AlertPage Enterprise

Flexible monitoring and notification for large and small enterprises

Almost every systems administrator willappreciate AlertPage Enterprise. Proactive systems management requires knowingwhat is happening throughout your enterprise, and AlertPage helps you keepinformed.

The program watches just about any critical piece of software or hardwarein your enterprise and notifies you of a change in status--good, bad, orotherwise--as shown in Screen 1. AlertPage runs from the client sideindependently of your servers--in fact the software runs happily on Windows 95.

The Informer
AlertPage's job is simply to monitor your systems and alert you whenappropriate. The tool can watch the contents of any of the NT log files--System, Security, or Application--that you specify. AlertPage can ping TCP/IP orIPX devices, such as routers and printers, and send a notification in case of afailure.

The tool can also intercept, filter, and forward Simple Network ManagementProtocol (SNMP) traps. SNMP users will appreciate the large set of compiledManagement Information Bases (MIBs) included with the product.

AlertPage can notify you through the Telocator Alphanumeric Protocol (TAP),which most alpha paging systems use, or through a variety of email interfacesincluding Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) and Messaging API (MAPI). Thisemail feature can multiply the power of AlertPage by using an email gateway tonotify you via fax, voicemail, or other services, such as paging systems, thatare not supported directly.

For users with Web servers, a new feature monitors response time andavailability. If your server--or any server on the Internet for thatmatter--slows or goes down, you'll know about the problem before the complaintscome in. As Screen 2 shows, you can even monitor the response times of Web sitescritical to your Web server's performance. Because AlertPage keeps track of allthe information it collects, it provides a simple but informative display ofsystem performance and availability.

The problem most systems administrators will have with AlertPage is thatit's so flexible, they'll have trouble deciding what they want the program todo. You can arrange AlertPage's collection of simple components into asophisticated notification infrastructure.

Installation is a snap--15 minutes or so will cover it. The mosttime-consuming part of the installation is creating the user accounts on eachserver you want to monitor.

Making It Work
AlertPage needs to know the modem it will use, the phone numbers of thepagers it will notify, and the email accounts it will use. The productautomatically discovers all NT and Net- Ware servers visible to the machine onwhich the product is running. AlertPage can discover IP devices through a bruteforce approach based on a simple range of IP addresses.

The product can also monitor any ASCII log file. With a little cleverness,you can use this feature to monitor nearly any event that involves software onyour machines.

After discovery, AlertPage lists event log entries that trigger alerts. Theproduct sends alerts to groups of pagers that are generally representative ofareas of responsibility. AlertPage supports a 52-week calendar. With thiscalendar, you can implement a duty roster that specifies the person to notify,depending on the time and date.

For servers, text appearing in the log files determines alert generation.The process is multitiered; it checks the eligibility of an event for alert andits severity before notifying the configured group. For IP devices, a responsethreshold determines whether a device is considered unavailable and requiresadministrator notification.

A Sensible Tool
Leveraging AlertPage's impressive flexibility requires careful study.However, the elements are simple and configuration is logical. Even if you use asophisticated network management package, this software will find work in yourenterprise system. AlertPage is a sensible tool.