Copyright: Copyright © Know-It
Citation: Copyright © Know-It


Contents
Help File Contents:

Setup  How to setup ServerTrak(TM)

Operations - Running ServerTrak(TM)

About ServerTrak(TM)


Setup

This section provides information and explanation of how to set up the ServerTrak(TM) system.

After invocation of the program, if it is not running (see Operations), you can enter the Setup screens by pressing the Setup button.  If the system is running (monitoring servers), you must press the STOP button first before entering Setup.

After entering setup, there are four 'property sheets' of controls that you can set.

After completing changes to all the sections, as needed, press OK to save the changes.  Pressing CANCEL causes all changes made to be discarded.   Each section of Setup is discussed in detail below.

General Options - How to set up the general options.

Servers and Disks  -

Reporting -

Alerts -


General Options

This section explains how to set up the options on the 'General' properties sheet.

The first field is the License.  When you initially install the system, the license field is marked as 'DEMO'.  In demonstration mode, ServerTrak(TM) allows you to setup and monitor your Web Servers and see how the ServerTrak(TM) system works.  Although you can test the various alert options, you cannot enable any of the alerts or reporting options.

When you register ServerTrak(TM), you will be issued a license, which is specific to your system based on your network name.   Enter this license in the license field, and immediately press the OK button to leave the Setup screens.  Then reenter the Setup section and all the fields will now be available, such as enabling the alerts and reports.

The second field under General options, is a check box which allows you to designate if you want ServerTrak(TM) to immediately began tracking as soon as it is invoked.  This is useful if you want to place ServerTrak(TM) in the STARTUP group for your system.  Then whenever your system is booted, ServerTrak(TM) will be invoked and will immediately began monitoring any Web Servers you have designated in the Servers section of Setup.

The next field on the General Options screen, allows you to define the number of seconds of delay between times ServerTrak(TM) checks the Web Servers.  You should not check your server too often, as it will place an undue load on the server.

Finally,  there is a field that allows you to define the maximum  number of seconds to wait for any HTTPD (WEB) site to respond.  Occassionally a site may allow IP connections, but is not able to service the HTTPD request, or is so heavily loaded that it cannot respond in a timely fashion.  This field allows you to designate the maximum allowable time for response from any of the HTTP servers you have listed.


Setting up Servers/Disks to monitor

In this section, there is a list of  up to 100 Web Servers to monitor.  To setup a new server, click on the ADD button.  You will see:

You can enter a web site, node name, or an IP address.  For WEB sites you do NOT need to enter the 'http://' text.  This is assumed when you specify the type of test as HTTPD.   You can test any node using the PING test mechanism as long as it support TCP/IP.  You do not specify a PORT when requesting to test a site using the low-level ping method.  Routers, gateways, proxy servers, user workstations, and many other network nodes can be tested easily with PING option.  A port is an optional entry field for HTTPD sites.  The port default for HTTPD sites is 80.

Example:

SYSTEM: www.mybank.com

PORT: 8080

This is useful for sites that place secure servers on other ports.  It is not necessary for any security information to be passed to ServerTrak(TM), as any response from the Web Server (including a 'You are illegal' message), is sufficient to know that the site is alive.

You can also specify a reporting or reference title.    This comments will be passed in the EMail alert message, and will show on the main status screen for the purpose of helping you identify the server.

NOTE:  You can frequently test other types of servers using the HTTPD protocal, since they will respond to the same TELNET style commands.   For example to test to see if your FTP server is alive, define an HTTPD site with a port of 21 (the default for FTP servers).  Specific server functionality testing will be available in the next release.

You can also monitor disk drives, both local and network, to see if the free or available disk space is maintained above a specified level.  Using the Add Disk option you will see this screen:

Enter any valid drive letter, and the minimum allowable number of remaining megabytes of free space before initiating an alarm.


Setting up Reporting Options

There are two ways to get the results of ServerTrak(TM) into files for use in other programs, or for viewing in other systems.  A log is a continuing history of each time ServerTrak(TM) tests a Web Server.  A report on the other hand, is a short summary of the current status of the servers - there is no historical information.

LOGGING

The first check box, allows you to enable the  Logging function.  Before enabling the logging function, you should specify a file name to ServerTrak(TM) to write the log to.  You can simply type in a file name, or use the browse button to find a drive, directory, and filename of your choice.  The drive and directory specified must already exist.  ServerTrak(TM) will create the file if not present, and append to it when present.

There is also a check box which enables you to specify whether you want successful attempts to monitor the Web Servers to be logged or not.  If you are just interested in when the Web Server fails to respond, set this check box blank.  The disabled check box to 'Log Failures' is always set.

REPORTING

The next check box, allows you to enable the  Reporting function.  Before enabling the reporting function, you should specify a file name to ServerTrak(TM) to write the report to.  You can simply type in a file name, or use the browse button to find a drive, directory, and filename of your choice.  The drive and directory specified must already exist.  ServerTrak(TM) will create the file if not present, and append to it when present.

You may then specify if you want the report in standard TEXT format, or in HTML format.  The HTML is suitable for viewing with an Internet browser.  If the HTML file is placed in an Internet accessible location, you can then check the status report form ServerTrak(TM), via a Web browser anywhere in the world.


Setting up Alerts

There are four types of Alerts you may wish to invoke, in case a Web Server which is being monitored fails.  You can alert via audible sound, numerical pager,  send an Email, or launch a command of your choice.  You can do any combination or all of these options.

