How Do You Monitor and Troubleshoot Network Applications?
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Josh from SolarWinds joined me again. This time, he was here to discuss ipMonitor. This is geared toward network and system administrators, and is used for pinpointing and troubleshooting application and server issues on corporate networks. You can download your own 21-day free trial of ipMonitor to check it out for yourself. If you enjoy the program, there will be special pricing available for you for a limited time, using that same link.
SolarWinds ipMonitor delivers out-of-the-box, entry-level monitoring that is perfect for keeping up with your network devices, servers, and applications. ipMonitor is a reliable network monitoring software solution that enables system administrators to get a leg up on problems before they get swamped with calls from high-maintenance users.
Plus, ipMonitor includes a built-in database and Web server, so users don’t need to install anything but ipMonitor – making it fast, affordable, and easy to use in any environment.
ipMonitor’s highlights include:
- Quickly discovers IP-based network devices and automatically recommends SmartMonitor settings for each device.
- Performs out-of-the-box monitoring of Active Directory®, DNS, Microsoft® Exchange, FTP, Web, IMAP, MS SQL Server™, and SMTP.
- Creates customizable network maps that enable you to visually monitor network data and to drill down to take immediate corrective actions.
- Monitors end-user experience with synthetic transactions.
- Automates recovery and remediation actions to reduce downtime.
According to Josh, there are three basic categories of server-side applications that you could encounter problems with: Web Servers, Exchange/Mail Servers, and File/Print Servers. In most organizations, it makes it hard to get your job done if any of these are not working properly. ipMonitor is a tool that will allow you to keep track of these things at all times, and know instantly if something is out of whack.
When you launch ipMonitor for the first time, it’ll run you through a wizard. It’ll automatically go out and find your routers, switches and servers. It will detect what statistics are available to monitor those. It’ll “talk” to each of them, and will automatically build monitors and throw them into the application. The next thing you’ll see is basically a picture of your network, with the status of all your severs, server-based apps, and network equipment. It’s easy to set up, and will take you less than 15 minutes to get going.
There are many different protocols that are used in discovery and configuration. The best part is that as a user, you don’t necessarily have to know about protocols, it’s done behind the scenes. There are many ways to go out and discover your applications and servers. We used those things to build the monitor that will help you keep an eye on everything.
With ipMonitor, each particular type of device on the network is going to get a different type of view, and different tools to monitor and measure it. A printer will have a printer icon, and so on. The characteristics used to track devices will be different, based on what is being looked at. This just makes it so much easier on the Network Administrator. They will know there’s a problem even before someone is calling or emailing them to complain.
Any type of server platform can be monitored, no matter what platform or Internet service you are using. Anything you can think of is supported out of the box. SolarWinds is dedicated to providing software that is vendor-neutral, and that anyone can use. Your particular skill-set shouldn’t have to be that of a genius. You should be able to do your job, and do it well. Using software like ipMonitor will help you do just that.
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