[Index] [FineConnection web site]

Chapter 3. The Graphical network map

About the Graphical network map

To achieve a better understanding of the network, for better availability- and health monitoring and to understand the consequences of a failure more quickly, Monitor one allows you to create a graphical multilevel representation of your network that lets you move easily between parent maps and sub-maps (zooming-in and zooming-out).

The graphical network map uses colors and icons to indicate network status at a glance. The Map makes it easy to view the IP subnets and the IP hosts that have either been added manually or with help from the Discovery utility.

Monitor one has been designed to run on a Windows station in the network manager(s) control room or NOC and cannot be run as a service! The network maps can be viewed and accessed locally via the native interface and/or remotely by using the web-interface. The web interface provides limited functionality!

Uptime and Health monitoring is done by polling. Uptime monitoring is performed by periodically sending each device an ICMP echo request (ping), health monitoring by sending SNMP requests. In those special cases where devices are behind a firewall blocking ICMP, also SNMP can be used for uptime monitoring.

The Monitor one control panel

The Monitor one main window (sometimes also referred to as control panel) provides general information about the status of the network being monitored. The main window stays always on top. All navigation through the program starts from here.

Start a new project

Click the speedbutton or select File|New project to start a new project. Select the directory for the database of your project and assign a unique project name. The name may consist of up to 16 characters (a..z,A..Z,0..9,_) and may not contain spaces. The project's name of an existing project cannot be modified! It is strongly recommended to select a directory on your local drive (not a server drive). This guarantees availability in case of serious network failures!
A project database consists of a set of database files all beginning with <Projectname>_. A project is uniquely identified by a file named "<Projectname>.amd". By default Monitor one creates new projects in the c:\Monitor one Maps\ directory that has been created during installation.

Open an existing project

Click the speedbutton or select File|Open project to select and open an existing project. Browse to the directory that contains the project database and select the <Projectname>.amd file.

Bring Rootmap to front

Use the speedbutton or select File|Bring rootmap to front to open a project's root map in case you've closed all maps.

The Discovery window

Click the speedbutton or select Options|Discovery / Discover IP nodes to open the Discovery window. The Discovery feature allows you to define IP ranges (subnets) and scan these ranges for IP nodes. You can use the discovered nodes to easily setup and draw your project by copying and pasting them to your network maps.

Manage classes

Click the speedbutton or choose Edit|Manage Classes to open the "Manage classes" window in order to Add, Modify or Remove Monitor one Classes.

New user Help

By default, Monitor one opens a Help window that provides basic information for new users each time Monitor one is started. The speedbutton lets you toggle this help on/off. You can control this Help feature by selecting Options|Global configuration and then the Various tab.

Operator and Designer mode

Use the speedbutton (or select the menu item Operation mode) to toggle between Operator and Designer mode. In "Operator mode", you can use all program functions but you cannot make any modifications to the project. In "Designer mode", you can use all program functions and you can also make changes to a project's configuration, it's (sub) maps or functions
By default, Monitor one switches from Designer mode to Operator mode automatically after ten minutes in Designer mode. You can change this behavior by selecting Options|Global configuration and then the Various tab.

Audible alerting

Use the speedbutton to toggle audible Alerting on/off.

Ping

You can use the speedbutton to start FinePing (Monitor one's implementation of the ICMP Ping command tool)

Traceroute

Use the speedbutton to start FineTrace (Monitor one's implementation of a traceroute tool)

Find a device on the map

Use the speedbutton to find a device (or a sub-string of a device name) on the map. Monitor one will automatically open all maps that contain the requested device (or the sub string). All others maps are closed!

Namelist

Click the speedbutton to open the namelist window. The namelist window gives access to information about IP addresses, MAC addresses etc... that Monitor one has collected from several sources. Note that this is a learning process! For new projects, there will not be much information available but the amount information will rapidly grow.

Global configuration

Click the Speedbutton to access the Global configuration database. This Speedbutton is only enabled in Designer mode.

Error control ready indicator

You can verify whether your map is "EC proof" by enabling EC and after that clicking the speedbutton on the Monitor one control panel.

