SiteScope User's Guide

Mail Monitor

The SiteScope Mail Monitor checks a Mail Server via the network. It verifies that the mail server is accepting requests, and also verifies that a message can be sent and retrieved. It does this by sending a standard mail message using SMTP and then retrieving that same message via a POP user account. Each message that SiteScope sends includes a unique key which it checks to insure that it doesn't retrieve the wrong message and return a false OK reading. If SiteScope is unable to complete the entire loop it generates an error message.

Each time the Mail Monitor runs, it returns a status and writes it in the ~SiteScope/logs/SiteScope.log file. It also writes the total time it takes to send and receive the mail message in the log file.

Usage Guidelines

Why should I use this monitor?

Most companies are heavily dependent on e-mail today, and a missed or late e-mail message can spell disaster. The problem with e-mail is that unless you're expecting a message, you won't know it's missing. The mail monitor ensures that the mail server is both accepting and delivering messages properly.

What should I monitor?

Most companies have both a primary and a secondary mail server. At companies that employ a firewall, there may even be a third, internal, mail server. Each of these servers should be monitored regularly.

How should I schedule my monitors?

It's a good idea to monitor your primary mail server at least every five minutes. The other mail servers can be monitored less often. You may find it useful to set up a special mail account to receive the test e-mail messages send by SiteScope.

Completing the Mail Monitor Form

To display the Mail Monitor Form, either click the Edit link for an existing Mail Monitor in a monitor table, or click the add a Monitor link on a group's detail page and choose the "Add Mail Monitor" link.

Complete the items on the Mail Monitor form as follows. When the required items are complete, click the "Add Monitor" button.

Action

Select the action the Mail Monitor should take with respect to the mail server. The Send & Receive option will allow you to send a test message to an smtp server and then receive it back from the POP3 or IMAP4 server to make sure the mail server is up and running. The Receive Only option allows you to check the incoming POP3 or IMAP4 mail servers for a message that was sent previously. This check is done by matching the content of the previously sent message. The Send Only option checks that the receiving mail server has accepted the message.

Note If the Receive Only option is selected the Match Content text box must have a value to match against. Also note that if the Receive Only option is selected, you should use this monitor for a dedicated mail account that is NOT being accessed by any other mail client. If another mail client attempts to retrieve mail messages from the account that the Mail Monitor is monitoring in Receive Only mode, the monitor and the other mail client may lock each other out of the account such that neither is able to retrieve the messages.

Sending Mail Server (SMTP)

Enter the hostname of the SMTP mail server to which the test mail message should be sent. (for example, mail.thiscompany.com).

Send To Address

Enter the mail address to which the test message should be sent. This should be the address for the POP account that you specified in the Mail Server User Name box. For example, if you specified "support" as the Mail Server User Name, the To Address might be "sysadmin@mycompany.com."

Receiving Protocol

Select the protocol used by the receiving mail server. The POP3 option allows you to check the POP3 mail server for a sent message. The IMAP4 option allows you to check the IMAP mail server for a sent message.

Receiving Mail Server

Enter the hostname of the POP3/IMAP4 mail server that should receive the test message. This can be the same mail server to which the test message was sent (for example, mail.thiscompany.com).

Receiving Mail Server User Name

Enter a POP user account name (for example, support) on the receiving mail server. A test e-mail message will be sent to this account and the Mail monitor will login to the account and verify that the message was received. No other mail in the account will be touched; therefore you can use your own personal mail account or another existing account for this purpose.Note If you use a mail reader that automatically retrieves and deletes messages from the server, there's a chance that the Mail Monitor will never see the mail message and will therefore report an error.

Receiving Mail Server Password

Enter a password, if necessary, for the receiving mail account.

Update every

Enter how frequently the monitor should check the Mail server. The pull-down menu to the right of the text box lets you specify time increments of seconds, minutes, hours, or days. You must specify a time increment of at least 15 seconds.

Title (Optional)

Enter a name for this monitor. This name appears in the Name text box on the monitor table when you open the group's detail page. If you don't enter a name, "Untitled Mail Monitor" appears in the Name text box.

Advanced Options

The advanced options give you the ability to customize error and warning thresholds. If you choose not to set them, SiteScope will use preset defaults if available. If a default is not available, SiteScope will not be able to utilize the condition.

Disable

Check this box to temporarily disable this monitor and any associated alerts. To enable the monitor again, clear the box.

