Frequently asked questions

    • General

      Q. Are there any restrictions on the 30-day trial?

      A. No, the trial edition comes with all functionalities and you can monitor unlimited number of devices. If you need to extend your evaluation beyond 30 days, please contact us at rmmcentral-support@manageengine.com.

      Q. What are the system requirements for RMM Central?

      A. Please refer to the System Requirements page.

      Q. Am I eligible for technical support during evaluation?

      A. Yes absolutely. Install a 30-day trial version and register yourself during installation to avail free technical support during evaluation period.

      Q. How is RMM Central licensed?

      A. RMM Central is licensed based on the number of monitored devices. Any device that responds to an ICMP ping can be monitored using RMM Central e.g. Routers, Switches, Firewalls, Servers, UPS, printers. In a virtualized environment, every virtual instance is considered as a separate device for both monitoring and licensing purposes. 

      Q. Do I need to rebuild RMM Central from scratch after purchasing?

      A. No, all ManageEngine products are licensed through a registered XML file. One can simply apply the license and use the same RMM Central instance in production environments. One can even move the data to a different server if needed.

      Q. Does upgrading to a newer RMM Central version cost me?

      A. No, it is absolutely free. All you need to do is, ensure you have paid the Annual Maintenance and Support fee. 

      Q. If I buy more devices or add-ons or plug-ins in future, how does it work?

      A. Absolutely, you can upgrade RMM Central at any point of time. For instance, if you wish to upgrade RMM Central 250 devices to 500 devices pack, you have to pay only the difference between these price slabs. Similarly for add-ons and plugins, you have to pay only the cost pertaining to it as per the current pricing.

      The newly obtained license file has to be applied on your existing RMM Central installation to enable the purchased devices pack or modules. It is not necessary to start things from scratch.

      Q. Can I buy a single 250 devices RMM Central license and monitor in two different locations?

      A. No. The license is restricted to a single installation of RMM Central and not a consolidated license for the enterprise. In such a case you have to buy RMM Central Enterprise Edition for remote network monitoring or separate license for each locations. 

      Q. How does RMM Central monitor the devices?

      A. RMM Central is an agent-less monitoring and management tool that uses a wide variety of protocols and technologies: ICMP, SNMP, WMI, CLI (Telnet/ SSH), TFTP, SCP. RMM Central also includes a Syslog demon, SNMP Trap listener and Flow collectors for NetFlow, sFlow etc.. All these and more bring together many network performance monitoring and management capabilities within RMM Central.

      Q. Which vendors are supported by RMM Central?

      A. RMM Central supports out-of-the-box over 100 vendors. To list a few: 3Com, Cisco, DELL, HP, D-Link, Extreme, Fortigate, Foundry, Juniper, Netgear, Netscreen, Nortel, Linux, Solaris, HP-UX, IBM-AIX, Microsoft Windows, APC, Libert. 

      Q. How many devices can I monitor with RMM Central?

      A. The RMM Central polling engine can monitor upto 10,000 Interfaces. However this depends on the system hardware, polling frequency and type of devices. To know the exact number of interfaces that can be monitored by your RMM Central installation, refer to the "About" page in the product (top right-hand side).

      Q. Does RMM Central integrate with 3rd party tools?

      A. Yes through API. Further RMM Central integrates with ManageEngine products viz. ServiceDesk Plus, Firewall Analyzer, Applications Manager, NetFlow Analyzer and Device Expert.  

      Q. Can I Install RMM Central on Linux? Is there any limitation?

      A. Yes, you can install RMM Central on any Linux server viz. RedHat 7.x and above, Debian 3.0, Suse, Fedora, Mandrake. However NCM plug–in supports only Windows OS and doesn’t support Linux.

      Note: Installing RMM Central on a Linux server will disable all WMI based monitors.

      Q. Is RMM Central using 'Apache Struts' framework?

      A. Apache Struts was used in RMM Central till version 11600. Latest version of RMM Central doesn't use 'Apache Struts'.

      Note:

      The following CVE id's are not applicable to RMM Central:

      • CVE-2013-2251
      • CVE-2017-5638
      • CVE-2018-11776

      Q. Is it possible to run the Central and Probe on the same machine?

      A. Yes, it is possible provided you meet the system requirements of both the Central and Probe.

      Q. Is the data communication between the Central and Probe secured?

      A. Yes it is secured. The Central and Probe communicate xml over HTTPS/HTTP connection.

      Q. Does the Enterprise Edition run on MSSQL?

      A. Yes, the Enterprise Edition runs on MSSQL. However it also includes PostgreSQL bundled.

      Q. My Central Server runs on a server in which two ports (port1-main, port2- for failover)work off of different ISPs. Is it possible set up the Central server to fail-over from port1 to the other?

