ActiveXperts Network Monitor 7.4 Release Notes

ACTIVEXPERTS NETWORK MONITOR 7.4
Release Date: June 12 2012

  Introduction
  Download
  What's new in ActiveXperts Network Monitor 7.4
  Bug Fixes
  Installation and Upgrade

INTRODUCTION

ActiveXperts Network Monitor 7.4 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 Windows 2012/2008/2003/8/7/Vista/XP x86/x64 platforms
The ActiveXperts Network Monitor 7.4 configuration database is compatible with all previous versions of the product.

DOWNLOAD

Click on the link below to download of ActiveXperts Network Monitor 7.4
www.activexperts.com/download

WHAT'S NEW IN ACTIVEXPERTS NETWORK MONITOR 7.4

- Checks (Generic) -

You can now use IPv6 addresses as a host, in addition to IPv4 and hostnames;
Scheduled checks are now initially reported as 'Waiting to be processed' in the Manager. In previous versions, it was reported as 'service not running'.

- New built-in checks -

VMware Check - the new VMware check allows you to monitor VMware ESXi servers. You can monitor performance counters defined for the ESXi host itself, but also for the individual Virtual Machines hosted by the ESXi server. VMware 4.x and higher are supported.
XenServer Check - the new XenServer check allows you to monitor Citrix XenServer servers. You can monitor performance counters defined for the XenServer host itself, but also for the individual Virtual Machines hosted by the XenServer server. XenServer 5.x and higher are supported.
Task Scheduler Check - ActiveXperts Network Monitor now supports Task Scheduler logs. These type of logs are supported on Windows Vista or higher workstation platforms, and Windows 2008 or higher server platforms. Previous releases of Network Monitor only supported Scheduled Task based log files (SchedLogU.txt).
Citrix ICA Check;
Microsoft Dynamics AX/NAV/CRM Check;
Microsoft Forefront TMG Check;
Performance Counter Check;
Many new PowerShell checks;
Many new VBScript checks.

- DNS check -

FIX: DNS - the DNS check was sometimes ignoring DNS records, i.e. there was received by the Network Monitor engine but were discarded for no reason. This has been fixed.

- Event Log check -

IMPROVED: ActiveXperts Network Monitor now supports .evtx based Event Logs. This allows you to monitor a wide range of (custom) event logs on Windows Vista and higher workstation platforms, or Windows 2008 or higher server platforms;

- File check -

FIX: FILE - the File check worked correctly, but when checking a file for a maximum number of megabytes, the data field (used in graphs) was not stored properly. This has been fixed.

- PowerShell check -

FIX: PowerShell-based checks reported 'Error' in case the machine was not running or when a wrong Host/IP was entered . This has been changed to status 'Uncertain' as with other checks.

- Remote Registry check -

FIX: Remote Registry Check did not work in previous versions when monitoring remote Windows 2008 R2 servers. This has been fixed.

- WMI Performance Counter check -

FIX: WMI Performance Counter check treated a numeric value as a string value when comparing against a predefined value. This made '1000' < '99' to become true. This has been fixed.

- GUI -

FIX: The Manager application was sometimes frozen as a result of a bug: when there was a lot of text data in the clipboard, it slowed down the Manager and sometimes even made is 'not responding'. This has been fixed.
FIX: Manager sometimes crashed after a few days of running. Problem was caused by the content of the Clipboard. This has been fixed;
FIX: Graph Option per Check - In the Manager, you cannot enable Graph anymore if the global Graph option is disabled;
FIX: With thousands of checks, the Dependency configuration dialog crasht when used a few times in a row. This has been fixed.
FIX: After importing a configuration file, the previous configuration file was not saved in the 'Saved Configuration Files' directory as it should, but in the network monitor root directory instead. This has been fixed.

- Engine (service) -

FIX: The Engine (ActiveXperts Network Monitor Service) was leaking memory and handles on some Windows 2008 R2 configuration (depending on the patch level of the OS). This has been solved;

- Notifications -

E-mail - E-mail notifications are now sent as one message to multiple recipients

- Diagnostic Utilities -

There's a new 'VMware Client' diagnostic utility that can be used to query VMware machines, real-time;
There's a new 'XenServer Client' diagnostic utility that can be used to query XenServer machines, real-time;
FIX: Remote Command Diagnostic Utility did not work in previous versions. It reported an incompatibility problem. This has been fixed.

- Statistical Database -

When an MS Access based Statistical Database exceeds its maximum size of 2GB, Network Monitor stops writing to the database and an error message is reported. In previous versions, an attempt was made to write to the database, and a SQL error was reported;
Improved information-, warning- and error messages for all statisitcal database activities.

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. Use the Manager's Export command to make the backup;
Make a backup of all custom VBScript scripts - if any. Use the Windows Explorer to make the backup;
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;
Reboot the monitoring server;
Install the 'ActiveXperts Network Monitor' software on the monitoring server;
Launch the Manager application, and choose 'Import Configuration' from the 'File menu'. Select the version of the previous configuration file, and then select the configuration file (named CONFIG.MDB or CONFIG.AMF);
Optionally, install the 'ActiveXperts Network Monitor Manager' application on the PCs of the operators.