Network monitoring typically entails observing a system's bandwidth usage to help identify choke points or to troubleshoot equipment or application problems. Nagios and MRTG are powerful, no-cost monitoring tools that operate under Linux and can be used to monitor mixed-platform environments where UNIX and Windows both operate. Progent's network support engineers can help you use both these tools to tune and troubleshoot your network.

Nagios Network Monitoring System
Nagios screenThe Nagios monitoring system is a host and service monitor that runs with Linux. The monitoring daemon executes intermittent inspections of servers and services you request by means of external plug-ins which bring back status information to Nagios. When issues are encountered, the Nagios can send alerts to support contacts in a number of ways such as email, IM, or Short Message Service. Current status information, historical logs, and reports can be examined via a web browser.

Key features of the Nagios monitor are:

  • Monitoring of system services such as SMTP, HTTP, SSH, and PING
  • Monitoring of host resources: CPU load, disk and memory utilization, running processes, etc.
  • Capability to define network host ranking, allowing distinction between hosts that are not running as opposed to ones that are unreachable
  • Contact notifications by email, pager, or other pre-defined means when service or host issues are detected or are resolved
  • Ability to define scripts to be run during service or host events for automated problem resolution
  • Accommodation for implementing backup and dispersed network monitoring servers
  • External command interface that enables on-the-fly modifications to be made to the tracking and notification behavior via the utilization of event handlers, the web interface, and independent software
  • Preservation of machine and service status across program restarts
  • Scheduled downtime for eliminating host and service alerts when there are intentional outages
  • Browser interface for examining existing network status, alert and anomaly history, log file, etc.
  • Authorization scheme that allows you to restrict what users can see and do via the web applet

MRTG
MRTG consulting helpMRTG is a free tool to track the bandwidth utilization on a network. Running under MS Windows or Linux, MRTG reads the traffic counters of network routers and produces web-accessible graphs which offer a live intuitive representation of this traffic.

MRTG permits you to graph the bandwidth through any SNMP network device. This can represent processors, routers, and switches. Administrators can use the displayed data to identify network bottlenecks.

Type of information you can depict using MRTG include:

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

Ask Progent for Network Monitoring Consulting
Progent’s network monitoring consultants are experienced in operating a number of network monitoring tools that can help you to troubleshoot or optimize your network infrastructure. To get network monitoring help, call Progent at 800-993-9400 or go to Contact Progent.

Progent's Support for UNIX Systems
Progent's UNIX-family support experts offer small businesses and product developers help with managing and servicing UNIX/Linux/Mac-based systems that may operate alongside Microsoft environments. Progent offers your organization the services of UNIX support professionals, authorized Microsoft consultants, Cisco CCIEs, and security specialists accredited by CISSP. This broad array of expertise gives your company a readily available single resource to assist your business to create and manage a protected and reliable cross-platform network and communications solution that incorporates Microsoft Windows with leading versions of UNIX including: macOS and OS X , Solaris, IBM AIX Open UNIX, HP-UX, BSD, SCO UNIX and SGI/Irix or important Linux distributions including RedHat, SUSE, Debian GNU/Linux and CentOS, Ubuntu, Mandriva, PCLlinuxOS Linux, fedora Linux, and Gentoo Linux.

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