monitor from a Central Server, select a Probe Server.
11. Choose the Monitor Group from the combo box with which you want to associate DNS Monitor (optional). You can choose multiple groups to associate your monitor.
12. Associate the monitor instance to the agent.
    • Enable Run on Server option to run the DNS monitor in the local instance of Applications Manager.
    • Enable Run on Agent option to run the DNS monitor from multiple locations. Select the necessary agents from where you want this monitor to be executed. This option will be available only if you enable the EUM add-on.
13. Click Add Monitor(s). This discovers the DNS server monitor from the network and starts monitoring them.

Note: The DNS Server should be accessible from the Applications Manager installed machine.

Monitored Parameters

Go to the Monitors Category View by clicking the Monitors tab. Click on DNS Monitor under the Services category. Displayed is the DNS Server monitor bulk configuration view distributed into three tabs:

• Availability tab displays the Availability history for the past 24 hours or 30 days.
• Performance tab displays the Health Status and events for the past 24 hours or 30 days.
• List view tab enables you to perform bulk admin configurations.

DNS monitoring software like Applications Manager provide complete visibility into your DNS server infrastructure altogether in a single window based on the following metrics:

Performance Overview