Network Monitoring Services

A monitoring solution can help support your currently lean IT staff by automating routine maintenance functions and providing the alerting and reporting capabilities necessary for capacity or server consolidation planning. It also reduces the time it takes to resolve IT issues by helping to clearly identify the problem device and cause.

At NetCal, we not only provide monitoring services, but also provide it for FREE in our other IT support service offerings. This is how much we stand behind the need for and effectiveness of our monitoring services. Priding ourselves on being a proactive support provider, we feel every client should have a monitoring solution in place; no matter how simple it may be.

Click below to find out more information about our comprehensive monitoring solution called MON and how it helped one of our clients!

MON Network Monitoring::

What is MON?

MON is software that monitors numerous parameters of a network and the health and integrity of servers. It uses a flexible notification mechanism that allows users to configure alerts for virtually any triggered event. This allows for a proactive approach to server problems. MON offers excellent reporting and data visualisation features based on the stored data. This makes MON ideal for capacity planning.

MON supports both polling and trapping. All MON reports and statistics, as well as configuration parameters are accessed through a web-based front end. A web-based front end ensures that the status of your network and the health of your servers can be assessed from any location, while also maintaining an easy to use interface. Properly configured, MON can play an important role in monitoring your IT infrastructure. This is equally true for both small organizations with a few servers and large companies with hundreds of servers.

MON offers:

  • Distributed monitoring with centralized WEB administration
  • Support for both polling and trapping mechanisms
  • Native high performance agents
  • Agent-less monitoring
  • Secure user authentication
  • Flexible user permissions
  • Web-based interface
  • Flexible e-mail notification of predefined events
  • High-level (business) view of monitored resources

What clients can MON monitor?

The following clients are supported:

    • Linux
    • Solaris
    • HP-UX
    • AIX
    • Free BSD
    • Open BSD
    • OS X
    • Tru64/OSF1
    • Windows 2003 32-bit/64-bit, Windows 2008 32-bit/64bit, Windows NT4.0, Windows 2000, , Windows XP, Windows Vista 32-bit/64-bit

What can MON track?

MON can track various metrics on networking hardware and servers. Below is a list of the common metrics:

  • Processor load
  • Number of running processes
  • Number of processes
  • Disk I/O activity
  • Disk space availability and usage
  • Status of swap space
  • Memory availability and allocation
  • Temperature monitoring
  • Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) data
  • SYSLOG data
  • Database performance
  • Web server performance
  • many more…

MON can track various metrics on networking hardware and servers. Below is a list of the common metrics:

How does MON notify me of “events”?

Having performance monitoring is good, but would not be complete without a powerful notification mechanism. With MON, an administrator can define virtually any possible condition for a trigger; using flexible expressions. Any time these expressions become true (or false), an alert action will run, which will alert the proper contacts or start a script.

Once an event is triggered, MON can be configured to notify the proper contacts using the following methods:

  • Automated telephone call with response recognition
  • Email alerts
  • Cell phone alert

Remote Network Monitoring/Server Monitoring Services Case Study::
Background:

Acme, Inc. is an innovative medical technology company engaged in the design, development and manufacture of therapeutic devices for the treatment of patients with severe emphysema. It’s a thriving corporation with a very lean IT staff.

IT Needs:

Due to the growth rate of the company, Acme, Inc. decided they needed a monitoring solution to help their IT staff manage the network and its services. They also wanted an IT company that could provide EMERGENCY support services and consultancy services when needed.

How NetCal’s Monitoring Services can help:

NetCal was chosen to implement their cost-effective and robust monitoring services (MON). Support engineers would monitor Acme, Inc.’s network and servers and troubleshoot if necessary. A support engineer would also be available for onsite scheduled maintenance if requested by the company. Accountability is addressed with the use of an SLA that met the requirements of Acme, Inc.. Furthermore, detailed Outtage Reports gave Managers the information they required to make the proper decisions in the future. Lastly, on an as needed basis, NetCal’s engineers were often used to consult regarding hardware upgrades and software configuration best practices.