Archive - Tech Notes RSS Feed

How to use Kaseya to Monitor Remote Desktop Sessions

Want to know what user or process that is using all the CPU or memory on a terminal server? Kaseya Network Monitor can monitor session processes and set an alarm if a user/process hits the set threshold value for CPU or memory. You can either monitor all users and processes created by RDP sessions or monitor a specified process or user. We have created two Lua scripts that will handle this.

The first script (WMI_RDP_Session_Perf_Process.lua) lets you choose between CPU or memory and set a threshold. Optionally, you can set a process name. Important here is that you check the “No account logon” checkbox since it’s using authenticated WMI sessions to the monitored server.

The second script (WMI_RDP_Session_Perf_User.lua) will let you choose CPU/memory, set a threshold and specify an optional username that you would like to monitor. The syntax is DOMAIN\User but for non-domain connected computers, you will need to specify the local computer name (ie. COMPUTERNAME\User).

Normally you would use the default account for the object but you can specify a specific account for the monitor if needed. The credentials will be passed on to the script for authentication. The statistics will save the CPU or memory usage for RDP sessions. The uniqueness with these scripts is that they will only record RDP sessions. No other sessions like console logons or Windows services will be recorded or checked.

Both scripts will show “Test OK” if nothing hits the threshold. If an alarm is set, a message telling that the CPU or memory usage is high will be presented, along with a list of processes with their data, such as CPU/memory usage and owner (the user that created the process).

Check the KB article at http://community.kaseya.com/kb/w/wiki/monitoring-rdp-sessions.aspx for information on how to download the scripts.

Monitoring a Microsoft Failover Cluster

With the last build, we have now released a Lua script that can monitor your Microsoft server cluster. The released version will check for operational status in nodes and shared resources.

Prerequisites:
Kaseya Network Monitor v4.1 Build 7394 or higher
Microsoft Windows Server 2003/2008 Cluster

Setting up this monitor involves setting up an object that represents the cluster. Testing of individual nodes is also possible but in case the node you are testing against would go down, the script would just fail, not being able to read any values.

The IP address entered here is the virtual IP for the cluster. Preferably, you should enter the DNS name. Make sure you have a Windows account associated with the object that has administrative rights on the cluster nodes.

When creating the new monitor, choose Script -> Lua script.

Choose “MSCluster.lua” and check the “No account logon” checkbox. The scripts takes no arguments, so leave that textbox empty. It will be using the object’s default account for authentication, or you can choose another account for the monitor.

For this kind of monitor, you might want to consider lowering the number of failed tests before an alarm is generated. In this example, for testing purposes, we have chosen to only allow one failed test before an alarm is triggered. The default test interval is 60 seconds.

In our test lab, we have a two-node cluster with a few resources. While the monitor is in an OK state, this is what will be displayed. The nodes will be listed with their state in parenthesis, a division bar and then the resources will be listed with their states also.

This is how the monitor could look in an alarm state. The status information shows here that there’s one node (CLU02) down, but also one resource (TestShare) is in an offline state.

To download the script, go to http://community.kaseya.com/resources/m/knowexch/72156.aspx

How to monitor VMWare using Kaseya Network Monitor 4.1

With the release of Kaseya Network Monitor version 4.1, we now have two built-in ways of monitoring your VMware infrastructure. We support versions 4.1 and 5.0 of ESX/ESXi from build 7345.

With the Lua script that comes with the install package, you can easily setup monitoring of the most common health counters’ operational status. The counters that are checked are the following:

  • CPU
  • Storage volumes
  • Storage Extent
  • Controller
  • SATA ports
  • Memory
  • Power supply
  • Fan

Continue Reading…

How to Monitor Mail Quality of Service

E-mail is one if not the most important services the IT department provides today and most companies do nothing at all to monitor the quality of this service.

With the Mail QOS monitor in Kasey Network Monitor you can monitor delivery times and availability, collect statistics, get alarm notifications and produce weekly, monthly or yearly trending reports.
Continue Reading…

Remediating Kaseya Network Monitor Events

The Basics

So you got testing up and running, but what happens when a monitor fails a test ?

KNM tests a monitor according to its test interval setting defined in the monitor property page. This is normally between 30-60 seconds. Alarm generation and alarm test interval is two properties that come in to play when a monitor fail a test.

Alarm generation tells the monitor how many consecutive times it has to fail a test to go from ok state to alarm state.  In between those two states there is an intermediate state called “failed” , the failed state is a mere visual indication that something may be about to happen.
Continue Reading…

Tips and Tricks: Use Kaseya for network monitoring of ESX, Cisco, Avaya, Juniper, Dell, Hp ….

We have a great new MIB packaging to allow for robust network monitoring and systems monitoring with Kaseya Network Monitor. A new MIB file package for KNMv4 has been added to the download center. This package contains 29 MIB files  from different vendors such as Cisco, Dell, HP, Checkpoint, Avaya, Sonicwall, Riverbed, VMWare and Juniper.

The mib files we provide in this package can be used for monitoring network devices and systems including:
  • VOIP equipment
  • VMWare ESX servers
  • fans in a Cisco switches
  • a number of active VPN
And many many more metrics.

Continue Reading…

Tips and Tricks: Realtime Data at your Fingertips via Kaseya Network Monitoring Toplists

Toplists in Kaseya Network Monitor is summarized statistics that are updated in real time and contains a wealth of information that can answer many questions, for example

  • Which Windows server have the fastest increase in disk utilization the past day, week or month ?
  • Which switch have the biggest change in network traffic the latest month ?
  • Which web server have the slowest response time ?

Lets take a look at a real world example
Continue Reading…

Introducing KNM Lua scripting

Kaseya Network Monitor includes support for the Lua scripting language. Lua is a powerful light-weight programming language designed for extending applications. With Lua customers can create custom made monitors to test systems and equipment not supported by any built-in monitor.

  • New monitors, actions and events can be created and tested in the development environment provided by Kaseya, before they are exported and used in Kaseya Network Monitor.
  • A comprehensive library of pre-made classes, such as SFTP client, HTTP client and file management, are available to developers.
  • The develop environment includes debugger, keyword highlighting, integrated help and other features available in state-of-the-art development tools.

Continue Reading…

Easy Directory & File Monitoring with Kaseya Network Monitor

This post is the first post (!) in a series that will offer tips and tricks for the newest addition to the Kaseya family, Kaseya Network Monitor. Feel free to sound of in the comments if you have any questions or requests for articles in this series.

One of the most important aspects of a monitoring system is its capabilities to monitor all kinds of file and folder related processes. KNM has several ways to perform file and folder monitoring, one of them being the directory property monitor.

Continue Reading…

Tips and Tricks: How to Monitor Admin Privileges

 

So it’s Friday and that means for many IT guys, things quiet down a little as people wind down their week, but we all know what happens on Monday. Somehow little gremlins get into the network.  Those gremlins take on all shapes and sizes but one of the most insidious is when random user show up in the Domain Admins group.  Sometimes they are put there for good reasons, but if its an average user that gets thrown in there its usually because someone couldn’t solve a permissions related issue and just threw in the proverbial towel.

Continue Reading…

Last updated by at .

Page 1 of 41234»