The first field on this screen, allows you to define how many failures to allow before issuing alerts.  In some cases, Web Servers may not respond due to load or temporary network interruption.  However, if the condition persists, it is time to alert someone.  Set this field in coordination with the delay time between attempts on the General options screen.  Note that this field applies to all alerts equally.

Next, you can specify the maximum times you want the alarms to be sent.  The prevents many duplicate Email messages, or pages from being sent for a failure condition that you cannot correct quickly.   As soon as the server comes back on line, the counters are reset, so that if a subsequent failure occurs, alarm messages will once again be sent.

The alarm counts for each server, are reset automatically, whenever ServerTrak(tm) can once again successfully reach the Web server.

Audio

You may enable (if you have a registered version), the audio alert option using the 'Enable Audio' check box.  You may also specify if you want the alert to be sounded only one time, or repeated continuously until the error condition is cleared.  You specify the name of the Wave file to play by typing it in the Wave file field, or using the Browse button to select one.   After selecting an appropriate wave file, you may test it by pressing the TEST button.

Numeric Pager

You may enable (if you have a registered version), the numeric pager alert option using the 'Enable Paging' check box.  The paging system of ServerTrak(TM) assumes you have a Hayes compatible modem of any speed available on either COM1 port or COM2 port of your local computer, attached to a phone line.  It is also assumed that you have already set the COMM port options for this port, using the Windows Control Panel appropriately. ServerTrak(TM) does not change the speed, or other settings for this port, and the  modem is simply used as a dialing device.

When activated as an alert, ServerTrak(TM) activates the modem with an AT, and then dials the digits placed in the 'Phn #:' field, then waits for four seconds to give the pager company time to answer, then dials the digits placed in the 'numeric message' field.  Note that you can also include asterisks (*) and pound signs(#) in the message if desired.  Many paging companies required a pound sign on the end of the message before they will send the message.

You can test to see if the paging option is set up correctly using the 'Test' button.  Listen as the call is made to see if there is an error in the phone number or message.  If you need to increase the time between the dialing of the digits, and the dialing of the message, simply change the delay field as needed.

The numeric pager option can be used creatively to dial your home phone number or other numbers even if they are not connected to a paging company.  Simply choose a tone sequence that you would easily recognize should you hear it (e.g. 9993).

Email Notification

This type of notification of an alert condition is to use an Email message.  The Email message may go to someone''s Email account, or may be sent to one of the many alphanumeric paging companies that convert email to alphanumeric pages.

Four fields of information are required before a successful Email can be sent.  First, you must specify your SMTP server.  If you do not know this, ask your network administrator.  You can specify this using either the name of the server (fully qualified with domain), or the numeric IP address.  Then you must specify the Email address of the FROM party.  This FROM address must be known to the SMTP server.  Then specify any TO address for where you want the message sent.  Finally, you can specify a SUBJECT line for the Email message.  The message body itself will appear as follows:

* Web Server Not Responding! *

This is a message from ServerTrak.

The following Web Server is NOT responding:

myserver.mydomain.com

*END*

where 'myserver.mydomain.com' is whatever Web server is not responding.  It is important to test the Email alert as well by using the TEST button provided.

Launch Command

You can also specify a Command Line to be launched in case of alarm condition.  This command line can be any text that you would type in at the console (DOS) command prompt.  For example 'START C:\XYZZY.EXE', or 'NET START MYSERVER'.    Remember that this command line will be launched repeatedly after each scan failure up to the number of times specified in the 'Max Alarms per Failure' field.


Operation
Operations

Once you have successfully completed setting up the system, you can began monitoring your selected Web servers, by pressing the RUN key.  To stop at any time, press the STOP key or EXIT key.  You can minimize the application and it will continue to monitor.

If you have selected the automatic start option under General Options, when you invoke the program it will began monitoring immediately.


About ServerTrak
About ServerTrak(tm)

by

ServerTrak(tm) is a 32bit Windows program for monitoring Web Servers and other network nodes.  It allows entry of up to 100  servers/port combinations to monitor.  User may designate the frequency of monitoring by setting the number of seconds between Web site testing.  Web sites are tested with a simple HTML request - 'Get /'.  Other network nodes may be tested with a 'PING' method. Reporting may be accomplished in either or both of two ways. A log file may be produced showing results of all attempts, or just attempts resulting in no response (failure).  A report file may also be produced in either text or HTML format showing the current status of all servers, suitable for viewing via Internet.  The program may optionally be set to 'AutoStart' so that it may be placed in the STARTUP group of the user's system.  Three types of Alerts are available which may be used individually or in combination.  The first alert type is to play a '.WAV' file of the user's choice.  A default '.WAV' file is provided in the installation kit.  The '.WAV' file may be played once or optionally repeated until the error is cleared/acknowledged. The second type of alert is to signal a numeric pager via an attached modem.  The user may identify on what COM port the modem resides, and any numeric message to be sent upon a server failure. The third kind of alarm is an Email alarm.  The user may designate the FROM, TO, SUBJECT of the Email as well as specifying text in addition to an optional default message which includes the name(s) of the failing servers.  A fourth type of alarm is to launch a command line to invoke other programs or restart servers as required.  The main screen of ServerTrak provides a continuously updated screen of all current servers and their status.  In the 'demo' or unregistered version, the ALERTS and the report file are not available, although the log file option is.

Kit includes: 32bit Windows executable, .HLP help file, and a.WAV file.