Network monitoring typically entails observing a system's bandwidth usage in order to determine bottlenecks or to troubleshoot hardware or software problems. Nagios and MRTG are powerful, no-cost monitoring utilities that run under Linux and can be helpful to monitor mixed-vendor networks where UNIX family systems and MS Windows coexist. Progent's IT support experts can help you use each of these utilities to optimize and repair your infrastructure.

Nagios Open Source Monitoring Application
The Nagios network monitoring application is a host and service monitor that runs with Linux or a UNIX variant. The Nagios daemon executes intermittent checks on servers and services you request by means of outside plug-ins which bring back status data to Nagios. When problems are detected, the Nagios can generate notifications to support contacts in a variety of ways such as email, IM, or SMS. Up to date status information, archival records, and reports can be examined using a web browser.

Major features of the Nagios monitor are:

• Monitoring of system services such as SMTP, HTTP, FTP, and NNTP
• Tracking of host resources: processor load, memory/disk utilization, log files, etc.
• Capability to define network host hierarchy, allowing distinction between hosts that are not running vs. ones that are unreachable
• Support personnel alerts via e-mail, beeper, or other user-specified method when service or machine issues occur or get fixed
• Option to define scripts to be executed during service or host events for automated problem resolution
• Accommodation for implementing redundant and distributed monitoring computers
• Outboard command option that enables ad hoc modifications to be made to the monitoring and notification behavior via the use of event handlers, the web interface, and independent applications
• Preservation of machine and service status across application restarts
• Planned downtime for suppressing machine and service notifications during intentional outages
• Browser applet for viewing existing system status, notification and anomaly history, log file, etc.
• Permissions protocol that enables you to restrict what customers can view and do from the web applet

MRTG
MRTG is an Open Source tool to track the traffic load on a network. Powered by Windows or Linux and most UNIX platforms, MRTG captures data from the traffic counters of network routers and creates web-accessible graphs which offer a live visual depiction of this data.

MRTG allows you to track the traffic in and out of any SNMP network appliance. This can represent processors, routers, and switches. Administrators can utilize the resulting data to determine network bottlenecks.

Data you can depict with MRTG include:

• Throughput in and out in bits or bytes per second
• Connection rate in connections/sec
• Traffic in an out of a particular VIP/virtual server or real server
• Number of concurrent sessions

Ask Progent for Network Monitoring Help
Progent’s network monitoring specialists are experienced in operating a number of network monitoring tools that can help you to repair or optimize your connectivity infrastructure. To get network monitoring expertise, phone Progent at 800-993-9400 or send email to linux-help@progent.com.

Progent's Expertise for UNIX-based Platforms
Progent's UNIX consulting experts provide small businesses and product developers assistance with managing and maintaining UNIX-family systems that may coexist with Microsoft technology. Progent provides your organization access to UNIX support professionals, authorized Microsoft engineers, Cisco-certified CCIEs, and security specialists certified by CISM. This wide array of knowledge offers your company a convenient single source to assist you to build and manage a protected and reliable multi-vendor network and communications system that incorporates Windows with leading variants of UNIX such as: Mac OS X, Solaris, IBM AIX Operating System, HP-UX, BSD, SCO UNIX and Silicon Graphics IRIX or major Linux platforms including RedHat Linux, SUSE Linux, Debian GNU/Linux and Slackware.