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Chapter 2. System requirements and recommendations

System requirements

• Pentium-class processor >= 1Ghz MHz
• Video adapter, supporting at least High Color (16bit) and 1024x768 pixels screen size.
• Sound card for audible Alerting (Beeping and Speech)
• Microsoft Windows XP/2003/Vista/7 (Workstation and server)
• The Minimum amount of RAM depends on your OS and the number of monitored nodes in the network: >= 1GB
• The Minimum amount of free hard disk space depends on the number of nodes in the monitored network and the number of running History Shooters for trending and long-term analysis. > 10GB
• Microsoft Internet Explorer version 6 (or higher) or Mozilla Firefox version 1.0/1.1 (or higher)

Optional: a connection to the Internet (For accessing additional information, Monitor one bulletins and MIB resources)

If you want to use the "alerting by Speech" option, you need an English Windows platform with Speech capability!

Recommendations

• It is recommended that Monitor one is run on a separate workstation (not the workstation you use as your day-to-day workstation)
• The Monitor one software and the project database files must be installed/created locally - do not install them on a server drive. A connection to a server can be lost in case of a major network failure - and this is just the event where Monitor one is supposed to help.
• Use a fixed IP-address for the Monitor one workstation. (traps and syslog messages are usually sent to a fixed IP-address)
• For best monitoring results, connect - if possible - the Monitor one station to the backbone of your network.

Installation tasks

1. Before you start installing a new Monitor one version, make a backup of your existing projects. A new version usually makes changes to the names and format of fields in database.
2. Make sure you have administrative rights before you begin the installation.
3. If you are running the Monitor one installation file in a terminal-server session (mstsc.exe), make sure you have specified the /console option. The database engine included in the installation file (Firebird) can only be installed via the system console OR via a terminal-server session with the /console option!
4. If you want to upgrade to a newer version, de-install your existing Monitor one installation including all components (Firebird and Apache) first.

Because of the special-purpose nature of an NMS (Network Monitoring Station) Monitor one is installed on the local hard disk of a Windows workstation (or server) and uses a fixed LOCAL installation directory structure to prevent system crashes if serious network failures occurs!

The installation directory structure:

<WINDISK> This specifier is replaced with the drive letter of the disk containing the Windows directory.

Rights

Monitor one only needs "read rights" in the directories above.

The License information window

The Monitor one licence information window provides information about the license type, the number of device objects to monitor and is the right place to enter your license key. To open the License information window select Info|License information from the menu on the Monitor one control panel

The Monitor one licensing structure is simple and straightforward. The license type determines how many device objects on the network map can be polled for status. Polling is automatically suspended for all device objects that are added after the maximum has been reached. There are 7 different license types available:

A Single Monitor one license

A single Monitor one license entitles the licensee to install and run one Monitor one instance on one single machine/workstation within the licensee's Company, Organization or Enterprise.

An Enterprise license

An enterprise License entitles the licensee to install and run multiple Monitor one instances on multiple machines/workstations and use multiple domains within the licensee's Company, Organization or Enterprise. If you are a Network Operations Center (or similar business) delivering monitoring and management services to external customers, you are entitled to use the enterprise license for monitoring and management of all your customers networks as long as the running Monitor one instances stay within your company, organization or Enterprise. It is not allowed to use an enterprise license to run Monitor one instances on machines at customer locations!

Without a license key, Monitor one runs in evaluation mode, with no time restrictions whatsoever. The evaluation mode allows you add 8 device objects. There is no functional difference between running in evaluation mode and normal mode - it is the same software! Without a purchased license key, only the number of devices that can be monitored is limited!

If you are a new Monitor one user and you want to buy a license, you must choose one of the available primary license types. Existing users (with a primary key) can upgrade their license type by buying an upgrade key.

Upgrade keys can only be used in combination with a primary key. An upgrade key does not work without a primary key!

License types cannot be downgraded!