      A. Ideally, RMM Central will bind to both the IPs and can be accessed via both the addresses. In the Enterprise Edition deployment, you would have specified the Central Server address in the Probe. If both the IPs resolve to the address you have configured, there should not be any problem. If you have configured one of the IP addresses as the Central Server address, then you must take care to see that it automatically resolves/redirects to the other port that is available to effect the fail-over.

      Q. I'm a service provider and have more than 100 remote sites to monitor. Each site has approximately 10 devices to monitor. Will RMM Central Enterprise Edition (EE) suit me?

      A. Yes, RMM Central EE is built for scaling to the monitoring needs of emerging and large organizations.

      Q. How can I migrate to Standard edition from v12.3?

      A. You need to migrate to version 124015  or above to apply Standard license.

      I still have some questions which needs clarification!

      If you have any questions about RMM Central, feel free to raise a support request and we’ll get back to you.

      Q. Based on what condition are interfaces listed as subinterfaces?

      Subinterfaces are listed based on two criteria

      • When two or more IP Addresses have the same ifIndex in the same device. (You can check it in ipAdEntifIndex (.1.3.6.1.2.1.4.20.1.2) in RFC1213-MIB)
      • When two or more interfaces have the same IP address in the same device or different devices.

      Q. Why are interfaces not rediscovered in my device?

      • Check whether the SNMP Credential is passed in the device.
      • Check whether the ifTable returns an output in the MIB browser (Both Standalone and in RMM Central)

      Q. Why is there no data collection at my interfaces?

      • Check whether the SNMP Credential is passed in the device.
      • Check whether the ifTable returns an output in the MIB browser (Both Standalone and in RMM Central)

      Q. Why are the interface traffic values displayed as zero?

      Check ifInOctects (.1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.10) and ifOutOctects (.1.3.6.1.2.1.2.2.1.16) for the specified interface in the MIB Browser (RFC1213-MIB)

      Q. Why do traffic values differ from the real-time interface values in my interface graphs?

      Traffic values are different in these Interface Graphs because, data collection happened at a different time. When you check real-time traffic during the interface's next poll, you may find that the real time traffic values and the interface graph values are the same.

      Interface related reports are based on an hourly table. You can check these reports after an hour from when these interfaces were added.

      Q. Why the Ping/Availability status failed for the device even the device is up?

      The following may be the reasons for the ping option to fail even when the device is Up and running.

      1. ICMP agent is not enabled in the destination device. server 

      By default, RMM Central checks the availability of a device with the help of ICMP ping function. But some business environment may only use the TCP agent in their devices as per their business functionality. In such cases, you can choose any of the alternate protocols (TCP or SNMP) to monitor the availability of those devices.  

      To change the monitoring method,

      • Go to the Device Snapshot page of that particular device. 
      • Click on the three horizontal lines on the top right corner and select Edit Device details.
      • Select TCP as the method under Availability Monitored via and save the changes. 

      2. The device may not be reachable from the RMM Central server.

      The following may be the reasons for a device to be Up and not reachable.

      • Communication port may have been blocked by the Firewall
      • Network latency 
      • ICMP traffic may have been disabled in that particular device.

      User personality identifiable information like an email id/ phone number may be used multiple times in RMM Central for various reasons across modules. The Personality Identifiable Information Search in RMM Central allows you to locate the modules and view the total number of times a particular identity is used.

      Q. What are the different types of Personality Identifiable Information in RMM Central?

      • Email ID
      • Name 
      • Phone Number
      • Mac Address
      • IP Address

      Q. Will deleting a Nutanix cluster delete all the devices/entities under it?

      If a Nutanix cluster is directly deleted from RMM Central, all the hosts and VMs under it will be monitored as individual physical devices if that cluster is still intact. But if the cluster itself has been dissociated from the network and is also deleted from RMM Central, all devices under it will be reported as "Down" and will be raised as alerts in RMM Central.

      Q. Why is the 'invalid address case' error displayed when 'Test Mail' is clicked?

      This error is shown when the mail server credentials are not configured (i.e. the 'User Name' and 'Password' fields under 'Authentication Details' in Settings -> General Settings -> Mail Server Settings are left blank), but the mail server used has a mandatory requirement for credentials to be configured.