No response indicators

The 10 green or red lights are "No response indicators". The lights indicate how many devices at a time have the 'No response' status subdivided by increasing priority level from left to right. If the mouse is moved over a light, a hint box shows all devices with the no response status for that level.

The Alert, EC and Lic indicators

• The indicator labeled Alert is used for visual alerting. In the event of an alert, it turns red. If the Alert indicator is clicked, the Event control windows opens showing all currently pending "No response" and "Threshold exceeded" events!
• The indicator labeled EC is used to indicate whether 'Error control' is disabled (white), enabled but idle (green) or active (yellow).
• If the indicator labeled Lic turns red, it indicates that there are not enough license related resources to monitor your network. A green indicator indicates "license Ok" (sufficient license related resources). When this indicator is clicked, the license information window opens!

The Info panel

Periodically (if enabled) Monitor one accesses the FineConnection website ( http://www.fineconnection.com ) and checks for information on version updates or other important issues. If there is new information available, the Info panel turns yellow. The Info panel stays invisible if there is no new information. You can access new information on our website by clicking the Info panel or choosing Info|Service page from the menu.

The control tabs

The tabs at the right of the control panel give access to various program options. By default, the Event control tab is selected.

• The Event control tab and its speedbuttons provide information about events that have occurred.
• The Trap control tab and its speedbutton lets you zoom-in on received traps.
• The Threshold control tab gives access to the list of running Threshold monitors (Shooters in Monitor one terminology) and their status.
• Use the History control tab to view all running History monitors (Shooters) and to get access to their collected data.
• Use the TFTP server tab to view the received TFTP read and write requests.
• The Desktop tab lets you save your current desktop configuration (open maps, running real-time graphs or tables etc...) to the database for later use.

Objects

A Monitor one network map is built using icons, lines and text-labels on one or more maps, representing the physical nodes and networks in buildings, rooms, subnets etc. These icons, lines and labels are called map objects.

If you are planning to enable Error Control then it’s important to setup your network maps as factually as possible. Monitor one uses the map information for determining the root-cause of "Device down" event.

There are different types of objects:

• Device objects are objects that represent physical devices in a network. Monitor one polls device objects periodically for status and health.
  
• The representation of a physical link between device objects is called a link object. You can choose between different link types as: UTP/STP, Fiber, Coax etc.
• Virtual objects are objects that do not represent any physical device or link. Virtual objects are used for drawing reasons only.
  
• For better readability and presentation, you can also use free text objects. Free text objects are text labels from which the font, color and size can be adjusted.
• The ThisStation object is a special purpose object. It represents the physical workstation (or server) that runs the Monitor one software. The ThisStation object is the key object for the "Error control" feature. Error Control is automatically enabled when the ThisStation object is added to the map. Error Control is a Monitor one feature that tries to find the root-cause of a failure in the network in order to prevent superfluous alert messages.

Operator and Designer mode

In order to protect a Monitor one project (network maps, configuration) from unauthorized or unintended modification, two user-levels have been defined.

• In Operator mode you can use all program functions but you cannot make any modifications to the project.
• In Designer mode you can use all program functions and you can also make changes to a project’s configuration, it’s (sub) maps or functions.

The title of the main program window provides information about the selected working mode. The designer mode is password protected.

Switching between modes

Follow these steps:

1. Select Operation mode on the main window.
2. Select either To Designer mode or To Operator mode depending on the current mode.
3. If you select To Designer mode, the Designer mode password window opens. Enter the correct password and press OK.
4. The title of the main program window changes according to the selected mode.

For better security, Monitor one returns to Operator mode after having been 10 minutes in Designer mode. To change this default behavior:

1. Switch to Designer mode.
2. Select Options|Global configuration from the menu on the main window
3. Select the Various tab.
4. Uncheck the Return to … control

Setting the Designer password

The Monitor one, "out of the box" password, is "CCS". To change this password:

1. Switch to Designer mode
2. Select Options|Global configuration from the menu on the main window
3. Select the Various tab.
4. Enter the new password into the New box
5. Re-enter the new password
6. Press the Save button

Projects

All files belonging to one project are saved in one directory. The Monitor one installer creates - besides the directories for the program files - also a directory "c:\Monitor one Maps\". This is the default directory for new projects. You can of course override this default directory and choose another one.

