SiteScope User's Guide

Ping Monitor

The SiteScope Ping Monitor checks the availability of a host via the network. Use this monitor to ensure that your connection to the Internet is alive and well.

Each time the Ping Monitor runs, it returns a reading and a status message and writes them in the monitoring log file. It also writes the total time it takes to receive a response from the designated host in the log file.

Usage Guidelines

Why should I use this monitor?

The network can often be a web traffic bottleneck, especially on relatively slow wide area network connections. The Ping Monitor obtains two of the most common measurements used to determine if your network connection is congested: Round Trip Time and Loss Percentage. An increase of either of these suggests that you're experiencing problems. In the case of Loss Percentage, you want to see a 0% reading. A 100% reading indicates your link is completely down. Some loss may happen very occasionally, but if it becomes common, the network is either flaky (some packets are being lost), or very busy and the router may be dropping the Ping packets.

What should I be monitoring?

We suggest that you set up monitors that test your connection to the Internet at several different points. For example, if you have a T1 connection to a network provider who in turn has a connection to the backbone, you would want to set up a Ping Monitor to test each of those connections. The first monitor would ping the router on your side of the T1. The second would ping the router on your provider's side of the T1. The third monitor would ping your provider's connection to the backbone.

In addition to these monitors, it's also a good idea to have a couple of other monitors ping other major network providers. These monitors won't really tell you whether the other provider is having a problem, but it will tell you if your network provider is having trouble reaching them.

How often should I schedule Ping Monitors to run?

Because it won't cost you much performance wise, you can monitor your own router as often as every two minutes or so. That way you will know about any problems on your end as quickly as possible. The monitors that watch your provider's connection to your line and to the backbone should only be run every ten minutes or so. This will minimize traffic while still providing you with sufficient coverage.

Completing the Ping Monitor Form

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

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

Host Name: Enter the IP address or the name of the host that you want to monitor. For example, you could enter either 206.168.191.21 or demo.thiscompany.com.
Update every: Enter how frequently the monitor should try to reach the host. The drop-down list 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, a default name will be created.

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 pre-set 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.

Time Out

This advanced option gives you the ability to customize the Ping Monitor's time out threshold -- the time that should pass before the ping times out. If you choose not to set it, SiteScope uses a pre-set default of 5000 milliseconds. To change the threshold, type the new value in the text entry box. The value must be in milliseconds.

Size

This advanced option gives you the ability to customize the size of the ping packets sent. If you choose not to set it, SiteScope uses a pre-set default of 64 bytes. To change the threshold, type the new value in the text entry box. The value is in bytes.

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 pop-up 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

This option allows you to customize the conditions under which the Ping Monitor generates an error status message. Each time the Ping Monitor runs, it pings the specified host and then returns a value based on the average of all five pings. This helps to ensure against false readings. By default the Ping Monitor reports an error status any time it fails to reach a host after five pings.

You can change this to generate an error based on the average length of the round trip times. To change the default choose either % packets good or round trip time from the drop-down menu. Next choose a comparison symbol from the list. Use the comparison value list to specify an error threshold.

Finally, enter the comparison value in the last text entry box to create a complete equation, such as % packets good <= 90.

SiteScope's reported round trip time is actually the average of the round trip times from all five pings executed each time the monitor runs. Enter the lowest average round trip time (in milliseconds) which should trigger an error status.

Warning if

This option allows you to customize the conditions under which the Ping Monitor generates a warning status message. Each time the Ping Monitor runs, it pings the specified host and then returns a value based on the average of all five pings. By default the Ping Monitor reports a warning status if it fails to reach a host on all five pings.

To set the warning threshold, choose either % packets good or round trip time from the drop-down menu. Use the comparison operator list to specify >= (greater than or equal to), != (not equal to), or < (less than). Finally, enter the comparison value in the last text entry box to create a complete equation, such as % packets good <= 99.

Good if

This option allows you to customize the conditions under which the Ping Monitor generates a good status message. Each time the Ping Monitor runs, it pings the specified host and then returns a value based on the average of all five pings. This helps to ensure against false readings. By default, the Ping Monitor returns a good status if all five pings are successful. You may change this default if you like.

To set the Good if threshold, choose either % packets good or round trip time from the drop-down menu. Next choose a comparison symbol from the list. Use the comparison value list to specify an good threshold.

Finally, enter the comparison value in the last text entry box to create a complete equation, such as % packets good >= 90.