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How to Create a Monitor Pack, Category, Metric, and Rule - Part 1 

Feb 04, 2008 01:05 PM

This article explains how to create a new Monitor Pack, Category, Metric, and Rule which will allow you to keep an eye on your Web Server(s).

All of the following actions take place in the "Tasks > Monitoring > Monitor Solution" Tasks Folder within the Altiris Console.

Editor's note: Part 2 of this article is located here.

New Monitor Pack

  1. From the "Manage Monitor Packs" Task page, press the blue plus sign to create a new Monitor Pack and give it a name and assign a Collection to it. This example shows that all resources that are running the Monitor Agent will receive this Monitor Pack.
  2. If you do not include a detection method, then this Monitor Pack will be active on all targeted resources. To add a detection method, press the "New..." button, and then select the type of detection method that you require. This example will check for the presence of the Package Server DLL file, before making this Monitor Pack active on a targeted resource. Please do not surround the file path with quotes, as this will prevent the detection from working.
  3. Pressing the Apply button will save the Monitor Packs configuration.
  4. Press the "View XML" button to ensure that your settings have been saved.

New Category

  1. To create a new Category, select the "Categories Tab" and then press the blue plus icon and give it a name.
  2. Once you press the OK button, the Categories grid will be populated with the new category.
  3. Double clicking the Category will provide access to its properties. If you do not include a detection method, then this Category will be active on all resources that the Monitor Pack targets. To add a detection method, press the "New..." button, and then select the type of detection method that you require. This example will check for the presence of the inetinfo.exe process, which identifies the resource as an IIS Server.

    It will also make sure that the inetinfo.exe file exists, and that its Product Version is either 5.x (identifying it as a Windows 2000 or XP IIS Server).

    Or, 6.x (identifying it as a Windows 2003 IIS Server).

  4. Once the detection method has been created, press the Apply button to save the configuration.
  5. Press the "View XML" button to ensure that your settings have been saved.

New Metric

  1. From the "Manage Metrics" Task page, press the blue plus sign to create a new Metric.
  2. The "New Metric Configuration" page allows a specific Metric to be selected.
  3. For this example, a Command Metric is going to be used. The "Command Metric Configuration" page has various check-boxes and dialogue boxes. The items with a red asterisk denote the minimum requirements for this Metric.
    • Name
    • Polling interval
    • Timeout
    • Command line
    • Return value column

    The Polling Interval determines how often the AeXMetricProv.exe runs to obtain the Metric value.

    This Command Metric involves the use of an IIS 6 Resource Kit tool called TinyGet.

    TinyGet version 5.2 ( http://support.microsoft.com/kb/840671#12 ) TinyGet 5.2 (TinyGet.exe) is a command-line Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) client that supports multiple threads and looping. You can use TinyGet to test or to troubleshoot HTTP client-to-server communication. By using TinyGet, you can customize your test request by configuring many different factors, including the authentication method, the HTTP version, and the output format. You can also use scripts that specify looping and multithreading.

    The command line syntax specified in this Metric will interrogate the Default WebSite.

  4. Once the OK button is pressed, the Metric is saved, and can be located within the "Manage Metrics" grid.

I will continue this article in Part 2, which will explain how to create a Rule, associate it with a Metric and how to create Actions for the Rule.

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