We strongly recommend creating new projects on the local hard disk of the workstation that runs Monitor one. If you create the project databases on a network-drive, Monitor one can loose connection to its database files in case a serious network problem occurs.

All files of a project have a name starting with <Project name>. You can save more than one project in one directory however, for readability reasons it is better to have separate directories for different projects.

Creating a new Project

It takes five steps to start a new project

1. Select File|New map from the menu on the main window.
2. A message box pops up. Read the information carefully and press Ok. The "New project" window opens.
   
   
   
   
3. Click the browse control of the Project Path and Name.
4. The Specify a Folder and a Name for the new Project dialog opens.
5. Enter the requested information and click Save.
6. Use the browse control of the BIN directory box to select the location of the Firebird BIN directory on your system (if not already filled in)
7. Enter the Firebird username and password into the appropriate boxes and click the Ok button.
8. Monitor one creates the initial database and opens the new project in Designer mode, showing a blank root map.

Changing the default Firebird username and password / Securing your project

The default Firebird username/password is "sysdba/password". If you do not want to use the default password, you can change it with the Firebird gsec utility, which can be found in the Firebird BIN directory. An example of the command needed for changing the sysdba password is:

For more information on how to secure Firebird database access see: http://www.firebirdsql.org/manual/qsg10-other-necessities.html

For reasons of easier access to a project's database, the username and password are written to the project's .amd file (<Project directory>\<ProjectName>.amd). If you find this unacceptable for security reasons, you can remove the username and password strings (leave the 'DBUser=' and 'DBPassword=' keywords - only remove the username and password strings) from this file. After this, Monitor one will prompt you to enter the username and password each time you start the program.

Adding, Modifying, Removing or Moving a Device- or Virtual object.

Adding a new Device- or Virtual object to the map

1. Switch to Designer mode.
2. Browse to the map on which to add a device object.
3. Right-click anywhere on the map and choose Add object|Add a new device- or virtual object from the popup menu.
4. The "Add/Modify a device- or virtual object window" opens. (See a snapshot of this window below).
   
   
   
   
5. Fill out all fields of the window and click the Save button.
6. The cursor of the map to which you want to add a device, changes from a normal cursor to a drag symbol.
7. Point to the right location on the map and click to add the device.

Name

Enter the device name in the Name box. A name may consist of up to 100 characters and may contain any arbitrary character. When the Name box is exited, a DNS lookup is performed in order to find the IP address of the device. If the lookup succeeds, the IP address of the device is shown in the IP address box. The IP address box is left blank if the lookup fails.

Class

Each device must be linked to a Class. Assign the Class for the device by selecting it from the Available Classes box and double-clicking its icon. The Class image appears in the Image box. Once assigned, an object’s Class cannot be modified!

Ser#/Reg#

The Ser.# and the Reg.# fields can be used for administrative and support purposes.

IP address

Enter a valid IP address of the form X.X.X.X in the IP address box. The current Monitor one release does not support IPv6. Leave the field blank if no polling should be performed.

R/W Communities

Enter the Read- and Write communities for Health monitoring via SNMP into the appropriate boxes. By default, the read-community, defined at the Class level is provided. A community string may consist of up to 16 characters in length.

Maintenance window

Use the Maintenance window box to define a maintenance plan for a device object. Within the maintenance period, all events are normally processed but Alerting for the device is suppressed. This option can be useful if - for instance - a server is scheduled to reboot nightly or weekly at a certain time in order to prevent the "Running low on virtual memory" message due to memory leaks etc.

Alert group

The Alert-group selection box can be used to assign an Alert-group to the device. By default, the "Default" group is assigned. If Alerting by email is enabled and you have set up an Alerting scheme (groups and recipients), the Alert-group specifies which people get an email alert message in case a major event occurs for the device. An alert-group can contain multiple recipients and one recipient can belong to multiple alert-groups.

If the IPaddress box is double-clicked, Monitor one automatically assigns the local-host address: "127.0.0.1". This option makes it easy to make use of Monitor one as a drawing tool for presentation purposes.