Receive Content Match

Enter a string of text to match against the contents of the incoming message. If the text is not contained in the incoming message, the monitor will be in error. This is for the receiving only option.(Example: Subject:MySubject). The search is case sensitive. Remember that HTML tags are part of a text document, so include the HTML tags if they are part of the text you are searching for (for example, "< B> Hello< /B> World"). This works for XML pages as well. You may also perform a regular expression match by enclosing the string in forward slashes, with an "i" after the trailing slash indicating case-insensitive matching. (for example, "/href=Doc\d+\.html/" or "/href=doc\d+\.html/i"). If you want a particular piece of text to be saved and displayed as part of the status, use parentheses in a Perl regular expression. For example /Temperature: (\d+)/. This would return the temperature as it appears on the page and this could be used when setting an Error if or Warning if threshold.

Timeout

The number of seconds that the Mail monitor should wait for a mail message to be received before timing-out. Once this time period passes, the Mail monitor will log an error and report an error status.

POP Check Delay (Optional)

After SiteScope sends the test message, it immediately logs into the mail account to verify that the message has been received. If the message hasn't been received, SiteScope will automatically wait 10 seconds before it checks again. You can adjust this wait time by indicating an alternate number of seconds to wait in this box.

Attachment

Enter the full path name of a file to add as an attachement to the email message. Use this option to be sure that your e-mail server can accept and forward messages with attached files. Optionally, you can use a regular expression to insert date and time variables to create a filename or file path (for example: s/C:\firstdir\$shortYear$$0month$$0day$/)

SMTP User

Enter the user name required for SMTP authentication if the SMTP server requires authentication before sending messages.

SMTP Password

Enter the password for the SMTP authentication (if required).

Verify Error

Check this box if you want SiteScope to automatically run this monitor again if it detects an error. When an error is detected, the monitor will immediately be scheduled to run again once.

Note: In order to change the run frequency of this monitor when an error is detected, use the Update every (on errors) option below.

Note: The status returned by the Verify Error run of the monitor will replace the status of the originally scheduled run that detected an error. This may cause the loss of important performance data if the data from the verify run is different than the initial error status.

Warning: Use of this option across many monitor instances may result in significant monitoring delays in the case that multiple monitors are rescheduled to verify errors at the same time.

Update Every (on error)

This options allows you to set a new monitoring interval for monitors that have registered an error condition. For example, you may want SiteScope to monitor this item every 10 minutes normally, but as often as every 2 minutes if an error has been detected. Note that this increased scheduling will also affect the number of alerts generated by this monitor.

Schedule (Optional)

By default, SiteScope's monitors are enabled every day of the week. You may, however, schedule your monitors to run only on certain days or on a fixed schedule. Choose the Edit schedule link to create or edit a monitor schedule. For information about creating schedules, read these instructions.

Monitor Description (Optional)

Enter additional information about this monitor. The Monitor Description can include HTML tags such as the <BR> <HR>, and <B> tags to control display format and style. The description will appear on the Monitor Detail page.

Report Description (Optional)

Enter a description for this monitor that will make it easier to understand what this monitor does. The description will appear on Management Reports and on the info list for a monitor.

Depends On (Optional)

To make the running of this monitor dependent on the status of another monitor or monitor group, use the drop-down list to select the monitor or group on which this monitor is dependent. Select None to remove any dependency.

Depends Condition (Optional)

If you choose to make the running of this monitor dependent on the status of another monitor, choose the status condition that the other monitor or monitor group should have in order for the current monitor to run normally. The current monitor will be run normally as long as the monitor or group on which it depends reports the condition selected in this option.

List Order (Optional)

By default, new monitors are listed last on the Monitor Detail page. You may use this drop-down list to choose a different placement for this monitor.

Error if

Set the conditions under which the Mail monitor should report an error status.

To set the error threshold, choose round trip time from the drop-down list, choose a comparison operator from the next drop-down list and then, in the text entry box, enter the lowest value which should trigger a error condition . The value entered must be a whole number.

Warning if

Set the conditions under which the Mail monitor should report a warning status.

To set the warning threshold, choose round-trip time from the drop-down list, choose a comparison operator from the next drop-down list and then, in the text entry box, enter the lowest value which should trigger a warning condition . The value entered must be a whole number. The symbols for the comparison operator list are the same as those for Error if.

Good if

SiteScope assumes a good reading unless the returned reading falls into the warning or error thresholds. You can change this to be based upon round-trip time. Choose round-trip time from the drop-down list and enter the desired threshold. The symbols in the comparison operator list are the same as those for Error if.