ACTIVEXPERTS NETWORK MONITOR 6.0 RELEASE NOTES

INTRODUCTION

ActiveXperts Network Monitor 6.0 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 6.0 configuration database is compatible with all previous versions of the product.

WHAT'S NEW IN ACTIVEXPERTS NETWORK MONITOR 6.0

- Engine -

• Performance - The Network Monitor Engine is a multi-threaded engine: it handles multiple tasks simultaneously. You can now configure the number of running threads. For instance, if Network Monitor is basically used to check availability of servers using the 'ICMP/Ping' check, you can double the number of ICMP threads to boost performance.

- Checks -

• Temperature and Humidity - New online devices available, to provide working samples.
• HTTP/HTTPs - Ability to declare the path of the WinHTTP library. The WinHTTP library is shipped with ActiveXperts Network Monitor, and is sometimes also part of the Operating System (depending on Operating System and Patch Level). By default, the WinHTTP that is shipped with ActiveXperts Network Monitor is used. If the WinHTTP check doesn't work well, you can choose the WinHTTP library of the Operating System;
• SNMP - Ability to use AND and OR operators to match against the result of an SNMP query.

- Configuration -

• Auto Backup - You can now backup your configuration and scripts automatically by using the Auto Backup feature. Auto Backup provides a way to backup configuration file and scripts for all days of the week, or on certain days of the week at a scheduled time. Auto Backup also allows you to backup the files to another network location.

- Dependencies -

• Dependencies - You can now make Folders dependent of Rules. This makes configuration and maintenance of dependencies much easier than before.

- Notifications -

• Global Notification Groups are now called: 'Distribution Groups'. You can now define multiple Distribution Groups and assign them to your Rules.

- VBScript -

• XML database checking - New VBScript function to monitor XML databases;
• New miscellaneous VBScript functions - New VBScript functions included for various purposes.

- User Interface -

• Folder sorting - Folders are now sorted on alphabet. In previous version of Network Monitor, Folders were not sorted but were displayed in the order they were generated;
• Rule sorting - 'Processing' rules do not change the way the items are sorted. In previous versions, when rules were processed they changed position in the view list;
• Paste Special - 'Paste Special' applies settings of a rule to multiple rues or to a folder (and optionally to all sub folders). It enables configuration of multiple rules by just a few mouse clicks;
• 'Last Duration' column - There's a new column ('Last Duration') to show how much time it took to process a rule. If a check takes long, you may need to change the poll frequency for that check, or increase the number of threads responsible for processing that type of check;
• There's a separate 'Rename' menu item for Folders; In previous versions of Network Monitor, the only way to change the name of a Folder was to click on Folder properties and then change the name. Now, you can also choose 'Rename' from the context menu.

BUG FIXES

• <CTRL>-A fix - In previous versions of Network Monitor, the <CTRL>-A menu accelator didn't work. You can now use <CTRL>-A to select all rules in a folder.

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.