Modifying a Device- or Virtual object

1. Switch to Designer mode.
2. Right-click the device object to modify and select Modify this object from the popup menu.
3. The "Add/Modify a device- or virtual object window" opens.
4. Make the desired modifications and click the Save button.
5. The modified settings are immediately in effect.

Removing a Device- or Virtual object

1. Switch to Designer mode.
2. Right-click the object to remove.
3. Select Remove this object from the menu.

It is not necessary to remove all links of an object before removing the object itself. All links to other objects are removed automatically.

When an object is removed, all object-related data (logging, history) is also removed from the database.

Moving a Device- or Virtual object

1. Switch to Designer mode.
2. Click the object and drag it to its new position.

Building network maps using IP-nodes found by Discovery.

You can use the Discovery utility to scan a subnet or IP range to find out which IP nodes exists. The list of found nodes can be used to easily add devices to the network map. For more information, see the chapter: Discovery and Extensive Monitoring further in this manual.

Adding, Resizing, Removing or Moving a Shared Medium object

Adding a shared medium object to a network map

1. Switch to Designer mode.
2. Move to the map to add a shared medium to.
3. Right-click anywhere on the map and select Add object|Add a shared medium from the popup menu.
4. Select a shared medium type.
5. The cursor of the map to add a shared medium to, changes from a normal- to a drag symbol.
6. Click on the map to add the shared medium.

Resizing a shared medium object

1. Switch to Designer mode.
2. Click the shared medium at its right side.
3. Stretch the shared medium to the desired size by dragging.

There is a minimum size defined for a shared medium. The maximum length is undefined!

You can resize a shared medium by clicking it at the right.

Removing a shared medium object

1. Switch to Designer mode.
2. Right-click the shared medium and select Remove this object from the menu.

Moving a shared medium object

1. Switch to Designer mode.
2. Click the Shared medium with the mouse somewhere in the middle and drag it to its new position.

Adding, Modifying, Removing or Moving a Free-Text object

Adding a Free-Text object

1. Switch to Designer mode.
2. Move to the map to add a Free text object to.
3. Right-click anywhere on the submap and select Add object|Add Free text.
4. The "Add Free text" window opens.
   
   
5. Enter text in the Text box (Max 50 characters). This is the text that will be displayed on screen.
6. If you want the FreeText object to behave as a hyperlink, you need to enter the hyperlink information into the hyperlink box. The hyperlink box accepts various formats:
   • http://www.fineconnection.com --> For accessing a host on the internet.
   • mailto:bob@companyname.com --> Opens the default mail client on the system.
   • C:\images\Web\example1.jpg --> Shows a picture in a directory on your system in the system's default image viewer.
7. Press Ok to save.
8. The cursor of the map to add an object to, changes from a normal to a drag symbol.
9. Click on the map to add the object.

If no specific font is specified, the default font is used. You can set the default font by selecting Options|Global configuration from the menu on the main window and than the Various tab.

Modifying a Free-Text object

1. Switch to Designer mode.
2. Right-click the Free-Text object to modify.
3. Select Modify this object.
4. The "Add Free text" window opens.
5. Modify the text in the Text box. (Max 50 characters)
6. Press Ok to save.

Removing a Free-Text object

1. Switch to Designer mode.
2. Right-click the Free-Text object and select Remove this object from the popupmenu.

Moving a Free-Text object

1. Switch to Designer mode.
2. Click the Free-text object and drag it to its new position.

Adding or Removing links between objects

For better readability Monitor one uses different line styles and colors for different link types. You can set the default link type for each individual map. The selected link type for a map is shown at the bottom of the map window. The default link type setting for a map is NOT saved to the database and defaults to "UTP/STP" each time Monitor one is restarted!

The current Monitor one version supports four different link types.

• UTP/STP, blue line
• Fiber, green line
• Serial, thin gray line
• "Point to point or Shared coax", thick gray line

Selecting a link type

1. Switch to Designer mode.
2. Move to the map from which to set the default link type.
3. Right-click anywhere on the map and select Set link type from the popup menu.
4. Select one of the available link types.
5. The status bar changes according to your selection.

