Network monitoring conventionally entails tracking a system's bandwidth usage in order to identify bottlenecks or to troubleshoot equipment or application problems. Nagios and MRTG are useful, free monitoring tools that operate with Linux and can be used to monitor mixed-vendor environments where UNIX and MS Windows coexist. Progent's system integration engineers can help you deploy both these products to optimize and troubleshoot your network.
Nagios Open Source Monitoring Application
The Nagios network monitoring system is a host/service monitor that runs with Linux or a UNIX variant. The monitoring daemon runs periodic checks on hosts and services you specify by means of outside add-ons which bring back status information to Nagios. When issues are encountered, the Nagios can send alerts to management contacts in a number of ways such as email, IM, or Short Message Service. Up to date status data, archival logs, and reports can be accessed using a web browser.
Major capabilities of Nagios include:
- Tracking of network services such as SMTP, HTTP, FTP, and NNTP
- Monitoring of host machines: CPU load, disk and memory utilization, running processes, etc.
- Capability to define host hierarchy, allowing distinction between machines that are down as opposed to ones that are unreachable
- Support personnel notifications by e-mail, beeper, or other user-specified means when service or machine problems are detected or are fixed
- Ability to define event handlers to be executed upon the detection of service or host events for proactive problem resolution
- Support for implementing backup and distributed network monitoring computers
- External command option that allows ad hoc modifications to be made to the tracking and alerting activity via the utilization of event handlers, the web interface, and third-party software
- Retention of host and service state across program restarts
- Planned downtime for suppressing machine and service alerts during deliberate service breaks
- Web interface for examining current network status, notification and problem archive, log file, etc.
- Permissions scheme that enables you to limit what customers can view and modify from the web applet
Multi Router Traffic Grapher (MRTG)
MRTG is a free tool to track the traffic load on a network. Running under Windows or Linux and most UNIX platforms, MRTG reads the traffic counters of network routers and creates web-accessible graphs which offer a live visual depiction of this traffic.
Multi Router Traffic Grapher allows you to track the bandwidth in and out of any SNMP network device. This can represent servers, routers, and switches. Administrators can use the resulting data to identify system trouble spots.
Data you can depict with MRTG include:
- Traffic in and out in bits or bytes per second
- Connection rate in connections/sec
- Bandwidth through a particular VIP/virtual server or real server
- Total number of simultaneous sessions
Contact Progent for Network Monitoring Expertise
Progent’s network monitoring consultants are experienced in using a number of utilities that can help you to troubleshoot or tune your network infrastructure. To get network monitoring assistance, phone Progent at 800-993-9400 or send email to linux-help@progent.com.
Progent's Microsoft, Cisco, and Applications Consulting Expertise
Progent's Microsoft and Cisco authorized consultants offer businesses in San Francisco, Silicon Valley, and in cities throughout the U.S a wide array of expertise covering the fundamental IT needs common to most small and mid-size business environments. Progent's core consulting areas include network integration, MS Exchange consulting, network security support and HelpDesk outsourcing and staffing. Progent's Experts Team offers in-depth knowledge of specific application topics. By offering a single resource for information technology generalists and specialists, Progent can tailor speedy, cost-effective and comprehensive network solutions that fit the unique needs of your business.
