Copyright: © 1999 by Dirk Paessler
Citation: Taken from: Atrada Trading Manager Manual


Help Contents
Inhalt

Welcome

Why we created IPCheck

The idea of IPCheck

Sample Screenshot

Installation

What you need to install IPCheck

How to install IPCheck on your machine

Quickstart

The window of IPCheck

Adding Servers and Groups

Adding Monitors for Servers

Starting the Scanning

Viewing a Servers Logfile

Viewing Request Times of a Monitor

Options-Menu

Event-Management

Content of Email-Templates

Other Options

Saving/Loading Settings

The FILE-Menu

Legal Stuff

Copyright

Support

Shareware Version

Usage of Registered Version

Disclaimer of Warranty


Why we created IPCheck

Every web-admin has experienced this problem at least once: The server is running and is reachable by PING, but the web-service is down and thus the server is not reachable for visitors. Or the webservice runs, but visitors read "ODBC-ERROR" on the homepage, because the database or sql-server is unreachable.

There are a couple of tools on the market which check servers using the PING-command and the better ones also try to connect to a server on port 80 to check the status of the service. Also there are some "big names" in IT-management-suites, but these are hardly affordable.

None of the tools we found on the internet used a complete HTTP-command and analyzed the results to check, if a specific server is still alive and in good condition. And none was also able to offer a broad range of notifying services.

So we decided to write our own software, because we did not find the features we wanted in a simple and affordable program.


The idea of IPCheck

IPCheck was designed to constantly watch all our servers and notify our staff when outages occur. Also all data gathered during monitoring can be viewed and analyzed.

So the Features of IPCheck can be devided into three categories:

see also:

Features for monitoring servers

Features for notifying

Features for analyzing

And even more features


Features for monitoring servers

To check every aspect of a webserver IPCheck offers several possibilities to watch the machine:

•	Run a simple PING comand

•	Try to connect to a service on a specific port (e.g. HTTP=80)

•	Send a HTTP-Request, analyze resultcodes and page contents

By using all three monitor types against a webserver the administrator knows exactly what has happened to a server:


Features for notifying

As soon as IPCheck notices a change in your networks status, several notification mechanisms can be launched:

•	Write a logfile entry

•	Show a popup-window on the screen

•	Issue a NET SEND Command  (sends a message to all or specific users on the local network)

•	Execute any EXE-File or BATCH-File

•	Play a sound (WAV-File)

•	Send a SMTP-Mail with the problems data to a mailbox, pager or mobile phone

•	Reboot the machine (Remote reboot on NT networks)

•	Print a message on a printer

•	Hard-reset the server via a powerswitch that can be controlled via a RS-232 port

All these measures can be triggered at different times after a server went down. You might want to be notified by a POPUP, NETSEND and sound at once, but the email only if the machine does not come up for 5 minutes, or similar.


Features for analyzing

All requestresults are logged into a ASCII-logfile which can be analyzed:

•	Show all errors for this server in the logfile

•	Show a graph of all requesttimes for several days

With the second the administrator can take a look at the request times  for a HTTP-Request over a period of days or weeks.


And even more features

Another feature of IPCheck is a built in webserver, which can be accessed by a web browser in the local network.

This webserver delivers a HTML-page with the latest status of the monitored servers. It can be accessed at the URL

http://(name or ip of the machine that runs IPCheck).


Sample Screenshot

This is what IPCheck looks like on our system:


What you need to install IPCheck

IPCheck requires Microsoft ® Windows 95, 98, NT or Windows 2000 to run and an IP-based network to check the servers, which is usually the case for machines connected to the internet.

IPCheck needs about 1 MB of diskspace to install. During usage of IPCheck the diskspace can get much bigger, because all requests are logged to a logfile (see File|Dump Logs for information how to shorten the logfiles).


How to install IPCheck on your machine

IPCheck is distributed in form of two files:

•	ZIP: A standard zip-file containing the executable (EXE) and the helpfiles (HLP)

•	EXE: A selfextracting windows-SETUP-program

see also:

Installing the ZIP-File

Installing the Setup-EXE


Installing the ZIP-File

Simply unzip all the files from the ZIP into a directory of your choice, that you want IPCheck to run in. Afterwards drag the IPCheck-Icon to a folder in your startmenu or taskbar.


Installing the Setup-EXE

Double click the EXE file and a standard windows-setup programm appears. Please select the directory to install IPCheck into.

The icons for the startmenu are automatically created.


The window of IPCheck

The window of IPCheck consists of 5 areas:

IPCheck window

There is

•	a standard windows-menu and a toolbar at the top

•	a treeview of all the servers and ports on the left

•	a logfile of errors on the top right

•	a logfile of recent activity on the bottom right and

•	a statusline

see also:

The Toolbar

The serverlist

The Logfiles

The Statusbar


The Toolbar

The toolbar offers 4 buttons:

•	Start Scan: Starts the scanning process

•	Stop Scan: Stops the scanning process

•	Scan Now: starts a scan for all monitors immediatelly

•	Stop Webserver: Stops and starts the internal webserver


The serverlist

This treeview has three levels: groups, servers and monitors

Every group has one or more server and every server has one or more ports, that are monitored.