Adding a link between objects

1. Switch to Designer mode.
2. Press and hold-down the [Ctrl] key.
3. Click the first object that will participate in the link. The cursor changes to a cross-symbol.
4. Click the other participant (object at the other side) of the link.
5. The link is drawn, the default cursor is restored and the database is updated.
6. Release all keys.

Clicking the same object twice cancels the operation.

Removing a link between objects

1. Switch to Designer mode.
2. Press and hold-down the [Ctrl] key.
3. Click the first object participating in the link to remove. The cursor changes to a cross-symbol.
4. Click the second object at the other side of the link.
5. A confirmation window pops up.
6. Confirm the removal of the link.
7. The link is removed from the map, the default cursor is restored and the database is updated.

Clicking the same object twice cancels the operation.

Background images

Monitor one allows you to add background images to your network maps. Background images help you identify the location of malfunctioning equipment and the consequences of a failure more quickly.

If you are the network manager of a WAN you could add a country-map to your network map, if you are managing a LAN you could add the floor plan or a campus plan.

Building network maps as factually as possible, will positively affect the error tracking process and the speed of solving network problems.

Adding a background image to a network map

1. Switch to Designer mode.
2. Move to the map to add a background image to.
3. Right-click anywhere on the map and select Add background image from the popup menu.
4. A "Browse for bitmap" dialog window opens
5. Select the bitmap file to add as a background and click Open.
6. If the selected bitmap meets with some requirements the bitmap will appear as background image, otherwise an Informational or an Error message will popup.

Background image requirements:

1. It must be a *.bmp file.
2. The size of the bitmap must be equal to (or greater than) the size of the network map to cover.

Removing a background image from a network map

1. Switch to Designer mode.
2. Move to the map with the background image to remove.
3. Right-click on a blank portion of the map and select Remove background image.

Assigned background images are saved (as bitmap files) with random names in the project directory.

Building a hierarchical multi-level map structure

Monitor one allows you to create a hierarchical multi-level map structure that lets you move easily between the individual maps by using the virtual "Network" object. You can build maps that represent IP subnets, buildings, floors, wiring closets etc.

There is no limit to the depth of a hierarchical structure.

Creating a child map (sub-map)

1. Switch to Designer mode.
2. Add a "Network object" icon (see the image below) on the same way as you add a device icon.
3. Double-click the icon of the new Network object.
4. The child map opens
5. Monitor one automatically adds a network object at the upper left corner of the new (child) map. Double-clicking this icon lets you return to the parent map!

The icon of a "Network object"

Moving between maps

You can move between maps by double-clicking "Network objects". Each child map has a Network object pointing to its parent in the upper left corner. By double-clicking this object, you can return to the parent map.

The name of the icon on the parent map representing the child map has the name of the child map and vise versa. The icon on the child map representing the parent map has the name of the parent map!

The naming convention of a Network object differs from the naming convention of a device object. The name of a network is limited to 16 characters in length and may not contain spaces.

Error control

About error control

Error control (EC) is a very powerful feature that helps you quickly locate a problem, prevents superfluous Alerting and incorrect interpretation of a problem. EC tries to find the root-cause of a device that doesn’t respond to status requests anymore.

To be more precise, the above means that if a "No response" event occurs for a device, EC tries to find out whether the event is caused by a definite failure of the device itself OR by another device experiencing problems in the chain of devices (network paths) between the station running Monitor one (the "ThisStation" object on the map) and the device!

EC uses the information provided by the network map (connections and device types) to find out which device causes a "No response" event. It is therefore extremely important to set up your network maps as accurately/factually as possible. If a device "A" is physically connected to device "B", draw a link between them on your network map accordingly!

Without EC

By a failure of "Switch 10", four servers get the "No response" status. If Alerting by email is enabled, the network manager receives 5 email alerts (from which 4 are superfluous and incorrect!).

With Error control

Only "Switch 10" gets the "No response" status. The servers all get the "Unknown" status (blue tick). The network manager only receives one alert email.

How Error Control determines the root-cause of a "No response from device" event

Every time a device stops responding to status requests, EC verifies the status of all devices in the chain (network path) of devices from the ThisStation object to the device that stops responding. If one of the devices in the chain already has the "No response" status, Monitor one assumes this the root-cause of the event. In this case, the device that stops responding gets the blue tick.

