[Index] [FineConnection web site]

Adding a new Class

1. Switch to Designer mode.
2. Select Edit|Manage Classes to open the "Manage classes" window.
3. Right-click anywhere on this window and select Add a new Class.
4. The "Add/Modify a class" window opens. (See the snapshot below)
5. Fill out the form.
6. Press Save.
7. The new Class appears in the "Manage classes" window.
   
   

Class name

A Class name can be up to 16 in length and may not contain spaces. Use descriptive names for better readability.

R/W Communities

Use the Read- and Write Community boxes to assign default communities for devices of the Class. The community names entered here are automatically filled-in if a new device object is added to the map, but can be overridden at the device level. The default read/write community is "public".

SNMP Version

Most equipment support SNMP version 1. You can use the SNMP Version control to modify the supported SNMP version to v2 for a Class of devices that don not support v1.

SNMP Port

The SNMP Port control lets you specify the default port to use for SNMP querying at the Class level. The SNMP port setting at the Shooters level overrules this "Class level" setting!

Status polling interval

Use the Status poller polling interval control to set the polling interval at which devices are polled for status. In order to protect the performance of your Monitor one system and to keep the used bandwidth low, make cautious decisions. Define short time intervals for key devices in your network (Routers, Backbone switches..) and longer intervals for less important ones (Workgroup switches, PC's ..).
See the table below for an example.

Class	Polling interval in seconds
ATM switches	10
Backbone routers	10
Backbone switches	10
Servers	20
Unix systems	20
Workgroup switches	50
Hubs	60
Terminal servers	80
Workstations	90

Class image

Press the Browse button to select an image for the Class. You can choose one of the default images or you can create one yourself.

Class Priority Level

You can adjust the importance (priority level) of a Class by setting the Class Priority Level. Specify high values for key devices in your network and lower values for less important devices. The Class Priority Level plays an important role in the Alerting mechanism.
Example Class Priority Levels:

Class	Class Priority Level
ATM Switches	10
Routers	9
Backbone switches	8
Servers	7
Unix systems	7
Workgroup switches	5
Hubs	5
Terminal servers	3
Workstations	1

Typical usage

By selecting one of the Typical usage radio buttons, you assign a character to the Class you are creating. Monitor one uses this setting to automatically create a number of Class specific default Shooters (i.e. if you select "Router", a Shooter that retrieves the routing table is created, if you select "Host/Server with TCP", a Shooter that retrieves the IP sessions table is created..)

This device forwards traffic

This setting is extremely important for Error control. Error Control does not work correctly if you do not set this option correctly. Checking this checkbox means that this device routes data between one or more network interfaces. Leaving this option unchecked indicates that this device is an end-node and does not route data.
Examples:

• For routers, switches and hubs (or repeaters) check this checkbox.
• Firewalls, check the checkbox.
• Modems used in a WAN link, check the checkbox.
• Multi-homed Windows servers with routing disabled, uncheck the box
• Multi-homed Windows servers with routing enabled, check the box
• Windows servers with more than one interface connected to one ore more switches, from which only one interface is active and the others "hot-standby", uncheck the box.

Description

The Description box is for informational use only.

Alarm parameters

Use the Alarm parameters portion of the window to specify how to react on different type of events. You can specify which script or executable to execute and which arguments to provide to the executed program or script regarding the event type.
Note that what you specify here has nothing to do with the Monitor one Alerter! The Monitor one Alerter computes the severity of an event by multiplying the Class Priority Level and the Event Weight and compares it against a threshold! If the result exceeds the threshold value, an alert is generated (A signal is sent to a message-gateway or a program or script is start etc…). The programs you specify here are executed regardless of whatever level or weight and are not controlled by the Alerter! See the chapter that discusses Alerting for more information about executing programs or scripts triggered by events!

Custom Menu Items

The Custom menu-items box allows you to define customized menu-items for a device's right-click menu. This can be very useful when you - for example - regularly connect to a host using SSH instead of telnet (SSH is not a default right-click menu option for a device). The Custom menu-item box allows you to specify which external program to execute and which parameters to provide to the executed program.



The image above shows an example of how SSH (we used putty as the SSH terminal program in the example) can be added to a device's right-click menu. The -ssh parameter in the command line is used to tell putty.exe to use it's SSH mode, the <IPaddress> parameter is replaced at runtime by the actual IP address of the device that is being right-clicked. Another example of a frequently used program for server management is Microsoft Terminal-server Client --> MSTSC /v: <IPaddress>

Adding, Modifying or Removing a custom menu-item

• To add a new right-click menu item, right-click anywhere in the Custom menu-items box and choose Add a custom menu-item. The "Add a custom menu-item" window opens (see the snapshot below)
  
  
• To modify an existing item, right-click the item and choose: Modify this custom menu-item.
• Finally, an existing menu-item can be removed by right-clicking the item and choosing Remove this custom menu-item.

Custom Menu Items are also available in the web interface via java scripting, provided that your browser's security policy supports this and that the directory where the external program resides is accessible via the system path!

In Microsoft Internet Explorer you can add the IP address of your Monitor one station as a trusted site (In IE select Tools|Internet options, Security tab, click Trusted sites and click the Sites button, uncheck the Require server verification checkbox and add the IP address)

Defining your own Class images

By default, a number of predefined Class images are available for creating new and/or modifying existing Classes. You can use these default images but you can also create your own images and make them available by adding them to the Monitor one "Images" folder.

An image must meet with the following requirements:

1. It must be a bitmap file (*.bmp)
2. Its size must be 32 x 32 pixels.
3. Use a background color that is not already used in the image itself. (Usually fuchsia is doing fine!) This background color is treated as the transparent color for the image!

Make your images accessible for Monitor one by copying them to the Monitor one "Images" directory "c:\Program Files\FineConnection\Monitor one\Images\"

It is not important which program you use to create your images. Only the format (*.bmp) matters.