To edit the data of a group, a server or a monitor, simply right-click the entry and choose Edit. Also all other editing functions can be found in context sensitive popup menus.

•	To add a group right-click on the white space beneath the list and choose Add Group

•	To add a server right-click on a group's name and choose Add Server

•	To add a monitor right-click on a server and choose Add Monitor


The Logfiles

The right part of the window contains the history of the logfiles. The upper logfile shows important messages and errors only, the lower shows the result of every single request.


The Statusbar

The left part of the statusbar shows the current activity, the right part shows the status of the webserver and the port which the webserver was able to connect to.


Adding Servers and Groups

To add a server right-click on the white space beneath the list and choose Add Server.

Adding a new server

Enter the name of the server (e.g. www.paessler.com) into the first edit field servername.

If you do not provide an IP number in the second field, the IP is resolved from the DNS server every time a request is sent to the server.  It is recommended to leave the entry field IP empty, this way IPCheck also notifies you, when there is a problem with the DNS record of the machine.

Enter a name of the group the server belongs to (e.g. "Webservers", "customers" or "internal". As soon as you enter a new groupname, a new group is created in the serverlist!

The fields Location and Notes are for your internal information.

Click on OK when you are done.


Adding Monitors for Servers

To add a monitor to a server, right-click the servername and choose Add Monitor.

Adding a new monitor

First, choose the monitor type:

•	PING

•	PORT

•	HTTP

These monitor types offer different settings:

see also:

PING-Monitor

PORT-Monitor

HTTP-Monitor

Selecting the Event for a Monitor


PING-Monitor

PING Monitor settings

For the classic monitoring using PINGs only the intervall between two checks must be selected


PORT-Monitor

PORT-Monitor settings

For a port-monitor please select the port-number and the intervall between two checks.

Using this method virtually any type of internet service regardless of the protocoll can be monitored. For a webserver select port 80, for a SMTP server select port 25 etc. (see RFC 1060 for a list of all services)


HTTP-Monitor

This monitor offers several settings:

HTTP-Monitor settings

Please enter the URL that should be requested.

TIP: It is recommended to choose a URL on the server that creates only very little processor load on the server and very little transfer volume, because this request is sent to the server very often! You might want to create a simple HTML-file with only 5 bytes or a simple script that checks the database connection and returns some kind of OK status.

Do not forget to select the appropiate port for the webserver (usually port 80).

If you want to use a proxy server to send the request, enter the name or IP of the proxy and the proxy port.

You can instruct IPCheck to analyze the resulting data of the request. You can enter one string which the HTML must include (e.g. </body>) and one string that may not be included (HTML my not incl.) (e.g. error).

As soon as either of the conditions is not met, the servers is considered to be down.


Selecting the Event for a Monitor

You select two events that should be invoked when a server goes down or comes up:

Setting Event Handlers

The first event is executed, when a server goes down, e.g. changes it's state from green or yellow to red.

The second event is executed, when server is up again, e.g. changes it's state from red to green.

The default setting is to show a popup message,

Please refer to the chapter "Options-menu" to learn more about the events!


Starting the Scanning

As soon as you have entered at least one server and one port you can start the scan process. Click on Start scan and IPCheck starts monitoring the servers at once.

The status of servers and ports is shown in the serverlist using colors:

•	GREEN: everything is up and running

•	YELLOW: the service is very slow or one request is lost

•	RED: the service is unavailable

From now on each monitored port is checked as soon as its intervall is over.

TIP: You can fire all events using Scan Now at any time.


Viewing a Servers Logfile

To view the IPCheck logfile of a server, select the servername in the treeview and right-click it. Select View Logfile to see the complete logfile or select View Logfile (Errors only) to filter out all successful logfile entries. When you are done reading the logfile, close the window.


Viewing Request Times of a Monitor

Since IPCheck logs the time it took to check each service in its logfiles, you can get a graphical overview of how long the request times were of a period of several days using this function.

This way the response times of your services and the quality of service of your connection to a particular service can be monitored.

To view the request time graph of a monitored port, select the monitor in the treeview and right click it. Select View Request Times and a dialog comes up asking for how many days the graph should be generated. Enter your choice and click on OK. A little moment later the graph will be shown:

View Request Times

This screenshot shows the request times of pinging a server located in California, the test was performed from Germany.

Each red box stands for a lost request or timeout.


Event-Management

Select Options|Events to edit the eventsmanagement of IPCheck.

Event Manager

As soon as a server changes its state to RED, e.g. goes down, IPCheck can execute a couple of measurements to inform the administrator.

For every event a latency can be set. This is the number of times IPCheck rechecks the server until it actually issues an event.

For example: If you have set the monitor to check every 60 seconds and set the latency to 4, it takes 4 minutes for IPCheck to inform you. But also the server is given 4 more chances to become reachable again (e.g. net congestions etc.).