      Q. Why does RMM Central appear to be using a lot of postgres processes?

      RMM Central will use only one postgres process but it may appear to be using more because, multiple products like Applications Manager and Service Desk Plus etc. might be installed in the same server. This is regular and expected behavior for postgress and is harmless.

      Q. Why does the product UI appear to load slowly in the Central Server?

      This is mostly caused due to high latency between the Probe Server and the Central Server.

      Open command prompt in the Probe Server and ping the Central Server, the ping response should be less than 100 ms, else the page loading in the Central Server might take time to load.


    • Credentials

      Q. What are the possible reasons for login credentials (Username/ Password) to fail?

      The login credentials would fail if one of the following scenarios occur:

      a. AD Authentication:

      1. The Domain name is wrong.
      2. The wrong Domain is selected.
      3. The User is not present in the Domain selected. 

      b. Radius Server Authentication:

      1. User details are not present in the server.


    • Inventory

      Q. Why the discovered devices are classified as Unknown?

      The discovered device status is marked as 'Unknown' in the following conditions

      1. The credentials are invalid.
      2. A matching device template is not found. (You can create a custom template or import custom-templates from third party website or forums)

       

      Q. Why is the status of a device shown as 'Not Monitored'?

      The device status is classified as 'Not Monitored' when

      1. The credentials are invalid or outdated.
      2. The device is not pingable from RMM Central server.
      3. The device has been unmanaged by the network administrator.

       

      Q. Why are interfaces not rediscovered for the devices?

      It maybe due to the following reasons:

      1. Check if the interface discovery is enabled in the discovery profile.
      2. SNMP credential failure
      3. SNMP timeout due to large number of interfaces

       

      Q. Why do I see new devices being added to RMM Central automatically?

      RMM Central will add new devices automatically in the following scenarios:  

      1. Scheduled discovery (scheduled by the admin/operator)
      2. Auto VM discovery is enabled
      3. Devices discovered via SNMP traps (Settings > Discover Settings > discover devices via trap)

       

      Q. I have created a custom category, but the same is not listed in Inventory category list. Why?

      After creating a custom category, the operator must associate devices to this category. If not, the newly created category will not be displayed.

      Q. Why are interfaces not discovered for my device?

      1. Discovery - Interface is disabled in the Discovery Profile
      2. Interface type is not selected in the Discovery - Interface page

       

      Q. How to configure multiple threshold severity for interfaces?

      1. Go to Inventory>Interfaces
      2. Choose the required interface from the list
      3. Click on the menu icon on the top right corner of the interface summary page
      4. Click on Threshold Settings and assign the threshold values for attention, trouble, critical for Utilization, Error Rate & Discard Rate
      5. Click on Save

       

      Q. How to view interface graphs for multiple interfaces in a single page?

      1. Go to Inventory > Interfaces
      2. Select the required interfaces by ticking the appropriate check boxes and click on Generate Reports button on the top right corner.
      3. Choose the time frame, monitoring parameters and click on Generate Report.

      Q. Why am I receiving wrong interface alerts?

      Ifindex is an unique number that identifies each and every interface. When an interface is changed physically, the ifindex also changes. But, in RMM Central, that interface will still have its old ifindex value. This directly affects the monitoring and data collection of that particular interface and triggers wrong alerts. You can either persist using the same ifIndex or enable schedule rediscovery for those interfaces in particular. 

      Q. Why there is no data when I choose custom time less than 1 day?

      Reason: RMM Central archives and maintains data from different performance tables regularly. 
      Likewise, the data collected at that very instance is stored in the Statsdata table. This is known as raw or current data. This table is created every 24 hours, which means the backup of the previous day's data is carried out at the end of the day. So, when the custom time period mentioned is less than a day, RMM Central will not have any data to display. 
      Solution: Since the backup takes place between 23.55 hrs to 23.58 hrs every day, specifying the duration from that day's midnight to the next day's midnight will fetch the necessary information.

      Q. Why does the real time graph values differ from the interface snapshot graph values?

      The primary reason for this mismatch is the fact that both the graphs fetch data in two different ways. In the real time graph, the refresh rate is set to 1 second by default and the polling happens every 10 seconds. Concurrently, in the interface snapshot graph, the default polling interval is 15 minutes, but can be customized to a minimum of 30 seconds. Here, the polling happens for the time interval that is specified by the user. Clearly, both the graphs fetch data at different polling intervals and operates differently. 

