Getting Started with IIS Server Monitoring

Overview

Internet Information Services (IIS) is a flexible, secure and extensible web server from Microsoft that helps you host anything on the web. Since it is capable of handling most demanding tasks, from media streaming to web applications, monitoring its performance and response time becomes vital.

IIS web server performance monitoring capabilities from Applications Manager helps you to proactively monitor your IIS servers by providing complete visibility into the performance of your websites and web application pools that are running within. It keeps tracks of various key web server metrics such as response time, connection statistics, data and file transaction rate, along with the list of anonymous users that are currently using the website at regular intervals.

In this help document, you will learn how to get started with IIS web server performance monitoring using Applications Manager's IIS traffic monitor.

Creating a new IIS server monitor

Prerequisites for monitoring IIS server metrics:Click here

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

To create an IIS traffic monitor, follow the steps given below:

1. Click on New Monitor link. Choose IIS Server.
2. Enter the Display Name of the monitor.
3. Enter the IP Address or hostname of the host in which the Monitor is running.
4. Provide the port number in which the monitor is running.
5. Choose SSL option, if SSL is enabled in IIS Server.
6. Choose the preferred Mode of Monitoring — either WinRM or WMI— to retrieve details about websites and application pools.

   Note: WinRM mode is only supported in Applications Manager versions 16820 and above.

7. If WinRM mode is being utilized, choose the WinRM protocol to be used. By default, HTTPS operates on port 5986, and HTTP operates on port 5985.
8. To utilize a custom WinRM port, select the Use custom WinRM port option and enter the desired port number in the Custom WinRM Port textbox.
9. Provide IIS Server credential if required. Under Credential Details , if you opt to use the 'Use below Credential' option, specify the IIS Server username and password details for this monitor. if you opt to fetch the details from the preconfigured credential details in Credentials Manager, choose the 'Select from Credential list' option.
10. Select View Additional Settings to access the Do not resolve DNS name and Response Header check option.
11. Enable the Do not resolve DNS name checkbox if you have multiple system IP addresses configured with single DNS name.
12. Enable Response Header Check to check whether the IIS keyword is present in the response header. By default, it is disabled.
13. Enable Re-try URL check during data collection to retry basic URL check during data collection if it fails. This option is disabled by default.
14. Enable Re-try basic WMI check during data collection to retry the basic WMI connectivity check during data collection if it fails intermittently. By default, Applications Manager retries the check once after 5 seconds when this option is selected.
15. Enable Response Code Check to validate the response code from the URL response. By default, this option is disabled. When disabled, the monitor will not validate the response code if any response header is received. When enabled, only response codes greater than 0 and less than 400 will be considered valid.
16. Enter the polling interval time in minutes.
17. If you are adding a new monitor from an Central Server, select a Probe Server.
18. Choose the Monitor Group from the combo box with which you want to associate IIS Monitor (optional). You can choose multiple groups to associate your monitor.
19. Click Add Monitor(s). This discovers the IIS Server from the network and starts monitoring them.

Note: To collect data for Website Statistics and Application Pools, the host where the IIS Server is running should be monitored in WMI mode. (Applicable only for Applications Manager versions 15110 and below)

Monitored Parameters

Go to the Monitors Category View by clicking the Monitors tab. Click on IIS Server under the Web Server / Services category. Displayed is the IIS 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.

Note: IIS Server monitoring is supported in Linux setup (Applicable only for Applications Manager versions 15120 and above), where you can monitor IIS URL Response time. However, IIS Websites statistics & Application Pool details are not available. Refer here to know more.

Applications Manager's IIS traffic monitor provide complete visibility into your IIS web server environments altogether in a single window based on the following metrics:

• Overview
• Performance

Overview

Performance

In addition to the above metrics, following are the list of graphs that are shown in this tab:

• Top Websites by Current Connections - Shows a graphical representation of the websites that have the highest number of current connections established.
• Top Websites by Bytes transferred - Shows a graphical representation of the websites that have the highest number of bytes transferred per second.
• Top Websites by Files transferred - Shows a graphical representation of the websites that have the highest number of files transferred per second.
• Top Websites by Anonymous users - Shows a graphical representation of the websites that have the highest number of anonymous users connected per second.
• Top Websites by Non-Anonymous users - Shows a graphical representation of the websites that have the highest number of non-anonymous users connected per second.