It is possible to set different latencies for different events, e.g. send a netsend after 4 lost packets and send an email after 10 lost packets.

Every Event has a Test button on it's page which you can use to run a test of the event's settings.

Using Add, Rename, Copy and Delete you can create as many events as you like.

see also:

POPUP

SOUND

EXECUTE

MAIL

NETSEND

SHUTDOWN

PRINT

SERIAL


POPUP

POPUP Settings

POPUP simply shows a dialog on the screen of the computer that runs IPCheck with a message of what happend.


SOUND

SOUND Settings

Select a WAV-File which should be played for this event.


EXECUTE

EXECUTE Settings

This event starts any executable (EXE) file or batchfile on your system. Select the filename in the upper edit field.

In the lower edit field you can enter command line options for this command/executable. You can use the given placeholders to tell the programm, what happened.


MAIL

MAIL Settings

Enter the email adress in the upper entry field.

TIP: You can enter more than one adress by separating the adresses using a comma (",")

In the second edit field please select a mail template file. These templatefiles are simple TXT-files which are described in the next chapter.


NETSEND

NETSEND Settings

Using the "net.exe send" command IPCheck can send message to one or all computers in the local network.

Enter the name of the loginname of the user or a computername in the first field. To send this message to all computers use the name "*".

Use the second edit field to change the content of the message.


SHUTDOWN

SHUTDOWN Settings

Using the windows NT remote boot functionality IPCheck can tr to reboot a computer. Enter the computer's name in the edit field.

If you click on Test here, you can cancel the shutdown command using the Cancel button.


PRINT

This feature is not done yet


SERIAL

This is currently an undocumented feature. Please ask tools@paessler.com for more information


Content of Email-Templates

This is the content of a sample template file (use notepad for example to edit these files):

mail.axis.de:25:paessler

ipcheck@atrada.de

IPCheck: <#msg>

IPCheck has noticed a change in the network status!

--------------------------------------------------

<#msg>

--------------------------------------------------

Date <#date>, Time <#time>

History of this server:

<#hist>

The first line contains your mail-servername, the port and the login name, separated by ":"

The second line is used in the From-field of the email.

The third line becomes the Subject of the email.

The rest of the file is used for the body of the mail.

You can enter any text you like and additionally use the following placeholders for dynamic data:

•	<#msg>: The IPCheck message (what has happened)

•	<#date>, <#time>: date and time of the event

•	<#server>: server's name

•	<#status>: server's status

•	<#hist>: history of this server (all events since last start of IPCheck)

•	<#allhist>: all errors since IPCheck was started


Other Options

The options menu also offers the following functions:

•	Scan Process Active: This command starts and ends the scan process just like the buttons Start Scan and End Scan

•	Start Scan on Startup: If this switch is set to ON the scan process is automatically started when IPCheck is started. This is useful if you place IPCheck in your startup-folder!

•	Show Logs: Shows and hides both logfiles in the main window.

•	Status Bar: Shows and hides the statusbar in the main window.

•	Always on Top: Shows the main windows on top of all other windows


The FILE-Menu

All settings are automatically saved to an ".ITC"-File when the program ist terminated.

Using File|New, File|Open, File|Save and File|Save as you can create as many settings-files as you like. When saving, IPCheck creates a backup of the old configuration file (.BAK).

If the logfiles get too big, use File|Dump Logfiles to delete old logs.


Copyright

IPCheck is copyrighted and written 1999 by Dirk Paessler and Jens Rupp. For the latest version always check http://www.paessler.com/tools.

Mail Adress: Dirk Paessler, C/o Atrada Trading Network AG, Am Weichselgarten 7, D-91058 Erlangen

Email: tools@paessler.com


Support

Support is currently available by email only. Please send your coments and questions to tools@paessler.com.


Shareware Version

IPCheck 2.0 is Shareware. The unregistered version support only two servers, the registered version has no limitations.

The Shareware fee is $50 and can be payed at

http://shareit1.element-5.de/programs.html?nr=103772

or visit http://www.paessler.com/tools for more payment options.


Usage of Registered Version

One registered copy of IPCheck may either be used by a single person who uses the software personally on one or more computers, or installed on a single workstation used nonsimultaneously by multiple people, but not both.


Disclaimer of Warranty

THIS SOFTWARE AND THE ACCOMPANYING FILES ARE SOLD "AS IS" AND WITHOUT WARRANTIES AS TO PERFORMANCE OF MERCHANTABILITY OR ANY OTHER WARRANTIES WHETHER EXPRESSED OR IMPLIED. In particular, there is no warranty for a technical correct check of any servers and services. Because of the various hardware and software environments into which IPCheck may be put, NO WARRANTY OF FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE IS OFFERED.

Good data processing procedure dictates that any program be thoroughly tested with non-critical data before relying on it and to backup all critical data on a regular basis. The user must assume the entire risk of using the program. ANY LIABILITY OF THE SELLER WILL BE LIMITED EXCLUSIVELY TO PRODUCT REPLACEMENT OR REFUND OF PURCHASE PRICE.