      Q. Why are some criteria for Notification Profiles missing from the Notification Profile section of device snap shot page?

      In the device snap shot page, the criteria for Notification Profiles will only be listed based on the device type and applications installed in the device.

      Example: MSSQL related threshold criteria will only be available in the Notification Profile section of the device snap shot page if MSSQL is installed in the device.




    • Alarms

      Q. What is Alarm Escalation?

      Alarm Escalation is an automated process, used to notify crucial issues to a higher authority when alarms are not cleared in a specified time period, through e-Mail and SMS. 

      Q. When should I use Alarm Escalation?

      When an alarm is raised corresponding to a business critical device (for e.g, a Web Server), the issue must be resolved immediately. In that case, Alarm Escalation Rules can be defined for the web server to notify the concerned person. 

      Q. How to convert unsolicited traps into alarms?

      Go to Alarms -> Unsolicited traps. Select the required unsolicited trap and click on Create Trap Processor.

      Q. How to create a trap processor using vendor MIBs?

      • Go to Settings > Monitoring > SNMP Trap processors.
      • Click the 'Load from MIBs' button and select the relevant MIB.
      • Select the trap processors that you want to enable, and click 'Save' to apply the changes.
      • If you wish to add additional mibs from vendors, you can place those mibs under <opm_home>/mibs.

      Q. How can I check whether traps received in RMM Central or not?

      • Go to the directory where RMM Central was installed and navigate to RMM Central/Bin/MibBrowser.
      • In the MiBBrowser, choose Trap viewer under View.
      • Press Start to turn on the Trap viewer. All the traps entering RMM Central will be displayed.

      Q. How to forward trap(s) from RMM Central to other NMS servers?

      Go to Settings -> Tools -> Forward Trap. Click on Add Destination to add a destination host & port number to which the traps must be forwarded. Click on Start Forwarder to begin forwarding the traps to the desired host.

      Please note that traps cannot be forwarded to selective destinations.

      Q. How to change SNMP trap port?

      To change the SNMP trap port follow these steps:

      • Navigate to Monitoring-->SNMP Trap Processors
      • Click Trap Settings, change the Trap Port and Save.

      Q. Why am I not receiving any traps?

      Traps might not be received in RMM Central because of connectivity or port availability issues. If you're not receiving any traps in RMM Central, check the following:

      • Check if the device that sends the trap is discovered and is not in 'unmanaged' state in RMM Central.
      • Check if the port specified for traps is not being blocked by your firewall.
      • Try pinging the RMM Central server from the concerned device to see if it's reachable.
      • Also, check if the port assigned for receiving traps is available in RMM Central and not being used by any other processes.

      Q. What are unsolicited traps?

      RMM Central has a predefined set of trap processors for processing the incoming traps. The Traps received in RMM Central for which a corresponding trap processor is not defined are called Unsolicited Traps. To assign a Trap Processor and convert an unsolicited trap into an alarm, select the unsolicited trap and click on Create Trap Processor.

      Q. Where do I find unsolicited traps?

      Unsolicited traps are listed under Alarms > Unsolicited traps (mouse hover action).

      Q. What happens when an SNMP trap processor is disabled?

      When a SNMP trap processor is disabled, the corresponding SNMP traps that are received will not be processed.

      Q. Why should I suppress an alarm?

      When a device is under planned maintenance, alarms will be generated for the device. In that case, alarm suppression can be used.

      Q. Can I suppress alarm for custom time period?

      Yes, alarms can be suppressed for custom time period. 

      Q.What is the default SNMP Trap port?

       The default SNMP Trap port number is 162.

      Q. How to find if a Trap port is blocked?

      When a Trap port is blocked, it will be notified as a message on the top in Alarms -> Trap Alarms page in RMM Central's UI.

      Q. Where can I view traps in RMM Central?

      Traps received in RMM Central can be viewed lively using the Trap Viewer. The Trap Viewer can be accessed by the following ways:

      1. Navigate to Alarms--> Trap Alarms and click on Trap Viewer icon on the right corner.
      2. Navigate to Monitoring-->SNMP Trap Processors  and click on Trap Viewer icon on the right corner.
      3. Click on Tools --> Trap Viewer.

      Q. Why am I unable to view Trap Alarms in RMM Central?

      RMM Central processes only the traps that have suitable Trap Processors.

      Q. What are the alarm actions available?

      The alarm actions available in RMM Central are: Add Note, Clear, Acknowledge, UnAcknowledge and Delete.

