ACTIVEXPERTS NETWORK MONITOR 5.42 RELEASE NOTES

INTRODUCTION

ActiveXperts Network Monitor 5.42 is the newest version of the ActiveXperts Network Monitor product. The mission of the product is to maximize the reliability of your production servers and applications through the automatic detection and correction of problems and issues. The product runs as a service on the Windows NT/2000/XP/2003 platform. The ActiveXperts Network Monitor 5.42 configuration database is compatible with all previous versions of the product.

WHAT'S NEW IN ACTIVEXPERTS NETWORK MONITOR 5.42

- Checks -

• Memory check - The 'Memory' check is a new built-in check; it monitors the memory usage of a system;
• Process Memory check - The 'Process Memory' check is a new built-in check; it monitors the 'used memory' of a specific process on a specific system;
• ICMP check - The 'ICMP' check has an additional parameter: TTL (time-to-live). You can now monitor the time-to-live of an ICMP cycle and alert when TTL exceeds a certain limit;
• Multithreading HTTP monitoring - The built-in 'HTTP' check is now multi-threading. This means, that the software can monitor multiple HTTP web servers simultaneously. In previous versions of ActiveXperts Network Monitor, rules were monitored simultaneously; however, the engine could monitor only ONE HTTP web server at a time;
• DiskSpace and FileSize checks - the results of the DiskSpace check and FileSize check were not accurate for large folders/files. The problem is solved in 5.42;
• SNMP check - SNMP based checks are processed much faster in previous versions of Network Monitor. ActiveXperts now uses a different, faster technique to process SNMP checks.

- User Interface -

• The Manager application now has 'smart icons' in the drop down box where you can select a check type. This provides a better overview of the available checks;
• There is a separate 'Remote Management' menu item, where you can configure the Web Interface and the Remote Manager applications;
• The User Interface now supports German date and time format, for instance: 20.06.2004

- Notifications and Actions -

• SNMP Traps - Besides notification via e-mail, network message, SMS and pager, you can now send SNMP Trap notifications to network management stations. Network Monitor supports SNMP v1 and SNMP v2c trap messaging, and supports many data types, including strings, numbers, object identifiers (OID's), time ticks and IP addresses;
• You can now pass credentials to the 'Restart Computer' and 'Restart Service' actions. If the remote computer cannot be managed by the Service Account that is used for the Network Monitor service, you can enter the credentials of an Administrator of the remote computer. This enables restarting and rebooting computers in any domain;
• New system parameters - There are four new system parameters: <%ID%>, <%TYPE-ID%>, <%TYPE%> and <%RESULT-ID%>. You can use these variables in notifications (e-mail, sms, network popup messages) and actions (vbscript programs, batch jobs, executables) and will be substituted by the engine when the notification/action is processed. <%ID%> indicates the unique ID of the rule (as it appears in the CONFIG.AMF configuration file); <%TYPE-ID%> indicates the type of check as a numeric ID, <%TYPE%> indicates the type of check as a friendly string; <%RESULT-ID%> indicates the result as a numeric ID.

BUG FIXES

• Fixed: 'Disable logging' did not work in version 5.41. This is fixed in version 5.42.

INSTALLATION AND UPGRADE

- Installation -

To learn more about installing the product for the first time, please read our manual.

- Upgrade -

Upgrading from a previous version should be done in the following way:

• Make a backup of the current configuration - although not really necessary, it's a good practice to do so;
• Uninstall all 'ActiveXperts Network Monitor Manager' application on the PCs that have the Manager application installed. Use the 'Add/Remove Programs' applet in the Control Panel to start the Uninstall
• Uninstall the 'ActiveXperts Network Monitor' software on the monitoring server. Use the 'Add/Remove Programs' applet in the Control Panel to start the Uninstall;
• Install the 'ActiveXperts Network Monitor' software on the monitoring server;
• Install the 'ActiveXperts Network Monitor Manager' application on the PCs of the operators.