SiteScope User's Guide

Web Server Monitor

The Web Server Monitor reports information about a web server. Each time the Web Server Monitor runs, it writes the current hits per minute and bytes per minute in the monitor status string and in the SiteScope logs. See the Advanced Topics section for notes on Reading Log File Data.

Usage Guidelines

The information gathered by the Web Server Monitor gives you the ability to see how busy your web site is. This information allows you to plan hardware upgrades and configuration changes that will improve your visitor's experience.

It's most effective if you create a separate Web Server Monitor for each web server you're running. If you're running multiple web servers, each one should have its own log file so that SiteScope can report on them separately. See the notes on reading log file data for a review of what data is recorded.

Completing the Web Server Monitor Form

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

Complete the items on the Web Server Monitor Form as follows. When the required items are complete, click the Add Monitor button.

For SiteScope running on Windows:

Server: Choose the server that you want to monitor. The default is to monitor web servers on the server on which SiteScope is running. Click the choose server link to bring up the server selection screen. Use the server selection screen to select a remote NT server where a web server is running.
Web Server: Choose the web server to monitor from the drop-down list. The web server must be running as a service or daemon to appear in this list. If no server instances are listed, it is also possible the there is an access or account permission mismatch between the SiteScope server and the machine where the web server is running. If the web server is not running as a service, you can access the web server log file directly by entering the path in the Log File Path entry in the Advanced section below.

For SiteScope running on UNIX/Linux:

Log File Pathname: To monitor web server statistics on UNIX servers, enter the full pathname of the web server log file. Optionally, you can use a regular expression to insert date and time variables using SiteScope date variables. (for exmaple: s|/firstdir/$shortYear$$0month$$0day$|)

The following apply to Web Server Monitors on Windows and UNIX.

Update every: Enter how frequently the monitor should read the Web server log file. 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.

Log File Path

If your web server does not appear in the Web Server list, you may still monitor it by entering the full path name to the web server log file.

An example of a server log file path is:
c:/ns-home/httpd-test/logs/access

For servers that dynamically generate the filename for log files, you can include regular expressions as part of the log file path definition. The SiteScope can then retrieve data from a range of filenames based on evaluation of the regular expressions.

Request Size Column

If your web server saves information in a custom format. Enter the column number which contains the Request Size. If this item is blank, the common log file format is assumed.

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 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

Use this item to change the default Error threshold for this monitor. You may choose to have SiteScope generate an Error condition based upon hits per minute or bytes per minute. Enter a comparison value and use the comparison operator list to specify an error threshold such as: >= (greater than or equal to), != (not equal to), or < (less than). The value entered must be a whole number.

For example, if you want SiteScope to report an error if your hits per minute reach 10,000 or higher, you would choose hits/min from the drop-down list, select >= from the comparison value drop-down list, and then type 10000 in the text entry box.

Note Do not enter commas in the text box.

Warning if

Use this item to set a warning threshold for this monitor. The warning threshold can be based upon hits per minute or bytes per minute. Set this value exactly as you would the Error threshold in the Error if text box.

For example, If you want SiteScope to report a warning condition if your bytes per minute reach 500,000 or higher, you would choose bytes/min from the drop-down list, select >= from the comparison value list, and then type 500000 in the text entry box. Note Do not enter commas in the text box.

Good if

You may instruct SiteScope to return a good status only if certain conditions are met. You may define those conditions here. You may base a good reading on either hits per minute or bytes per minute. Complete this item exactly as you would the Error if and Warning if text boxes.