      Q. Why is Syslog alarm not raised if consecutive time and number of occurrences is enabled?

      Syslog alarm wont be raised if:

      a. The same syslog message is not generated for the number of consecutive times within the time interval as configured.

      Example: Consider the consecutive times to be '2' and the time interval to be 300 seconds. An alarm will be raised only if the syslog message is received twice within a time interval of 300 seconds.

      b. The received syslog does not match the below conditions in the rule created:

      • Syslog Facility
      • Syslog Severity
      • Match Text
      • Host

       




    • Business Views

      A. Before checking the link connectivity status and traffic GUI in Business View, make sure:

      • There is active signal transmission between the devices present in the Business View.
      • There is an active physical connection between the devices that have been connected in the Business View using the connection link.

      In Business View, click on the link connecting the various devices to know the connectivity status and traffic. For the sake of simplification, prefer creating a layer 2 map with your devices and then converting them to Business View using the Save as Business View option in Layer2 Maps.

      Calculating the speed of the interface link in RMM Central's business view:
      The interface link's speed is the average of InSpeed and OutSpeed of the interface. i.e, Speed = (InSpeed + OutSpeed)/2
      For Example:
      If InSpeed = 200 Mbps; OutSpeed = 300 Mbps.
      Then, Speed = (InSpeed + OutSpeed)/2 = (200 + 300)/2 = 500/2 = 250 Mbps.

      Q. Why the device icons in my BV are displayed in very smaller/negligible size?

      A. Business view is set to Fit to screen by default. Change this option to Normal Screen by clicking on the square icon near the zooming option. To magnify the view even further, press the "+" icon until a satisfactory size is achieved.

      Q. How can I edit multiple links, devices or shortcuts in a Business view?

      A. Select a Business View and click on the edit button. Now, press ctrl and choose multiple devices. Click on the Properties icon near the Grid icon and open the Bulk edit option. You can now edit multiple devices and links at once.

      Q. How to view the status of multiple site maps?

      A. A Business view can be embedded within a business view using Shortcuts. To create a shortcut, 

      • Create a new Business view or open an existing one and click on Edit.
      • Click on Add Shortcut icon on the toolbar, configure shortcut properties by assigning the Business view this shortcut icon should represent and click on Save.
      • Clicking on this shortcut will open the Business view that it is linked to. You can create multiple shortcuts in a single Business view.

       

      A. Connections between devices and shortcuts can be made by Links. To establish connection between devices/shortcuts, select a device and choose the Add Link icon from the toolbar.
        An alternate option is to drag the link button present at the top right corner of the source device's icon and drop it on the destination device's icon.

      A. To view the traffic/link arrow, open a Business view and click on Edit. Double click on a link connection and enable the Show Arrow option and press Save. Ensure there is traffic in the link for the arrow to be displayed.

      Q. Why am I not seeing Traffic Load Legend in a few Business view maps?

      A. The absence of a map legend can be attributed to the following reasons:

      1. Absence of link connection.
      2. when there is no traffic available
      3. The devices in the business view should not be in an unmanaged state.

      Q. How to provide user access only to the devices of a particular business view?

      A. Go to Settings > Basic Settings > User Management. If you wish to add a new user, click on Add User and fill the role and credentials listed under the User Details tab. If not, select an existing user from the list below.  Click on Scope tab. Here, a list of all the existing Business views can be found. Click on Selected Business Views and choose the business views that the user can access. 




    • Security

      Q. Why is intermediate/root certificate required when I import the certificate?

      A. The intermediate and root certificates are needed to validate the server certificate provided. The server Certificate along with the intermediate and root certificates forms a complete chain, termed as 'Chain of trust', which establishes the authenticity of the certificate.

      Q.Why is the URL 'Not trusted', even after importing valid certificate?

      A. The URL shown as 'Not Trusted' is a browser specific feature. The reasons for a URL not shown as trusted can be one or both of the following:
      - You are using a Self-signed certificate (or) and internal organization CA issued certificate, which is not trusted by the browser, unless you manually import it into the browser's certificate store.
      -You are accessing the product with a Hostname or IP that is not specified in the Certificate's Common Name or the Subject Alternate Name (SAN) fields.

      Q. Is a self-signed certificate safe to use?

      A. Self signed certificate works the same way just like any CA issued certificate. The only downside to it is that it will not be trusted by the browsers as it is created by us and not issued by a valid CA, to make this trusted, the certificate can be added to the browser's certificate manager or added to all computers via Windows Group policy. This can be used if you are planning to access the application only within your organization.