If more than just one chain exists (because of network redundancy), Monitor one verifies all possible network paths!

In order to determine all possible network path(s) from the "ThisStation object" to a device, Monitor one needs two pieces of information:

1. Link or connection information (which device is connected to which other device)
2. If a device has more than one connected interface, does this device forward traffic? Does it route or switch packets or is the second interface just used for redundancy reasons and is it "hot-standby"?

Monitor one extracts link or connection information from the network map. It is therefore extremely important to draw network maps as factually as possible. The information whether or not a device forwards traffic comes from the definition of the Class each device belongs to (The checkbox This device forwards traffic via routing, switching, bridging or repeating on the Add/Modify a Class window). It is obvious that if you fail to set this option correctly, EC will not work as expected!

The list below shows some examples of device Classes that forward traffic.

• Routers, switches, hubs and/or repeaters.
• Firewalls.
• Modems.
• Wireless Access-points.
• Multi-homed Windows servers with running RRAS services (routing enabled)

The list below shows examples of devices with more than one connected interface that do not forward traffic

• 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".
• Servers in a SAN cluster that have an interface connected to the network and another interface connected to a fiber switch in order to access data on a central storage. The latter interface is not used for forwarding traffic but only for accessing the data on the central storage.

Enabling Error control

Enabling Error Control is simple; just add the ThisStation object to the network map and add a link object between the object and the switch or hub to which it is actually connected. The ThisStation object is a special purpose object representing the physical workstation (or server) that runs the Monitor one software. The ThisStation object is the key object for the "Error control" feature.

After adding the "ThisStation" object (and also after each time you add or remove links between device objects) the EC information database needs to synchronize. The EC icon on the Monitor one control panel has changed to the Sync icon: . In order to start synchronizing, just click this icon. After seconds the Icon will change back to the normal EC Icon.

During synchronizing, Monitor one automatically switches to Designer mode and will prevent you from entering Designer mode while processing!

The time it takes to synchronize the EC information database heavily depends on the amount of redundancy (the number of redundant paths) in your network and can take from less than a second to a couple of minutes!

Verifying Error Control activity

If Error Control is enabled, it takes more time before a "No response" status is propagated to the multilevel network map structure and the control panel. The color of the "EC panel" on the Monitor one main window shows Error Control activity.

• A white EC panel indicates: Error Control disabled (The "ThisStation" object has not been added to the map).
• A Green EC panel indicates: Error Control is enabled and Idle
• A yellow EC panel indicates: Error Control is enabled and currently busy trying to determine the root-cause of a "No response" event!

The "ThisStation" object can only be added once (of course!)

Verifying network paths used by Error control

You can verify whether your map is "EC proof" by enabling EC and after that clicking the speedbutton on the Monitor one control panel.

Example 1.

A small company has two offices in different cities connected by internet via ADSL. The Firewall in the main office has a problem and is down. As you can see from the screenshot, EC is enabled (the "ThisStation" object is present on the map) but nevertheless all devices in the remote office have been marked "down" (erroneously)!

In the above case, the problem is caused by not checking the "This device forwards traffic…." checkbox for the Class the device "InternetCloud" belongs to. As a result, Monitor one "thinks" that it cannot reach the remote office devices at the other end of the WAN link. Monitor one "thinks" that there are no network paths available from the "ThisStation" object to the devices in the remote offices and displays the little "network disconnected" symbols at the bottom left of each device in the remote office. The "InternetCloud" device represents the huge internet routing network in one device.

After checking the "This device forwards traffic……" checkbox for the Class the "InternetCloud" device belongs to, the network map shows:

Example 2.

The screenshot above shows another interesting example. For reasons of redundancy, a cluster system has two connections to two different switches. Only the first NIC is active, the second one is "Hot-standby". By mistake, the "Forward" setting of the Class the device "Cluster1" belongs to is checked. Switch4 is actually down! Because of the "forward" setting of Cluster1, Monitor one "thinks" that there is an alternate network path to device Switch3, gets no reply from device Switch3 and marks it accordingly.

After clicking the EC verifier speedbutton on the Monitor one control panel, the map shows:

Only TestServer1 has the "No Error Control information available" indicator (it is not connected).

