Custom Monitor Type


By using this option, you can define your own monitor types apart from the monitor types that are available by default.

This feature allows to associate a monitor type to the inhouse scripts that might be used for monitoring your own applications. For eg., if you are using various scripts to monitor Siebel CRM, you can now associate these scripts and model Siebel as one of the monitor types. Thereby having robust out of the box support for monitoring Forum Software, build Business Intelligence Dashboards, monitor Custom Application Log Files on multiple servers etc.

Custom Monitor Demo: Have a look at the demo that helps you to add a new Custom Monitor Type

WorkFlow

Step 1) The custom monitor type helps you create and define metrics / attributes that will be tracked.

Step 2) Then specify a script (Linux Shell Script / Windows Batch File) that needs to be executed to get the data and provide it to Applications Manager in the appropriate format.

In these scripts users can use any mechanism to get the data. For example users can :

  • Invoke a Java Program, PHP, Python Scripts etc and make database calls to pull data and feed it to Applications Manager
  • Can make native calls to other programs and pipe the data to the output file
  • Parse Log Files and give a summary of metrics as the input to Applications Manager

Creating New Monitor Types

You can create new monitor type by clicking on the New Monitor Type link inside the New Monitor link or by clicking on the Custom Monitor Types icon under Settings tab.

  • Enter the Monitor Type name.
  • Select Base type - Currently, scripts are the base to build new monitor type.
  • Select the Monitor Type Category - For eg., If you are monitoring PostgreSQL using in-house scripts, you can add PostgreSQL monitor type and you can place it under Database category.

Define the attributes you want to monitor

  • Enter the String Attributes that you want to monitor - Enter the attributes line by line.
  • Enter the Numeric Attributes that you want to monitor - Enter the attributes line by line.
  • You can monitor the output in a table format, enter the Table Name, Numeric attributes, Sting attributes, Unique column and Column delimiter. Learn more
  • Click on Create Monitor Type to finish the configuration of new monitor type.
Note:
  • In Enterprise Edition, Custom Monitor Type creation is not supported for Admin server.
  • Monitor Type, Table Name, String Attributes, Numeric Attributes and Unique Column fields support only the following list of characters in Custom Monitor Type:
    • Monitor Type - Alphanumeric, hyphen(-), colon(:), period(.), parantheses(()), forward slash(/), backslash(\)
    • Table Name, String Attributes, Numeric Attributes, Unique Column - Alphanumeric, hyphen(-), whitespace( ), underscore(_), comma(,), newline character

Now, you have defined a custom Monitor type. The next step would be to create instances & associate them to the new monitor type defined.

[Script Monitor Overview: Based on the polling interval, Applications Manager executes the script to be monitored. The script will transfer its output to another specific Output File configured. The output of the script should be in a Key=Value format where '=' can be any delimiter. Applications Manager parses the Output File and executes the actions configured]

Adding Custom Monitors

  • In the User Created Monitor Type screen, the newly created monitor types are listed down. Click on the Add New icon to add the monitors
  • Add New monitor screen opens up, Select the custom monitor type from Monitor Types drop down box. [ For eg., Siebel]
    • Enter the Display Name.
    • Choose the location of script that you want to monitor - Local or Remote.
    • Specify the absolute path of the script.
    • Specify the absolute path of the execution directory.
    • Specify the absolute path of the Output File.
    • Enter the arguments that needs to be passed.
    • Enter the polling interval and timeout.
    • Click Add Monitor(s).
    You have already given the attributes to be monitored as common to all monitors under custom Monitor Type. So there is no need to give input attributes to be monitored again
  • Upon adding the custom monitors, you can see the performance attributes in the monitor details page.

Note: Since the scripts to be executed are specific to user environments, it is highly recommended that the script to be monitored has the required permissions for executing the script in respective environments for smooth monitoring.

Usage Scenario 1: Creating New Siebel Monitor Type

One customer had 6 Siebel applications running in 6 different machines. As, out of the box support for Siebel Application is not available, he uses the Script Monitoring feature of ManageEngine Applications Manager to monitor his applications. He has identical scripts running in the 6 machines and they produce the same output in the output file in the respective machines. Now he configures them as six Script Monitors. This gives him an opportunity to monitor his Siebel applications. Using Script Monitor facility, he monitors the following attributes

  • transaction Router
  • server request processor
  • transaction processor

There are few disadvantages in his usage.

1. He has to give the same Output details while specifying the same six applications.
2. If he has to edit / add / delete the attributes , then he has to do so in all the 6 Script Monitors.
3. Further he would like to see them as 6 Siebel Monitors rather than 6 Script Monitors.

Here comes the usage of New Monitor Type, that would avoid all the above inconveniences.

1. Output Settings can be specified only once. You could specify the Scalar String / Numeric attributes and tabular settings only once while defining the type, say Siebel.
2. You could create any number of monitor instances for that particular type , just like any other in-built type say SAP / Weblogic / Oracle monitors in Applications Manager. While doing so, you just need to specify the Hostname and the corresponding Scripts
3. Adding / Deleting / Modifying attributes of some particular monitor type commonly will affect all the monitors of that monitor type.
4. Now you will be seeing 6 Siebel monitors rather than 6 Script Monitors.
5. Reports can be enabled for this type like any other type.

The same concept can be applied to any other application say for monitoring People Soft applications.

Usage Scenario 2: Business Intelligence Dashboard

Users can build custom Business Intelligence dashboards and have it reported and alerted on. Some possible metrics could be

  • Call Volume in the last one Month
  • Time taken to finish a call
  • Number of simultaneous Calls

Usage Scenario 3: Custom Application Log Files

Some metrics that you can add with a little bit of coding are :

  • Number of security breaches
  • Number of Errors During Login etc.

Managing Custom Monitor Types:

You can edit the configuration of the Monitor types by clicking on the Custom Monitor Type link under Admin Tab. It opens up to list all the User created Monitor Types. From here you add new monitors to the custom monitor types, edit the configuration and more importantly enable or disable reports of these custom monitor types.