After resetting the "Forward" control (unchecking the checkbox) of the Class the device Cluster1 belongs to, the map shows:

The Desktop feature

The Desktop feature allows you to save frequently used desktop setups to the database for easy restoring later. A desktop setup contains the size and position of opened map- and Shooter-windows. The Desktop feature is especially useful in large networks with many "areas of interest" or trouble spots.

Saving a Desktop setup

To save the current desktop settings, click the Desktop tab on the Monitor one main window and after that click the speedbutton. Enter a descriptive name into the Desktop name popup window and click the Save button. The new Desktop in immediately in effect and appears in the combobox.

Updating a Desktop setup

If you change the desktop (if you close maps or if you start new real-time Shooters) you can save these modifications to the currently selected Desktop by clicking the speedbutton.

Removing a Desktop setup

A Desktop setup can be removed from the database by selecting it from the combobox and clicking the speedbutton.

Opening an existing project

Opening a project via the GUI

1. Start Monitor one
2. Select File|Open project from the menu on the main window
3. Browse to the <project name>.amd file
4. Select and open the project file

Monitor one commandline switches

Monitor one can be started with various commandline switches. The commandline switches can be entered by right-clicking the Monitor one icon on the desktop and choosing Properties. You can append your commandline switches at the end of the string in the Target box ("C:\Program Files\FineConnection\Monitor one\Monitor1.exe"). Do not forget to use double quotes for parameters that contain spaces! See the example below:

"C:\Program Files\FineConnection\Monitor one\Monitor1.exe" /MAP=MyProject.amd /DESKTOP=SalesDepartment /DEFAULTSRCUDPPORT=2000

Monitor one supports the following commandline switches:

/MAP=<Projectname.amd>

Automatically opens the specifile project.

/DESKTOP=<Desktop name>

Automatically opens the specified desktop after the project has been loaded.

/SNMPDELAY

This switch introduces a delay in consecutive GET-NEXT SNMP requests. It can be useful in order to reduce bandwidth usage when monitoring devices over slow lines. Be aware that this switch slightly affects the performance of your Monitor one system!

/USESHORTREQUESTS

Limits the maximum number of requested OID fields in one SNMP request PDU to 10. The default maximum is 18. This switch can be useful if you cannot retrieve SNMP data from devices because of SNMP "too big" errors.

/NOAUTODETERMINESNMPVERSION

By default, Monitor one automatically tries to determine the supported SNMP version for a Class of devices. If a mismatch is found (the version specified at the Class level differs from the actual supported version), the Class level version is updated in the database and a message is shown on screen. Devices that support both SNMP version (SNMPv1 & SNMPv2) can cause unwanted toggling. The /NOAUTODETERMINESNMPVERSION switch can be used to switch off this Monitor one option.

/DEFAULTSRCUDPPORT=<1..65535 | none>

By default, Monitor one uses UDP port 6115 as the source port in SNMP requests. The default port can be specified on the commandline.

• Monitor one will use the port specified after the "=" symbol.
• When "none" is specified, Monitor one will choose an arbitrary port (>1024).
• If the commandline switch is omitted, Monitor one will use the default port 6115!

Database maintenance

Making a backup

In order to project your project data, it is recommended to make a backup of your project database regularly.

There are two options:

1. "Midnight backups" - Monitor one can make an online, unattended backup of the running project every Midnight (at 0:00).
2. Instant backups - An online backup (snapshot) of the project database can be made instantly.

Midnight backups

To enable online Midnight backups:

1. Switch to Designer mode.
2. Select Options|Global configuration from the menu on the main window.
3. Select the Database maintenance tab
4. Check the "Midnight backups.." checkbox.

It is recommended to leave the "Midnight" option checked!

All Midnight backups are made to separate directories.

• Every day Monitor one makes a (database only – Projectname.fdb) backup to a directory of the form: <ProjectDirectory>\<ProjectName>_Midnight_Day_Day#
• At a week boundary (Sunday to Monday night) a full backup to a directory of the form: <ProjectDirectory>\<ProjectName>_Midnight_Week_Week#
• At a month boundary a full backup to a directory of the form: <ProjectDirectory>\<ProjectName>_Midnight_Month_Month#

Instant backups

To make an instant backup:

1. Switch to Designer mode.
2. Select Options|Global configuration from the menu on the main window.
3. Select the Database maintenance tab
4. Select one of the two backup options and click the <Start> buttons to make an instant full backup.

Restoring a backup

Each time Monitor one performs a backup, it also creates a command file that can be used to restore the backup. This command file is saved in the same backup directory and has the name: <Project name>_Restore.cmd.

The restore operation can be started by typing <Project name>_Restore.cmd in a command box and providing the Database Username and Password as command-line parameters. The Username/Password must have CREATE DATABASE rights!

All backups types are made online however; DO NOT RESTORE A BACKUP ON A RUNNING PROJECT. It will definitely corrupt your project’s database! Before you perform a restore, shutdown Monitor one first!

Database reorganization

Monitor one uses the services of the Firebird database engine for storing and maintaining project data. Every DBA has experienced a situation in which an application slows down after it has been in production for a while. However, why this happens is not always evident. Perhaps the number of transactions issued has increased or maybe the volume of data has increased. However, for some problem, these factors alone will not cause large performance degradation. In fact, the problem might be with disorganized data in the database.

Database disorganization occurs when a database's logical and physical storage allocations contain many scattered areas of storage that are too small, not physically contiguous, or too disorganized to be used productively.

To minimize fragmentation and row chaining, as well as to re-establish clustering, database objects need to be restructured on a regular basis. This process is known as database reorganization. The primary benefit is the resulting speed and efficiency of database functions because the data is organized in a more optimal fashion on disk.

The Monitor one backup/restore options mentioned above can be used for database reorganization.

Follow the steps described below:

1. Switch to Designer mode.
2. Select Options|Global configuration from the menu on the main window.
3. Select the Database maintenance tab.
4. Press the Start button of the second Instant backup option.
5. Wait for the backup to finish.
6. Shutdown Monitor one
7. Copy the <Projectname>.fdb file in the project directory to another directory on disk (or rename the file)
8. Run the <ProjectName>_Restore.cmd file that can be found in the backup directory that was created by the Instant backup.
9. Your project’s database is now in well organized condition again.

The Event control window

The Event control window is the central point for viewing and acknowledging events and alerts that occur in the network. To open the Event control window, Select Options|Event control from the menu on the Monitor one control panel. See the screenshot below:

The eventcontrol window has an upper and a lower pane. The upper pane contains two tabs.

Pending events list

The "Pending events" list shows all currently pending events ("No response", "Threshold exceeded"). Trap, Syslog and Sensitivity events (TSS) are also show in the list but are treated differently. "No response" and "Threshold exceeded" event stays in the list as long as they stay pending. If a device is responding again or if a threshold is no longer exceeded, the event is automatically removed from the list. TSS events are so called "one-shot events". They can not have the pending status. However they are displayed in the list in order to prevent you from missing important messages. TSS events stay in the list until acknowledged or removed OR for a customizable short period. You can set the desired behavior by selecting Options|Global configuration from the menu on the main window and after that choosing the Alerting tab. If you double-click on Trap or Syslog events (or right-click an event and select Show details), the full content of the event frame is showed in a separate vierwer window.
You can mute audible alerting by clicking the Audible alerting control (the little speaker) on the Monitor one control panel!

Extensive Monitoring events list

The EM1 list shows Extensive Monitoring events. Each device on the map is automatically inspected for potential problems every four hours. An unhappy smiley at the beginning of row of the EM1 list indicates a pending EM1 event. A green checkmark indicates that the event has occurred but is no longer pending! You can adjust EM1 settings and fine-tune thresholds by selecting Options|Global configuration from the Monitor one control panel and than choosing the Discovery + EM1 tab. The way EM1 messages are displayed slightly differs from what you would expect! Not the last measured "EM1 threshold exceeded" event is kept in the list but the "EM1 threshold exceeded" event with the highest error percentage (most severe event) is kept in the list!

Today's logbook

The lower pane lists all events that have taken place since midnight. It's for quick reference only. For filtering functionality, you should open the events log in the external MLogBook viewer!